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News Valve opens Steam for Linux beta to all

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 20 Dec 2012.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. azrael-

    azrael- I'm special...

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    Great news! And just in time for Christmas (and the inevitable Steam Christmas Sale :))....
     
  3. ellism

    ellism What's a Dremel?

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    Alas even after updating I am still getting the closed beta message.
     
  4. SlowMotionSuicide

    SlowMotionSuicide Come Hell or High Water

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  5. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    What are the official figures for Steam on Apple OSX?
     
  6. fdbh96

    fdbh96 What's a Dremel?

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    Im not sure but I think the humble bundle usually says that the number of people on OS X roughly equals the number on linux.
     
  7. Yslen

    Yslen Lord of the Twenty-Seventh Circle

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    That doesn't necessarily mean anything; every humble bundle I've bought I've gone down as a Linux user because that's what I used to have on my laptop. Never played any of the games on there though.
     
  8. fdbh96

    fdbh96 What's a Dremel?

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    It is only a statistic which of course most are flawed but I would be surprised if the actual number was similiar.
     
  9. Star*Dagger

    Star*Dagger What's a Dremel?

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    I hope this is the beginning of the end for Windows only gaming.

    I would love to use Linux for gaming and delete Windows forever!!
     
  10. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    This has no effect on me as I'll never use Linux ever as I love to use Windows for gaming.

    I hope this is the beginning of the end for the myth that Linux is better since no one will be using it ;)
     
  11. wafflesomd

    wafflesomd What's a Dremel?

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    Seriously this. I think it's great that there will finally be some competition but linux has a lot of problems other than game support.

    People with this kind of thought process are dilusional

    "I would love to use Linux for gaming and delete Windows forever!!"
     
  12. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    why? I don't need or use it for anything else...


    (My emphasis)
     
  13. Icy EyeG

    Icy EyeG Controlled by Eyebrow Powers™

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    I guess me and most of my family are crazy then.
     
  14. Sloth

    Sloth #yolo #swag

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    If a person's only priority is gaming such as steveo_mcg above then Linux is an easy choice should it become equivalent to Windows for gaming. Two tools to do the same job, but one's free.

    There are only three things needed to achieve this:
    -Games availability to match Windows.
    -OpenGL to match DirectX.
    -Driver support to match Windows ease of install and performance.

    We're seeing the first with Valve push of Steam and development of their own game, THQ's cost analysis, and the many indie games seen in the Humble Bundles. The second is driven by the first as number of developers increases. The third is driven by a combination of the first two, this can been seen recently with Nvidia's latest release. It's very much a "build it and they will come" situation where we're dependent on the risk-takers in the industry to begin the process. When/if all three come together what's the point of gaming on Windows? You've got some non-gaming related issue with Linux? Unfortunate for you, but doesn't make the rest of us delusional.
     
  15. wafflesomd

    wafflesomd What's a Dremel?

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    What do you do in linux that you can't do in windows.

    It's not even remotely as user friendly as windows is. I usually try a few distros every year just to see if it's to the point where I want it to be and it never is. I always have the same issue and that is that I need to baby sit the OS. I've never had a windows update break my installation but that has happened to me in linux a few times. Not worth the hassle IMO.
     
    Last edited: 21 Dec 2012
  16. yuusou

    yuusou Multimodder

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    Then you're probably trying them out in hope that they will be like Windows. They're not.

    But this isn't a bash Windows/Linux thread.

    I've been playing TF2 and Amenesia on Ubuntu 12.10 with the Catalyst 12.11 Beta drivers and they're running quite smooth. A bit of work has to go into TF2 though.
     
  17. fdbh96

    fdbh96 What's a Dremel?

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    Surely this is going to make things worse. Some developers cant even manage compatibility with windows 7, so adding a whole world of alternate possibilities is going to be a nightmare to get things working right.
     
  18. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    Very little though there is some stuff which works better, headless clients, thin clients, low powered completely silent machines etc etc.

    Given all I use my computer for is web based stuff, gaming and some light photo editing (gimp) what is the advantage of running windows when I don't find Linux hard to use? It has less system overheads than windows so assuming decent driver support there really is no advantage to paying for a copy of windows.
     
  19. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Yes, that never happens. Oh, wait, no. The other thing.

    Not that I'm saying Linux is wholly innocent in this regard: while rare, mistakes do happen - but usually to beta or 'unstable' branches, like the time an update to Ubuntu 10.04 Beta (from memory) prevented X from loading. The problem was fixed in a couple of hours, but it was still an awkward moment for beta users - non-beta users, meanwhile, were fine.
     
  20. Icy EyeG

    Icy EyeG Controlled by Eyebrow Powers™

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    In my case, it makes my life much easier. I program lots of things in perl for college, and Ubuntu makes it much easier to work with. Moreover, in my experience, all the software I generally use (mendeley, calibre, Inkscape, dia, gimp, libreoffice, gnumeric, etc.) are much faster in Ubuntu, and a lot easier to upgrade (because Ubuntu has a centralized update system).
    One very important aspect as well is the amount of money I've spared in Windows licences, by using Ubuntu on 5 computers in the last 2-3 years.

    I completely disagree. I've been using Ubuntu full time since 10.04, and never had any problems. I've also installed Xubuntu 12.04 on my of my relatives' laptops and they are quite happy with it. Moreover, they are not geeks like me, they just want a laptop that works and can't afford to buy a new one. As far as I'm concerned they don't need to worry about the OS until 2017, provided they keep it up-to-date.

    Yes, I only use LTS releases with them, because that's how it should be if you want absolute stability and a "geek-free" experience. If you are new to Linux or want to install and forget go (X)ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

    Granted I installed some packages that didn't come with Xubuntu, like google chrome, libreoffice and gnome games. However, it takes a lot less time, because when they were using Windows, every time I did a factory reset on their laptops, I'd have to uninstall all the crap, demos and trials that came with it.

    In my experience, people can adapt very easily to Xubuntu, and are quite thankful, because they don't need to buy a new laptop in the mid-term (because Xubuntu is much more responsive than Windows in 4-year-old laptops).

    Also, using Unity on Ubuntu is as difficult to adapt as it is to Mac OSX, if you are coming from Windows, except it is free.
     

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