
Official Steam client for Ubuntu released - primesuspect
https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/steam/
======
noahl
I think most people are excited about Steam on Linux because of gaming, but
I've actually been excited because of better driver support. If this makes
Nvidia put more effort into their Linux drivers and tools, it will make life a
lot better for CUDA programming too. (I haven't tried OpenCL or AMD GPGPU
stuff yet.)

~~~
Raphael_Amiard
> it will make life a lot better for CUDA programming too

Well having done quite a bit of CUDA programming under Windows and Linux, i'm
interested in knowing what you find lacking on Linux ?

Performance wise i can report CUDA is just as fast on Linux as it is on
windows.

Regarding tool support, i actually prefer to work under Linux, not because
tools are better per se, but because your usual Unix tool chain does wonders
with C++/CUDA. Under windows you have to struggle with Visual Studio just to
get syntax highlighting.

There seems to be the profiler that is windows only. I never used it so i
can't report on that.

EDIT : More generally, i've always found NVIDIA driver support for Linux to be
very solid. Of course, it's closed source, but then so it is on Windows. I've
never had a problem with an NVIDIA card on Linux, and i can't say that much
about AMD/ATI.

~~~
epidemian
> More generally, i've always found NVIDIA driver support for Linux to be very
> solid.

I guess you haven't had any laptop with the Optimus technology (NVIDIA
dedicated card + Intel integrated GPU). There no official NVIDIA Optimus
support for Linux whatsoever :(

~~~
colanderman
Not entirely Nvidia's fault apparently:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus#GPL_blob_buffer-...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus#GPL_blob_buffer-
sharing) (though obviously it's their fault for using a proprietary blob)

~~~
epidemian
> (though obviously it's their fault for using a proprietary blob)

I couldn't agree more. The problem with these news sites [1] is that they make
the kernel developers look like stubborn zealots that refuse to do something
that would ultimately benefit the users, when in fact they aren't really doing
anything wrong. The news sites fail to mention the root of this problem:
nVidia, a hardware manufacturer, refuses to open source their drivers. This
may sound like no big deal; after all, lots of IT companies do that, right?.
But it is a big deal. Refusing to open source the drivers is in fact refusing
to let the users have control over the their hardware. It's not an end-user
application that you can choose not to use; it's _the thing that controls the
hardware you own_. "You can use it, but only through this restricted interface
we give you, you can't look inside!". Not a nice move in my books.

[1]:
[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA0O...](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA0ODE)

------
teraflop
Also, Team Fortress 2 for Linux [1] was officially released today (it's been
in open beta testing for quite a while).

What I find particularly interesting about this is the time-limited item
giveaway. Valve did something very similar when they released the OS X version
of TF2, where anyone who logged in on a Mac received a free cosmetic "earbuds"
item. The promo triggered a mad scramble of players to find a Mac to play on,
and when it ended, the buds acquired a huge scarcity value -- they currently
trade at the equivalent of about US$30 a pair, even though they have no effect
on gameplay.

I don't think the penguin will end up valued as highly, but what it will cause
is a sudden influx of relatively non-technical gamers trying out Ubuntu for
the first time. Should be interesting to see what pain points and rough edges
they expose. There are already tech support threads popping up in the Steam
forums, e.g. [2]

[1] <http://www.teamfortress.com/linux/>

[2]
[http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30729...](http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3072955)

~~~
sigkill
I'm quite amused by Valve's business decision. One may say that this is the
logical next step but I'm smiling on the insides. I can't help but think that
they're tryig to out-Microsoft MS. The embrace, extend, extinguish policy is
obvious as day.

They waited all these years to gain a significant foothold in the Windows
segment. Now that they've got this, we could see them slowly expanding to Mac
first, and today Linux. I mean, it's certainly a huge incentive if you're
given ready access to your game library on the other OS, even though you
didn't expect it when you purchased the game on Windows months or even years
ago. Screams of extend. I just wait to see if the market forces themselves
will play the 'extinguish' card or will Valve play it?

Once Office and a decent number of games port over to the penguin, I'm really
confident that the only people who use Windows will be (a) people who know
nothing about computers and use whatever it came preinstalled with (b) at work
since they're not allowed to format the computer (c) they need a very specific
software that is not available on Linux or Mac (Ansys etc.)

~~~
dualogy
> I'm really confident that the only people who use Windows will be (a) people
> who know nothing about computers and use whatever it came preinstalled with
> (b) at work since they're not allowed to format the computer (c) they need a
> very specific software that is not available on Linux or Mac

Or OpenGL graphics programmers who find the state of drivers under Linux,
while a lot better than years ago, still sub-optimal compared to Windows...

~~~
sigkill
I'm curious. What do the OpenGL graphic programmers do? Program games or
software?

