So, apparently Steam for Linux has been in beta for a bit. And awesomely, you can now get in without a beta account.

Sauce

Package for Debian-based (Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Linux Mint/etc) systems or Arch Linux AUR package.

Install, and from a command line, run one of these:

"steam steam://store"
"steam steam://open/friends"
"steam steam://open/games"

First time I did it, I got a beta account required message. Just run the command again if it does. Started up fine for me.

 

Wait, you can install the beta of Steam in Linux without a beta account now.

That's pretty cool. I'll have to take a look at it once I have time to mess around with updating Ubuntu on this machine again, since I've been mostly stuck using Windows lately due to school work that I need to get done.

 

It didn't work at first , then I did
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Now it works, although all the servers seem to be busy.

 

Ah. Yea. I failed to mention: its 32 bit, so you'll beed the 32 bit libraries installed.

As far as busy servers: I've got no problem. Disconnected and reconnected a few times to test it out with no issue. Installing a few games as well.

There is just something unbelievably epic about installing a linux-native copy of Psychonauts and Amnesia. And of all the windows based shit I bought, there is a surprisingly large number of them already available in my library.

Serious Sam 3 and Penumbra: Overture/Requiem/Black Plague were the ones that surprised me most. Which Pen shouldn't, since it was part of the indie bundles at some point and Amnesia (Also by Frictional) was released Linux-ready at launch.

Its a vain hope that all of my library eventually be ported over, but I'm kind of hoping some of the bigger names will eventually see a linux release.

Playing around with it, it works great for the most part. I dunno if anyone else is using Ubuntu 12.10 with the GNOME3 shell, but for some reason the client wont maximize for me.

The Big Picture mode is kind of sluggish and slow, but not unusable. Interesting difference between standard and bigpic, the settings for in-game on the Big Pic mode has a way to open the overylay via a gamepad, which I cant find at all in the standard.

Overall, I am rather pleased.

Edit: another note of interest. Once you run the command line option in the first post, you should be able to use the icon in your menu to start it afterwards. Works fine for me, but may not for everyone.

 

So do you get linux versions of all your Windows games for free?

 

Yes, provided that the developer has a Linux version and that they've agreed to sell it on Steam. It should work the same way as the Mac games. Buy it for one platform, own it on all.

 

Wasn't sure if I should post this in the TF2 thread, or in here, buuuut:

TF2 is now available on linux without a beta account.

 

Steams adding another 5000 invites to the beta, if you lot are interested...

http://www.valvesoftware.com/linuxsurvey.php

Fill and hope. D: