I'm starting to feel old. I remember a time before Steam for Linux, back in the dark days even before the first set of Humble Indie Bundles, it's truly crazy how far Linux has come overall as a platform for gaming. 10 years ago today, Steam for Linux left Beta and released officially and what a difference it made!
Many issues along the way, a number of missteps from Valve directly too (hello Steam Machines), but we got there in the end didn't we? Linux Gaming is no longer a thing that people will constantly laugh about. It's here, it's a thing and many people now with a Steam Deck likely don't even realise they're using Linux — that's just how good it can be.
Life changing of course for me too, GamingOnLinux is my job and 99% of that is thanks to Valve's effort.
I'm not going to rehash everything, since I've gone over many milestones before like my previous article Faster Zombies to Steam Deck: The History of Valve and Linux Gaming from 2021, which is worth a read if you're somewhat new to Linux gaming (and Steam Deck!).
Happy 10 years, Steam for Linux! Cheers! Here's to the next 10 and many more.
What do you expect over the next 10 years and what have been your favourite moments?
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
oh wow. so i am using linux since ten years now. i read in an article of the steam release from an german indie game blog. the title is burned in my brain: Sudo apt-get install steam that made me curious. so i installed and dual boot WIN7/ubuntu 12.04. and steam right on it to get a feel. use the terminal, experiment with some different distros over the years. after a few days/weeks/months is started to realize i just use the ubuntu. then my WIN partition vanished on purpose. it was/is very exciting to use. still. for everyday since the switch.
Last edited by entmiener on 25 April 2024 at 10:22 pm UTC
Last edited by entmiener on 25 April 2024 at 10:22 pm UTC
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slaapliedje Feb 14, 2023
Quoting: grigiWhom here remembers happypenguin.org ?I loved happypenguin.org. It covered a lot more of the open source engine / free games. Kind of wish Liam would cover more of these gems. Seeing another 'AAA game works with Proton' is getting a little boring. We get it, Proton is awesome and for the most part just plays anything.'
That was awesome some 15 years ago...
I'm loving the 'retro computer build' series! I have a stack of Retro systems that would have a hard time running most kernels, though I could likely get a 10 year old kernel on there... I should find a copy of Mandrake...
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Turkeysteaks Feb 14, 2023
Amazing to see how much gaming on linux has grown since then.
I've used linux all my life that I remember; playing BZFlag as a kid blew my mind. Then got hugely into Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory which worked amazing on linux, and then got really into linux gaming with the Live Linux Gamers distro. It was a live distro that came with maybe 10-20 games preinstalled (still playing Urban Terror today!). Made a few other stops along the way before I finally joined steam in 2014.
So many hours spent troubleshooting games, getting them to work under linux or solving weird issues. It's mindblowing to me these days that you just click install on regular ol steam and then click play, and boom - it's working. It's the case with so, so many games that I'm used to it now. Never thought plug & play would become the norm but I'm so happy it has.
Thanks for 10 years steam!
I've used linux all my life that I remember; playing BZFlag as a kid blew my mind. Then got hugely into Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory which worked amazing on linux, and then got really into linux gaming with the Live Linux Gamers distro. It was a live distro that came with maybe 10-20 games preinstalled (still playing Urban Terror today!). Made a few other stops along the way before I finally joined steam in 2014.
So many hours spent troubleshooting games, getting them to work under linux or solving weird issues. It's mindblowing to me these days that you just click install on regular ol steam and then click play, and boom - it's working. It's the case with so, so many games that I'm used to it now. Never thought plug & play would become the norm but I'm so happy it has.
Thanks for 10 years steam!
4 Likes, Who?
Nice! For me, the start of legit Linux gaming was with Loki Software in the late 90s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki_Entertainment
I still have Corel Linux with Civ:Call To Power, Heavy Gear II, Quake III, and a few others.
Truly, though, Steam coming to Linux has been the best thing to happen to desktop Linux since Ubuntu and Canonical. Valve as a company and Steam as a platform are such a cool part of modern computing. I love that they continue to buck the broader tech trends while still keeping current and moving things forward. The Steam Deck is a marvel. I look forward to what Valve will do with their next 10 years of Linux gaming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki_Entertainment
I still have Corel Linux with Civ:Call To Power, Heavy Gear II, Quake III, and a few others.
Truly, though, Steam coming to Linux has been the best thing to happen to desktop Linux since Ubuntu and Canonical. Valve as a company and Steam as a platform are such a cool part of modern computing. I love that they continue to buck the broader tech trends while still keeping current and moving things forward. The Steam Deck is a marvel. I look forward to what Valve will do with their next 10 years of Linux gaming.
