Steam for Linux Now in Open Beta
The Steam for Linux beta is now open for everyone.
Valve said on Wednesday that Steam for Linux Beta is now available to all Steam customers – an invitation is no longer needed. To participate, users must either download the latest Steam Linux client from here, or upgrade the existing version to the latest release. Bugs will be tracked using GitHub which provides a better interface for bug tracking than what was used in the closed beta.
Also now available is the Steam for Linux respository which is currently empty. This will allow anyone with a free GitHub account to create a new issue, edit or track it, and search the existing bug database. Details on how to create a new issue are listed within a readme.md file located in the repository, but it basically describes the same format used in the closed beta.
"The team will continue working through existing issues in the forum but it is strongly recommended that any new issues be entered using GitHub's issue tracking interface," Valve said. "The sub forums will remain open so that people can join/continue existing discussions about the Steam for Linux client."
Valve has also launched a Steam installer package repository. Users of the Linux Beta client can get an email notification when the steam installer package has been updated by signing up with this mailing list.
In addition to going into open beta mode, the latest Steam for Linux client features several fixes and improvements as seen below:
* Linux - Fixed excessive CPU usage by the Steam client when running Team Fortress 2
* Linux - Fixed overlay crash when starting Cubemen
* Big Picture - Improved back navigation behavior throughout user interface
* Big Picture - Added discount timers and other user interface to store
CS1.6 has OpenGL support (and so do all the Half-Life 1 and Source based mods), CS:GO is D3D only which is reserved for Windows.
Not true. CS:GO is available for the Mac, hence it also renders in OpenGL.
Source is D3D9 only. Goldsource is OpenGL since it is the Quake engine, but no one calls that engine source.
Make sure you use 12.04
For example, your gaming machine would hold your downloaded steam content and games, and every other computer in the home would have access to the content through either streaming or playing directly off the devices storage.
Windows would be out of my house faster than the amount of time it takes for light to reach my desktop from my window.
Still, nice to see Linux finally moving forwards on the gaming scene.
Linux still has to deal with:
distribution fragmentation
lack of (good/user friendly) drivers
poor market share
the huge amount of stubborn windows users
until those are fixed, linux has no chance of getting a signifigant market share any time soon.
Linux is actually probably the number 1used O/S ever considering Android is based off it.