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[Shazzam6999]

At least in the beginning, the catalog will be dominated by indie games of course, as those devs are far more likely to support multi-platform compared to AAA studios. Although, I do recall a major game (Unreal Tournament 2003/2004?) that came with both Windows and Linux installers on one DVD.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to properly channel the amount of hipster that's about to enter my body, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to try!

Recently, I have found indie games to be far better than the average AAA release. If I'm unsure what I want to play, and I'm just looking for a fun casual game, it's almost always going to be an indie game. The low prices, unique settings, and simple but fun gameplay of the average Indie game, gives me far more pleasure than ducking behind cover and arguing which enemy is grayer. Indie games on Linux? I might just switch my computer back to Linux full time.

 

[Zia]

As a Mac user of Steam, I can appreciate the excitement you Linux guys must be feeling now.

But a couple of things you need to know:
- a game won't be on Steam unless it has a Windows version
- if a game is published by a different company on Linux than Windows, the Linux version won't be on Steam

That's how it is on Mac right now, and it sucks (a bit), but there's still plenty on the Store to choose from.

Also, you won't be able to participate in the beta of any unreleased Valve game. Grumble, grumble.

 

[JaseC]

Shame they didn't release any of their GoldSrc titles, but they are still very dedicated to the OS.

I'd like to know if the GoldSrc titles will ever make it to Mac. I suppose the logical assumption is that if this were to happen, it would have occurred when Valve released Steam Mac back in 2010 or -- as is seemingly the case -- not at all.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I'd like to know if the GoldSrc titles will ever make it to Mac. I suppose the logical assumption is that if this were to happen, it would have occurred when Valve released Steam Mac back in 2010 or -- as is seemingly the case -- not at all.

I guess it will happen if someone at valve thinks that it's an interesting project.

But there already was a finished third party version of Half-Life for the mac but it was never released because Sierra didn't think the orders from retailers were high enough.

 

[Maedhros]

That's some hilarious stuff.


I'm not even a Linux user, but frankly I don't see the point of you entering this thread just to claim your loyalty to Windows.
That's just trolling.

That's not what trolling means.

Steam is not an incentive for me to switch to another SO. It's nice to have the option though, if this ends being true.

 

[morningbus]

That's nice.

But I'll be still using Windows, thank you.

I care.

Seriously, I was just saying this, no need to get angry.

That's not what trolling means.

Steam is not an incentive for me to switch to another SO. It's nice to have the option though, if this ends being true.

Whew, I'm glad you're here. I spent the better part of the morning wondering how this would affect Maedhros.

 

[M3d10n]

if the developers aren't abstracting their API usage they are doing it wrong


GameLibs->Render->SwapBuffers(){ if(DX)DXSwapBuffer(); if(GL)GLSwapBuffer(); }

In modern games the API is probably less than one percent of the codebase.

The hard part with OpenGL is not converting your program, it's taking into account all the different driver issues and GLSL versions.

In the DirectX 8 days, it was (almost) that simple. But in Shader Age, cross-API compatibility is far more complicated with HLSL/GLSL and some features not having a direct equivalent in both sides. Things get even more daunting if you're going beyond Shader Model 3.0 too.

 

[Emitan]

Just gimme my indies on Steam. All I want.

 

[OldJadedGamer]

so Windows 8 is soooooooooooooooo bad, that even Gabe hates it?

what else does the world needs, than a warning from the almighty Gabe?

Only every other MS OS is good so that makes sense that he would hate Win8.

 

[Boerseun]

Now improve the graphics drivers to the point where you don't need a different set for every other graphics card and I'll be there.

 

[JaseC]

I guess it will happen if someone at valve thinks that it's an interesting project.

Yeah, that's certainly possible. It's worth nothing that Gabe, speaking on a podcast soon after Valve announced plans for Mac support, was non-committal about the GoldSrc games making it to Mac. I assume the porting process was problematic for one reason or another and was shelved either temporarily (to be revisited after Steam Mac had found its footing) or -- at least for the time being -- indefinitely (not worth the trouble considering the only GoldSrc game with a notable active player base is CS 1.6).

Come to think of it, Mac users don't have access to the original Half-Life at all*; Half-Life: Source didn't make the cut.

