

Steam Linux Beta starts today, NVIDIA claims - pdknsk
http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/Releases/NVIDIA-Delivers-Massive-Performance-Boost-to-Linux-Gaming-8ac.aspx

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MrVitaliy
To be honest, Linux is my favorite gaming platform already. I remember trying
to play the original Diablo and WarCraft games on windows 7 with no success.
Diablo II works ok in virtual box running XP with 3d acceleration enabled,
WarCraft III pushes the virtual 3d acceleration to the limit and just runs
super slow.

All of those games run flawlessly on Linux with latest wine. It might take few
minutes to play with wine config and winetricks but if you're playing games
you have the time to waste anyway.

Also I've played all the latest Blizzard games flawlessly under linux + wine
setup (World of Warcraft, Diablo III and Star Craft II). You do need a beefy
video card for those however.

~~~
rjh29
"It might take few minutes to play with wine config and winetricks but if
you're playing games you have the time to waste anyway."

I completely disagree with your assignment of value here. Playing games is
fun. Configuring wine is an incredibly frustrating, bash-your-head-against-
the-wall-repeatedly process that is commonly measured in hours, not minutes -
if it works at all.

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MrVitaliy
"an incredibly frustrating, bash-your-head-against-the-wall-repeatedly process
that is commonly measured in hours, not minutes"

s/head/axe/ s/wall/monsters/

Sounds awfully like video gaming ;)

~~~
Goronmon
If hitting monsters with an axe sounds as appealing as bashing your head
against a wall, I guess I can understand why you wouldn't enjoy gaming.

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datasage
With Valve, nVidia and others doing work to improve Linux gaming, it may soon
become a serious gaming platform. Which is fine by me as gaming is the only
reason I have a windows computer.

~~~
ineedtosleep
Until NVIDIA makes Optimus completely functional on Linux and not a pain in
the ass to configure, I'm pretty much going to dismiss any claims that Nvidia
are working to improve Linux gaming.

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aw3c2
Apart from not being able to use vdpau, bumblebee makes Optimus work very well
for me. In Windows 7 I have to reboot when I want to switch between the chips,
in Linux I just run applications directly or prepend "optirun".

~~~
anonymouz
I've also used bumblebee and am generally quite happy with it. But the big
drawback of bumblebee over a "proper" implementation is that the rendered
frames are copied to the Intel GPU in software. I hope that Dave Airlie's work
on hotplug will lead to a better implementation at some point.

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haclifford
I feel like an idiot for only just realizing; this is valves solution to the
potential windows 8 lockout isn't it

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pja
Yes. Or at least their stick to beat Microsoft with when it come to
negotiating access to the Windows Metro UI in Windows 9.

The desktop environment isn't going away in Windows 8, so platforms like Steam
will still be able to run. Windows 9 though? Anyone who doesn't have a head
full of rocks can see that Microsoft might decide that only "enterprise"
installations of Windows get to keep the desktop UI.

Valve really, really need to be negotiating from a position of strength when
and if Microsoft decide that's the road they want to take.

~~~
jiggy2011
In order to be a decent bargaining chip they would need to bring more users to
Linux desktop though. They can't really say "Give us what we want or we'll
move to a platform with 1% of the userbase" without having their bluff called.

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otakucode
Steam beta would be neat - but you know what I'd prefer first? Non-shitty
drivers and config interface.

I recently switched from 7 to Kubuntu full-time on my primary desktop. So far
the only severe problem I have run into is that when I activate the nVidia
drivers, my display becomes retarded. If I dare to go into the terrible nVidia
configuration app, it insists that both my monitors (a 1920x1200 24" and a
1680x1050 20") run at 1024x768. Now, it's not that the drivers can't figure
out my displays resolution. It clearly states the correct resolution for both
monitors in several locations. It's just when it comes to the X Server Display
Configuration, it decided to go full retard. Now, just activating the drivers
and not touching the config results in a display that AAALLLMMOOOSSSSTTT
works. Except for the fact that it assumes my smaller monitor is to the right
of my larger one, when the truth is the other way around. And, of course, I
can't simply change that setup because that would require going into the
configuration app... which will force my resolution down to 1991 levels should
I be unwise enough to try to actually use it.

I THINK this is caused by the fact that my larger monitor runs at 75Hz while
the smaller is 60Hz. But I'm not sure. I refuse to plumb the intestinal depths
of xorg.conf, most especially because when I install Ubuntu, ITS display
configuration works perfectly. Of course, after installing nVidias drivers it
goes out of its way to fuck up Ubuntus display configuration app too. It
certainly seems aggressively determined to make my experience as difficult as
possible.

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Munksgaard
Can't you use xrandr while using the nvidia drivers? 'xrandr --output VGA1
--left-of LVDS1' works nicely for my laptop.

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blktiger
nVidia doesn't say the Steam Linux Beta starts today, they just say that they
have tested their new drivers with the beta. They have probably tested them
with an internal Valve steam beta that nobody else has access to yet.

~~~
robert_foss
To me it sounds like Steam would go live today.

"new R310 drivers were also thoroughly tested with Steam for Linux, the
extension of Valve's phenomenally popular Steam gaming platform that
officially opened to gamers starting today."

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debacle
It's comforting to know that NVIDIA understands what drives purchase of their
hardware, and is willing to hold Valve's hand in this.

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shmerl
Good news. Now I hope DRM free distributors like GOG will start paying more
attention to Linux.

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Bapabooiee
A GOG employee addressed the issue of supporting Linux before. You can find
what he said here:

[http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/linux_support_on_gog/pos...](http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/linux_support_on_gog/post14)

~~~
shmerl
Yes, though arguments weren't too convincing.

Here is another answer from CDPR/GOG about Linux:

[http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/24/cd-projekt-red-
interview-c...](http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/24/cd-projekt-red-interview-
cyberpunk-2077-witcher-2-piracy-windows-8-and-more/#null)

~~~
ekianjo
At least it seems like they are looking into how to support Linux. I don't see
how they want to overcome the problem of "supporting all distributions at
once" instead of going for the major one like Ubuntu. Even if you do not like
Unity nothing prevents from you using a different interface and still run
Ubuntu compatible software.

~~~
shmerl
There is no need to go Ubuntu only. See how Humble Indie Bundle packaged
Torchlight. It works on many major distros, DEB, RPM based and etc.

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ekianjo
I know, but that was one of the arguments from the GOG guy in the link. Saying
that maintaining different packages for all distros is time-consuming and so
on.

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shmerl
No, I don't think he meant that. It's rather trivial. He mean bigger
discrepancies across distros. Think one of them using X.org while other
already jumping to Wayland and etc. Packaging is a trivial thing to solve in
comparison.

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lmlt
Can someone explain the potential viability of a bootable Steam Linux distro,
probably based on Ubuntu? I guess device drivers would be the main issue but
if there was ever anything that could get manufacturers to pay more attention
to Linux it would probably be this.

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SG-
If it were to happen today or in the near future, there would barely be any
games for it, and nothing too interesting that would make people want to buy
one. Only Valve's recent games would be ported to Linux while almost all third
party games would not be port (look at Mac Steam's games).

~~~
shmerl
Improved drivers benefit everyone. Even Wine based games will run better. So
kudos to Valve and Nvidia for working on it.

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kodisha
how to get new R310 drivers on ubuntu using apt-get? Are they in the repo yet?

