

Portal Released For Steam On Linux - mindstab
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTM2Mzk

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fragsworth
Steam is now the de-facto "app store" of the PC as far as games go, which was
no small feat. It took them more than 10 years to get to this point and it's
now in jeopardy.

With Google and Apple already controlling the mobile app stores, various
console manufacturers controlling their own ecosystems, and Microsoft
attempting to abandon their "open" Windows (so they can run their own app
store) - the industry is shifting into a position of hardware/OS
manufacturers/monopolies taking massive cuts (30%) from the software market.
Valve, without any hardware of their own, but a very large PC app store with a
significant user base, really has nowhere else to turn. Gabe himself has
expressed quite a bit of dismay over Microsoft's recent decisions.

I expect them to use everything in their power to make Linux become a
mainstream thing. They're going to port all of their own games to Linux, and I
expect at some point there will be Linux-only discounts for their games.

I really hope Microsoft underestimated their power, and that Valve is capable
of doing this. It'll be better for all of us. The software industry is heading
in very bad directions, and this is at least a glimmer of hope.

~~~
Skoofoo
I would sympathize with Valve if they didn't completely ignore Linux before
acting like the Linux community's best friend when it became apparent that
they had nowhere else to turn to [1]. Like many, I'm a fan of their games and
their flat management, but they have a history of being as short-sighted and
callous as EA and I wish more people would see that [2].

I have a lot more respect for the people behind Humble Bundle/Wolfire, who
went out of their way to support Linux long before it was cool [3]. Plus they
don't force DRM middleware on you.

[1] <http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/steamd-penguins/>

[2] <http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/11/valve-tricked-h/>

[3] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugaru>

~~~
Afforess
What? Humble BundLe totally sold out their integrity after they let THQ sell
their games with the Humble Bundle brand, without linux versions and with DRM.

[1] [http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/the-humble-thq-
bu...](http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/the-humble-thq-bundle-loses-
indie-games-adds-drm-and-is-a-step-backward-for)

[2] [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/11/humble-thq-bundle-
thre...](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/11/humble-thq-bundle-threatens-to-
ruin-the-brands-reputation/)

~~~
rexignis
I think you're being very hyperbolic. They were very explicit saying the games
were Windows only and had DRM (Steam). It was its own isolated bundle.

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rinon
Now if we can only get semi-stable, long-term graphics driver support for
Linux to be able to play these games. I think there may be light at the end of
that tunnel, since hardware vendors seem to be providing more support for
Linux now.

~~~
hdra
when that day comes, I am sure many would switch to Linux, especially among
the developers. In the past few years using Windows, I have stopped thinking
about device drivers at all, I just expected them to work. I am looking
forward to the day where this comes to desktop Linux.

~~~
girvo
I've had the completely opposite experience. Windows is where I have to go
hunting around for drivers on vendors crappy FTP servers.

Linux on the other hand, over the past 7 years I've been running it, works
OOTB for all hardware I've ever thrown at it, especially lately.

Weird.

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TikiTDO
What area do you work in though?

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girvo
These are my personal laptops I'm talking about :)

FWIW, I'm a web developer, but I've been playing with Linux since I was 11
years old (2001).

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chongli
Sweet. Now hopefully they bring DOTA2 over next. That game will lead to a ton
of Linux switchers!

~~~
fla
Indeed. However, it must be said that DOTA2 runs perfectly with OpenGL through
wine on a decent machine . Thanks Valve!

use these options : "-gl -window -novid -noborder -w 1920 -h 1080"

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aeflash
O_O. You just obviated my last reason for having windows on my home desktop.

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KerrickStaley
The article is incorrect: Portal 2 is not available, only the original Portal.

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loser777
Yet another reason to lament the lack of decent mouse driver support in
GNU/Linux. As long as I have to relearn how to move my mouse in order to play
a game, I'm going to keep a Windows box handy for games.

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tomrod
I don't follow?

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loser777
I play games at 1600cpi with a specific mouse with no acceleration. Even with
the supposed fixes that disable acceleration in GNU/Linux, I don't get the
same cursor response with my mouse that I would in Windows. In addition, my
mouse's cpi can only be set to 1600 in software. This is especially
problematic as I tend to play games where mouse accuracy is very important.

