Steam and Linux Are Now an Item

[dfphetteplace]

I hope other companies follow suit.

 

[dobahci]

Oh, its because Windows is too mainstreamed isn't it? And using an OS to limit yourself with will stick it to the man right? Never mind I got it now.

Facepalm.

Linux was created by computer scientists who wanted a system they could use, modify, and distribute freely because it was their belief that software is at its best when maintained in this fashion. It wasn't created by anti-corporate hipster luddites who wanted to "stick it to the man." Scientists are curious by nature; they're tinkerers. They want to know how a system works and be able to change or improve it as they see fit.

I suppose you think people who change their car's oil on their own are trying to stick it to the man too, right? Clearly if they had any sense, they'd never look under the hood and take their vehicle to the service center for every little thing that needed to be done on it.

 

[MorganL4]

Bit of a noob question I know but, what's a Linux?

I don't mean to sound rude, but I don't know if you are trolling or not....

I will assume not.

Linux is an open source Operating System originally developed as a college homework assignment by a man named Linus Torvalds. (By the way the professor did not say go make your own operating system)

At the time (1991) when this OS came into being the only real OS out there was (and is) known as UNIX

Linus decided to reverse engineer Unix and build his own OS. His friend started calling it Linux as a joke, but it stuck........

Makes your 5 page college essay about Maoism vs Confucianism seem pretty pathetic now doesn't it?



UBUNTU, the OS mentioned in the article is a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

But if you were looking for an animal to associate with Linux ( which is my guess) then here:

 

[SquidVicious]

Well I'm glad this is still happening, I was a little worried when I didn't hear anything on this. I'm not that bothered by what is most likely going to be a limited library, as Valve games are really the only AAA games that can actually run well on my desktop. It does kind of suck that they're only releasing this for Ubuntu right now, but the joys of using a Linux based distro is having a community hard at work to try and make things accessible to all distros. I can't imagine it will take that long until this shows up in the AUR (Arch User Repository) after release.

 

[wizzy555]

I feel it is important to note, that the Mac OS be it 1,2,3.....9 or OS X are all UNIX distributions.

Are you sure? I thought only X and above was unix. 1-9 didn't have an accessible command terminal, not to mention a primitive memory allocation system.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I feel it is important to note, that the Mac OS be it 1,2,3.....9 or OS X are all UNIX distributions.

Are you sure? I thought only X and above was unix. 1-9 didn't have an accessible command terminal, not to mention a primitive memory allocation system.

Correct. Everything before OS X was completely unrelated. The only Apple hardware I can think of off the top of my head from that time period that officially ran anything Unix-based/Unix-like before OS X came out was a little bit of obscure PowerPC stuff in the 90s that they sold with a version of AIX.

 

[Auesis]

I didn't even need to look at the article to predict the OS faction shizzle-storm.

 

[wizzy555]

EDIT: Oh, and apparently they're only targeting one distribution even? How does that even work? I thought the whole point of Linux is that every app can run on any distro. Have they really become so fragmented that you can't do that anymore? Good lord.

Err, no that's not the point of linux. Although there is no terribly good reason an app shouldn't work on another distribution with some tweaking. Normally apps will come in at least two varieties, a debian install package or a yum install package.

They are supporting one distribution because it will be technically easier to get things working and they don't have to train support staff in different ways of clearing caches, installing drivers, etc. And Ubuntu is one of the more popular and user friendly distros.

 

[MorganL4]

I feel it is important to note, that the Mac OS be it 1,2,3.....9 or OS X are all UNIX distributions.

Are you sure? I thought only X and above was unix. 1-9 didn't have an accessible command terminal, not to mention a primitive memory allocation system.

Correct. Everything before OS X was completely unrelated. The only Apple hardware I can think of off the top of my head from that time period that officially ran anything Unix-based/Unix-like before OS X came out was a little bit of obscure PowerPC stuff in the 90s that they sold with a version of AIX.

Yeah, sry looks like I made a mistake there, the originals were based off of Lisa OS, which what what Wozniak developed for the Lisa back in 1983. They also took from xerox parc. My mistake.

 

[iniudan]

Of course being able to play games on Linux and having games to play on Linux are two different things. I'm willing to be Steams 'Linux' section will have the Source Games and nothing else.

