

Steam for Linux Beta - futureperson
http://steamcommunity.com/games/221410

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presidentender
I installed Windows specifically to get Steam (and Visual Studio). If Steam
works on Linux, I have very little need of Microsoft products outside the
office.

~~~
aristidb
Even once Steam is on Linux, most games won't be. Much like Steam is on Mac
but the vast majority of games don't support it.

However: 1\. You should install Steam for Linux anyway! (Once it's public.)
2\. I read games in virtual machines actually work reasonably well these days.
(Not with VirtualBox though, sadly.)

(And I will never understand why people love Visual Studio so much. Oh well.)

~~~
w1ntermute
> Even once Steam is on Linux, most games won't be.

While that's true, it'll lead to the creation of more games _for_ Linux,
particularly with a lot of people apprehensive about the big GUI changes in
Windows 8.

More importantly, 90% of my "regular" gaming takes place in Source-based
engines (TF2/L4D2), so I would be more than happy as long as those Source
games are available on Linux (and I believe that was Valve's plan all along
with Steam for Linux).

~~~
archgrove
You'd think that, but I've notice precisely 0 more non-Valve games being
released for Mac since Steam came to OS X. The only releases seem to be from
companies who already did Mac ports, and indies (who are generally multi-
platform).

~~~
w1ntermute
That might be because gamers aren't big on Macs, because they're expensive and
difficult to upgrade. A lot of gamers prefer desktops, but the iMac isn't
ugpradeable and the Mac Pro uses custom parts and hasn't received significant
updates in recent years.

~~~
SG-
Maybe, but it's much bigger than Linux's game market.

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rowsdower
I'm confused. What was the point of posting this link? This is just the Steam
group for the beta. It doesn't include any new information (or a way to get in
the beta) that I can see.

~~~
dexen
An official group is yet another milestone to having Steam on Linux. Also,
there's a prominent `Join' button for them early adopters :-)

~~~
rowsdower
Right, but this doesn't guarantee beta access, nor does it confirm anything we
didn't already know. I'm not trying to be prickly, I just don't see the point
of this submission as it stands. If anything, the title should have been,
"Join the Steam for Linux Beta Group" or something along those lines.

~~~
anthonyb
And if a million people join the group, they'll know they're onto something.

~~~
chongli
They already know they're on to something. If Gabe's worst nightmares about
Windows come true, Linux will be his only refuge.

~~~
anthonyb
Yes, but unless they can convince large publishers that writing games for
Linux is a good idea, it's not much of a refuge, is it?

Having a hundred thousand people sign up for his Steam group might be enough
to get the ball rolling that way, though.

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pja
Looks like they might be going to announce something at the upcoming Ubuntu
conference: <http://cdr.thebronasium.com/sub/17746>

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jamesmiller5
I'm quite surprised the domain is "steamcommunity.com" and not
"community.steam.com", it made me hesitant to enter login details.

~~~
ElliotH
Steam doesn't actually own Steam.com The current owners won't sell it.

~~~
emperorcezar
Which is hilariously funny since there's nothing there but a drop page.

~~~
sliverstorm
Folks that do that kind of irritate me. Sure, you can do what you like with
the domain, but it's like they are being uncooperative for the sake of being
uncooperative.

~~~
mindslight

        % wc -l /etc/services 
        599 /etc/services

~~~
sliverstorm
Yes, this is true. It looks like steam.com wasn't the particular case I was
thinking of; one such instance with what must have been another company, the
landing page basically made it clear the owner was squatting the domain to
piss of the company that wanted it.

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iddqd
The actual beta sign up page was just posted to the group.

<http://www.valvesoftware.com/linuxsurvey.php>

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aristidb
Can somebody explain what precisely this page means?

~~~
veeti
It's an official group for the beta which is hopefully coming soon that
appeared on Wednesday. There are no news about the beta and there has been no
clarification about this page's purpose. Nothing has been announced yet.

~~~
darkstalker
Looks like it's gonna be a closed beta.

~~~
r4pha
They did say, in a post entitled "External Beta News" [1], that a private -
but again, external - beta is to be expected in October.

[1] <http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/beta-late-than-never-3/>

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rtcoms
Isn't kickstarter would be perfect for companies to create games for linux
platform?

This way they will know in which games people are really interested and I also
think that people will gladly support those kickstarter. Overall much less
risk on investment.

~~~
ihsw
People still treat Kickstarter like a pre-order system, also Kickstarter
disallows you from posting renderings instead of actual products (pretty much
all game publishers do this).

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ChrisClark
That's only for physical products, you can still post rendering for games.

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jiggy2011
Ok , so I joined the group but I can't get into group chat from my Linux box.

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LukaD
Can't join from the Steam Android app either. Kinda pointless.

