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Last month, Valves very own Gabe Newell, voiced rather harsh predictions of the up and coming OS, Windows 8. Foreseeing a disaster, Newell professed windows 8 to be a ‘catastrophe for everyone in the PC space.’ Prompted by such dark words, I started scanning the horizon for a new OS to sink my teeth into.
Linux, a free OS, was the only one I could think of. Although polished and sleek, its ‘street cred’ was severely tainted. Renowned for being uncooperative when asked to play video games, most developers don’t touch the OS, resulting in independent coders loyal to Linux creating rather buggy and rickety solutions. It’s sad, I thought, looks great, does just about everything else perfectly and it’s free. An attractive OS, but sadly not many people know of it or they’re just too sceptical to download it.
Anyway, weeks later, while performing my daily ritual of filtering through news sites, an article caught my eye, ‘Steam coming to Linux’. In it, Valve confirmed, to be translating the source engine and a handful of their games to the system, starting with Left for dead 2. It looks like Newell does seriously see windows 8 as a threat to the industry. While not abandoning Windows, it’s a clear, decisive stab at the grasp Microsoft wants to hold upon the micro-transactions market.
A move like this will concentrate a lot of attention on Linux. Publishers and developers will see Linux as a serious OS, resulting in more games being developed for the system. More games equal more users and more users will validate Linux’s appeal. It’s a circle of accretion which can only be a win for consumers, developers and publishers alike.
Performance wise Linux is said to run Left for dead 2 at an impressive rate. While running at 270 frames per second on Windows 7, the Linux iteration of the game exceeded 270 frames by 45, an attractive difference and one that hopefully transcends throughout Linux’s future with PC games. While getting the best out of hardware and being a free to use operating system, Linux could help smash the stereotypical expense of PC gaming, which again is another positive for Linux’s gaming utilisation.
Steam coming to Linux is certainly going to be the catalyst to a future in PC gaming. This is something we’ve wanted for a long time, a clean, polished, simple and free answer to windows superiority complex. The addition of steam and the hopeful end to Windows monopoly within the PC gaming paradigm can only result in Linux becoming a much more popular and influential operating system, ultimately securing the support of Linux for future video game releases.