It’s all over the news. Steam for Linux is real and not another cruel April Fools prank. The gamer inside me is extremely excited about this, and after re-reading Phoronix’ article a dozen times, about how Gabe Newell is now a Linux Evangelist, it makes sense. If you believe the rumors, anyway.
From Phoronix, they’ve got Steam working on Ubuntu, as well as Left 4 Dead 2. I’m pretty sure they’ll release Steam for Linux in some sort of Beta fashion for Linux Gamers to iron out all the kinks, but once they feel confident, I think they’d move on to the next phase…
Rumors surfaced recently about Valve’s newfound interest for Hardware, and Valve making “SteamBox”, a dedicated console to play Steam Games, were mostly marked as ridiculous.
If Valve shipped “Valve Linux”? They’d probably bundle it up with propietary GPU drivers from NVidia and/or ATI to get a better bang from the GPU. They’d probably use a modified / custom UI. Sort of like MythTV, but for Steam Games.
Once they have the Distro, they’d need to come up with some hardware and sell it. I’m not saying it’d be easy for Valve to sell Steamboxes on Walmarts and Gamestops all over the world, but hey, we’re talking conspiracy rumors here.
And between Desura and Steam both appearing on Linux, I think it’s fairly safe to say that 2013 will finally be… The Year of the Linux Desktop.
Because that’s EXACTLY what we need, another vehicle for proprietary software parasiting our Free operating system!
If you don’t like it, don’t install it. Meanwhile I’m all for more choice, which is what Linux is all about for me personally.
<SARCASM>Because that’s EXACTLY what we need, another vehicle for proprietary software parasiting our Free operating system!</SARCASM>
(Sorry, SARCASM tags went missing in the previous post.)
On the other hand, closing off one of the excuses to use Windows Computers means more users would be welcome to try and embrace Linux.
The only reason I set up a dedicated Windows partition on computers is to play games like Starcraft 2 or Left 4 Dead.
It’s one of the excuses I hear from Windrones for not switching, lack of commercial games.
Once more people start using Linux (With or without propietary games and drivers), we might get the to contribute on different aspects of the Linux Distro
games are also the reason i keep dual boot on my computer at home. the kind of games i enjoy playing are not suitable for a FOSS development model (they are mostly about content than engine – think RPG)
Still, I wonder, how many *games* will be there for the Steambox and from those how many will be AAA titles?
I bought an Xbox 360 because I have an old Desktop computer with Windows Vista (And Fedora 16) on it. I bought Prince of Persia (The newer one, without a title) on Steam, and I had to play it on ‘low’ settings. I rented it for the Xbox and it played on medium or high. Who knows, but it was enjoyable.
Since then I haven’t booted the Windows partition on the aging Desktop. I’d love to completely replace the Xbox 360 with a “SteamBox”, a dedicated computer running Linux + Steam and play games like Batman’s Arkham Asylum, Prince of Persias, and sure, why not, Final Fantasies.
I’d settle with being able to play the Portals and the Half Lifes, the Team Fortresses and the Left For Deads that the Valve team might churn up later