Valve Rep Confirms Why Some Games Have Their SteamOS Icon Removed

Quoting: reaVerIf they are removing the steamOS icons, can they at least put the Linux icons back?

Technically they should but practically I think they would not do that because I do not think they are interested to much in Linux as SteamOS. And everything that runs on vanilla SteamOS should run on any other normal Linux distributions and I think they even less care about non standard Linux distributions so they should not see the point to do that.

Yes, that is what I see too: Valve was never interested in Linux, they were just interested in using it as a base for their own OS. The rest was just marketing-bla-bla and grabbing some money on the way.

It's "nice to have" for them, but not really of interest (especially given the marketshare).

In my eyes one sees that with the Steam controller. I really wanted to get one, but now that I know that the real driver is proprietary they can suck my...

So why do those games get a windows/mac icon on steam? Maybe the linux penguin should be introduced again.


Last edited by titi on 19 October 2015 at 9:15 am UTC

Quoting: MaelraneYes, I have a solution (actually 2), it's (one of them) on page one of this thread/discussion. Add another icon. One for linux, one for SteamOS (console-like) and be done with it.

This does not solve the problem you described in your post. Although now you seem to have decided it wasn't a problem after all.

Quoting: MaelraneBut, ya, I do have another solution: Integrate with the Nix-package-manager!

Nix seems cool, but isn't a very practical solution. If would make sure everything works, but manages this by taking the "brute force" approach and simply keeping as many different versions of libraries on your system as needed. Not exactly static linking but not that far off. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Quoting: MaelraneI am not talking about them fixing my shit or supporting my decision to use a rolling-release-distribution.

I am well aware off all these "problems" (and they are no trade-off to me, they are an advantage in my book and one of the reasons I switched to Arch, after years of searching the perfect distribution for me)

Of course there are trade-offs. Just like using Linux has obvious trade-offs, especially for gamers, simply because it's not as widely supported as the "competition". I'm no stranger to source based distributions myself, having used Gentoo for years and Arch as well for a while, so please do not take this as Arch-bashing or anything like that.

Quoting: MaelraneI am talking about them removing icons, effectively hindering me buying games on/from their store because I now have to check elsewhere if the game actually runs on Linux.

Let alone the thing that may purchase may now be not counted as towards Linux, although I bought the game on Linux and played it on Linux.

These are problems, and they have been discussed in this thread, but not in that message of yours I addressed.

Quoting: lvlarkMaybe Valve should make a graphical frontend for installing such dependencies then? And probably include a way for us to know which games work 'out-of-the-box' and which need additional dependencies.

You mean like Steam itself?

Devs should just ship extra dependencies with the games. If they have to bundle OpenJDK it's just a matter of throwing up a
EULA I suspect.


Last edited by neffo on 19 October 2015 at 10:00 am UTC

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: MaelraneBut, ya, I do have another solution: Integrate with the Nix-package-manager!

Nix seems cool, but isn't a very practical solution. If would make sure everything works, but manages this by taking the "brute force" approach and simply keeping as many different versions of libraries on your system as needed. Not exactly static linking but not that far off. Correct me if I'm wrong.

In my book, perfect solution for gaming under Linux where the ecosystem is heterogeneous and should stay that way without anyone coming in and making Linux another Windows-clone.

To me Windows is more than to other people, for example, who said the major point in using Linux is the bucks... for me it's the freedom.

I couldn't care less for money.

Quoting: tuubiOf course there are trade-offs. Just like using Linux has obvious trade-offs, especially for gamers, simply because it's not as widely supported as the "competition". I'm no stranger to source based distributions myself, having used Gentoo for years and Arch as well for a while, so please do not take this as Arch-bashing or anything like that.

No, they are trade-offs in your eyes. In my eyes they are what made me choose Archlinux above Fedora, Ubuntu and Co.

You have to accept that they are not magically becoming objective trade-offs, just because you see them that way. Neither are they becoming good points just because I see them that way. That's not how reality works, although humans tend to see the world as revolving around them.

Correct me if I am wrong but with the current attitude towards "one set of libs to rule them all" imagine this:

We have games and they run today. Now some breaking change comes in one of those libs and suddenly there is a bug in the game which is not introduced by a faulty lib, but with a bug in the game that came to show with an updated lib.

Now developers for that game have lost interest some time ago, they do not sell enough units anymore.

So, who is gonna fix the game?

Quoting: MaelraneCorrect me if I am wrong but with the current attitude towards "one set of libs to rule them all" imagine this:

We have games and they run today. Now some breaking change comes in one of those libs and suddenly there is a bug in the game which is not introduced by a faulty lib, but with a bug in the game that came to show with an updated lib.

Now developers for that game have lost interest some time ago, they do not sell enough units anymore.

So, who is gonna fix the game?

Very easy. You bundle most of the stuff yourself and it stays there. And "one set of libs to rule them all" always keeps backward comp-ability for older games so that older games always use those libs whiche they where tested for. And new games can chose to develop against newer libs.

Quoting: ImantsVery easy. You bundle most of the stuff yourself and it stays there. And "one set of libs to rule them all" always keeps backward comp-ability for older games so that older games always use those libs whiche they where tested for. And new games can chose to develop against newer libs.

So in the end I have libxy.so.4 until libxy.so.n bundled and managed by valve? urgs...

Quoting: Maelrane

Quoting: ImantsVery easy. You bundle most of the stuff yourself and it stays there. And "one set of libs to rule them all" always keeps backward comp-ability for older games so that older games always use those libs whiche they where tested for. And new games can chose to develop against newer libs.

So in the end I have libxy.so.4 until libxy.so.n bundled and managed by valve? urgs...

Ore you bundle all yourself even steamos libs. There is only those two acceptable options. Because SteamOS primary objective is to make games playable for console players. And valve will only manage libs in steamos I think all other platforms will need to manage them themselves. Because if you do not use steam at all and buy games at GOG you will still need those libs.