News Valve Steam, Source clients heading to Linux

My biggest concern is drivers. This will create issues for Nvidia and AMD having to support another OS which they barely do ATM (guess they have no reason to). Community support will also be interesting if allowed and this opens the pathway for a steam console. If windows 8 flops this might make linux a very attractive option for prospect gamers and other users, especially if a flavour designed especially for steam. TBH lack of steam is why I still have windows.

After this, steam on android....let it sink in,


there you go!

 

Nope.... see in the future nothing changes. Humanity makes the same mistakes over and over and over again.

 

Yes, because that is totally the same as Valve bringing Steam and Source to the kernel...

 

This will be a BIG shot in the arm for Linux (not to mention a potentially good source of income for Valve).

Gaming on Linux has been a major drawback for me.

 

Please, Guinevere, click on the Rep button on your post! Want to know how much that humored people!

 

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! This will be mega! seriously this has so many implications. good ones too. just need this to come out and i can sell my retail copy of windows!

 

While OpenCL is very nice.. OpenGL isn't. Try debugging your shaders.. oh boy! Here's a hint, you can't. There are no real debuggers. They are tracers... like gDEBugger, but nothing what you expect when you program C/C++. DirectX can be debugged just fine. It's also easier to program and has much less limitations. So DirectX will still be the developer of choice, especially that right now DirectX is what pushes the graphical effect.

This will be like MacOS... meaning expect only some indies games, and Valve games. Maybe Blizzard MIGHT join in, if they are descent drivers.

OpenGL is far behind DirectX. As much as I hate saying this, as it's always very nice to have an open platform, but this is truth.

Actually this is not why Linux has low adoptions. That is just the first issue that comes to gamers mind. But Linux, while did massive leaps over the years, is extremely far behind for desktop and laptop user usability. Linux tries to satisfy it's current users, which loves extreme flexibility, and don't mind using Command Line extensively. The OS and their programs have way to many options, many useless, which submerge the user in trying to find an option to much. This is just another downside. Still needs a lot of work for desktops and laptop environment.

Won't change much, just a couple of indie games. The only thing it would provide, is make the few developers that don't mind using only 1 DRM. Publishers want DRM.. so big games won't make it there, until they are trusted DRM system put into Linux, without any easy way to break it. Having an OS with open source.. doesn't make this welcome. Everyone will download Linux Gamer Edition, where DRMs are blocks in some fashion.

 

Ok, who thinks this could be related Valve's "open platform" they were talking about when discussing making their own hardware?

 

No Linux has low adoptions because people use what they know/see/use. when people go to work and use the computer - its windows. go to the shop/store to buy a computer - its windows. no one knows about Linux unless they go out looking for it, Linux has no big marketing campaign. I use windows to game and linux for everything else at home. i use windows at work. i use linux because its quicker than windows and more secure - i never use the command line. for what the average person does on a computer a current main distro would more than suffice. I know i would pick linux mint over windows 8 just on USABILITY alone

 

NO linux already has indie games this will give it moar indie games AND steam games and it will be a small selection - that will grow. this is the thin end of the wedge. slowly but surely DRM is going. after all its a cost that is counter productive - the more you spend on DRM the more money you seem to lose on lost sales and higher counterfitting numbers.

anyways, games come out on linux and they are good - im buying them.
they release a linux tf2 hat - im buying it!

 

Minecraft's on Linux....



Technically, that's Java, but still......

 

Windows 8 is a great OS. People want change, but don't want change. People complained about Windows 7 new task bar like no tomorrow, saying that will stick to XP... Windows 7 is now loved. People complained about every aspect of Vista, and somehow, even the instant search feature... now people want these things. Same will happen with Windows 8. Once you pass the learning curve, and adjust the Start Screen, like you adjust the Start Menu in Windows (assuming it will be exactly like the Beta version now), then Windows 8 provides a great experience.

