Linux getting Steam?

Although fairly old news, Linux seems to be catching on in the larger gaming market, especially where digital copies of games are concerned. Linux for Steam has been launched a few days ago by Valve, who has successfully released hundreds of games on their digital distribution platform for several years. This version of Steam will run on Ubuntu 12.04, and features only a few games which includes Team Fortress 2, Serious Sam and several other titles. The platform is only available to a few hundred beta testers but Valve stated that they will slowly grow the user base as further testing continues.

This move from Valve is a good step towards gaming integration between Linux and the commercial Windows and Mac systems that dominate the paying market. Open Source has come a long way since its beginnings decades ago, and Linux is still a prime example of stability and security in a malware and hacker-filled world, making availability of games a plus point for more consumers to consider switching to the free operating system.

Long has Windows emulation and game-hacking been the only way to get many of the commercially released games and even other applications to work. Although this will not be the first time PC and Mac games comes to Linux, it is a starting point for a much larger scale of digital distribution and Linux gaming integration. We await silently, hoping that this move will promote the Open Source community and give Linux a larger view around the world.