In an unsurprising move, Steam has replaced the Linux icon of "tux" with their own SteamOS icon. I completely understand why they did this, but it does make things confusing.
I can see plenty of people getting confused about what the icon is for, as it's so close to Steam's own icon. At least Tux was a clear separation to the Windows and Mac icons. I hope people don't get confused by it, but I can guarantee people will be.
They do need their own clear SteamOS branding of course, as they need to constantly keep it in gamers and developers minds. The problem is, how long before SteamOS is the only "distribution" supported on Steam? I hope game developers and Valve don't become that silly, but there are some problematic developers out there already. At least as long as Valve keep the Steam Runtime working as it is now, other distributions shouldn't have any problems.
For those that don't have the new version:
Looks like that little saying going around of "No tux no bux" is going to have to be tweaked?
I'm still excited to see what happens with SteamOS and Steam Machines, and what would happen if they fail miserably. I hope they don't of course, but they obviously won't be an overnight success. I will eat a tux teddy live on air if they are an overnight success (please don't hold me to that).
Well, at least it still says "SteamOS + Linux" right? Let's hope there's never a hint of Microsoft style "embrace extend extinguish".
It's easily possible this change will be reverted though, as certain parts of the site keep breaking, like the title now being "#title_welcome_to_steam". Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I can see plenty of people getting confused about what the icon is for, as it's so close to Steam's own icon. At least Tux was a clear separation to the Windows and Mac icons. I hope people don't get confused by it, but I can guarantee people will be.
They do need their own clear SteamOS branding of course, as they need to constantly keep it in gamers and developers minds. The problem is, how long before SteamOS is the only "distribution" supported on Steam? I hope game developers and Valve don't become that silly, but there are some problematic developers out there already. At least as long as Valve keep the Steam Runtime working as it is now, other distributions shouldn't have any problems.
For those that don't have the new version:
Looks like that little saying going around of "No tux no bux" is going to have to be tweaked?
I'm still excited to see what happens with SteamOS and Steam Machines, and what would happen if they fail miserably. I hope they don't of course, but they obviously won't be an overnight success. I will eat a tux teddy live on air if they are an overnight success (please don't hold me to that).
Well, at least it still says "SteamOS + Linux" right? Let's hope there's never a hint of Microsoft style "embrace extend extinguish".
It's easily possible this change will be reverted though, as certain parts of the site keep breaking, like the title now being "#title_welcome_to_steam". Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: pbQuoting: liamdaweQuoting: adolsonIt has been this way for a long, long time. Visit Steam in a browser, and it's still Tux.
No it's not, that's your cache keeping the tux icon. Do a hard refresh.
Screenshot after ctrl+shift+r in Firefox: http://s1.zrzut.pl/f6GiOdD.png
Also you didn't discover anything new, maybe you just switched from Firefox to Chrome?
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/2y07g8/did_steam_just_switch_the_tux_logo_to_a_steam_logo/
Browser (PaleMoon 25.4.1): SteamOS-Icons
http://i.imgur.com/4FDoZOH.png
Steam-Client: Tux-Icons
http://i.imgur.com/PkMHF9E.png
Transitional state, maybe? :D
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Valve had it wrong from the start, they should always have placed a GNU icon before the Linux icon.
(But seriously, the Tux icon looks rubbish. It doesn't really work in two colour. The head-alone logo looks even worse. SteamOS looks gooooood.)
(But seriously, the Tux icon looks rubbish. It doesn't really work in two colour. The head-alone logo looks even worse. SteamOS looks gooooood.)
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Mountain Man May 28, 2015
Quoting: EikeThey are basically betting parts of their "corporate identity" on SteamOS.You're right. Valve is only one of the most successful companies in the gaming industry. I'm sure they don't know what they're doing.
Unfortunataly I'm not sure if this company is totally aware of that.
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From a strict Marketing perspective this makes a lot of sense. Valve wants to turn its Steam application into a gaming ecosystem with a dedicated OS, controller, hardware and games. Just look at current gaming ads. In some cases you won't even see the words PC or even Windows mentioned anywhere, but the tagline "... coming to PlayStation, Xbox and Steam".
