It's Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux!

[the_real_bill]

I'm curious to see proof of official confirmation there. I've not seen one single news post around the web concerning Steam and Linux which is not either back-linking to Phoronix (and producing an cycle-logic in turn) or just says "because we say so".

This is what bothers me. Had Valve stated that the client is on the way, everyone here would probably have been content knowing it's coming. But now we have a situation where it's over two months later, and no word may ever come from Valve. It would have been better for everybody if Phronix didn't post this junk. At least no expectations would be let down.

[Setlec]

@yogi_berra: actually with the release of the linux client binaries from the steam website makes that this isn't a rumor anymore, it's pretty much real! But I do agree with the lack of official announcement it is pretty much upsetting! But it happened, if you can't believe that then don't post at all then there is no reason to bother with this!

[Dragonlord]

Release is the wrong word. You took a binary from a "non-official" website (meaning the URL never had been posted into the public). Chances are people stumbled across a mess-around-with attempt of somebody at Valve. Nobody knows what the intention behind this had been. Chances are they got scared now as the "evil linux hackers" snagged whatever they had been looking at and hacked (yes, you hacked them folks! this kind of hack is very bad!). If I were in charge there I would pull the plug until I can be sure people won't "hack" my steam soft.

[tmpdir]

Release is the wrong word. You took a binary from a "non-official" website (meaning the URL never had been posted into the public). Chances are people stumbled across a mess-around-with attempt of somebody at Valve. Nobody knows what the intention behind this had been. Chances are they got scared now as the "evil linux hackers" snagged whatever they had been looking at and hacked (yes, you hacked them folks! this kind of hack is very bad!). If I were in charge there I would pull the plug until I can be sure people won't "hack" my steam soft.

Serious? If you were in charge of a milliondollar enterprise investing in an ongoing project... YOU would PULL the plug? Just to show your the boss?

Dude, thats why your not in charge.

But somewhere you have a point, high-tech enterprises with a commercial end are normally 'very' concerned about leaks. In this case they where 'notified' by the linux community. In other cases they never hear about it. the Community did them a favor! (If the leak was on purpose than the community did them a favor as wel).

IF valve was working on a linux client... it would certainly not end the project because of a few 'naughty' linux dudes.

[SlickMcRunfast]

If Valve can't even acknowledge Linuxs existence then maybe we should beg else where. Lets hope Google just makes a Google store where you can download games. That combined with Google talk would make a really nice competitor to Steam. Dreams.

[the_real_bill]

Gabe is an ex microsoft jobbie. Valve have been pretty anti Linux from the start. UNIX is the only platform when it comes to running their game servers, but they don't care for it when it comes to client software.

Mark my words, steam isn't coming to Linux. I am not trolling, it's just the cold hard truth considering Valve haven't said anything about Linux.

[Dragonlord]

Serious? If you were in charge of a milliondollar enterprise investing in an ongoing project... YOU would PULL the plug? Just to show your the boss?

For sure because it is not the case that this is an ongoing project with high investment costs. Otherwise they would deal with it differently. That's 100% for sure a mockup of somebody going along the line of "let's see how this could look like". There had been for sure no investment going for that mockup there, seriously not. It's a total no-brainer to pull the plug on a project no money went in yet... and it's the usual course of actions and will be. Or did they make available more versions of this mockup? I didn't hear about such a thing.

[Svartalf]

Serious? If you were in charge of a milliondollar enterprise investing in an ongoing project... YOU would PULL the plug? Just to show your the boss?

Depends on the nature of the risks posed by the problem. If you endanger millions on things, I can assure you that the guy in charge will very much pull the plug on something- if only to avoid fiduciary responsibility suits from shareholders if the company's public.

Dude, thats why your not in charge.

Heh... You've little good knowledge in that space, yourself apparently, based on the response to Dragonlord here.

I've been in a similar role in the past and present- I'd pull the plug if it didn't align with my philosophy and posed a major expense with little apparent payoff. So, don't tell me that's why I'm not in charge. As for that company...it's extant, but I'm trying to resurrect it. Why? Because the CFO was caught embezzling investor funding at a critical time and we lost the wind in our sails. At that time, I was just the CTO, but I've been "promoted" since that time.

IF valve was working on a linux client... it would certainly not end the project because of a few 'naughty' linux dudes.

Depends on whether they're seeing this as an investment or a lark that might just pay off a bit down the line. If it's the latter, you can be assured they'll pull the plug.

[Svartalf]

Gabe is an ex microsoft jobbie. Valve have been pretty anti Linux from the start. UNIX is the only platform when it comes to running their game servers, but they don't care for it when it comes to client software.

I believe Gabe's expressed the same thinking about MacOS as he did with Linux in the past...

You can't say for positive what they're going to or not do unless you're directly privy to Valve's inner workings (at which point, you should be cautious about making remarks as you're divulging company confidential information without permission...)

More to the point, I'm of the understanding that many of the indies that use his service have been asking for the possibility of it on Linux. It's not Source, you know, it's a DRM and delivery system and nothing else. If they did a Linux version, it'd not cost them much more than the MacOS version would in efforts (since at the bulk of the layers you're working at, they're identical...).

Mark my words, steam isn't coming to Linux. I am not trolling, it's just the cold hard truth considering Valve haven't said anything about Linux.

Oh, I don't believe you're trolling. I just think you're giving Gabe's past remarks a bit more weight than you ought to, in light of his past rantings on things- and what they've done in the last 3-4 years that runs strongly counter to it. And you're making it sound like you KNOW that it's not going to happen and just point to what he's said in the past and where he worked in the past.

I'm not going to take a position either way, mind. I don't know and I am not going to be cynical or optimistic on this. And I'd think people would be wise to adopt the same position on this. That way you'll not be overly disappointed if your position on this is right, and you'll be mildly and pleasantly surprised if it does go the way that we're being told it's going to be.

(As an aside, I'll mention that the last time Michael did something along these lines, it did actually pan out over time- it just took about 6 months longer for AMD to roll out programming info for their Radeon lineups. This is one of the reasons I'm setting squarely in the middle on this. I'd be cynical like you, just for differing reasons if it wasn't for that... )

[Yfrwlf]

Release is the wrong word. You took a binary from a "non-official" website (meaning the URL never had been posted into the public). Chances are people stumbled across a mess-around-with attempt of somebody at Valve. Nobody knows what the intention behind this had been. Chances are they got scared now as the "evil linux hackers" snagged whatever they had been looking at and hacked (yes, you hacked them folks! this kind of hack is very bad!). If I were in charge there I would pull the plug until I can be sure people won't "hack" my steam soft.

Logging into a public FTP is not "very bad". They're not idiots, they know whats up, and I'm very sure they know all about this whole debacle. The fact is there are unfortunately a lot of stupid political possibilities for this situation, and until the guy at the top gives the official okay to Steam on Linux, it won't happen, and there are dozens of reasons to do it and dozens of reasons not to do it. Pressures within and from the outside can change anything at any time. While it's slightly more possible due to them having dabbled into it than if there were no Linux binaries at all, many companies have done this dabbling before, for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes it's even done so that those trying out the Wine/Cider-wrapped Mac version can be working on it on something other than a Mac, explaining why these Linux binaries came along with it.

We'll see, lol. We'll see.