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PayPal9 years to the day, Valve officially put up a limited Beta release of the Steam Client for Linux. It's safe to say it's been a rather bumpy but exciting ride.
Want to know the history of how things happened? Back in July 2021 we wrote up a detailed look into it all titled "Faster Zombies to Steam Deck: The History of Valve and Linux Gaming". Based on that we'll refrain from going over it all again, we suggest you grab a quick coffee and give that a read.
Now we're pretty much on the eve for the Steam Deck releasing (for some at least…ours comes in 2022), powered by the Arch-based SteamOS 3, we're about to see a real explosion in the amount of people carrying around a full Linux device. Exciting times ahead that's for sure.
We're also currently seeing the highest Linux user share on Steam in multiple years, fuelled by excitement surrounding Steam Play Proton and the Steam Deck. 1.13% might not sound like a lot of course, and compared with Windows it's certainly not, as it's at least 1,360,520 monthly active users based on the last time Valve mentioned their figures (January 2021).
At 10 years it will mark around nearly a year after the Steam Deck released, who knows what things will be like then.
Happy Birthday, Steam for Linux Beta.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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It is been a very exciting year for Steam gaming on Linux
All starts with something special nine years ago, that was time when Vulp just started dabbling with Linux as primary computing platform (including for gaming)
Hopefully, the upcoming Steam Deck can bring us to the new height of Steam gaming on Linux
Last edited by Vulphere on 6 November 2021 at 9:20 am UTC
All starts with something special nine years ago, that was time when Vulp just started dabbling with Linux as primary computing platform (including for gaming)
Hopefully, the upcoming Steam Deck can bring us to the new height of Steam gaming on Linux
Last edited by Vulphere on 6 November 2021 at 9:20 am UTC
0 Likes
9 years already?
Steam really helped gaming on linux. Before there where a few published games for linux, then came humblebundle with some more. But steam helped to have more much ports. Even more, when they release proton, that helped to be able to play many windows games... With wine it's not easy to make it work.
And moreover, apart for the steam store, valve helped improve wine. And now, with vulkan, we have extra performance even on windows games. Translating directx9 to opengl it's difficult and needs many cpu cycles.
Really valve it's helping for linux gaming (for they interest).
In a short time, or already is, will be better for playing windows games than windows (bloaded) os.
Ps. There it has been more than 2 years than I don't boot the windows partition, even for playing.
Steam really helped gaming on linux. Before there where a few published games for linux, then came humblebundle with some more. But steam helped to have more much ports. Even more, when they release proton, that helped to be able to play many windows games... With wine it's not easy to make it work.
And moreover, apart for the steam store, valve helped improve wine. And now, with vulkan, we have extra performance even on windows games. Translating directx9 to opengl it's difficult and needs many cpu cycles.
Really valve it's helping for linux gaming (for they interest).
In a short time, or already is, will be better for playing windows games than windows (bloaded) os.
Ps. There it has been more than 2 years than I don't boot the windows partition, even for playing.
2 Likes, Who?
Meanwhile at GOG: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy 
15 Likes, Who?
AussieEevee Nov 6, 2021
It's amazing how far we've come since Gabe turned his attention to Linux. And while we're still not perfect, it is awesome having a viable alternative to Windows that mostly just works
3 Likes, Who?
Nov 6, 2021
9 years?! Made me check my account, seems I've had my account for 18 years... :O
1 Likes, Who?
Liam, you should totally make some predictions for this time next year, and then we'll all have a laugh when they turn out totally wrong :D
3 Likes, Who?
Valve brought back gaming to me. No less. I had a PS3 way back, but grew tired of console gaming. Without their Linux client - and Steam Play - I actually doubt I'd be doing much gaming at all.
2 Likes, Who?
Kimyrielle Nov 6, 2021
I remember me reluctantly going back to dual-booting Windows for gaming after Loki folded and after I moved on from the only two other games I was playing that were running on Linux (Neverwinter Nights and - on WINE - Guild Wars 1).
I thought gaming on Linux was dead forever.
A decade later, I can play almost 100% of all games I'd ever want to play on Linux and my Win 10 partition is collecting virtual dust.
How times have changed! \o/
I thought gaming on Linux was dead forever.
A decade later, I can play almost 100% of all games I'd ever want to play on Linux and my Win 10 partition is collecting virtual dust.
How times have changed! \o/
2 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Nov 6, 2021
I remember me reluctantly going back to dual-booting Windows for gaming after Loki folded and after I moved on from the only two other games I was playing that were running on Linux (Neverwinter Nights and - on WINE - Guild Wars 1).Ah, the joy of trying to keep the 'How to play Neverwinter Nights on Ubuntu' forum post up to date. Can't recall the last time I logged into the Ubuntu forums though, but there was a time in my life where I practically lived there!
I thought gaming on Linux was dead forever.
A decade later, I can play almost 100% of all games I'd ever want to play on Linux and my Win 10 partition is collecting virtual dust.
How times have changed! \o/
Now it's too easy to play NWN:EE on Linux, still missing the tools though :P
1 Likes, Who?
Valve brought back gaming to me. No less. I had a PS3 way back, but grew tired of console gaming. Without their Linux client - and Steam Play - I actually doubt I'd be doing much gaming at all.Same. I'd never been much of a gamer. Not zero--I even played some games on my Trash-80 in, would that be late 70s? Good lord. Civilization II on my laptop back in the day, I still have a few old CDs showing me that I had more games than I remember. Dual booting with Windows 98 because the rest of the family used it and because there were a couple of games I played. But then, hardly anything--Alpha Centauri and one other from Loki, a couple of open source Linux games . . .
Now with Steam and Valve's push, I've got dozens and dozens of games--still not in the league of plenty of people here, but by my old standards it's ridiculous.
2 Likes, Who?
ElectricPrism Nov 6, 2021
It's been a long and great journey, I tip my hat to all you fine people.
3 Likes, Who?
Ah. Between 2008 (when I switched to Linux on my desktop) and 2013 I had plenty of time at hand. Well I had the Indie Bundle titles: Aquaria, World of Goo, Trine, Braid, Shank, Bastion, Limbo. Nice games, but I definitely didn't have to think about my pile of shame...
0 Likes
Seems like I'm getting old.
I could tell by your name... :-D
Hey, the DVD format came on the market only about 25 years ago. Old for tech, but still pretty young for a human.
Now maybe if his name was LaserDisc... :)
3 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Nov 7, 2021
LaserDisc is even older than I thought. The format originated in the late 70s. I still need to tear mine apart so I can fix the belts / drive eject... and they are not the easiest things in the world to repair...Seems like I'm getting old.
I could tell by your name... :-D
Hey, the DVD format came on the market only about 25 years ago. Old for tech, but still pretty young for a human.
Now maybe if his name was LaserDisc... :)
Last edited by slaapliedje on 8 November 2021 at 5:25 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
I remember reading the news about the Steam Linux beta when I was fiddling around with Fallout 3 and a handful of games with Wine and Steam/Win32. It didn't take too long until I got to the point where I had more games working on Linux than I could ever play.
1 Likes, Who?
wintermute Nov 8, 2021
Switched to Linux full time in 2007 and didn't do much "capital G Gaming" for many years (lots of FreeCiv and Aisleriot Solitaire). Started on a few new games in late 2012 at which point I realised I hadn't even bothered putting a dedicated graphics card into my PC as I was only getting 2 fps in CS Source :)
1 Likes, Who?
junibegood Nov 8, 2021
Meanwhile at GOG: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy
That level of not giving a **** about user feedback is impressive !
2 Likes, Who?
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