~~~
jiggy2011
Both

------
thezilch
Steam is also throwing a sale for the release of Steam for Linux:
<http://store.steampowered.com/sale/linux_release/>; ends February 21st, 18:00
GMT. Highly acclaimed "Team Fortress 2" is free to play:
<http://store.steampowered.com/app/440>

~~~
notatoad
Isn't TF2 permanently free since they shifted their revenue stream over to
selling hats?

~~~
Symmetry
I don't normally buy TF2 hats, but if they offer a penguin hat for linux users
I'll totally buy one to say "Thank you" for porting this to Steam.

~~~
bvdbijl
You get a tux if you play TF2 between now and a month:
<http://www.teamfortress.com/linux/>

------
darxius
I see this as a very big "win" for Linux. I can't wait to game tonight, thanks
Steam.

~~~
Nux
This is a big win for Ubuntu+Nvidia; the other distros received a well placed
"go fuck yourselves". This is like gaming on Macos being a win for BSDs. :-)

~~~
Spittie
Why only Nvidia? Intel improved their open source drivers thanks to Valve, and
AMD pushed some updates related to Steam as well.

And, while Steam officially support only Ubuntu (at least for now), Valve
doesn't do anything for stopping it to run on other distro. They even modified
the license to explicitly allow repacking, so that others could put the client
in their repo.

They host on their site a .tar.gz with the Steam installer for distro that
don't support .deb too.

~~~
Nux
Oh, if that's the case then I'll withdraw my hatred. Thanks. :-)

------
mtgx
It supports 101 games. Not bad!

<http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/>

~~~
Afal
Not quite. A lot of the 100 "games" are DLC for other games.

~~~
zokier
60 games, 47 DLC. Don't know if this url works:

[http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_230_linux__12...](http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_230_linux__12&term=#category1=998&os=linux&advanced=0&sort_order=ASC&page=1)

------
dz0ny
64bit version
[http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/pool/steam/s/steam/steam6...](http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/pool/steam/s/steam/steam64_1.0.0.27_amd64.deb)

~~~
thechut
Tried this on 64bit Mint install but having trouble. What are the
dependencies?

~~~
pferate
When I tried installing the 64-bit version on Kubuntu 12.10, I got a
dependency error [steam64 depends on steam (= 1.0.0.27)].

I just downloaded the 32-bit version also and installed them both.

~~~
thechut
Yeah, I got the same error but for some reason the Mint Software center can't
find package 'steam' not sure what I'm doing wrong...

------
jrogers65
It's a happy day. I was considering installing Windows so I could dual boot on
my Arch machine but this has made me reconsider. I remember how years ago, on
KDE2, wine barely ran anything and the best games available on *nix were
things like NetHack. What a long way it's come! Now we have a prominent gaming
platform and ports of some excellent premium games. Things like this are
edging GNU/Linux towards mainstream success on the desktop.

I think that one thing which would help here is a more complete gaming API ala
DirectX. We can already achieve this with OpenGL/SDL/OpenAL/whatever good
networking libraries there are but a project which aggregates these into one
would be beneficial, in my opinion.

~~~
kzrdude
Hey, we had Heroes III, 13 years ago.
<http://www.lokigames.com/products/heroes3/> (Also the only commercial title
ever to grace Linux/PPC.)

------
spuz
I wasn't able to download it. Clicking the link on this page took me to the
Software Centre saying "Not Found - There isn’t a software package called
“steam” in your current software sources.". So I go to the main landing page
of the Software Centre and find a link to Steam there. There is a banner
saying "Free" with a button "Buy" next to it. I click it and it asks me to log
into to some sort of payment service...

I love linux and Ubuntu but this is the kind of thing that I am starting to
get sick of having to deal with. Can't I just use apt-get?

~~~
jvert
If you manually add the Valve repo at <http://repo.steampowered.com> then
"apt-get steam" will do exactly what you expect. Or you can download the .deb
from <http://store.steampowered.com> and install it.

~~~
improv32
Direct link for the lazy:
[http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/archive/precise/steam_lat...](http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/archive/precise/steam_latest.deb)

------
peatmoss
Prediction: Half-Life 3 releases a week early on Linux in order to spur
adoption.

~~~
vor_
Seems like wishful thinking. It's more likely that, if they were to release
early at all, it would be on a platform most likely to make them money, such
as one of the consoles. However, I think it's most likely that they'll release
on all the platforms at the same time because of SteamPlay. Holding back
Windows and Mac versions for a week for political reasons would just piss
people off for a week.