You forgot everything that was sold in the Humble Indie Bundle, for those all have a Linux release already.

 

[Aeshi]

Of course being able to play games on Linux and having games to play on Linux are two different things. I'm willing to be Steams 'Linux' section will have the Source Games and nothing else.

You forgot everything that was sold in the Humble Indie Bundle, for those all have a Linux release already.

Not a guarantee, at least a couple of the Indie bundle games on Steam are still Windows-only despite having OSX versions.

 

[iniudan]

Also, both sides of the OS argument need to stop being pretentious douches and realize that everyone is old enough to choose there own OS and don't need you argue why there decision is wrong.

Actually I would say most user are not, especially the management, since those have the power to fire or make your job hell over their own selfish hardware and software need, while not giving you budget to get thing working correctly, so you end up doing patchwork to get their thing working, instead of a well integrated solution if they had been consulting the IT department. But I work in IT, so I kind of got a biased opinion. =p

Good thing IT infrastructure are getting better at handling bring your own hardware, so that kind of case get less troublesome has time go.

 

[iniudan]

It wasn't created by anti-corporate hipster luddites who wanted to "stick it to the man."

I wouldn't be so sure in the case of Stallman. But mostly agree with you. =)

 

[Baneat]

I need this so I can use the chat client without running WINE on my ubuntu install

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

Once OpenGL is better then Direct X that will be a glorious day. Also Nvidia should get there heads out of there ass and support Linux. Also AMD should go all the way with open source drivers.

 

[rustybroomhandle]

Of course being able to play games on Linux and having games to play on Linux are two different things. I'm willing to be Steams 'Linux' section will have the Source Games and nothing else.

You forgot everything that was sold in the Humble Indie Bundle, for those all have a Linux release already.

Not a guarantee, at least a couple of the Indie bundle games on Steam are still Windows-only despite having OSX versions.

"Humble"- He said "Humble Indie Bundle" - as sold at http://humblebundle.com/ ... not just "indie bundle" ... The HIB sale requirement is that there must be Win/Lin/Mac versions available to qualify. This is one of the reasons Unity3D is being released for Linux, to give Unity's customers the opportunity to be included in HIB sales.

 

[rayen020]

okay, correct me if i'm wrong isn't the point of ubuntu/linux to get away from all the DRM and windows security stuff? i mean i thought it was supposed to be totally customizable. and it isn't steam (when you get right down to it) a stiff form of DRM that is always on and not customizable at all. Yeah it has great sales and everything but i figure most people that move away from windows realize they're giving up something and don't care enough... it seems like there wouldn't be a userbase there...

 

[zumbledum]

I'm confused, whats good about Linux again?

Oh, its because Windows is too mainstreamed isn't it? And using an OS to limit yourself with will stick it to the man right? Never mind I got it now.

Back in 93 i was using my Amiga 1200 which came with a hardwired windows system which was about as complex as win 97. two years later microsoft invented windows and gave us win 95. from then on in microsoft used theft theft threats and a lot of luck (managed to get ibm to sign an exclusive distribution deal) to become the monopoly it is today.

And although today with win 7 we have at last a decent stable ish product the fact remains anyone who has been in or around pc's for any real length of time has more than a few reasons to loathe MS their monopolistic abuse and less than average products.

Ms basically put home computing back a decade. and a lot of us resent it and remember , come the day there's an actual alternative i fully expect a stampede of people leaving windows and not looking back.

 

[blindthrall]

The March of the PC Gamers.
Tragically, this OS, will not survive.

You're saying Linux won't survive? Do you know how long Linux has been around for?

Actually, at the time everyone was going on about how they would be abandoning Windows.

Where's the tragedy in that?

Morgan Freeman feels compassion for all things.

Except whitey.

Ya know, he's said some things in interviews, that while sounding perfectly rational to a cracker like me, have gotten him labeled as an Uncle Tom.

 

[Rainboq]

I just.. Fail to see any upside of using it rather than windows.

1)If it ran "pretty crappy" YOU were the one responsible for it . There is a ton of documentation on linux configuration . If something doesn't work properly - disable it .

As much as I love Linux, that's its main flaw. Most people aren't software engineers or computer scientists and as such don't really know what documentation is, where it is, how to read it and who to implement it. Most people just want something that works without you having to tinker with it.