Desura as an alternative to Steam

[PsynoKhi0]

http://www.desura.com/

I stumbled upon this one while browsing mods for Spring.
It's been mentioned a couple of times in the Steam-related threads here, but not much more.

The homepage seems to identify non-windows guest users as on e.g. Linux you get this on top of the page:

The Desura client currently only works on Windows PCs. We are working on support for Mac and Linux. To be notified when support is added, please provide your email:

I suppose that email notifications will help them keep track of players' interest. Who has subscribed yet?

[benmoran]

I've used it on my Windows partition to play a few Source mods. I also activated my Humble Indie Bundle 2 on it. I've started to get a little excited about Desura for two reasons.
First, they have stated their intention to produce a Linux client from the beginning.
Second, the games selection. There is only a handful of indie games on their client so far, but pretty much all of them have Linux clients. It's a solid enough catalog to allow a lot of us to forgo installing a Windows partition. No big AAA titles so far, but it would be a damn good start.

[Dragnadh]

Doubt they will last but I do hope they do.

[snuwoods]

If anything, I hope this spurs competition for valve.

[Raven3x7]

Well the UI is simply terrible though

[d2kx]

Diaspora is a nice idea, but it is never going to be Facebook.

Uhm, I meant Desura is a nice idea, but it is never going to be Steam.

[benmoran]

I don't think that's the point. It's based around ModDB and IndieDB. It does let you launch big name games from within it (I use it to play Half-Life 2 mods), but the marketplace contains only indie games at this point.

If all it turned out to be was an indie version of steam, but on Linux, I would be happy. All we have right now are indie games anyway.

[KameZero]

It looks fine and all, but the way they talk doesn't make me think we'll be getting Linux/Mac clients any time in the near future.

http://www.moddb.com/groups/desura/f.../multiplatform

[benmoran]

Well at least they're honest about it. I appreciate that.

[gbudny]

Desura is coming to Linux:

http://www.desura.com/community