Steam and Source Engine For Linux a Reality Within Months
Is Linux popularity on the average user’s desktop reaching critical mass? It looks like it, so for those that want to build a gaming PC, free of the shackles of Microsoft’s expensive licensing and irritating anti-consumer product activation DRM, it looks like they might have to wait just a few more months.
Phoronix’s Michael Larabel actually visited Valve’s software development offices, where he was shown their latest development efforts to port a native version of the Steam client and the Source engine to Linux. He even helped them with their development work! What was especially nice to see was how ex Microsoft employee Valve’s CEO Gabe Newell evangelized Linux, which means that the company is very serious about supporting this underrated operating system. Of course, it will also spur graphics card makers NVIDIA & AMD to provide better driver support for Linux. We can’t wait.
Simply being able to execute a Source Engine game myself on an Ubuntu Linux installation and not seeing it pass through Wine or anything else was almost worth the time and expense. Of the more than 5,900 news articles regarding Linux and more than 2,100 featured articles I’ve written about Linux in the past eight years on Phoronix, this is probably one of the hardest I’ve had to write. For the benefit of Linux, if Gabe’s backing of Linux turns out as he expresses, this is wonderful for Linux and much more important than just breaking an early story on Phoronix.
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