Steam for Mac beta reveals possible Linux compatibility in the pipeline, penguins rejoice
By Richard Lai 
posted April 23rd 2010 2:03PM
posted April 23rd 2010 2:03PM
posted April 23rd 2010 2:03PM
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great picture :)
@IvanP91 :
This made me burst with joy. I almost shed a tear.
@sisto ahaha when I read this my first thought was, counter-strike? Yay ahaha
@IvanP91
Yea great picture... just don't give those Pedobears that tech...
@IvanP91
If this is real I'm ditching windows completely and going to Linux (Ubuntu) forever
@Drybones5
worry not, windows is still here if you want to come back to.
The Penguin is a lie !!!!
@IvanP91 I need this mod!
spinning cubes AND games?
windows doesnt stand a chance.
@elduderino
Nobody said anything about the games. They're only porting the steam platform. It's not like you'll be able to play PC games on a mac all of the sudden.
@elduderino
SteamOS
Windows doesn't stand a chance
Daayyummmm!
Make it happen Valve.
@lolwut
Steve Jobs will be pissed about this. Because delivery platforms are his areas of expertise. He did this for music (iTunes), is doing it for books (iBooks?), and would probably love to do it for games; but too late Stevo.. you're too slow (unless he's going to start treating his OSX with an iron hand, like he does the iPhoneOS)..
If during a keynote address Steve says that OS X is the best platform for computer gaming now that they have Steam, I'm going to barf.
@Leindurstit
I'll laugh it off just like I did when he said, last year, the iphone was going to emerge as a serious gaming platform
@Jack
Isn't that a bit hypocritical given that you didn't like his post and then proceeded to comment on it?
Anyhoo, this is great news for Linux users!
@Jack "I'm going to call you a "Masobitch". You're masochistic because you love to pay attention to things you hate, and you're a bitch because... well that should be obvious."
Haha, WHAT?
Wow, Leindurstit, you bring out the worst in this guy.
@Leindurstit
Totally agree. Mac has a long way to go before it is even a truly viable gaming platform...even WITH steam...which is buggy in its own right.
@admlshake Uhhhh... it did.
@N900
Really? You must have never seen any of his previous posts either. You really don't see the irony in coming here and complaining about something he very clearly has no interest in?
And why would it be hypocritical for me to point it out? I'm not the one bitching about products I don't like.
Oh look you're still here.
@Greg7388 Uhhh, not, it didn't. You are still playing simple games on you phone.
@Greg7388
The iPhone is just a bunch of casual games. There are very, very few games with depth and complexity.
@admlshake
I still find that quite funny. The things he says just sounds right after a while; coming from a lifetime Microsoft everything user. I don't think I can accept calling devices "magical" just yet though....
@Bakerdk
Come on, it's a serious gaming platform as long as Blizzard develops for it!!
I checked out some PC games recently in the store... for my PC. Man, do they blow. Except maybe some of the FPS.
If anyone using Linux had any interest in gaming I'm pretty sure they would know how to dual boot to play their games.
Plus video card drivers in Linux? *shudder*
@bazookafx3
I've played doom3 under ubuntu with no issues at all. (and it installs surprisingly easy). Honestly, video card driver support on linux has greatly improved due to the heavy use of beryl/compix desktops. In my latest Linux install, ubuntu 10.04, I didn't have to do anything to get it to work, it was all ready to go from the start :-)
@bazookafx3
Installing video card drivers is about as easy on Linux as on Windows (at least for NVIDIA cards - I can't comment on ATI). Once Steam is released for Mac / Linux I may just not use Windows anymore.
@Psychfox
Yeah because steam will give linux DirectX..... oh wait
@Dysun
Yeah. I play TF2, L4D, L4D2 and Portal. All of which will run just fine once the Source engine uses OpenGL.
@Psychfox
You list only source engine games, but not all games use the source engine, and opengl compatibility is never as good as hardware based DirectX, especially for anyone on an older system
Yes!! If anyone at Valve can hear me, BRING STEAM TO LINUX! cause... that would be cool... and stuff.
@LanDROID
I'm able to get Half-Life 2 to run under Linux with Wine & Steam
Linux deserves Portal.
Mac does not.
Discuss.
:-p
@Electrofreak
Yes linux deserves Portal. However, you're an idiot.
No discussion needed.
@Electrofreak "Unfortunately, there's no direct mention of Linux PC owners because they usually still live with their parents. Oh! " -> http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/npd-mac-owners-are-bigger-gadget-nerds-than-pc-owners/4
@Jack
Bravo. Brilliant argument...
I've been saying this is gonna happen to my friends ever since that phoronix article, and then they go and announce it for mac. At first I was upset, then I realized that to port these games to mac, you would first have to add OpenGL support.
I repeat this: OpenGL support.
That in itself should make most linux users cream their pants I would think (then again, I only use Ubuntu, so I may not have a right to say anything along those lines). From there it would be a matter of recompiling the engine in the linux architecture, since the unix environment is fairly similar. That and making sure it works with the more common layers of graphical implementations.
@Electrofreak Agree %100
@Jack I was trolling, idiot ;) hence the :-p
@Electrofreak I guess if I was truely trolling I wouldn't have put a :-p in my post... Ah well, Mac fanboi rage makes me warm inside.
@Electrofreak
well, if you said that, then it's a...
FAILED TROLL
.
@WinRulez Damn, you're right. BUT, they downranked my post where I said I was trolling, so I guess that means it's not! But then, I just admitted I did, so I did!
I blame Apple.
@Electrofreak
Blame yourself.
Stop being childish. Be more responsible.
@WinRulez Here's an idea, read any of my other posts I've made on Engadget :)
@WinRulez
I blame the government of the United States of America, just like I do every time something goes wrong.
Only reason I am mad about this, is because I had given up on Orange Box for Linux and just bought it for the PS3.
@Veacross Ummm, you realize that it runs fine under Wine right?
/Source engine mod developer who ran linux full time for 4 months straight
That would be interesting, if they could port their entire library over to Linux....
@admlshake
It really should be fairly trivial to do since by porting it to the Mac also forces the Devs to do all the work necessary to port it to Liunx, since both OS's are based on Unix. Furthermore, they also both use OpenGl, though I'm not sure if the windows version uses OpenGl or DirectX......