Soon, Linux users will no longer have to jealously look at the gaming capabilities offered by other (more popular) operating systems, as a limited-access version of the Steam for Linux beta is now available.
Steam, Valve’s popular digital distribution service, has been available on PC since 2003 and Mac since 2010, and this limited beta marks its first official move to supporting Linux since it began talking about doing so earlier this year. The beta includes access to hat-collection simulator Team Fortress 2, Big Picture mode (which plays PC games on televisions), and support for two dozen other Linux-supported titles. It might not sound like much compared to the thousands of games available on the service, but speaking as a Mac user, you should probably just take what you can get.
The beta is currently only available to a select group of those who responded to Valve’s survey looking for participants, but it will continue to expand as time goes on. If you weren’t chosen this time, Valve will be selecting more users from the pool of survey responders, so fill it out soon or you might never find out why that hat collection line was so funny. Trust me, those of us who already have Steam are getting a big kick out of it.
Also, Steam for Linux only supports Ubuntu 12.04 for now, but Valve hopes to make it available to more Linux variations in the future. It will be looking at player feedback to determine which are the most popular, and will focus on making those versions work first.
For more information on Steam for Linux, you can go to Valve’s official page.