Apply To Be Part Of The Valve Linux Beta

[Kano]

Well uninstall scripts are usually provided in the game directory, those remove the desktop links - in the case you installed the game as user. I would not call that too critical.

[AJenbo]

I wasn't just talking about *.run packages. I said the HIB guys (meaning the developers who participated in the bundles - my fault for the confusion there), as well as Icculus, id Software, and Epic, seem to have solved the problem with installing on multiple Linux systems in a variety of ways. In my case, all of them work.

Let me say that again so you don't miss it: With the exception of *.rpm files (which I don't use), I can install ANY of the HIB games via ANY method the developers made available without problems on three different machines, as well as id Software's offerings, Icculus' ports, and my old Epic games.

To me, installation over multiple distributions seems like a solved problem because people have solved it. Pick an installer and I've had it work: tar.gz, *.run, *.sh, Linstaller, and whatever else they've decided to try.

So should I go buy lottery tickets and take advantage of my miraculous luck, or is GOG's excuse a little thin?

My point isn't that they won't work but that they tend to make a mess, removing the application later unclear or not supported in many cases.

[Kano]

Well you completely forget that current 64 bit systems have got much more problems with binary 32 bit packages than you might think of. That's what i really think could be a problem for steam as well - especialy when some want to sell games which have been done via wine libs and can not be ported to 64 bit easyly. Also you often have to delete sdl/openal libs in order to use the system provided ones with old games because the shipped ones are so dated that you don't hear anything or you get other problems. When you use pulse audio and maybe use that to use hdmi sound then you also get much more problems. I did not manage to play Doom 3 or Quake 4 with PA on a 64 bit system without strange sound problems. Wine somehow is better integrated but you have got real huge problems with older apps. Luckyly Dhewm3 is there so that you could play at least the standard missions of Doom 3 now with a 64 bit binary (some rare crashes happend, a few more in the last level), but for RoE it really crashes too often when the Grabber is used to catch a fireball - that's really no fun at all.

[Larian]

.run is not A thing, it's just a blob. If you haven't experinced any side effects of it, it's just because you haven't cared to look what i did to you system or tried to clean it. And as also mentioned not all HIB games where delivered in .run and thowes that where might not even have been packaged by the same people.

I wasn't just talking about *.run packages. I said the HIB guys (meaning the developers who participated in the bundles - my fault for the confusion there), as well as Icculus, id Software, and Epic, seem to have solved the problem with installing on multiple Linux systems in a variety of ways. In my case, all of them work.

Let me say that again so you don't miss it: With the exception of *.rpm files (which I don't use), I can install ANY of the HIB games via ANY method the developers made available without problems on three different machines, as well as id Software's offerings, Icculus' ports, and my old Epic games.

To me, installation over multiple distributions seems like a solved problem because people have solved it. Pick an installer and I've had it work: tar.gz, *.run, *.sh, Linstaller, and whatever else they've decided to try.

So should I go buy lottery tickets and take advantage of my miraculous luck, or is GOG's excuse a little thin?

[AJenbo]

So you're telling me that I'm insanely lucky that I've never had a problem installing any of the 60 some-odd games from the HIB guys over the spectrum of installers they use on three different systems (along with id Software's and Icculus' installer scripts for their games)?

.run is not A thing, it's just a blob. If you haven't experinced any side effects of it, it's just because you haven't cared to look what i did to you system or tried to clean it. And as also mentioned not all HIB games where delivered in .run and thowes that where might not even have been packaged by the same people.

[kwahoo]

Say "hello!" to Team Fortress II, Portal and Serious Sam 3: BFE. Source.

[Licaon]

The Humble Indie Bundle guys seem to have solved this problem with *.run packages (among others). What am I not understanding here?

yes and no, they have, RUN, DEB, RPM and TAR.GZ, it all depends on the game devs and NOT on the Humble team. There is nothing to understand, I just said it either takes them *a lot* of time to support *all* or little time and provide just TARs and 2 other options. The rest is marketing BS, trying to steal the Steam on Linux thunder. meh.

[entropy]

It's Monday, start of Canonical's developer summit. I wonder if they'll announce today who's on the beta? When I did the survey I think it said they'd contact via steam. Does steam have private messages?

AFAIK there are no 'private messages' but several types of notifications.
OTOH, every Steam account is connected with a valid email address.
So maybe they'll inform the lucky ones via email...

[Spectre]

It's Monday, start of Canonical's developer summit. I wonder if they'll announce today who's on the beta? When I did the survey I think it said they'd contact via steam. Does steam have private messages?

[Larian]

.run ofthen makes a mess of things, it's unclear what they do and some users don't know how to run them...

So you're telling me that I'm insanely lucky that I've never had a problem installing any of the 60 some-odd games from the HIB guys over the spectrum of installers they use on three different systems (along with id Software's and Icculus' installer scripts for their games)?