Also Linux is not designed for lay people, and even us:
-> Internet needs to used for help... as no one can help me. What if the user don't have access internet.
-> Many things says to open the terminal and type stuff that lay people don't understand, and even many of us.
-> Help and documentation is difficult to find, and understand. Very technical. Not designed for lay people.
-> Linux xWindows environments have a serious problem with their font rendering engine. Text is incredibly hard to read. It's not an issue on MacOS, and I think Windows 7/8 (same) has the best text rendering, AND default font.
-> Simple things in Windows, or MacOS, feels like a week-end project to do.
-> Low quality, low performing, or non existent drivers. The Linux community needs to do some work to help developers/companies. On my laptop, E6400, almost 4 years old, still don;t have proper drivers. When I put Linux on it, and installed all the drivers I pass from what is now with Windows 8 Beta: 12h of battery life, down to 4 hours and half (no power saving features). Poor Nvidia Quadro performance over Windows (Moving windows is choppy). Also, wireless always disconnect from university network. SD Card doesn't work, Unable to cut power on devices, as I could under Windows, with Windows Vista/7/8 power settings (on Windows I can cut the power of my optical drive, SD card, firewire, set my USB under low power, reduce screen refresh rate down to 40Hz, and set the fan to passive mode (very difficult to make it spin), when on battery, and have everything full power as soon as I plug it in (or change power plan to one I specified (default actually) to have everything enabled).
My laptop was also hot, and the fan would not stop spinning, something that it rarely does under Windows (basically only when I play a game, or play hours of Flash video).
And as the Linux community said to me: that essentially told me that next time to pick a laptop where all the hardware are compatible with Linux, and that is also popular by the Linux community for getting help. I was recommended HP low end consumer laptops, and told me how great they were under Linux. If anyone knows anything about HP consumer laptop, especially those, like me, who worked on Retail.... if an HP low end laptop lives after a year, then it's a manufacture error, it should not be working. Same for quietness and cooling, and battery life, and overall built-quality Honestly I would prefer to use a Dell low end laptop (Inspiron) over an HP one. And we all know how Dell low end product are.

My point is that Linux has excessively a lot of work to do. I know that current Linux users are really exited about this, but thinking it's a ready OS for everyone, would be, I think, very harmful. People will see Linux as this impossible or difficult to use, and poor experience OS. And that reputation will stick with lay people. So even if Linux does another huge step forward where is able to have an xWindows environment that make Linux truly easy to use, and solves all it's problems. People will still have in their head that Linux is difficult to use, and not switch back, not even giving it another chance. Already many people trying a Windows in beta stages, have difficulty understanding what is beta. And from my experience, I know that lay people get easily scared. An example.. my mom. I put Linux on an old computer, and spent hours and hours trying to customize it to get the same feel and experience as Windows (this is was many years ago). I put her Linux, because I was in College, and Vista would not run on my old Pentium 3 800MHz with 512MB of RAM, obviously. Result... She turned on the computer and she freaked out by all the text appearing at startup of Linux. And she complained how hard text was to read (which I agreed). She didn't use the computer... She was afraid. xWindows looks very close to Windows 2000, which is what I had at the time, and she used. I even went over everything with her... she was just scared.and she never passed the fact that when you enter the user name and password, nothing appears on the screen, for "Privacy" reasons. Anyway, I was able to get a better computer, Vista ready computer. She never used Vista, and she actually like it (more so Windows 7 of course, as I got her the Nvidia ION with the dual core Atom when it came out).

In conclusion:
Linux is great, but is really far behind Windows and MacOS... and even if it's free... it has way too many issues affected greatly lay people, that I strongly thing that it will hurt Linux image, plus people would have no problem cashing out money for ease of use, which Windows and MacOS both offer.

Oh chee! Really?!
I think we all know that. I meant have more and push indie games, as now you'll have a new and easier distribution channel.

Yes it is. More options is always nice.

 

I agree with you, to an extent.

Most of the Function+F1-12 keys on my 2 laptops don't work. Not that I use them, but might annoy someone else.

I'm hoping that the push to Linux will make manufacturers more willing to write decent drivers for them.

 

Everybody pretty much loved Windows 7 from the go. everyone that i knew got it on release day.
Vista was/is/always will be, hated by most people for being one of the worst OS releases ever. it did things people didnt want in the background making fairly powerful machines seem in need of an upgrade.
Windows 8 looks good but is unusable things have moved all over the place or have been removed and there appears to be no logic to the moving of items to there new destination.
I know full well what a beta is. I have tried the consumer preview, which i'm assuming is what your saying by beta. maybe you don't understand what a beta is. a beta is regarded as code which feature set is finished but bugs need to be found and fixed. the general usability of windows 8 features just does not seem to be logical.

on the linux note its fine for most people. i gave my dad a computer with suse on over 5 years ago and he liked it over the xp machine we had. he went back to xp due to a program for work that required it, but after putting a dual boot of ubuntu on it he logs into ubuntu unless he has to use the work program. and he isn't technical at all. he has no idea how to do anything other than web and word and excel (sometimes he even struggles with them). i use linux mint and for most people it would more than be capable of replacing windows. If i could game on it too i would prefer it to windows.

 

Developers don't choose DirectX over OpenGL because "steam isn't supported on linux", so changing that fact isn't suddenly going to cause developers to change their mind on the matter.

DirectX is more popular than OpenGL because DirectX is a FAR nicer API to work with. The extra cost of developing with OpenGL can't be justified by the tiny extra market opened by supporting linux.

 

Can't think of a bigger waste of time

 

YEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!

One less reason to dual-boot...

 

This is the beginning of a REVOLUTION.

All Hail Comrade Vladimir Newell!!

Yours in Revolutionary Plasma,
Star*Dagger