Valve and Linux

Quasar said:

This means it's unlikely to be subject to the degree of "it won't work on my install because I have version x.y.z of library foo" that most Linux programs are mired in.

Somewhat amusingly though. The Linux version of Descent 3 only works on modern systems with the dynamically linked version. :P That said, most of the time this is caused because the user has an older version of the library than the one compiled against. (Same as trying to run an MSVC2010 app on Windows 98.)

I don't think being closed source would cause an issue with using most external dependencies. A lot of them are LGPL/BSD/etc and there's already a ton of proprietary, closed source applications for Linux based operating systems. If they reinvent the wheel it would most likely be to increase the amount of code shared between the three platforms.

The reason they would hire kernel developers is exactly the reason Mr. T mentioned. To help optimize the kernel/drivers for their needs. I also wouldn't completely toss out the idea that they may be interested in making a distro that boots directly to a Steam big picture.

Valve put their survey up along with a Steam group:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410
http://www.valvesoftware.com/linuxsurvey.php

News-worthy bump: Nvidia Double GeForce Performance For Linux Drivers

There's also a funny rumor about Half-Life 3 being Linux exclusive, though it originated from a fake news. I would like the idea however.

My mommy told me to not let binary blobs touch my kernel.

The new drivers seem pretty impressive. I don't have anything intensive installed on my Mint partition to really try them out. I know back before I upgraded, Doom 3 ran at almost half the framerate on Ubuntu (hell if I remember which version) as it did on Vista. Back then it made gaming on Linux seem like even more of a joke, since on top of the lack of games, you couldn't even take full advantage of your hardware. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

I was about to post in the other Steam thread, but I remembered this one.

I just got my beta invite, which means I'll be putting Ubuntu on one of my machines. (1) Since I don't have the latest hardware, and I should take any bump in performance I can get, would I better off installing 64-bit? Or would lack of support do more harm than good? (2) We heard about the increase of GeForce driver performance. Does that include mobile hardware? Or should I stick to my desktop?

Jonathan said:

I think there might be a bit more to it than that though. Increasingly, desktop platforms are being locked down. Apple lead the way with the app store model iOS, but now they're doing the same thing by introducing the app store and API restrictions on Mac OS. Microsoft are going the same route, introducing an app store for Windows, using UEFI secure boot to prevent 2nd OS installation, restricting API access on Windows RT.

God fucking damn it, what about open-source developers? Or people making software just for themselves, for a one-time use, without the intent to distribute it through app stores, for that matter?

Got into the beta too.

Welp, that didn't last long.
I only had about an hour to dick around last night, but in that time the nVidia driver screwed up my screen resolution permanently and Amnesia won't launch.

I was invited into the mailing list, so I suppose that I am in the Beta.

TF2 runs alright, but full screen it's stuck at my desktop resolution, so I have to run windowed to get a decent framerate. The Steam overlay prompts steal focus (TF2 closes itself when it loses focus for some reason) and it makes fullscreen programs go into a maximized window, so I have to disable that. Can't say much else, I don't own anything else with a Linux version on Steam.

I'm running on Mint with Mate, so that could be the reason for those problems.