~~~
zanny
The thing is, they make the most money on the platform _they take the most
money per sale from_. That is always going to be Linux, because in the long
run, Apple and Microsoft can lock down OSX / Windows and the consoles are
already taking per sale cuts for MS / Sony. Valve can only bet on desktop
Linux (aka, not Android) to _never_ stop arbitrary application installation.

~~~
bdonlan
Well, no, they're not currently paying any licensing fees on Macintosh or
Windows systems. So they make the same profit per sale for all three
platforms. Now, this may not remain true forever - but if HL3 comes out before
the status quo changes, pure profit wouldn't be the incentive (and in any
case, in the current steam model you can buy stuff for Linux then run it on
Windows later anyway). You could argue for driving people to Linux by giving
them perks, of course - but that has nothing to do with present-day marginal
costs.

------
Finster
Great. Now all we need to do is petition nVidia to kindly unfuck their drivers
so we can get decent Optimus support (among other things).

~~~
Mavrik
I suggest you petition Linus. Its the kernel devs which don't want to allow
nVidia access to needed APIs for Optimus due to GPL pissing contest.

~~~
BiosElement
I suggest you learn the situation before making ignorant, unfounded comments.

------
zoko
Here is a screenshot of my desktop running steam
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/zokatomicic/8474868290/in/photo...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/zokatomicic/8474868290/in/photostream/lightbox/)

------
matthewinrw
This is a really important development -- games have been one of the big
things missing on the Linux front (excluding android).

Excited to see where this leads!

------
AdrianRossouw
Also, from what I can tell, you should be able to unlock the indie bundle
games in steam.

even if you don't buy anything, it might be a good show of support.

~~~
renanbirck
Unfortunately, not all of the Humble Bundle games are available on Steam for
Linux, even if they have Linux versions.

~~~
AdrianRossouw
I'm aware of that. But a lot of the ones i've seen, such as bastion, have
steamplay support. This means that you only have to buy/reclaim them once, and
they will be available on all different platforms.

It can't hurt to push up the number of titles that linux users have in their
libraries.

------
iends
Is there a list of supported games somewhere?

~~~
dz0ny
<http://store.steampowered.com/sale/linux_release/>

------
buro9
Uh-oh, Counter Strike: Source is available on Linux... there goes my startup.

~~~
buro9
I'm spared, it doesn't yet work. Guess I best get back to work.

~~~
AimHere
In the interests of truthiness, it might be a local issue for you - CS:Source
works fine for me on Linux, but perhaps you should get your startup started up
before investigating further...

------
zmmmmm
Fantasizing wildly, I hope this is a step towards one day releasing Steam for
Android. (Perhaps when Intel Android devices finally arrive?). I imagine that
the next generation of mobile GPUs must have pretty close performance to
desktop graphics chips from not too long ago - there must be a huge back
catalogue that could be deployed if games could be ported relatively easily.

------
mck-
If you click on 11.04 or 10.04 versions, you get:

Environment for cooperative knowledge management

sTeam provides a technical platform which allows groups of students, lecturers
and any other groups to construct and arrange their individual and cooperative
learning and working space...

I suppose it only runs on 12.04 and up?

------
okor
It's a big step forward. The games are getting better but they really need a
knockout game to push the linux platform forward, something like Borderlands.
Something epic. Artsy/Indie games only go so far. Still, happy things are
moving forward.

------
waltz
This day did come

------
Aardwolf
I read in the comments that you can also get it to run on other distros than
Ubuntu. Does this also apply to the games you install through it though? I use
Archlinux. Thanks!

------
mkhpalm
Its too bad they don't package for debian sid/unstable.

~~~
gcb0
ubuntu is trying to not be 'just another linux'. sadly they are using a lot of
lock-in tactics similar to Sony since the 80's or apple more recently.

that said, they are the distro with the best live-usb installer by far.

~~~
drivebyacct2
The debs work fine under debian/sid and most deb packages work fine between
debian and ubuntu and the places where they don't are by some evil design.
yeesh

~~~
gcp
Did you get the Steam ones to work? At least the betas were hopeless because
they're linked to glibc 2.15 or something, whereas Debian uses the forked
eglibc 2.13.

~~~
mkhpalm
They don't work, its the same situation as the beta.

------
jebblue
Congratulations Valve! This is good news although unusual timing considering
the layoff story that came out recently, but this is good news!

------
ajross
This is a link to some kind of Ubuntu app store thing. Where are the binaries
we can download for other distros?

~~~
fletchowns
There's a link to a .deb on this page: <http://store.steampowered.com/about/>

In another comment here somebody mentioned it contains a .tar.gz

------
gcb0
just fired up the Ubuntu Software Center and searched... i can't install it.

it show a button "buy..." instead of "install" and it's disabled.

------
drivebyacct2
I would have liked to see the rest of the Source games released first. I feel
like it would have given it more momentum.

