Valve's Source Engine Coming To Linux

According to Phoronix, Valve's Source engine is coming to linux.
Wow, that would mean the entire Orange Box would come available to linux without any wine/cedega clutter.
Link.

 

This is pure awesomeness!

 

YES !! Build it and they will come

 

Think of the possibillities....

 

If a few companies start making software for Linux, then it has a chance of reaching critical mass; after that, there's no way that it can be stopped.

 

Yes, that's what I've always thought......vertical market business programs in my case can be handled via a VirtualMachine...but GAMES, that is what will put everything at the tipping point methinks (for home/small business use)

 

Already this is happening. Both of my brokerage firms have software that is supported on linux. I was quite surprised (both are java based).
Games moving over to linux will be a HUGE boost.

Windows keeps requiring more resources, lets see what MS does for it next version. I love linux in that its super resource efficient compared to windows.
This gives people an inicentive to try out linux on older computers (3-4 years old). And since the computer is 3-4 year old, linux should install painlessly. And once people see that their 3 year old linux box is faster than a new Vista box, ...

Man, I was able to run compiz on a T42 pentium M with 32MB of video ram at SXGA+ ..unbelievable.

 

I would like to see windows get relegated to the corporate client ans server environment, much the way IBM went, if I'm making a fair analogy

 

Er, doesnt linux shine in the server environment ?

 

yes it does. linux is super stable and is excellent for server use.

 

Good news.

 

@ 'borg, Yes it does ....but many corps use windows on servers and clients, or just clients....maybe I should say relegated to the business world much the same way land line telephone systems have in comparison to cellular here in the States.

 

Man, I want linux in the business arena, its a professional OS.

Oh screw it, I want linux everywhere home, business, servers..

 

I like how it is getting more and more compatible with the current hardware. Now if Valve brings Source over to Linux, it's going to be amazing. I need a machine that can run linux. Should get a Thinkpad T4x or an X4x series. Or an HP tablet. MMMMMMM. .

 

I'm just getting closer and closer to booting windows out.

 

This is a great news! If Valve can successfully port engine over, then I just might be finally make that move from Windows to Linux completely. After all, the only game I play mostly are released by Valve.

 

Windows on the server? That's like using a Mac to get real work done.

 

LOL. Mac fan would love to blast you...although they probably don't have any bullets

 

Of course they don't have any bullets, they're all anti-violence hippies.

 

Stop going off topic, this thread is about Source Engine and Linux, get that Mac and Windows crap outta here. That's why we have a Windows and Macs sub forum as well.

 

Best news I've heard today. This is awesome.

I've never got Steam to run CS:S on Linux before.

I just wish Intel had better driver support for Linux.

 

Great news, I just hope that the video card driver support will be there when more games start porting over. Kinda odd though, if you look at the numbers of people using Linux as a desktop OS it isn't very high.

As for Windows and Linux servers, theres plenty of Linux servers, I believe it was close to a 50 50 split for web servers, not sure about file servers and other types.

 

Mac and Windows are indeed crap

Well, the number of tech savvy people using it is much higher, and gamers are more likely to be tech savvy. As for the video card drivers, they're already there, for the most part. For example, ATi's drivers work fine for me (playing UT2004 on a box with a Radeon x300).

That's strange, you should be able to, according to http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=3731.

Not like you're going to do heavy gaming with an Intel integrated graphics card. Just get an ATi or NVIDIA card already

 

Oh come on, we all know you want to play Crysis @ 4.4fps.

.

 

*click*... *click click*

dang. no bullets.

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on a side note, i have adobe cs3 and matlab r2008a installed on my mac. they work perfectly and i use them to get real work done.

in general, osx acts much like linux. most linux apps run in osx. plus, things like adobe cs3 (photoshop) and microsoft office run natively. keep in mind that osx is basically just another *nix. for the non techs, its got pretty good media integration, and for the techs, you have the terminal, and all the commands are generally the same as in linux, because its basically the same thing.

we should be fighting on the same side. besides that, macs have like 5% market share, so it doesn't really affect anyone. stop complaining about it.

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i tried to just kiss windows goodbye and replace it with the *real* linux on my machine, but its still not quite there. however, since every person ever is looking for reasons to ditch windows, its most likely going to happen sooner or later. or sooner. personally, on a mac, i found that hardware support was just not quite there, and osx was too similar to linux while offering better hardware support for my machine (obviously) to justify dual booting. but hardware support is growing as we speak. the linux revolution is going to happen pretty soon i bet, courtesy, in part, of vista being horrible.

 

Valve never cease to amaze me, they keep pushing the envelope.

 

"It won't be long now! Linux's best stuff is right around the corner! Critical mass will be here before you know it!"