* Boot Camp excluded.

But there already was a finished third party version of Half-Life for the mac but it was never released because Sierra didn't think the orders from retailers were high enough.

Which was unsurprising, really.

 

[MrCunningham]

I'd like to know if the GoldSrc titles will ever make it to Mac. I suppose the logical assumption is that if this were to happen, it would have occurred when Valve released Steam Mac back in 2010 or -- as is seemingly the case -- not at all.

Well, in 2010 porting the Goldsrc games to Mac wasn't a high priority because they were focusing on getting the Source games out the door for Mac. They always had a "we'll see" approach to the Goldsrc games. But I guess their Mac teams are still busy with bug fixing and tech support to show any interest in porting the old Goldsrc games.

I wonder how hard they would be to port anyway? They all have native Open GL support, would it be that hard? I also wonder why they never showed any interest in porting Half-Life 1 source either?

 

[JaseC]

Well, in 2010 porting the Goldsrc games to Mac wasn't a high priority because they were focusing on getting the Source games out the door for Mac. They always had a "we'll see" approach to the Goldsrc games. But I guess their Mac teams are still busy with bug fixing and tech support to show any interest in porting the old Goldsrc games.

I wonder how hard they would be to port anyway? They all have native Open GL support, would it be that hard? I also wonder why they never showed any interest in porting Half-Life 1 source either?

Haha, my post, which sneaked in a few seconds before yours, addresses most of your points. As for the bold, that's a question I was just asking myself.

 

[undu]

Phoronix has been saying this over and over since 2007. I no longer trust anything they say.

Yea... I don't trust a single thing this guy has to say about Steam.

Why did he name the article "Valve's Gabe Newell Talks Linux Steam Client, Source Engine" when it contains absolutely no quotes whatsoever?

If you need conformation Gabe himself said on the podcast he announced Dota2 was going to be free-to-play that he was working on Linux http://www.sevendaycooldown.com/site/episode001/ (around 10:48)

 

[JaseC]

If you need conformation Gabe himself said on the podcast he announced Dota2 was going to be free-to-play that he was working on Linux http://www.sevendaycooldown.com/site/episode001/ (around 10:48)

Yeah, I've listened to that podcast. My post wasn't cynical, I was just noting inquisitively how poorly-titled the article is; it's framed as an interview but is nothing more than the musings of the author.

 

[kittens]

Good news.

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

If you need conformation Gabe himself said on the podcast he announced Dota2 was going to be free-to-play that he was working on Linux http://www.sevendaycooldown.com/site/episode001/ (around 10:48)

After years and years of hearing "Steam Linux" proposed and rumored and confirmed and talked about and Phoronixed, I have become so numb to the concept that I will not believe it until I have a binary in my downloads folder.

I cannot stress just how bad of a website Phoronix is.

 

[MrCunningham]

Haha, my post, which sneaked in a few seconds before yours, addresses most of your points. As for the bold, that's a question I was just asking myself.

I just noticed that .

But anyway, running Goldsrc games on Linux will be much easier than their Mac counterparts. They all run great under wine with no issues.

It makes me wonder if they could add some additional options in the Linux version of Steam to run games from wine? I don't think it would be too hard for the Steam client to detect if you have a version of wine installed on your distro, and then enable some additional commands to "run in wine" under specific games that support it.

After years and years of hearing "Steam Linux" proposed and rumored and confirmed and talked about and Phoronixed, I have become so numb to the concept that I will not believe it until I have a binary in my downloads folder.

I cannot stress just how bad of a website Phoronix is.

I know how you feel about this one. But this time there seems to be some actual weight behind their story. Seems likely that a Linux client will come out. It's just a matter of when.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Seemingly confirmed.

Apparently Left 4 Dead has already been ported.

 

[MrCunningham]

Seemingly confirmed.

Apparently Left 4 Dead has already been ported.

I find it funny that they link the story back to here.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Me too, GAF > Internet > GAF.

 

[Mrbob]

To me this was inevitable. At one point Steam needs to go on Android OS. Android uses Linux. So its kill two birds with one stone affair.

