Script Makes It Easy To Deploy Steam On FreeBSD

With a new script, it's possible to get Valve's Steam Linux game client running relatively well on FreeBSD.

On FreeBSD in conjunction with its Linux binary compatibility layer it's possible to run Steam for handling your favorite Steam Linux titles. If you are unfamiliar with FreeBSD's Linux compatibility layer, see FreeBSD: A Faster Platform For Linux Gaming Than Linux?. That article has background information along with some Linux vs. FreeBSD gaming benchmarks I did five years ago... When FreeBSD 11.0 is out, I'll try again to get it working to see how FreeBSD 11 performs for running Linux native games.

The new SteamOnFreeBSD project isn't officially sanctioned by Valve but makes it easy to get rolling with the Steam client on FreeBSD by ensuring the necessary dependencies are in place and configured.

Of course, you'll also need a good graphics stack to play any games on FreeBSD so there you are primarily limited to using the NVIDIA proprietary driver that officially supports FreeBSD. Your mileage may vary if trying to use the Linux-ported Radeon/Intel DRM and Mesa on FreeBSD depending upon your hardware.

If you are interested in running Steam on FreeBSD, check out GitHub's SteamOnFreeBSD.