Steam and Linux -- is it possible?

[CR34M3]

Ok, so I understand that Valve isn't planning on releasing a Steam port for Linux, but is this really the end of the line?

Is it impossible to run the Steam downloader / games on Linux or are there ways of circumventing this?

[I'm asking as I've got my uncapped internet yesterday and plan to move as much gaming as possible to my Ubuntu installation.]

 

[w1z4rd]

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_under_Linux

 

[ufis]

I recently installed Civ 5 on ubuntu through wine. It included installation of Steam.

So while my company firewall blocks the link by w1z4rd (as Games) I can verify that Steam installation under wine works.

 

[Fudzy]

Seems Steam is completely compatible... according to Wine's App database:

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=19444

Check out http://appdb.winehq.org/ for other games.

WRT to Steam are they just talking about the client or all games that run from Steam?

 

[CR34M3]

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_under_Linux

Thanks, I'll give it a read through. I'm actually quite excited to move as much games as possible to Ubuntu -- I really get a kick out of tinkering with stuff till they work.

Btw, regarding that link; this --> http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time is the only reason I visit that site. I get a laugh out of it every time, especially the HL2:EP3 one.

 

[ponder]

My advice to you would be to dual-boot.

Steam works fine in WINE but the games are dog slow. I tried playing CSS in wine and it's kuk slow.

Valve even has a experimental native Steam client for Linux but that's as far as it goes.

If you wan't to play Steam games rather boot into Windows. Even the Mac client is slow but I put that down to Apples use of a ancient version of OpenGL, they are millennia behind when it comes to OpenGL.

EDIT: Just to add, it's mostly 3D based games that are slow, 2D based stuff is usually ok.

 

[Fudzy]

My advice to you would be to dual-boot.

What's the point then? He might as well stay in Windows.

 

[ponder]

What's the point then? He might as well stay in Windows.

Then he should stay with windows if it's a black&white scenario like you suggest.

When it comes to Linux gaming sucks donkey balls, end off story.

By all means download the games via Steam in Windows as you can always copy the contents of your steam folder over to wine to try out but I suspect he would not be happy with the performance of games under wine.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

If you want good games in linux look out for native commercial games, there are a few out there but they are Crysis or COD etc.

 

[Fudzy]

If you want good games in linux look out for native commercial games, there are a few out there but they are Crysis or COD etc.

There's a WoW client as well isn't there?

 

[ponder]

There's a WoW client as well isn't there?

Not available to the public. There was talk that Blizzard has a native linux client they use internally for testing or something http://wow.joystiq.com/2008/06/28/the-state-of-wow-on-linux/

For now you will have to go the WINE route which seems well supported http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=1922

 

[froot]

Ok, so I understand that Valve isn't planning on releasing a Steam port for Linux, but is this really the end of the line?

Is it impossible to run the Steam downloader / games on Linux or are there ways of circumventing this?

[I'm asking as I've got my uncapped internet yesterday and plan to move as much gaming as possible to my Ubuntu installation.]

Yeah, they said, with the last big query that came in, they have no intention whatsoever, to release Steam under Linux at the moment.
It sucks, because there is a heck of a lot of people that would love it. Me included. I'm only running Windows because I've got Steam and I need Windows to run my games on it (disregarding WINE,Crossover for now).
You'd probably have less issues running Steam under Linux than you would in Windows, but it's probably because the Steam userbase that uses Linux is not as big as Windows.....

You could always try Crossover for some of your games. I've run MSOffice 2007 under it, as well as several other applications and games. There is a decent-sized list on their website. Crossover isn't free, but it's not expensive either, so it's worthwhile to look at it.

 

[Fudzy]

You'd probably have less issues running Steam under Linux than you would in Windows, but it's probably because the Steam userbase that uses Linux is not as big as Windows.....

Less what issues? I would imagine poor gfx driver support on Linux and DirectX would be huge issues if it was ported. More and more games are being made available for both Mac & PC so I don't think DirectX will be as much of a problem going forward though.

 

[froot]

Less what issues? I would imagine poor gfx driver support on Linux and DirectX would be huge issues if it was ported. More and more games are being made available for both Mac & PC so I don't think DirectX will be as much of a problem going forward though.

Linux has brilliant Nvidia support. ATI, being stuck up, doesn't seem to be all that much for Linux.
In my experience games (that run on both Windows and Linux) actually runs faster on Linux.
Linux excels in OpenGL so that's not a problem either.