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Big news - steam coming to linux


UrShulgi
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ooooh, yay! Although, knowing VALVe it will be quite some time before there's even a remotely respectable game base :c

 

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_linux_dampfnudeln&num=1

 

Here's another article on it. It says that all games based on the Source Engine will be coming natively to Linux. That means CSS, TF2, COD, Left for Dead, etc. I'd call that respectable. Plus, Steam has talked recently about creating a 'steam console' based on PC hardware to create a platform for developers to target. It would make sense to make it run Linux rather than pay the Microsoft tax for a license for each game console. This could be something they're going to get REAL serious about in the future, and it looks like they're hiring Linux developers currently.

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The whole 'big news' portion of this is that they're native porting SOURCE *and* STEAM to linux. If you pair that with the fact that they want to make a console, it means Linux might make SERIOUS headways into gaming in the next few years. Not a big deal for casual, non computer nerds folks...but if it works, Linux could easily replace your windows desktop for probably 80+% of the community when paired with Libre Office. The MS umbilical cord is getting shorter, and closer and closer to being cut. Native games/drivers are HUGE to any Linux enthusiast. Noone wants to struggle to get shit working, they want to install OS, download games, and play. This solves that problem.

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My only real concern is that while we're porting SourceGames over, a lot of games are still coded in D3D (DirectX, Direct3D); which at this point, is a Windows only beast (with the exception of a few ports). Sure, we're going to move alot of games over to OpenGL (or have some sort of binary compatability), but I don't think every game developer is going to switch so easily.

It can be argued that Direct3D is easier to interface/code in than in OpenGL (seeing as I'm not a programmer, I can't say for certain or say that this is true)

.Funny thing about OpenGL is that it has plenty of features more than D3D offers

So while this is huge win for *nix gamers, we're only part of the way through. I've been looking for an excuse to have a Linux/POSIX environment only at home but since D3D dominates the gaming market... we'll be with Windows for awhile. Don't get me wrong, Windows is one of the best operating systems I know out there.

 

Edit: Actually there's a Native DirectX implementation in Linux called Gallium3D, we might not even need to port games to OpenGL =D

Edited by enigma#
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