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.