Been hearing that same drumbeat from the Linux crowd for the last 5 years, and it's still not happened. Porting Source to Linux is very cool indeed, but that won't be nearly enough for it to gain any meaningful traction in the marketplace.

 

I stopped using linux about 7 years ago, and started back up last year....it's come a long way....with installs getting easier for the masses, and word get's out you don't 'have' to buy windows after all, but take your choice of several distros free, with gaming I could see it spread significantly. Market share doesn't matter, they were bankrupt when they started (per M$). The problem I do see, hopefully not, are hardware drivers licensing.....keep up the pressure on your maker

 

Yea, but the drivers are getting more and more support. I agree that Linux has come a long way, definitely much better than what it was a few years back. The important thing is that it keeps getting better every year. Imagine if the wireless out of the box problem doesn't exist, I bet a lot more people would have switch.

 

Wireless support out of the box is no longer an issue, well at leaset not in the latest and mainstream distributions, Ubuntu, Sabayon, Mandriva, Fedora, Suse to name a few.

 

Yeah, wireless worked on the Kubuntu 8.04 live CD for me (along with sound, bluetooth, webcam, and multimedia buttons)

 

Until I see more people says so, I would say that it's still there. Or at least still an issue for some.

 

My intel 4965 wireless works OTB. I got lucky as I didn't buy this laptop for linux, rather gaming.....

 

Yeah I suppose there's still some issue with broadcom cards, or maybe just a few of their older cards. I tried Hardy Heron and it's not out of the box. Had to configure it. I even got the HSDPA to work, but it's slow like crazy, not sure whether it's bad coverage (storms and rain usually affect HSDPA even for Windows), or bad driver.

Googled and some people said the airprime driver is good, but I think it's already been integrated with HH or any kernel over 2.6.17 that I'm using...I think I saw in the log I have the airprime driver....but it's still slow. If I can get it to work that could be it for Vista. I really don't game much anymore. Some software I need that Windows only, I just put virtualbox or something similar.

 

Interesting... It would be nice if all future games were develop using an engine that was modular and allowed to be used in DX or OpenGl like Valve and Blizzard have done.
Hopefully in a few years, we'll be moving over to ray tracing and have an open API... but....

anyway, this is great news. Now if the rest of the games I want to play will work in Vista, I may turn it back into a Linux box. Would be nice to finally not be forced to use Windows simply because I want to play games on my desktop.

 

So has there any research done about performance in linux vs windows for the same game such as doom 3.

 

A few years ago I was running Unreal Tournament (first one) in linux, Libranet I think, and I remember THEN that the framerates were close enough to call good, but the colors were a tad washed out....now, that was THEN, this is now....look forward to checking it out....but IOW, I have high hopes.

 

Same for me.

 

I'm curious as well. Problem is that it's a DX based game and it will be an openGL based game in Linux. So we may see a change in graphics as well... I don't think it will be an easy 1:1 comparison.

I wouldn't mind seeing a comparison between WoW running under DX in windows and it running under OpenGL in linux.

 

There isn't anything in dx9 that can't be done in opengl, hell stuff like cinema 4d run on opengl ^^.

 

And both my Linux boxes run WoW better than in Windows.

 

As soon as I can play CS:S and TF2 natively on Linux, goodbye wind0ze!

 

What's wrong with Wine?

 

Do you actually use wine to run those games?

 

I use wine to play them, but I can only play on DX8 and it still lags. It's a waste of computer power, I have an 8800GTS.

 

Thanks for the report. I've given up on Wine for most of my Windows needs. My experience has typically been:

1. go to WineHQ
2. find that software X is claimed to work in Wine
3. fiddle with Wine for 2 hours to try to get the sofware to work
4. encounter errors that have not been documented by anyone else
5. give up in disgust.

Or if the software ends up starting, it works badly. The only thing I'm using in Wine is Firefox (just because some ebook provider I'm forced to use requires a firefox extension available only for Windows). Everything else is not worth the aggravation Wine brings. I either use a virtual machine (kvm) if performance is not a big issue or I boot in Windows when I want to play.

 

Lemur, have you tried Wine-Doors?
It's a very nice initiative, not that it will solve everything magically though.

 

Yep, I've used Wine-doors. Half of the time it crashes or blocks while installing basic required packages. I was able to get Firefox running using it at least.

 

Baserk, you have made me a happy, happy boy \o/

It starts with Source, then Blizzard, then EA, then Bioware, then Lucasarts, then EVERYTHING! A torrent of glee EVERYWHERE! hehehehe

 

Well, Blizzard already try and make sure that their games work great with WINE, submitting patches and whatnot to get WoW working.