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philsnow
Watch out guys, we're dealing with a--

okay, just color me surprised that anybody needs that much accuracy. I stopped
playing shooter games in ~2004.

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ricardobeat
You stopped playing shooter games in 2004.

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philsnow
Yes, I said that.

s/surprised/bemused/, I suppose. AAA games are srsbzns.

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Nursie
I played portal via steam on Linux years ago!

(OK so that was wine, but it worked pretty well :)

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momokatte
I did too! In a little window in the middle of my screen. Sometimes the game
would freeze for a second or two to load a sound effect.

Tonight I played the first half of the linux beta at 1920X1080 resolution and
it just made me giddy. I'd been waiting a long time for this day.

~~~
Nursie
Really?

I had it running fullscreen and pretty perfectly. Fullscreen was 1280x800,
mind. But it worked fine. L4D and L4D2 I've had working too.

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nathanb
OK, it bothers me when people say "Steam on Linux".

It's really "Steam on Ubuntu". Some other distros are supported with 32-bit
only packages, but if you're running a 64-bit OS you need .deb package
support.

I haven't installed 32-bit support on any Linux system I've provisioned this
decade. Even corporate IT at my job, who are normally borderline incompetent
at providing a workable environment, have native 64-bit packages for
everything I use.

So when Steam (and Skype, and so on) gets released "for Linux", I just sigh
and shake my head.

I'm a Linux user. And I can't run your program. Don't tell me it's "for" me.

~~~
jeltz
There has been some progress here. Steam has been repackaged for several other
distributions.

<http://packages.debian.org/experimental/steam>

<https://www.archlinux.org/packages/multilib/x86_64/steam/>

~~~
nathanb
Yes...for instance, I use Arch Linux. 64-bit. With no 32-bit support.

I want to support Steam on Linux because I think it's a good thing. But I
don't want to install 32-bit support in order to do so.

I realize that I'm complaining about something that has an easy workaround I'm
refusing to use. But it's weird that they'll support 64-bit Ubuntu and not
64-bit anything else.

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stephengillie
How long before Steam for Android? And Portal for Android?

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Shorel
Steam for Android? What for?

Android already has a game store. It doesn't make any business sense for Valve
to try to compete with Google Play Store.

About Portal: It has to be profitable enough to justify the huge cost of
porting the game to Android. The same for any other game.

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gizmo686
Ubuntu also already has an app store (Which does support paid apps).

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gizbot
It's the slow move from the Operating System to the GPU code; most games find
Windows as much a hinderance as a help. I wonder if MS will try to do
something useful to woo game developers more towards the Windows platform?

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chc
PC game developers could hardly be wooed any further in that direction. A game
being released for Linux two years after Windows is hardly an imminent threat.

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StavrosK
It's not a matter of when it was released, but that it's an indication that
Valve is porting its Source engine to Linux. It looks like Future Valve games
are going to be released on all three platforms simultaneously, which is a
pretty big win for Linux.

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chc
That was my impression when Valve started porting Steam, but then Dota 2 came
along and proved us wrong.

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AimHere
Dota2 hasn't even been released yet. People are still playing a test version.
It's still possible (though unlikely) for a simultaneous Windows/Mac/Linux
release!

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chc
Meh, that's a weird nomenclature game. It's beta like Google Maps was for the
first six years of its life. Valve is selling and running international
tournaments on this "open beta." Like, it may say "beta," but it is
_definitely_ released. You can go on Steam and buy it right now. They even
have a separate test client in addition to the nominally "beta" normal client.

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u2328
Pretty cool! Thanks Valve!

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stevejb
Excellent! Looking forward to this. As of 17:28 PDT it does not seem
available.

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RunningDroid
It is available, they just haven't changed the store page to say it is yet.

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stevejb
I get "Portal 2 is not available on your current platform" which is Ubuntu.

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RunningDroid
Sorry, I had assumed you meant Portal 1. According to SteamDB Portal 2 is
still only available for Windows and Mac.

Portal 2 page on SteamDB: <http://steamdb.info/app/620/>

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flabbergasted
I'm shocked! Valve doesn't accept bitcoin as a payment option? :)

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zanny
Oh gosh the speculative bubble money you could make off _that_ happening.

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mekpro
I'm so GLaD !

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shock
yum!

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gourlaysama
finally!

