Valve IS bring Steam to Linux

[Pendragon]

Valve's Steam and Source Engine-based games are coming to Linux. Michael from well known site Phoronix.com has been invited to Valve's office and was able to spend a day with the developers and Gabe Newell himself. He is confirming the rumors about Linux ports from Valve, and has been able to play the games and work the developers himself. Attached in the article are pictures from Valve's offices with games running on Linux

I can understand how this news is of little interest to most gamers, however to the Linux community it's massive news. One of the long standing issues with Linux desktop adoption has been it's lack of games support. In resent years the quality of Linux games have improved. Quite a few of the indy games have had native Linux support, highlighted by "Humble Indy Bundle". The guys behind Humble Indy Bundle have published information about generosity of Linux gamers, as on average the Linux crowd spend more than the other users. So there is money to be made by selling to Linux users even if the user base is very small compared to MS Windows. That user base is expanding rapidly out side the US. Places like China and South America Linux adoption is on the rise. As MS makes it harder to run "Copy's" of Windows and the licencing costs are prohibitive. In Europe it is being used at a governmental level. The trading center in the City of London is almost exclusively Linux. Plus one has to remember Google and Amazon plus many other huge company's that rely on Linux as a core to their business plan.

On a personal note the only reason I have a Windows computer is for gaming, as I much prefer using Ubuntu for my daily computing needs.

This bit is pure speculation but, Linux works well in the embedded environment. So well that you may own Linux devices without even knowing it. Given how secretive Valve is knowing what they are up to is often just speculation. Well there has been some discussion about Valve getting in to hardware. "IF" Valve were to make a "Console" having it run on Linux would make a lot of sense.

[rudedog]

I think we call all thank Microsoft for PC gaming, moving to Apple and Linux. If it wasn't for their blatant lack of giving a flying F we would not see valve and other companies looking for other OSs to support

Way to go Valve!!

[Pendragon]

For the longest time Linux on the desktop was Geek only environment. For the last few years things have moved on to the point where it can be it can be the not only an alternative but to being genuinely better choice for a lot of users. If Linux on PC desktop will become popular in western country's I'm less sure. There are many millions of people use Linux every day on their phones. Once they make the mental link between what is running on their phone, what the internet runs on, the company's they use every day that use Linux. Some of the resistance to using Windows once it's changed out of all recognition with Win8's Metro. The big stumbling block is still the same old one, you walk in to a computer shop and they are all running Windows. Not sure what it's going to take to make that change in the west.

[zeroy]

Originally Posted by Pendragon

For the longest time Linux on the desktop was Geek only environment.

Sorry to disagree, it still is and will remain that way for a lonnnnnnnnng long time! The same was being printer all over back in 2005 - Linux Desktop were going to conquer the world. It never happened; The fact that Mobile phones runs Linux flavour (Android or IOS) doesnt change anything. A desktop PC user has a different expectency when it comes to using a Mobile device than a Desktop PC.

Note that the above is mostly just my opinion.

[Pendragon]

More Linux / Gaming news...


News from Ubuntu on Google+

Electronic Arts will be presenting at the Ubuntu Developer Summit next week. Expect some exciting news.

Source

[x=FAST=x]

so happy there is valve for the PC community.

[Pendragon]

It's very surprising to see EA talking to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu has the lion's share of Linux on the desktop it makes them the obvious choice to talk to. Anyhow we will have to wait and see. I still have this split, part of me loves gaming and part loves Ubuntu. I end up running one PC just for gaming with Windows. Everything else in the house runs Linux. One day if I wish real hard I will be able to play the games I love on the OS I want.