Linux and Gaming: Full Steam Ahead

This might all be a bit of an experiment for Valve.

Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot with Windows 8. Linux desktops are largely doing the same.

There is a potential opportunity for someone (an outsider that no-one expected) to come in and steal the show right from under everyone else on the Desktop.

One of the biggest issues with Windows (and a strength with Linux distros generally) is the lack of a convenient unified app delivery medium like an app store. Valve already have a successful platform for this with Steam so they have half the battle sorted.

Porting games to Linux may only be the start, a toe in the water so-to-speak.

I see interesting times ahead for Valve and I look forward to seeing what the end-game of all this is. I suspect is is not quite what we think.

If I may ask, is "steam" being referred to as a particular game, or a game rendering engine?

I've been trying to "read between the lines", but this difference is as yet unclear.

Steam is their delivery system.

Valve also have a game engine that they use for all of their games called "Source" which they are also porting to Linux.

Okay, I guess I just have to settle back on the idea that I am in no way a "hard core gamer" that would know these things.

Delivery system vs. game engine. Hmmm. No wonder I'm not a programmer.

You can think of Steam as their package manager, that lets you buy, download, install and run games.

Valve's game engine is called Source. Steam is, as said, their store.

It's a big deal though even for people who never touch a game in their life. It means that Linux is suddenly being noticed/taken seriously as an entertainment platform. The knock-on effect is a huge boost for Linux on "the desktop".

For Valve it opens up the possibility of growing a gaming market on a platform that can later be transplanted onto a dedicated piece of gaming hardware - a console/media center. They have been hiring hardware people as of late, and claim that it's for ARS wearable computing, but that just sounds too silly, especially considering Google rolling out a product like that soon.