SteamOS 2.121 Adds Flatpak Support

[khnazile]

I hope that desktop Steam client would not start requiring Flatpak as a harddep, or embed it into 'steam runtime', which is worse.

[torturedutopian]

Anyone using SteamOS ? Just wondering if it actually makes a difference speedwise, if the kernel or compositor is more appropriate, if there's less tearing issue...

[OneBitUser]

could this be the start of windows games flatpack'd with wine for running on Linux?

More like the first step towards official cross-distro Steam availability, but do note that Valve actually has not done any development, they are just pulling in the work of their upstream source..
Which is a shame, really, as Flatpak'd Steam with Flatpak'd Steam games could mean official support for any distro that can install Flatpaks.
I think it would also simplify the task for game developers, as they would only need to think about these two sandboxes.

Dude are you serious? I think launchers are one of the most fantastic inventions ever!! I remember when games required to be installed from 3 - 6 discs and the fucking cd key always seemed to be lost and then you had to manually search the web for game updates and patches and those were usually really shitty proprietary installers.

Problem is... why the hell do Steam games need ANY separate launcher of their own?!
Steam already handles updates, news and DRM, so any additional game-specific launcher from the devs is usually just a PITA as well as an anti-user feature.
Some launchers do have useful features (like Paradox's with their mod selection tab), but even those features could be incorporated into the game itself. And then you have the majority of launchers... like Kalypso's for Tropico 5, which does not serve any purpose at all.

[duby229]

More like the first step towards official cross-distro Steam availability, but do note that Valve actually has not done any development, they are just pulling in the work of their upstream source..
Which is a shame, really, as Flatpak'd Steam with Flatpak'd Steam games could mean official support for any distro that can install Flatpaks.
I think it would also simplify the task for game developers, as they would only need to think about these two sandboxes.



Problem is... why the hell do Steam games need ANY separate launcher of their own?!
Steam already handles updates, news and DRM, so any additional game-specific launcher from the devs is usually just a PITA as well as an anti-user feature.
Some launchers do have useful features (like Paradox's with their mod selection tab), but even those features could be incorporated into the game itself. And then you have the majority of launchers... like Kalypso's for Tropico 5, which does not serve any purpose at all.

I didn't mean to imply that all launchers are made equal. I do understand there are some buggy ones and some overly simple ones that are pointless and as you say that counts for a lot of them. The thing that I was trying to refute was debianxfce claim that well designed games don't use launchers, because it's just not true. It is true also as you say that Steam can take on some of the roles of a launcher, but that's vendor lock-in. I don't agree with it and it does make sense for games to ensure their own independent functionality.

[jammar]

Flatpak provides sandboxing, and having a way to run steam and all its games sandboxed would be nice. AFAIK flatpak'ed and unofficial version of steam exists, and it has many issues (many games won't work). I don't trust proprietary software to run it without proper limitations, especially those with network access. I hope this will work out, would love to join steam finally.

[jammar]

Deleted

[pal666]

could this be the start of windows games flatpack'd with wine for running on Linux?

there are already windows games wrapped with wine on steam. not clear how flatpack will help. but you shouldn't sponsor games which do not support linux

[pal666]

That means, we don't need any progression, no further development...
Everything should remain like it is.

progression and further development is native linux games. but it looks like you don't need that

[pal666]

Steam already handles updates, news and DRM, so any additional game-specific launcher from the devs is usually just a PITA as well as an anti-user feature.

you clearly didn't see feral launcher

[boxie]

there are already windows games wrapped with wine on steam. not clear how flatpack will help. but you shouldn't sponsor games which do not support linux

why not? if game devs see that there is demand from Linux we will see more interest and if we have game that are "windows only" that we can play, we win.

to be fair, running games under wine will probably only really work for older titles that probably wont see Linux ports.