Valve's Gabe Newell Talks Linux Steam Client, Source Engine

[Zeven]

For those that have doubted the exclusive Phoronix claims for quite a while now that the Steam client and Source Engine are in fact being ported to Linux, the doubts can be nearly laid to rest. Even I began to wonder how long it would take before the clients for their popular games would be publicly released under Linux. However, after confirming the information perhaps a bit too soon, their level of Linux interest is much more clear after spending a day at their offices. A meeting topped off the day with Gabe Newell regarding Linux where he sounded more like a Linux saint than an ex-Microsoft employee. Valve does have some great plans for Linux beyond just shipping the client versions of Steam and their popular games on the Source Engine.

As I have been sharing for a few weeks, Valve invited me out to their Bellevue, Washington offices after Gabe Newell asked me last month for some referrals of developers with Linux OpenGL experience. They already have a team of Linux developers working on the client efforts, but they are looking to expand. From the recommendations I made to Gabe last month for some experienced Linux OpenGL programmers, they already hired one of them for their Linux skills and are still interviewing at least one other from my list. Valve is also hiring more, and it's just not Linux OpenGL -- even if you're just a Linux kernel developer they might be interested in hiring you (I'll be placing some more recommendations to them in the next few days, if you think you might be interested, contact me for possible referral especially if your work has been covered on Phoronix in the past).

It has taken longer than most anyone would have anticipated, but the fact remains that Valve is in fact creating a native Linux port of their Steam game distribution client and of the Source Engine to run natively on Linux. Phoronix broke this story, i.e. in 2010 when announcing Valve's officially releasing Steam and the Source Engine for Linux. Unfortunately, it has taken longer for a variety of reasons, which led some gamers to think this was some Phoronix joke or that the information was inaccurate. It was not. Valve's Linux work is finally soon to see the light of day in what will more than likely be the coming months.

The above is only an excerpt. Here is the source.

Warning: Contains lots of pictures, Gabe hating on Windows 8, and Gabe loving Linux.

[Zeven]

And here is a very short video of Left 4 Dead 2 running in Ubuntu 11.10 with the AMD Catalyst driver.

[Zeven]

Canonical in Touch with Valve to Ensure Steam is Well Supported on Ubuntu.