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Quoting: neffothe Tux icon looks rubbish. It doesn't really work in two colour. The head-alone logo looks even worse. SteamOS looks gooooood.)
Yeah, I always thought the Tux icon looked like a placeholder.
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If you have a functional Linux OS Steam games should work on all. Most of the bugs I've come across have not been specific to non Ubuntu, non Debian and non SteamOS distributions, and when I have informed some developers of this with a detailed report of testing various distributions with the same parameters and re-creating the bug they say "we only support Ubuntu, Debian and SteamOS".
That ignorance has to stop, and I think Valve is making matters worse, they are enforcing this attitude.
The fact that they aren't calling it Steam Linux is a testament to them not caring one bit for Linux as a whole.
That ignorance has to stop, and I think Valve is making matters worse, they are enforcing this attitude.
The fact that they aren't calling it Steam Linux is a testament to them not caring one bit for Linux as a whole.
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I will go right on saying, "No Tux no bux"
I haven't tried SteamOS in a while but I'm hoping it is not possible to boot up and play without seeing Tux or "Linux" branding of any sort. It would actually be bad for them in the long run not to emphasize SteamOS is a Linux distro. People and companies see the "Intel Inside" badge, for example, so the hardware manufacture benefits along with Intel.
I haven't tried SteamOS in a while but I'm hoping it is not possible to boot up and play without seeing Tux or "Linux" branding of any sort. It would actually be bad for them in the long run not to emphasize SteamOS is a Linux distro. People and companies see the "Intel Inside" badge, for example, so the hardware manufacture benefits along with Intel.
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MichaelTunnell May 28, 2015
I don't care because Tux only expressed "support for Linux" but at the same time didn't advocate for Linux. This kind of adovcates for the platform under a different name.
Here is an idea to chew on . . .
What if the goal of this was to make people think "SteamOS? What is this? Oh is this like the officially sanctioned platform for Steam?" This could cause Developers/Publishers to focus on the platform more since it signifies that Steam for Windows is no longer the main platform and that SteamOS is now THE Steam platform.
This means it gets new games being developed for Linux and even gets new users interested in what SteamOS, maybe even so much so to see what it was made on.
On the other hand, Linux has a very bad reputation for being hard and confusing and "just for nerds", this focuses on the gaming rather than focusing on fixing an arguably "unfixable" reputation.
I think this could be a good thing in the long run especially considering Linux was meant to be foundational not a retail product.
Here is an idea to chew on . . .
What if the goal of this was to make people think "SteamOS? What is this? Oh is this like the officially sanctioned platform for Steam?" This could cause Developers/Publishers to focus on the platform more since it signifies that Steam for Windows is no longer the main platform and that SteamOS is now THE Steam platform.
This means it gets new games being developed for Linux and even gets new users interested in what SteamOS, maybe even so much so to see what it was made on.
On the other hand, Linux has a very bad reputation for being hard and confusing and "just for nerds", this focuses on the gaming rather than focusing on fixing an arguably "unfixable" reputation.
I think this could be a good thing in the long run especially considering Linux was meant to be foundational not a retail product.
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Quoting: AryvandaarIf you have a functional Linux OS Steam games should work on all. Most of the bugs I've come across have not been specific to non Ubuntu, non Debian and non SteamOS distributions, and when I have informed some developers of this with a detailed report of testing various distributions with the same parameters and re-creating the bug they say "we only support Ubuntu, Debian and SteamOS".
That ignorance has to stop, and I think Valve is making matters worse, they are enforcing this attitude.
The fact that they aren't calling it Steam Linux is a testament to them not caring one bit for Linux as a whole.
No this is the only way to go and SteamOS only improve that. Developers do not need to waist there time and money to test other distributions. No normal company will ever install all Linux distributions to test all bugs. They will install and test only one ore two. Even if bug is common to all Linux distributions developer do not need to waist it's time to check it out. That's why when you buy the game it is specified which platforms it is supporting and developers need to focus only on those platforms.
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