While there's a huge focus on Flatpak and Flathub thanks to the Steam Deck shipping with it out of the box, Canonical on the other hand continue with their own Snap packaging and they have a Steam Snap in testing for Ubuntu (and other distros, since Snap also works elsewhere).
In a fresh introduction post on the Ubuntu Linux Discourse forum (thanks OMGUbuntu), it outlines how they're now actually "going all in on the gaming experience on Ubuntu and we’ve started building out a team dedicated to working on just that". Part of that is reducing the need for PPAs and other solutions, and their focus now is on Steam.
The call for testing has now begun on their Steam Snap package which gives you everything you need for Native Linux gaming and for Proton too. It's early days for the Steam Snap so expect issues but they said they will "iterate quickly, and respond to this feedback" on it.
On top of that we can expect more gaming on Ubuntu Linux improvements to come "such as providing easy ways to get more bleeding edge components like Mesa drivers, and even newer kernels and proprietary drivers" — that all sounds great to me.
It's not actually live yet but once it will be, I'll update the post here with instructions they give, which they will also post in the link above. Update: Canonical has now done an additional blog post, going over the instructions. Either install it from the website / Snap Store or via terminal: snap install steam --beta
With the blog post, Canonical once again reiterated their plan to improve Ubuntu gaming mentioning that "the Ubuntu Desktop team is getting down to work planning for the future, and improving the gaming experience features heavily in our priorities (and hiring plan!)". They go on to mention how "serious gamers" continue using Windows primarily, which we all know as Steam puts Linux at about 1% currently (see our Steam Tracker) but they hope by "improving the gaming experience, and the Steam experience in particular, we can ensure that Ubuntu can become a genuine daily driver for gamers".
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
A better gaming experience in what is still an incredibly popular "entry" distro is superb news.
Last edited by damarrin on 30 April 2022 at 7:33 am UTC
gradyvuckovic Apr 29, 2022
Also..
QuoteOn top of that we can expect more gaming on Ubuntu Linux improvements to come "such as providing easy ways to get more bleeding edge components like Mesa drivers, and even newer kernels and proprietary drivers"
This sounds very very exciting, and has great potential for positive impacts downstream to related distros such as Mint as well. One consistent issue with Ubuntu and Ubuntu based distros has been, while it's a great basis for a distro and very stable, it takes far far too long for updates for things such as drivers and kernels to reach Ubuntu. It's probably the only real major downside of Ubuntu based distros, so addressing that would definitely make Ubuntu far more competitive to Arch based distros again.
Quoting: scaineThat's a great turnaround from a few years ago, when the threatened removal of 32-bit libraries would have crippled the O/S from a gaming perspective.
A better gaming experience in what is still an incredibly popular "entry" distro is superb news.
I think that the idea of removing 32 bits was always to push snaps. I agree that 32bits could be removed in favor to sandboxing, but that time they didn't have anything to show.
If they had a Steam Snap that time, things would be different.
CyborgZeta Apr 29, 2022
Quoting: gradyvuckovicPerhaps Valve going with Arch for SteamOS lit a fire under Canonical. Good!Definitely my impression.
Whatever makes gaming on linux easier, and ubuntu has always been pretty easy to recommend for newbies.
Schattenspiegel Apr 29, 2022
I mean seriously, what is the goal of this? To accelerate climate change by being intentionally wasteful? To incite social unrest by creating an atmosphere comparable to a traffic jam whenever one opens an application?
Quoting: tamodoloFedora 36 is the first Linux release that actually solves input delay to be on pair with windows. They did this unintentionaly as it was an issue related to touchpads. I am extremely happy by this fix as FINALY FINALY Linux is starting to move forward instead of just doing sidesteps and go anywhere.
I'm following this release and didn't read anything about this, looks like gnome improved the way that it handles input to be on par to the FPS and not to the refresh rate.
What fedora 36 have to make it different?
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