Some brief answers to common questions.

[SinSchism]

These answers are my own opinion, let that be said first and clearly. These conclusions are based entirely on my experience.

Are you only looking for Ubuntu users? Valve probably is looking for Ubuntu/Debian users. They've likely made other options available in the survey to see where future development and package management will need to head.


Will Steam work on XYZ hardware? That's part of the the point of the beta. It's become common place to see beta phases function as just a preview of what's coming. Remember: beta testing is to see what does and doesn't work, as well as figure out what can and cannot work at the given time.


Why do they keep saying 1000 linux users and why Ubuntu? By limiting the beta to a finite number of players using a (mostly) unified software platform, they can sort out basic, fundamental bugs that are indicative of larger problems with their basic software and not smaller issues in distribution differences. Moreover, it allows for easier and faster statistical analysis. Of course, this brings up the following....


But with only 1000 people, they might not find all the bugs!! That's right. That's also not the point. The point is to find some of the more obvious, common bugs and get them sorted so that the smaller ones are detectable.


Will ABC Title work on Steam/linux? Ask the developer if they have a linux version. If there isn't one, figure out what game engine they used. Some engines just don't support linux yet. Some do. There are a LOT of promising titles coming out using the Unity4 Engine that rival some Triple-A titles.


How will we know if we've been given access to the beta? According to a post Frank made on 11/2/12:

Frank の投稿を引用：

You will be getting an email indicating acceptance into the limited beta and instructions on getting started.
We are currently in the process of choosing the participants. Stay tuned and thanks for your patience.

If you don't know which email you used for Steam, you may want to figure that out.


What sort of bug tracking will be used during the beta? According to a post made by rickmus on 11/4/12:

rickmus の投稿を引用：

It will primarily be via a private forum that the beta participants will have access to.

Which makes sense because that is how Valve has traditionally handled betas (from what I'm given to understand). 1000 users in a forum is easy enough to handle without needing to add the undue complication of getting people to use your specific (and ideally hidden) bug tracker.

In order for them to hide the bug tracker, they'd have to integrate it to the accounts which takes more work than hiding a forum.


Why not just use Wine? Wine forces the usage of Win32 or Win64 DLLs which aren't, themselves, native to Linux. Because of this, the "native" windows experience isn't actually native and, moreover, actually introduces inconsistency and vulnerability to your machine WHILE using more resources than a native port. It also creates a pseudo-filesystem to function between the Win32 structure (C:\) and the traditional *nix structure (/*) which creates undue messiness that many linux users dislike.

The long and short: IT IS NOT NATIVE. It's not a native client and it's not a native game. The point of this all is a native experience.


I can install Braid, Limbo, or VVVVVV but they don't run. Why? These games are currently not supported by the Linux Steam client. For a complete list of currently supported games, see here.


Why does it take so long for a game to be put onto the Linux list for Steam? Well, ask the developer. It is up to them to get the Linux version of their game.

[Shigutso]

This is just the begining, bro. Bringing a huge game/app store to Linux is kinda of a big challenge.

They need to focus in a popular distro. Ubuntu is the most popular, so they need to make things work on Ubuntu first. Different distros use different versions of libs, and may ou may not be compatible with their games.

1000 of experienced Linux users and gamers (and active bug reporters) will be more than necessary. Releasing something to the public with lots of bugs will just be very bad to Valve!

I'm pretty sure they are already trying to get as many games as possible to be ported to Linux, as they tried with Mac. As both Mac and Linux use OpenGL and are based on Unix, expect Steam for Mac's game library to be ported to Steam for Linux's game library.

[SinSchism]

I know, that's why I said what I said, Shigutso. I answered the questions people have been asking all over this group.

[Frank]

Nice write-up MrSchism, I couldn't have said it better myself. And for the record, your answers are correct and accurate. Thanks for helping out!

[SinSchism]

Not a problem, Frank. If I see any other questions start getting asked, I'll tack those on.

[Rain Shinobi]

Pity we dont have a sort of sticky system in this discussions thing (unless there is and I don't know about it).

We're starting to see a lot of the usual questions crop up and a sort of FAQ thread like this would be really handy.

[Cheeseness]

Discussion threads can be "pinned" by moderators ^_^

Having something like this pinned would probably help cut down the number of people asking this stuff over and over.