You know I never thought about this and you make a great point. This could be a path for Steam to come to Android. Apple has their walled garden, but the Android market is like the wild west right now.

Unfortunately a Linux port will do next to nothing towards a possible Android port. Both use the Linux kernel, but the important part for this is the graphics system, and that is totally different from Android.

Scratch that, I guess.

 

[morningbus]

Seemingly confirmed.

Apparently Left 4 Dead has already been ported.

Hmm, it isn't anymore a confirmation than what we've been discussing for the last few pages. Their only source is really the Phoronix guy.

However, despite their history of reporting Valve news, this should be good enough for anyone. This would be really easy for Valve to discredit, as the guy claims to have actually gone to Valve HQ and suggested people that Valve hired.

There's basically too much info here to be false, unless every shred of information is made up. Even then, it could easily be torn apart by Valve saying, "Uh, he was never here."

Guys, look, I became skeptical too, but this is about as close to the real thing as we'll get before the Linux client is silently released.

 

[Zombie James]

I haven't seen the screenshots in the thread, but they're up on the article: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_linux_dampfnudeln&num=1

This is pretty exciting stuff, and might just be the motivation necessary for Nvidia and AMD to step up their driver support.

 

[zoku88]

I'm not sure how you can prove that screenshots are from a Linux version of L4D2 rather than a version running with wine, though...

 

[Shambles]

Sounds good. Gaming is really the only thing holding me loyal to Windows. I'm sure this is an initial step towards a Steam box in the next 5-10 years that will be linux based. Unfortunately the linux client would have to gain enough traction to start pushing devs to focus on it. Otherwise they'll just keep developing mainly on windows APIs.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Sounds good. Gaming is really the only thing holding me loyal to Windows. I'm sure this is an initial step towards a Steam box in the next 5-10 years that will be linux based. Unfortunately the linux client would have to gain enough traction to start pushing devs to focus on it. Otherwise they'll just keep developing mainly on windows APIs.

Well at the very least, every game from every Humble Bundle will support it. Build up a great collection of indie games and the bigger boys might want to bite a piece of the pie too.

 

[morningbus]

I'm not sure how you can prove that screenshots are from a Linux version of L4D2 rather than a version running with wine, though...

Check out the System Monitor. (hl2 stuff)

Sure, it could be faked. But this would discredited in 2 seconds by Valve.

 

[Frank Jaeger]

Why does Gaben hate Win8!? Did a quick google search but couldn't find anything.

ALSO: Larabel! I YOU ARE READING GAF! Tell Gaben to have Amnesia running from the Steam client when they launch, since that game has a very nice linux client! kthxbai!

 

[Jenga]

but does it work on gentoo

 

[injurai]

Steam on Linux?

I swear Valve is going to make a rocket that flies to the moon before they make a new Half life.

John Carmack is a bit ahead on that frontier...

 

[zoku88]

Check out the System Monitor. (hl2 stuff)

Sure, it could be faked. But this would discredited in 2 seconds by Valve.

Hm,I didn't notice that. There would probably be an .exe thing there somewhere.

Though, I don't think Valve is quick to discredit.

 

[AgentP]

How does Linux stack up compared to Windows these days? I would seriously consider building a new machine with that as a part of the OS footprint alongside Windows.

Just dual boot. I spend most of my time in Fedora 16, only jump into Win7 for the occasional game or to print.

 

[AgentP]

nm

 

[Lasthope106]

And so Visual Studio remains as the only reason I have Windows installed. Can't wait to try running Steam on Fedora.

 

[MrCunningham]

Hm,I didn't notice that. There would probably be an .exe thing there somewhere.

Though, I don't think Valve is quick to discredit.

hl2_linux
hl2.sh

Also, in the terminal it makes calls to DLL files, but fails to load them.

 

[qizah]

Oh man, I hope this is true. I just got a new machine and I've been waiting for school to finish so I can transition to Ubuntu 100%, though I started using Steam again and it's the only reason I want to keep Windows right now.

 

[injurai]

What is considered the prime linux/unix distros out their? I have always used some sort of Ubuntu, as I always considered it the god of the unix-like world. But are their any other distros that considered better or equal?

