Post Comment - Blue's News

Linux Steam Plans Confirmed

[Apr 25, 2012, 10:04 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

After years of clues, rumors, and speculation, Phoronix has a concrete confirmation from Valve of plans for a native Linux client for Steam, Valve's content delivery service. And it just keeps getting better for the site and its Linux-loving audience, as they say: "Valve does have some great plans for Linux beyond just shipping the client versions of Steam and their popular games on the Source Engine." Without getting too far into specifics, the author repeatedly effuses over Valve's embrace of Linux surpassing the commitment of other developers. Those prone to speculation will recall the recently confirmed Valve hardware rumors, as it seems to bear noting that a specialized Linux client is one of the favored ways to power proprietary hardware systems these days. Here's a bit on Valve's strong commitment to the power of the penguin:

Valve and Gabe Newell's interest in Linux goes beyond what would be expected of any normal game company, but Valve is certainly a unique beast. Listening to Gabe Newell talk about Linux for hours made me wonder whether he was a former ex-Microsoft employee (where he actually did work in his pre-Valve days in the 90's) or the director of the Linux Foundation. His level of Linux interest and commitment was incredible while his negativity for Windows 8 and the future of Microsoft was stunning. In fact, as soon as I return to my office this weekend I plan to try out Windows 8 simply to see if it's as bad as Gabe states and because he's curious about my opinions of this latest Microsoft operating system.

Post Comment
Enter the details of the comment you'd like to post in the boxes below and click the button at the bottom of the form.

50.

Re: Linux Steam Plans Confirmed

Apr 27, 2012, 06:23

2nd_floor

I've used Linux since 1997, 15 years, and there have been various ups and downs with gaming on it. MP Entertainment, iD, Epic, Xatrix, Lokigames, S2 Games, Enemy Territory was ported, Medal of Honour. The names of companies that have done things for Linux over the years. Valve hasn't touched Linux! They haven't done anything for it, barely spoken of it as far as I know. We don't know what was said between Valve and Phoronix, but the person at Phoronix compares what Valve said and its excitement for Linux, to the Linux Foundation. That is not what I would describe 15 years of Valve as being. Linux isn't exactly Valve's priority, they did MacOS first, and now finally a year or two after, they get to Linux. That doesn't sound like the Linux Foundation to me, or even much of a supporter of Linux. They are a billion dollar company, if they wanted to, REALLY wanted to support Linux, like some companies listed above, they could have done so years ago! 2004 easily I bet without any financial risk. It's awesome that Valve is going to bring some of it's games to Linux (although Steam can be a nightmare), but they need to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk of Linux if they want to be compared to the Linux Foundation and known as a supporter of Linux, with the apparent excitement that they are talking about, and the influence they have on PC gaming!

Subject

Comment Enter your comment here, but please respect the forum rules (below).

;) :( :o %) :) :| ;P X| :D More

If you have a signature set up, it will be automatically appended to your comment.
If you don't already have a Blue's News user account, you can sign up here.
Forgotten your password? Click here.

Email me when this topic is updated.

Special Codes

b[bold text]b
i[italic text]i
u[underline text]u
-[~~strikethrough text~~]-
c[code text]c
+[bullet point]+
q[quote text (indented)]q
[quote="Author"]quote text (indented)[/quote]
[url=Link]text[/url]
r{red text}r
g{green text}g
b{blue text}b
m{maroon text}m
s{secret text (shows in the background colour)}s

Forum Rules

Disagree all you want but attacks of a personal nature will not be tolerated.
Ethnic slurs and homophobic language will not be tolerated.
Do not post spam, links to warez sites, or instructions on how to obtain pirated software.
Abusing the forums in any manner that could be construed as 'griefing' will not be tolerated.