Gabe Newell Showing Valve On Linux To Partners

[bug!]

The last one is. When I run a game in Linux, the desktop gets fucked up if the game doesn't run at the same resolution as the desktop. If I alt+tab from the game, the resolution doesn't change. Good luck using a system like that.

Linux is not for games, period.

That's the problem of the xserver... I hope wayland will fix that.

Either way, heres a way to switch between games and your desktop, without exiting the game:
Start a new xserver on a new display:

DISPLAY=:1 startx

replace startx with whatever starts your window/desktop manager.
then you can switch via. Ctrl+Alt+F7 and Ctrl+Alt+F8

[kraftman]

What can be VALVEs strong arguments to make them support Linux while most didn't with Mac OS? (If it is not a 'SteamBox')
AFAIK only a tiny fraction of all Steam titles are available on Mac OS.

It's about vendor lock in. OS X is the same as Windows in this case, so only Linux is the best option.

[kraftman]

The last one is. When I run a game in Linux, the desktop gets fucked up if the game doesn't run at the same resolution as the desktop. If I alt+tab from the game, the resolution doesn't change. Good luck using a system like that.

Linux is not for games, period.

That's a reason why Ubuntu wants Wayland soon, but aren't you talking about WINE games, perhaps? If yes it's meaningless post.

[kraftman]

So we have...

- A video driver debacle
- A kernel that changes every three minutes
- A sound system that consistently produces audio skips
- Window managers and desktop environments that simply don't work

Now ask oneself... what could possibly go wrong?

No, we just have one idiot who has no clue. We have Ubuntu LTS and it switches kernel every 5 years and everything usually works. It's not the vb, .net, drivers and registry mess like in Windows pal. While Windows is considered usable there's no chance it won't work with Ubuntu.

[kraftman]

Now us enthusiasts are probably going to find ways around the fact that all the pieces are a hacked-together mess... but if Valve is looking to move some gamers over to Linux to avoid the Windows 8 fubar, then they're going to have a hard time supporting some of the newer users IMO. Even the Humble Bundles don't roll out particularly smoothly on Linux.

Enthusiast are paying MS for their viruses and crap ware, so not a chance. Ubuntu is home made and it's not hacked together mess unlike Windows which is really hacky mess that remembers dos times (Abort, Retry, Ignore, what a messed up crap...). Ubuntu with games means Windows fails.

[M1AU]

The last one is. When I run a game in Linux, the desktop gets fucked up if the game doesn't run at the same resolution as the desktop. If I alt+tab from the game, the resolution doesn't change. Good luck using a system like that.

Linux is not for games, period.

Unfortunately I have to agree.

[Artemis3]

Games run fine with Linux if you have the right hardware. And if you are designing a Linux game console you are cherry picking the components, not unlike what Apple does to their macs, etc.

Naysayers should try a linux preloaded machine to understand the difference. Try ZaReason for example.

[Ancurio]

So I have...

- A video driver debacle
- A kernel that changes every three minutes
- A sound system that consistently produces audio skips
- Window managers and desktop environments that simply don't work

Now ask oneself... what could possibly go wrong?

Fixed that for you.

[DMJC]

Multiple Distros is easy.

I'm only going to say this once. Linux gaming was solved as a problem in 2000. When Loki released games using .run distributable binaries that were statically linked. From that point onwards. It's been easy to support every Linux distro with one installer file. Including multiple cpu architectures. Until you actually try to develop a game on Linux, and look into the tools available. I sugest you shut up about how supporting multiple distros is hard. It's not. It's easy, and it's been done for the past 10 years. LGP/Loki have both had it covered. You do not provide Operating System support. Only support for executing your own game code. It's been this way for years and it works really well. Look into liflg.org and the code behind their toolset. It's the same code used 10 years ago and it is solid/proven.

[Weegee]

I disagree with the "Linux is not for games" comment, sure there are lots of issues we need to fix (drivers, X suckage, etc), but I'm sure those will be fixed when Wayland arrives in the future. I'm sure devs have learned a lot from X and they won't repeat the same mistakes with Wayland.

Have nVidia or AMD even announced that their proprietary drivers will support Wayland? I understand that it's a little bit early to promise this as Wayland is far away from being the de facto standard for the Linux graphics stack, but without the official drivers Wayland will have a hard time.