 

[qizah]

What is considered the prime linux/unix distros out their? I have always used some sort of Ubuntu, as I always considered it the god of the unix-like world. But are their any other distros that considered better or equal?

I've only really used Ubuntu, but I believe Mint is pretty good.

 

[androvsky]

Hm,I didn't notice that. There would probably be an .exe thing there somewhere.

Though, I don't think Valve is quick to discredit.

Linux executables are almost never given a .exe extension. Usually, they have no extension, and are simply tagged as being executable (not an extension, but a file property).

Although I will admit I don't know much about Valves games, but why is hl2 running if the monitor is showing Left4Dead?

 

[MrCunningham]

What is considered the prime linux/unix distros out their? I have always used some sort of Ubuntu, as I always considered it the god of the unix-like world. But are their any other distros that considered better or equal?

Ubuntu is generally one of the most polished and user friendly ones. Right now I am using Linux Mint 12 with the Cinnamon shell. I have no problems with it either, and I really enjoy cinnamon. I used PCLinuxOS for a brief stint too, and I found it to be rather user friendly KDE desktop. But I'm sure people will suggest other KDE distros that could be better.

I suggest burning a few different ones to DVD and running them in live CD mode to test them out. You can run most Linux distro's directly from the disc (or flash drive, if you know how) without having to install anything.

 

[morningbus]

What is considered the prime linux/unix distros out their? I have always used some sort of Ubuntu, as I always considered it the god of the unix-like world. But are their any other distros that considered better or equal?

It depends on what you want out of it. For the vast majority of users Ubuntu is enough. And, considering how Valve is apparently doing its work in Ubuntu, is probably the safest bet for compatibility.

But, hey, if you want to decide what daemons you have installed give Arch Linux a shot.

Linux executables are almost never given a .exe extension. Usually, they have no extension, and are simply tagged as being executable (not an extension, but a file property).

Although I will admit I don't know much about Valves games, but why is hl2 running if the monitor is showing Left4Dead?

It's the same under Windows for their older stuff. It's just how the Source engine is labeled. I believe they no longer keep the exe labeled hl2 anymore, though (or, at least with Portal 2 they had stopped).

 

[zoku88]

Linux executables are almost never given a .exe extension. Usually, they have no extension, and are simply tagged as being executable (not an extension, but a file property).

Although I will admit I don't know much about Valves games, but why is hl2 running if the monitor is showing Left4Dead?

Lol, I know that. I meant, if it was running in Wine, it would have an .exe

 

[Technosteve]

I am confused, won't the Linux version be, just a port of OS X version? Which is so so interms of performance. How would the Linux version be better? In all probability it would be worse.

 

[Zoramon089]

I am confused, won't the Linux version be, just a port of OS X version? Which is so so interms of performance. How would the Linux version be better? In all probability it would be worse.

It won't be better

 

[Blizzard]

I am confused, won't the Linux version be, just a port of OS X version? Which is so so interms of performance. How would the Linux version be better? In all probability it would be worse.

It would presumably depend on two main things, CPU performance with Linux vs. the OS X kernel, and graphics driver performance. Linux is not known for having amazing official video drivers, but that area might improve slightly if Valve throws their support behind it (similar to how OS X got a graphics (driver?) update after Steam showed up on it).

 

[morningbus]

I am confused, won't the Linux version be, just a port of OS X version? Which is so so interms of performance. How would the Linux version be better? In all probability it would be worse.

No. It's a port from the source code, using the work they already did transitioning over to OpenGL.

I'm not saying the Linux version will perform awesomely, and Mac-level performance may be a good benchmark at first, but it will be a significantly different experience than the Mac transition.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I am confused, won't the Linux version be, just a port of OS X version? Which is so so interms of performance. How would the Linux version be better? In all probability it would be worse.

I don't get, what, you're, complaining, about.

 

[Emitan]

I don't get, what, you're, complaining, about.

Why would you use Linux when you could use OSX? AMIRITE?

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Well, if anyone can get ATI and NVidia to fix their messes on Linux, it's Valve.

To be fair, Nvidia's Linux drivers are in a much much much better place to ATI. Nvidia has a ton of professional clients who use Quadros in Linux. This would be the kick in the pants to get their GeForce/game support more love.