On 6 May 2010 10:01, Evil Jay <w...@eternaldusk.com> wrote: > On 05/05/2010 02:34 PM, André Hentschel wrote: >> Hi Folks, >> Steam seems to add a Linux client in the near future, so maybe Wine will not >> be needed anymore for that. or did i get something wrong? >> That might reduce our "market share" a bit as i guess that many Wineusers >> play steam games. >> On the other hand Intel presented its Z600, which is basically x86 but >> without IDE, SATA or a BIOS. Thats the reason that it cant run Windows. >> So Linux runs and so should Wine i guess. So we might see some mobil >> advantures in the near future? >> > > I would not hold my breath waiting for that Steam client, there's still > been no official announcement and it could just as well be something > they just play around with as a side project for the next half decade. > > Phoronix has been claiming Steam for Linux was imminent for 2 years... > but for how many years did they (and even the developers) say that UT3 > was right around the corner? A few 32-bit god-awfully incomplete > binaries that can't even launch the actual GUI is not near enough to > start me waiting in a virtual line. > > To take the Devil's advocacy a step farther: For all we know, Steam for > Linux is not even being actively developed; They may have started it > with the Mac port and abandoned it as too resource intensive for the > expected payoff. The few updates that we've seen (before the Linux > build was pulled) may well be the result of of the automated package > builder recompiling the Linux files due to changes in some shared > upstream code (being changed for the benefit of the Mac or Windows client). > > Now, personally I am hoping like crazy that Steam for Linux does > materialize in the next year or two. But, if it does, it will hardly > put a dent in Wine's use for gaming. Steam's not a game, so naturally > we must assume that Valve will port the Source engine too, so that they > will have some games to sell. That's great, but how many games in the > AppDB are using the Source engine? How many games sold through Steam > even use it, and will the non-Valve developers take the time to build > Linux packages? Wine has plenty of gaming left in its future.
The other solution is they pull a Picasa/Google Earth manoeuvre and bundle Wine with Steam (or rely on Wine to play the games). > -J > > >