Steam On Linux For Realsies

Well, after two years of ZOFMG Steam on Linux!11! rumors it happened. Wonder how many  aneurysms this caused at Phronix.

From the Valve blog:
“For some time, Gabe has been interested in the possibility of moving Steam and the Source game engine to Linux. At the time, the company was already using Linux by supporting Linux-based servers for Source-based games and also by maintaining several internal servers (running a 64-bit version of Ubuntu server) for various projects. In 2011, based on the success of those efforts and conversations in the hallway, we decided to take the next step and form a new team. At that time, the team only consisted of a few people whose main purpose was investigating the possibility of moving the Steam client and Left 4 Dead 2 over to Ubuntu.

Why Ubuntu? There are a couple of reasons for that. First, we’re just starting development and working with a single distribution is critical when you are experimenting, as we are. It reduces the variability of the testing space and makes early iteration easier and faster. Secondly, Ubuntu is a popular distribution and has recognition with the general gaming and developer communities. 

After successfully porting L4D2 to Ubuntu, interest grew within Valve and, as a result, the team and projects we were working on also grew. Currently, our focus is on the following projects:

  1. getting the Steam client onto Linux with full functionality
  2. optimizing a version of L4D2 running at a high frame rate with OpenGL
  3. porting additional Valve titles”

Source: blogs.valvesoftware.com

 

 

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