The Steam Linux Beta Begins...

[timothyja]

This, exactly this.

When I signed up for beta (denied, arch) in the group postings there were a ton of Arch users, as well as slackware (surprised me the number) I am unsure if we were just trying to get noticed or if it was really that huge of a representation. Even in these forums I get the feeling there are a lot of Arch users. I really question Ubuntu's reign sometimes. I know several Mint users does that count?

I get a feeling there are a small number of very active whinging Arch users. Give me a break I saw those postings and there was definitely no where near 60,000 postings which is how many users (vast majority stating Ubuntu as there distro) filled in the survey in the first week. Its clear that Ubuntu users are much happier and comfortable with there distro and dont feel the need to carry on so much which is why you don't see as many look at me I use Ubuntu posts.
Or if you don't like what your reading you can continue to ignore logic and reason and go back to opposite world where everyone else but you is just making shit up on the spot to suit how they wish things really were.

[entropy]

Well I'm not going to promote Ubuntu as a distro to use. If you are going to promote something for "Linux" then mean it. It drives me nuts when people use Linux as a synonym for Ubuntu.

+1

Couldn't agree more.

[nightmarex]

Well I'm not going to promote Ubuntu as a distro to use. If you are going to promote something for "Linux" then mean it. It drives me nuts when people use Linux as a synonym for Ubuntu.

This, exactly this.

When I signed up for beta (denied, arch) in the group postings there were a ton of Arch users, as well as slackware (surprised me the number) I am unsure if we were just trying to get noticed or if it was really that huge of a representation. Even in these forums I get the feeling there are a lot of Arch users. I really question Ubuntu's reign sometimes. I know several Mint users does that count?

[AJSB]

Quite honestly i always preferred buy the DVD versions of the games or the standalone DD versions of them and avoid Steam at all in the case of Window$....even my last purchases of games weren't at Steam....

When Steam for Linux was announced , i was, nevertheless, extremely happy....but a bit thorn because i prefer to have more freedom ...i don't forget that there were games that once were sold at Steam and were removed....a CD or DVD gives more freedom to keep a game "alive" in the market and let's me resell my game copy....

When it was announced Steam for Linux i checked and asked in forums of the games if the games would appear at Steam or not and about DRM non-Steam version (i.e. Oil Rush foruns)....i was undecided tp what version of the games to buy....

Now i'm more decided....i prefer NOT to use Steam and continue tp use CD/DVD or a DD w/o DRM.

[Artemis3]

I downloaded that .deb and it worked perfectly with Xubuntu 12.04 64 bits (used gdebi). Unfortunately, after downloading 100MiB worth of client data it shows:

Unauthorized

This version of Steam is currently in closed beta.
Login with an enrolled account to continue.

I would like to note that the steam client won't let you move that dialog window, only pushing "ok" gets rid of it (and closes the client).

Funny enough it is now recommending me to upgrade the nvidia driver from 304 to 310, ah well.
And yes, i did complete that survey... Disappointing.

[calubi]

Just to clarify... you're running 64-bit Ubuntu and got an invite? Or are you just testing the Steam client?

No invite, just testing using the friends list hack. I should have mentioned that.

[johnc]

Anyone try gamepad support?

Not too bad for me on Ubuntu 12.10 x64 + HD3000 graphics + Cinnamon on a MacBook Air. I'm impressed with what they've been able to do!

Notes:

• Quite a few graphical artifacts in the Steam UI (missing/corrupt textures).
• Font scaling seems to be excessively large (much larger than screenshots would lead me to believe).
• Generally very sluggish, and Big Picture mode complains about not enough VRAM available if I go to 720p. Never had a problem with this on OS X. I wonder if it has to do with texture compression support.
• In-game overlay seems to work like a charm!
• Several areas of the UI lock up the program and I have to 'kill -9' the Steam process.

I'm perfectly willing to chalk just about all of this up to the open-source drivers. I'm running the stock 12.10 drivers for HD3000, and have no intention of going with the x-swat PPA.

Just to clarify... you're running 64-bit Ubuntu and got an invite? Or are you just testing the Steam client?

[andy_v]

Link to the AUR package?

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/steam/

[calubi]

Anyone try gamepad support?

Not too bad for me on Ubuntu 12.10 x64 + HD3000 graphics + Cinnamon on a MacBook Air. I'm impressed with what they've been able to do!

Notes:

• Quite a few graphical artifacts in the Steam UI (missing/corrupt textures).
• Font scaling seems to be excessively large (much larger than screenshots would lead me to believe).
• Generally very sluggish, and Big Picture mode complains about not enough VRAM available if I go to 720p. Never had a problem with this on OS X. I wonder if it has to do with texture compression support.
• In-game overlay seems to work like a charm!
• Several areas of the UI lock up the program and I have to 'kill -9' the Steam process.

I'm perfectly willing to chalk just about all of this up to the open-source drivers. I'm running the stock 12.10 drivers for HD3000, and have no intention of going with the x-swat PPA.

[chris200x9]

Does it even matter if Valve provide official support for other distros? People are already running it on Arch. It's even in the AUR.
Valve will probably support 1 or 2 popular distros like Fedora, debian, opensuse. Really after those distros, there is nothing major enough to even bother supporting.

Link to the AUR package?