Steam Coming to Linux Soon
- Thread starter Greg Tito
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Ubuntu has got that software "store" thing now, yes, but certain installations are a hassle to do without the terminal. Strange I know. Earlier tonight I installed Nvidia drivers on my Ubuntu partition, but the damn thing wouldn't install as is. I had to manually download and install them via the terminal, and it was much easier. Dafuq?robert01 said:
I have never had a hassle doing this. It was simply a matter of using the 'Additional Drivers' utility found in the Systems Settings page.Waaghpowa said:
Also all Ubuntu based distros have the Synaptic Package manager which acts in the same fashion has the Ubuntu Store garbage.
Dear Gabe, Greg, and all the other linux fanboys.
What's wrong with using Windows 7 as a gaming platform? Plenty of Devs used WinXP LONG AFTER the launch of Vista.
What's wrong with using Windows 7 as a gaming platform? Plenty of Devs used WinXP LONG AFTER the launch of Vista.
I'm not claiming to be an expert, but this shouldn't be a problem. I've never played Introversion, so I don't know much about that, but I have installed UT2004, Doom 3, Quake 4, and other games on my Gentoo box and they worked fine.nickpy said:
Developers should take one of two paths:
1. Dynamically link everything, and let the distributions handle the dependencies.
Let's say Valve were to port Team Fortress 2 to Linux, and lets say the TF2 binary depends on libCEGUICore.so, libAL.so, libOgre.so, and libOIS.so. If Valve were to dynamically link the executables, they should let the distributions handle the odd's and end's of the shared libraries.
For example, Debian might have named their OpenAL library libAL.so.0.1, and Red Hat might have named it libAL.so.0.1.0. If TF2 depends on libAL.so.0.1.0, that's great for Red Hat and its forks, but Debian will have to add some additional symbolic links in their packages to have TF2 point to the right OpenAL version.
And that's not all. Red Hat might be a couple versions behind on their Ogre implementation, and Debian might have removed the old CEGUI library TF2 depends on. So they would have to bring back that old version just to get TF2 running.
However, the good news is that Valve doesn't have to do that. That's exactly what distributions are here for. Bundling together all these shared libraries and getting them to work correctly with each other. Developers for an application shouldn't worry about these things, let the distributions worry about it.
Or you could...
2. Statically link everything right up until the GCC runtime library.
This is the approach I would personally take. You don't have to worry about any quirky shared library misnaming schemes, broken shared library API's/ABI's because of a new version, or any of that other stuff. All the libraries your binary depends on are all inside your executable. No need to load any shared libraries besides the GCC runtime.
If you need any assistance, I can help out. Just shoot me a PM and we can get started!Bradeck said:
Since the steam client isn't available now, you can still do a live-cd and test it out without actually installing a single thing!
Ubuntu is fairly easy to set up (You can run into issues, but the community is fantastic, even to newbies)
A-lot of people have issues with the massive amount of choice. Suddenly there are these completely free programs available at the click of a mouse.
Eh. Windows has worked just fine for me; I've never come across a program or game I want that can't run on it and I've yet to come across any bugs or side-effects that one would expect in something that's open source and in a constant state of communal tampering. I've got no reason to ever switch.
All my money is belong to Microsoft.
CAPTCHA: "do more sit-ups"--how rude.
All my money is belong to Microsoft.
CAPTCHA: "do more sit-ups"--how rude.
no personal experiences here, I just heard vehement (but still anecdotal) accounts of how the PS3 version can quickly become totally unplayable and they are forced to start again on 360 or PC. I'm no expert but I am getting a picture that PS3 is in many ways at significant disadvantage to Xbox 360 in certain aspects of it's architecture.SpAc3man said:
So - assuming there is a will - there is a way to bring all these games that have been getting Mac-ports on Steam. But I guess while Mac is an untapped market for gaming, Linux is very much one to grow. I find it so hard when recommending a PC build how you always have to tack on an extra $100 for the Windows OS. This could be the step towards making Linux a serious option for PC gamers without missing out on too much.
Of course, Windows will always be more comprehensive as is runs Open Gl and DirectX and no one else can run DirectX, and DirectX 11 I hear is very strong right now jsut from the ease of use part.
This only applies to certain distros fedora for example that i use daily can have bugs but is the most cutting edge OS I use. on the other hand my media server runs debian because its incredibly stable much more than windows or even OSX but lacks many bells and whistles and has a bland functional look but for some things like servers that is perfect.Grey Day for Elcia said:
Ubuntu is the sort of all rounder user friendly version that is best for typical desktop.
Well, that should reduce the number of times I'll have to reboot my PC into Windows just to play a game. It will probably still take quite a while before most PC game makers will put in the effort to make their games cross-platform, although there are quite some Windows games that work very well under Wine.
Unfortunately the Linux drivers for my graphics card are pretty awful (I can't even run games like Minecraft or VVVVV in full screen, for instance), and because of that I will probably have to stick to Windows for most games after all.
Unfortunately the Linux drivers for my graphics card are pretty awful (I can't even run games like Minecraft or VVVVV in full screen, for instance), and because of that I will probably have to stick to Windows for most games after all.
Sorry to spoil your fun, but Direct3D will never leave Windows or the Xbox for other systems. Direct3D is Microsoft's proprietary specification/implementation. Now, Linux does have a Direct3D 10 STATE TRACKER, but there's no compiler to turn Direct3D commands into GPU instructions.mrF00bar said:
