Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux

[prowler]

Valve Corporation has today rolled out their Steam Mac OS X client to the general public and confirmed something we have been reporting for two years: the Steam content delivery platform and Source Engine are coming to Linux. This news is coming days after we discovered proof in Steam's Mac OS X Client of Linux support and subsequently found more Linux references and even the unreleased Steam Linux client. The day has finally come and Linux gamers around the world have a reason to rejoice, as this is the biggest news for the Linux gaming community that sees very few tier-one titles.

Those enthusiasts within the Phoronix community even managed to get the unreleased Steam Linux client running up to a partially drawn UI and other modifications, but now that work can stop as Valve is preparing to officially release the Steam Linux client from where they will start to offer Linux native games available for sale. For all those doubting our reports that Source/Steam would be coming to Linux, you can find confirmation in the UK's Telegraph and other news sites. An announcement from Valve itself is imminent.

Found already within the Steam store are Linux-native games like Unreal Tournament 2004, World of Goo, and titles from id Software such as Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Doom 3. Now that the Source Engine is officially supported on Linux, some Source-based games will be coming over too. Will we finally see Unreal Tournament 3 surface on Linux too? Only time will tell, but it is something we speculated back in 2008. Postal III is also being released this year atop the Source Engine and it will be offering up a native client. We have confirmed that Valve's latest and popular titles like Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, and Team Fortress 2 are among the first of the Steam Linux titles, similar to the Mac OS X support. The released Linux client should be available by the end of summer.[...]

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[Overlord Nadrian]

Great. Just when I'm downloading Portal for the Windows Steam, this comes in. Oh well, joy, now I have to use Windows even less!

 

[luke_c]

Great. Just when I'm downloading Portal for the Windows Steam, this comes in. Oh well, joy, now I have to use Windows even less!

If you have the game in your library you can re-download it free of charge, and this isn't official yet, so a rumor take may be advised.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

I know I can download it again, but it's just that it takes such a long time for the download to finish

 

[Maikel Steneker]

This is awesome

The Linux gaming market will greatly increase because of this!

Pretty much every game I play on PC is also available for Linux (my personal taste seems to be pretty similar to the selection of games available on Linux), so I can't wait to use Steam on my Linux desktop. Downloading Valve titles is also a huge plus!

 

[Deleted-171178]

Old news bro, they announced it in 2008 IIRC.
Also, will running on Linux offer any advantages over running on XP?

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

Old news bro, they announced it in 2008 IIRC.
Also, will running on Linux offer any advantages over running on XP?

Most likely not, but it's just cool that Linux users won't have to use Windows for playing games on Steam anymore.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

Old news bro, they announced it in 2008 IIRC.
There have been a lot of rumors and snippets of code found in the Windows version, but Steam or the Source Engine has never been officially announced.
QUOTE(beegee7730 @ May 13 2010, 09:59 PM) Also, will running on Linux offer any advantages over running on XP?

That depends. In most cases, Linux will just be a nice alternative. But in some cases, Linux versions run slightly better than Windows versions. Nothing mayor, but games like Quake 3 loaded just a little faster or had just a little more frames per second on Linux.

 

[Absynthe]

Oh. This is awesome news. Not that I'm interested in downloading it, since my Linux machine isn't nearly powerful enough to run Portal - but it's great news nonetheless. Valve is definitely moving in the right direction, and it's damn time more gaming companies decided to start developing/porting games for Linux!

 

[Maz7006]

Also, will running on Linux offer any advantages over running on XP?

That depends. In most cases, Linux will just be a nice alternative. But in some cases, Linux versions run slightly better than Windows versions. Nothing mayor, but games like Quake 3 loaded just a little faster or had just a little more frames per second on Linux.

i.e. only for thosw with low-end PC's will benefit the most.

 

[Richy Freeway]

i.e. only for thosw with low-end PC's will benefit the most.

Don't forget the people who just don't run Windows at all.

 

[Pliskron]

Another example of how Windows continues to loose market share. Makes me smile.

 

[Minox]

Also, will running on Linux offer any advantages over running on XP?

That depends. In most cases, Linux will just be a nice alternative. But in some cases, Linux versions run slightly better than Windows versions. Nothing mayor, but games like Quake 3 loaded just a little faster or had just a little more frames per second on Linux.

As far as the Source Engine is considered it performs the best when used with Windows currently. Apparently there's not that much of a difference though so it doesn't really matter if you just want to play the Source games. And there's nothing saying that performance won't be improved through updates either so it could become better at a later stage.