5 Likes, Who?
I still remember seeing Quake in a game store in 1999.
Before Steam it was very difficult to get games running under Wine. I remember breaking my system many times, especially in the early 2000s, trying to compile the right libraries and still not being able to get most games working right.
Cedega existed to try and make it easier to run Games (and software but that was an even worse experience) and even that only worked slightly better than manually trying to get games working.
In the end, I mostly just played Blizzard games because those were the ones that worked mostly out of the box with Wine.
It is really impressive today that I can play just about any game I want without having to do anything to make it work under Linux.
Before Steam it was very difficult to get games running under Wine. I remember breaking my system many times, especially in the early 2000s, trying to compile the right libraries and still not being able to get most games working right.
Cedega existed to try and make it easier to run Games (and software but that was an even worse experience) and even that only worked slightly better than manually trying to get games working.
In the end, I mostly just played Blizzard games because those were the ones that worked mostly out of the box with Wine.
It is really impressive today that I can play just about any game I want without having to do anything to make it work under Linux.
3 Likes, Who?
Ten years ago, I was using ubuntu, but I wanted to play some PC games during my lunch break, and I happened to see that steam had entered the linux platform, so I registered to join this platform. By now, I have over 4000 games and I don't use a single OS anymore, but steam has always been a must for me.
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QuoteI'm starting to feel old. I remember a time before Steam for Linux, back in the dark days even before the first set of Humble Indie Bundles, it's truly crazy how far Linux has come overall as a platform for gaming. 10 years ago today, Steam for Linux left Beta and released officially and what a difference it made!
Linux Gaming is no longer a thing that people will constantly laugh about. It's here, it's a thing and many people now with a Steam Deck likely don't even realise they're using Linux — that's just how good it can be.
Dark days?
I have to disagree with it.
Many companies tried hard to release more games for Linux before HIB. I think about Linux publishers (LGP, Loki, Runesoft, etc.), porting houses (Eon Games, IGIOS, etc.), porters (Ryan Gordon, Frank Earl, etc.), and companies that are well-known for just one game (Cipsoft, Laminar Research etc.,). We had companies with a long history of releasing games for Linux. Many of them were ignored like Kristianix games, InterAction studios, and so on.
We didn't have a good website that covered all the information about all commercial games for Linux. I must admit that it was hard to track all these companies before 2010.
On the other hand, some users felt that the Linux market was a joke. They had to choose between more expensive games from Linux publishers or indie games. When some users didn't want to accept it, they were forced to go back to using Windows.
It wasn't a perfect situation, but we constantly saw new games released for Linux. These companies and programers had to deal with users that wanted just Steam for Linux.
Last edited by gbudny on 15 February 2023 at 2:34 am UTC
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Some of the breakthrough moments were dxvk release and Mesa gaining full OpenGL and Vulkan support. Valve contribute directly to both so it's really good they put their weight behind Linux gaming.
Last edited by Shmerl on 15 February 2023 at 5:25 am UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 15 February 2023 at 5:25 am UTC
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InhaleOblivion Feb 15, 2023
Without this occurring a decade ago, they would have missed a major opportunity with the Steam Deck. Nor would desktop Linux be mine, and many other PC building gamers daily driver. Since we can play the vast majority of our favorite games on Linux. Just think what the next decade will bring.
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mr-victory Feb 15, 2023
As I read the comments, a few things make me feel weird:
1. Most of you are Linux users for a long time, while I use Linux since 2020 and play on it since 2022.
2. Despite only recently starting gaming, it was nowhere near an OOB Just Works experience. I dealt with forcing games to use Nvidia GPU, any Vulkan application freezing due to a driver bug, Apex Legends stuttering even with GPL and mod problems with HOI4. I even patched Proton (only a week ago!) so Paradox Launcher would well behave.
3. In 2 Steam accounts around only 5 games were purchased in total (and only 1 pirate game which I can't acquire in a different way) while everyone else here has hundreds if not thousands.
Last edited by mr-victory on 15 February 2023 at 7:42 am UTC
1. Most of you are Linux users for a long time, while I use Linux since 2020 and play on it since 2022.
2. Despite only recently starting gaming, it was nowhere near an OOB Just Works experience. I dealt with forcing games to use Nvidia GPU, any Vulkan application freezing due to a driver bug, Apex Legends stuttering even with GPL and mod problems with HOI4. I even patched Proton (only a week ago!) so Paradox Launcher would well behave.
3. In 2 Steam accounts around only 5 games were purchased in total (and only 1 pirate game which I can't acquire in a different way) while everyone else here has hundreds if not thousands.
Last edited by mr-victory on 15 February 2023 at 7:42 am UTC
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