Valve may be preparing a 64bit version of the Steam client with an update in the Steam Beta Client that was released yesterday.
Their wording in the patch notes certainly suggests that's what they're doing:
Added support for shipping different binaries to 64bit vs 32bit operating systems in Steam self-updater. This support is being added in preparation for future updates.
Considering the client is already 64bit on Mac, it would make sense to bring that to Linux and Windows soon too. With most people now on 64bit, it was only a matter of time before they did this. Going by the Steam Hardware Survey, few people remain on 32bit. Giving their updater the ability to know the difference between systems, would be the first step towards rolling out 64bit to those systems that support it and eventually warn people on 32bit systems when that eventually becomes deprecated for the Steam client.
We already know they're planning an overhaul of certain parts of the client, with various leaks and Valve eventually talking about it. It's entirely possible that this is in preparation for that to happen.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Last edited by Sudo_halt on 9 August 2018 at 2:12 pm UTC
Quoting: 14It sure would make installing Steam on some distributions less painful.
Many Games will still come in 32 bits...
I've been trying to avoid having 32-bit libraries installed as far as possible - which as it turns out is really easy as long as you don't want to play games on Steam.
Quoting: EikeAnd?Quoting: 14It sure would make installing Steam on some distributions less painful.
Many Games will still come in 32 bits...
It's still nice to see they're making the move. I think the only 32 bit systems left out there using steam would be Raspberries used for in home streaming. So hopefully they don't break support completely.
But I don't think any CPU able to run the most basic of games nowadays has a 32 bit processor. You'd have to go all the way back to Pentium 4, Athlon or Atom to even find one. Doesn't seem likely anyone is still gaming on those.
Quoting: 14Quoting: EikeMany Games will still come in 32 bits...And?
... these will still need 32 bit libraries?
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