[amscanne]

Anecdote.

I actually installed steam yesterday (for the first time, I'm not a gamer) to see the available games for Linux.

I was pleasantly surprised that there were a few that looked okay. So I bought a couple. None worked -- mysterious launch errors, etc. No luck after a couple hours of debugging.

DISAPPOINTED!

I seriously question how many people actually run on Linux vs. login and browse the store? That said, I'm sure the experience will improve and it's great to see Linux as a growing platform for games!

[i80and]

Most games work, but the problems fall into a few categories:

1) Missing libraries: Almost always 32-bit/64-bit problems.

2) Missing executable: this is usually fixed sooner or later.

3) Graphics problems: This shouldn't be a problem on NVIDIA systems, and the Intel Mesa drivers are pretty good these days, but it still can occur.

[1qaz2wsx3edc]

Ergo StreamOS.

I wouldn't bother running Steam on a non-valve distro, it just doesn't seem practical given the options available (Win/OSX/SteamOS).

Full disclosure: I use Steam on OSX & inside a Windows VM. My biggest peeve is that Valve restricts the Steam client to a single runtime (meaning: I can't run steam on OSX & Windows at the same time "This account is logged in elsewhere"). So I'm always switching between the two, which causes a bit of user fatigue. Come on, just allow unlimited instances/logins from the same IP. I digress.

[yaeger]

Steam on Windows isn't all that great either. It's 2014 now and Steam still ignores the "multi user" aspect of Windows.

Have Steam installed and want to logon automatically so you don't have to enter your password everytime? Great, just tick the appropriate checkbox.

Works great for me, but when my brother uses the PC with his own Windows account, you already know what happens when he tries to start Steam and wants to play using his Steam acount. Correct, he gets auto logged in into my Steam Account. Because as far as Valve is concerned, 1 PC == 1 Steam Install == 1 Steam User.

Granted, Windows wasn't always "multi user" but I think it has been for quite some time now ;) Seeing this and looking into their Linux efforts and their SteamOS for the "Family" and "Living Room" I really see some problems for them unless they finally change this behavior. In a family and in a living room you are bound to have multiple users with Multiple Steam Accounts and especially on a TV, I bet many people would like to log in automatically instead of having to log in manually using a controller to type out the password.

[maaaats]

Last time I tried, I solved this with just copying the Steam folder and each person starts Steam from their own Steam folder. A lot of wasted space since we got duplicates of all games, but it worked.

[throwaway2048]

windows supports symlinks, you might want to try symlinking the steamapps folder, each steam user has their own settings bits inside steam anyways.

[fulafel]

> Come on, just allow unlimited instances/logins from the same IP.

This would only work for NAT victims, not a good way to go...

[emiljbs]

Or you know, since it's a distro, just get a Valve/Steam PPA.

[donniezazen]

I really hate it when proprietary software developers list only dependency to be - "your system should be capable of running 32-bit apps." Why no just simply list the actual lib packages needed.

[hhm]

Steam on Linux works perfectly to me. I have also used Steam with Wine for games that won't otherwise work on Linux. The experience with Steam + Wine is uneven; some games works perfectly and others don't; but Steam on Linux works fine for me.

[amscanne]

I'm replying to myself to provide a bit more context for those asking questions about the games I was trying.

I'm very capable of debugging library and video driver problems. In this case, it seemed to be actual game-internal issues from a recent update. The specific game was built on the Unity platform, and they seemed to have resolved the issues for Mac and Windows but not yet Linux. I'm not annoyed at Steam or the developer (it's reasonable that Linux issues aren't their priority if it's only a tiny portion of users).

My intent was not to say that Steam on Linux is generally broken, just to share my own mildly-amusing experience. :)

On a positive note -- after the initial frustration, I eventually bought Counterstrike and it worked great. I think it's amazing that Steam supports Linux at all, so I wasn't really upset when things didn't work perfectly. I was happy to risk throwing good money after bad, I'm sure I'll be able to play those other games some day.

[greyfade]

Of the two hundred or so games I bought on humble bundles and so forth, I've tried a few dozen of the games I've bought (haven't had time to try them all), and with the exception of two Early Access games, they work just fine.

[maaaats]

The Humble Bundles I've bought are mostly indie games already ported to many platforms. Few of the AAA titles I have bought work on Linux.

[kybernetyk]

> So I bought a couple. None worked

I had the same experience on Windows and OS X. I feel like playing russian roulette when buying games on steam. Some games run flawlessly and some won't even start.

I guess the problem lies rather with games themselves (short deadlines, product must ship before christmas, a gazillion of possible hardware configs, no time to test) than with steam.

[eks]

It runs great here. But I have basically just Ubuntu vanilla and a NVidia card.

I would expect games wouldn't run as easily on a different distro or on a heavily customized Ubuntu.

The Linux ecosystem is HUGE. I suppose that's why they are making SteamOS, so they can focus on one smaller part of this large landscape.

[codygman]

I use xubuntu with xmonad window manager and it works fine with a tweak (same tweak for fullscreen flash videos though).

[kuschku]

I'm running Kubuntu with KDE, but fullscreen flash videos are also very bugged, how did you fix them?

[codygman]

It depends on what do you mean by "bugged". I don't use KDE, but I could probably help you figure out what's wrong. My email should be in my profile.

[jebblue]

I've had a 99.9% success rate with all that I've tried. That's over a dozen popular games so far.

[recursive]

In order to get a number like 99.9%, you'd have to have over ~700 games, even with optimistic rounding. "Over dozens" calls this into question.

[jebblue]

The key was with all the ones I've tried. Not all the Linux games on steam.

[mcpherrinm]

The grandparent poster's point is if you played "over a dozen", say, 16 games and one of them failed, then 93.75% of games worked for you. Getting to 99.9% requires a lot more games to succeed for even a single failure.

Obviously in context you didn't literally mean 99.9%

[jebblue]

Ah OK got it, you're right it was more "they/it/Steam work/works for me" not a scientific assessment, thanks. The percentage was supposed to be like witty or something. My system isn't even a serious gamer machine, cost like $1200 last year.

[benihana]

I bet you're just a joy at parties.

[code_duck]

I installed steam for Linux a few days ago. Machine is a Core Duo, nvidia GeForce 610 running Ubuntu 13.10.

So far I've installed and played Half Life, Half Life 2, Amnesia and Don't Starve with zero problems.

[codygman]

Using Xubuntu (and xmonad (though they aren't taking full advantage of wm hints)) I haven't had any problems with games. I have a laptop with a radeon driver as well as a laptop with an nvidia driver.

[lwhalen]

I run Steam on my Series 9. I basically installed it just to run Monaco (OT - AWESOME game!) and Team Fortress 2. Both run just fine for me. I do wish X-Com was available under Linux though.

[Rampoina]

I'm sorry to hear that, I tried ~50 games and they all work. Out of curiosity what were those games?

[dave809]

what is your video card?