Is Steam coming to Linux ?

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Valve Corporation, the developer of Steam looks all set to bring to the Linux platform, believe indie game players and developers. While there are seasonal rumors on this, this time around there appears to be a lot of ‘Steam’ about Steam finally arriving on Linux.

The question of steam being available as a native Linux Steam Client was denied by Valve on several occasions earlier. Despite developer claims that beta release of Mac Steam client contained traces of Linux alleging discovery of files on Valve’s web servers. Later, it was the turn of a leading newspaper to allege confirmation from Valve on the eminent release of Linux client, which has failed to happen despite nearly 2 years following the publication of the ‘confirmed’  news.

Valve again released a statement that it was not working on a Linux  version of Steam. It however, backed this with releasing Steam with compatible features with Wine. Though, most games offer a good user experience, some games do run slowly largely due to the lack of external libraries.

Linux gamers are looking forward to Steam as it is first of all DRM(Digital Rights Management) digital distribution service that allows them to play a spectrum of games without having pay for them.

Steam brings games and related media online from independent game developers as well as software production firms on one platform for a quality gaming experience. The reason Linux users want Steam to support their platform is because of its inclusive-community-based features. Steam offers automated game updates, chat as well as voice features.

Steam has now opened opportunities for Linux developers to build Linux capabilities by porting the Source Engine to Linux.

At the heart of the latest likely release of Linux news, is an image posted by a Reddit user, of a email discussion with Valve on bringing Source Engine for Linux. This when considered with the recent rounds of news on Valve bringing in independent game developers to provide feedback on their latest builds and taking notes on tweaks development team has to adopt to provide the right ecosystem for independent gamers. Amidst all this news is the possibility of several features that  will support Linux.

Along with the news of Steam acquiring new Linux talent, the community can only hope that Valve will see the value of including Linux games and not just more refined Wine compatibility across all its games.

Of Course, when there is a discussion on Linux, gaming and Steam, Desura cannot be far from the conversation as it already offers an exhaustive Linux game collection. However, the difference between both of the distributors is that Desura offers both free as well as paid games. However, Desura has launched a Desura client under a free license itself.

Steam continues to be the ultimate gaming platform, Linux or otherwise. Linux’s communities wish to bring the Steam experience to their platform natively should soon be realized, if the latest news proves to be true.

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