Steam Linux Client

[cbox]

Rumor is that Steam is working on a Linux client, how long before we have people wondering if there will be Half-Life and all its sequels on Pandora?

 

[droneb]

i doubt they will release the source (no im not talking about HL2)
even if they did, not everything can be ported.

 

[Chairman_Now]

Rumor is that Steam is working on a Linux client, how long before we have people wondering if there will be Half-Life and all its sequels on Pandora?

My theory is that Steam is creating unix/linux friendly Steam clients so that they can deliver to portable devices, most of which are going to be running some variation of Linux.

That being said, they're going to be focusing on x86 code for a good long while, so we probably won't be seeing anything that runs on ARM for a good long while.

 

[TrashyMG]

Not a Rumor it's been out for a while.. although it's only used to download dedicated servers.. If they release some real games that's another thing..

I doubt it will be ported to ARM.

 

[Letalis Sonus]

I'm pretty sure they're talking about this Steam Linux client that is being worked on behind closed doors.

 

[gruso]

Yep, started a thread about this the other week (in off topic forum). I hadn't seen the latest update with the screenshot though. Nice.

 

[Asiyura]

OSX client is in Beta phase, the rumor say it'll be out at the end of may.
=> OpenGL Source Engine, so yeah, it may be coming soon to linux too.

 

[laurencevde]

No, there have actually been linux-binaries of the steam-client available on valve's servers. Read Phoronix's articles.

 

[kloplop321]

I don't see them porting to ARM, or Open GL ES, but I can see them doing x86 porting.

 

[Vorporeal]

Rumor is that Steam is working on a Linux client, how long before we have people wondering if there will be Half-Life and all its sequels on Pandora?

When I saw the title, I was very unhappy. Thankfully, you were only meta-asking the question. Phew.

 

[Chairman_Now]

I don't see them porting to ARM, or Open GL ES, but I can see them doing x86 porting.

Let's see - how many potential x86 Linux clients might Valve have? Thousands?

How many potential ARM based clients (think Google Chrome/Android tablets, phones, etc) - millions. And you don't see them porting to ARM, especially when the code is likely to be portable?

They're using the Mac Steam release as a way to perfect what will eventually be released on the iPhone platform. They'll use the desktop Linux client to perfect what will eventually be released on the Chrome and/or Android platforms. Valve will underwrite the development costs with paid subscribers on the Mac and (possibly) Linux platforms. Very clever.

 

[cbox]

If they release an iPhone client I don't see why we couldn't get one.

 

[kloplop321]

How many potential ARM based clients (think Google Chrome/Android tablets, phones, etc) - millions. And you don't see them porting to ARM, especially when the code is likely to be portable?

I can, in the future, but right now, phones and the such are not made for gaming. Unless you want to play Half Life 2 on a 320x240 screen sideways with a keypad.

 

[Drack]

This is for x86 linux and therefore of no use to us, period.

 

[Chairman_Now]

How many potential ARM based clients (think Google Chrome/Android tablets, phones, etc) - millions. And you don't see them porting to ARM, especially when the code is likely to be portable?

I can, in the future, but right now, phones and the such are not made for gaming. Unless you want to play Half Life 2 on a 320x240 screen sideways with a keypad.

The future will be later this year, once a wave of smartbooks and tablets floods the market. 2011 will be when the serious uptake happens.

Makes sense for Valve to get started in some fashion, and x86 is it.

 

[ledow]

I think it's more for the indie developers. 50% of the 130 games on my Steam account are indie or old DOSBox games (literally - an old game running in a packaged version of DOSBox). A lot of those indie games already have Linux / Mac binaries (World of Goo, Gish, etc.) if you buy them through other channels and many more of them can work using DOSBox and similar techniques. Some of the big franchises are able to work under WINE or have native binaries written for them.

Just because a Steam client is being written for other OS does not imply that they've successfully ported the entire Goldsrc / Source engine over to Linux, or ARM, or anything else. If you have a huge online store, the biggest digital software distribution client on the planet, and a vast proportion of your software can run on another OS in some fashion (and thus generate you more money from making people buy the other OS versions and/or encouraging takeup of Steam even if only for a single game), then making a Linux client makes a lot of sense - especially as the client is undergoing a massive rewrite already and it's where they want you to buy their games from in the first place, and making new software cross-platform to x86 OS's is pretty simple if you're using WebKit and other cross-platform libraries like the new Steam client does.

I think we'll see either "dual-OS" games (i.e. buy the Windows version and get the Linux / Mac version free / for a small fee) for the most part and maybe some "Non-Windows-only" games if they can talk existing indie developers into selling their existing software on Steam. I wouldn't hold my breath for ARM at all, or even any ports of games that don't already run in Linux. It's just a way to increase their capture of an existing, niche, games market by offering things that already exist in a well-known, convenient place that might make you spend a few dollars more than you normally would.