Steam Linux Usage Still On The Decline

[Gps4l]

I do not agree only Ubuntu is supported.

I have posted on the github, and do get help, and they do fix things not ubuntu related.

OpenSUSE and Arch had a problem with the sound.

You needed to start steam with a command to have sound in some games.
Valve has changed something, and as far as I know, the sound issue on openSUSE and Arch are gone.

If one of my openSUSE friends is right, it was about ubuntu calling it pulse, were openSUSE and Arch call it pulseaudio.

Next, links to download steam for a few distro's
Native Steam on Linux

1.1 Unpackaged
1.2 Arch Linux
1.3 Fedora
1.4 Gentoo
1.5 openSUSE / SUSE
1.6 Ubuntu

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_under_Linux

I have yet to see the first issue reported on the github, were Valve said, too bad its not working, use Ubuntu to solve it.

https://github.com/ValveSoftware

I have on openSUSE running and working Serious Sam 3 ( not from Valve ) Half life, half life blue shift, half life opposing force. Teamfortress classic, Teamfortress 2, Portal, Left for Dead 2, richocet, day of defeat, dead match classic, counterstrike.

The only real issues I have, are related to the amd drivers.
According to Valve it took them so long to release Left For Dead 2 because the drivers from nvidia and amd were not yet good enough.

I doubt this comes as a surprise to most Linux users.
But that is probably the main reason why I am so happy that steam came to Linux.
Before steam for Linux, amd and nvidia did not really care about their Linux drivers.

[droste]

You are right on that point. That's why Steam only runs on Ubuntu as it's the only distro they support. I hope other distro's will get support soon, I'm dying to give it a go.

It's running fine with other distros too.
From my own experience I can say that in openSUSE you just have to add the Games-Repository ( http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/games/ ), run 'zypper in steam' and start it.
I'm pretty sure it's also easily doable in Arch and Fedora.

Have a look at this:

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_under_Linux#Native_Steam_on_Linux

[storma]

Perfectly relevant, because the distro is the end product. If its not supported by the majority of the distros out there, do you REALLY think they are all going to put forth a collective effort to fix the problems and get the app supported, or just leave it to die?

Hence why I argue the fact that software is targeting Ubuntu means that Ubuntu effectively takes control of Linux.

You are right on that point. That's why Steam only runs on Ubuntu as it's the only distro they support. I hope other distro's will get support soon, I'm dying to give it a go.

[V10lator]

Perfectly relevant, because the distro is the end product. If its not supported by the majority of the distros out there, do you REALLY think they are all going to put forth a collective effort to fix the problems and get the app supported, or just leave it to die?

Wait, are we talking about apps or drivers now?

Hence why I argue the fact that software is targeting Ubuntu means that Ubuntu effectively takes control of Linux.

That must be why Steam, which has been developed for Ubuntu, runs on (almost?) all distributions out there. And no, it's not the Steam runtime: I run it without that perfectly fine.

[gamerk2]

Not relevant. you simply write for the kernel from kernel.org - Distros have to resolve their issues for themself.

Perfectly relevant, because the distro is the end product. If its not supported by the majority of the distros out there, do you REALLY think they are all going to put forth a collective effort to fix the problems and get the app supported, or just leave it to die?

Hence why I argue the fact that software is targeting Ubuntu means that Ubuntu effectively takes control of Linux.

[nightmarex]

Linux is a tool, Windows is a tool, Mac... IOS... Andriod, all tools. Windows on desktop is like a Phillips head, pretty much everywhere, Mac is the slot screwdriver still has support in a lot of places. Linux is the Torx screwdriver/head, used on serious jobs where others are inferior, not as common in houses but in commercial applications. So I want to game on my Torx, what of it? Are you that friggen petty you spend your days trying to make up for the insanely small size of your penis with my OS is better than yours bullshit?

It's okay to point out faults, in places where one could hope to fix them. I could spit fire about how shitty Windows is all day, I won't because I got things to do and what good would it do?

[startzz]

I know this troll obviously has trouble with English but that sentence is a classic and probably goes right over his head. Either that or he' s a comic genius. Lol. Maybe its just my childish mind but that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Linux moto is "fuck yourself"

Exactly, good job that you admited your level of "big" knowledge With that linux motto in mind, there is no questions about why linux is used only by trolls

[V10lator]

1: As I said, the Intel onboard Ethernet port dies at about 30Mb/sec or so. No idea why at this stage, but doesn't seem driver related. Hence the discrete card.

Still doesn't explain why you use a 10 GB/s card now instead of another 1 GB/s.

2: Note that you seem rather insistent to turn the conversation away from the fact the HW isn't supported in Linux.

No, I just asked a question... But yourself said: "but doesn't seem driver related" so the driver for your network card does it's job right. How is that not supported?

And again, the reason devs like me avoid Linux is partially because you can't maintain a stable ABI for any length of time

The ABIs from kernel to user space are rock solid.

and also because the GPL series of licenses are the absolute worst licenses on the planet from a developer perspective.

That's your opinion, but you don't have to use GPL. You have two options:
1) Write a driver one time, GPL it and push it to the kernel. The kernel internal ABI breakages will be resolved for you and you'll never ever have to look at the driver again.
2) Write the driver in user space by using the non-changing APIs/ABIs the kernel provides for that. You may notice that there will be less breakages than with Windows!

Throw in the fragmentation (why does it work in Ubuntu and not Fedora?)

Not relevant. you simply write for the kernel from kernel.org - Distros have to resolve their issues for themself.

[uid313]

But hey, this is the most stupid thing i've ever heard isnt linux motto "do yourself" ? And why no one of you "great-linux-minds-trollers" dont write drivers yourself, isnt open-source thing wasted with that atitude ?

Graphics card drivers are notoriously difficult to write.
Also few programmers have experience writing device drivers.

For drivers to be written the developers needs hardware documentation, else it is almost impossible and they have to painstakingly reverse engineer everything.

Open source graphics drivers are starting to look rather good when it comes to Intel and AMD who have released documentation for their hardware.
For Nvidia cards it goes slower though because Nvidia refuses to release hardware documentation to device driver developers.

[log0]

Just fine actually. Build most every PC from scratch, and haven't had any major problems for years.

Drivers are a non-issue for the most part now; most every major component out there has WHQL certified drivers at release, so they automatically download/install on PC boot. Its rare I have to hunt down drivers theres days.



1: As I said, the Intel onboard Ethernet port dies at about 30Mb/sec or so. No idea why at this stage, but doesn't seem driver related. Hence the discrete card.

2: Note that you seem rather insistent to turn the conversation away from the fact the HW isn't supported in Linux. Sorry, but deflection isn't going to work on me. People aren't going to switch if they find their HW isn't supported.



For the end user, its the same thing.

And again, the reason devs like me avoid Linux is partially because you can't maintain a stable ABI for any length of time, and also because the GPL series of licenses are the absolute worst licenses on the planet from a developer perspective. Throw in the fragmentation (why does it work in Ubuntu and not Fedora?) and marketshare, it simply isn't profitable to support Linux. Its really that simple. And, as has been noted, there aren't enough people with enough time to provide full support for every piece of HW on the market. Hence the current state of Linux.

If you want Linux to get my attention, do the following:
1: Freeze the ABI and API. No removes from this point forward.
2: Force all distros to have some baseline test for program compatibility out of the box; there is no reason why Distro "A" can run something right after install and Distro "B" can not.
3: Switch to a non-GPL license. GPL and variants are non-starters for developers.

Reading your comments I have to agree. Linux is really nothing for you. Please stay away from it as long as you can.