[boot]

Cheeseness の投稿を引用：

Discussion threads can be "pinned" by moderators ^_^

Having something like this pinned would probably help cut down the number of people asking this stuff over and over.

They also should implement a Steam flag for discussions where Valve employees have replied.

[Aishou]

Great Post.

[Frank]

Rain Ninja の投稿を引用：

Pity we don't have a sort of sticky system in this discussions thing (unless there is and I don't know about it).

We're starting to see a lot of the usual questions crop up and a sort of FAQ thread like this would be really handy.

We do have the ability to pin a thread and a FAQ thread is a good idea Rain Ninja. I'll add it to the team's plate of things to do. :-)

[SinSchism]

Thanks for the pinning. Updated with the most popular question I've seen today.

[Valvar]

I find it a bit unnerving that it appears you are only looking for Ubuntu/Debian users. Does that mean that you will not be including other distro users in the beta, despite their ability to install .debs or even a debian-based distro? If you're looking for good bug reports and feedback, I'm not sure if excluding users of more advanced distros is a good idea.

[murdock]

ASGC Valvar の投稿を引用：

I find it a bit unnerving that it appears you are only looking for Ubuntu/Debian users. Does that mean that you will not be including other distro users in the beta, despite their ability to install .debs or even a debian-based distro? If you're looking for good bug reports and feedback, I'm not sure if excluding users of more advanced distros is a good idea.

I couldn't agree more, not to imply that all Ubuntu users are linux noobs, but its been my expirience that Ubuntu users are the less technical ones. Anyone I know that has used Ubuntu has moved to a more advanced distro once they get more expirience, and with limiting the beta to Ubuntu you might be ignoring a large group of exprienced linux users. What distro people choose in the survey should not be a deciding factor since I'm certain anyone with a distro that isnt Debian based would have no problems installing Ubuntu on a separate partition to test Steam if they got picked.

[Greg (from Greg's Kitchen)]

Scubasteve の投稿を引用：

ASGC Valvar の投稿を引用：

I find it a bit unnerving that it appears you are only looking for Ubuntu/Debian users. Does that mean that you will not be including other distro users in the beta, despite their ability to install .debs or even a debian-based distro? If you're looking for good bug reports and feedback, I'm not sure if excluding users of more advanced distros is a good idea.

I couldn't agree more, not to imply that all Ubuntu users are linux noobs, but its been my expirience that Ubuntu users are the less technical ones. Anyone I know that has used Ubuntu has moved to a more advanced distro once they get more expirience, and with limiting the beta to Ubuntu you might be ignoring a large group of exprienced linux users. What distro people choose in the survey should not be a deciding factor since I'm certain anyone with a distro that isnt Debian based would have no problems installing Ubuntu on a separate partition to test Steam if they got picked.

That's most likely why they are using ubuntu. If they want people to use it from windows, they need to go to an easy to use OS. People would be turned off if they needed to compile gentoo with the proper drivers instead of a one click easy install. With ubuntu it should be very easy to set up and no hassle. Thats why they want Ubuntu/Debian users - to make sure the end result is easy to install for noobs, instead of hard core arch linux users, who would be willing to compile an extra thing or two to get it installed.

[SinSchism]

ASGC Valvar の投稿を引用：

I find it a bit unnerving that it appears you are only looking for Ubuntu/Debian users. Does that mean that you will not be including other distro users in the beta, despite their ability to install .debs or even a debian-based distro? If you're looking for good bug reports and feedback, I'm not sure if excluding users of more advanced distros is a good idea.

More or less. The more variation in the base OS, the more variation in the bugs detected. This is an INITIAL beta test. Because Ubuntu is one of the most widely supported OSes. Perhaps in future beta tests the pool will be wider. Again, see initial point number 3. The more narrow the initial testing, the more likely the bugs will be large-scale. They built the Steam client on Ubuntu. They have best results there. They'll start there and work outward.

If you don't like Ubuntu, wait until a future beta or public release.

[murdock]

Sorry if I was unclear in my previous post, but it seems you both missed the point. I'm not saying that I don't like Ubuntu, and it does make sense to focus on a distro that's easy to use and setup. However, if Valve filters out candidates that didn't choose Ubuntu, they're also filtering out a large group of expirienced linux users, and that is who they want to test the beta client, not people just switching over from windows. And again, I'm sure anyone who expressed interest in the beta and filled out the survey would have no issues with testing on Ubuntu if that's the only option.