I don't feel like digging up the previous topic if there was one. But how does Steam run on linux? As I mentioned in another topic, I'm thinking of giving my brother a Steam account for Christmas preloaded with some Linux friendly games.

So my questions are besides the above
How does it run on Ubuntu derivatives such as Mint? His version of linux is running on mint.
Any recommendations from the linux section of what games I should get him? His friends have gotten him into fps.

Thanks guys.

Maybe this will help:


http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/11/valve-opens-steam-for-unbuntu-to-first-wave-of-beta-testers/

It's a work in progress. Expect to do some tinkering if you want to get it running on anything but Ubuntu. My Radeon 7770 with FGLRX doesn't perform anywhere near as well as it does in Windows but that's FGLRX for you.

Good Steam Linux FPS:
TF2 (runs great)
Killing Floor ( I love this game)
Serious Sam 3

Steam is distributed as a deb now that it's open beta. They also have a repository you can add on your apt repository list. I'm not sure if their repositories work with non Ubuntu (like Mint) builds but Mint is close enough with Ubuntu that it has a good chance of operating.

Download the deb package from Steam's website and install it. Run Steam and wait for it to update/install. That should really be it.

Should be a good place to go to for some info and discussion on it.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410

Serious Sam and TF2 are probably no brainer choices for shooters.

Thank you, but that wasn't what I was looking for. It doesn't explain how it runs, and the comments only speculate on if Steam will be ported to other distros. I'm not afraid of a little tinkering but my brother is not all that tech savvy. I thought the Killing Floor and Serious Sam looks up his alley :) ty, I'll check it out

The Windows version of Steam requires Wine to run, isn't Distro dependent.

There is a Ubuntu native version currently in beta that you could also try, there are a few tutorials around about installing that, so I will leave that to them. It should still run on most Debian based distro's with minimal tweaking.

You can filter games in Steam now to show only Linux games.

What exactly do you mean by how it runs? I have it running right now and it's fine. I think that you need the proprietary drivers, particularly the latest driver iterations from nvidia and amd which include some very significant OpenGL optimizations for the games.

If you stick to native Linux games that are available on Steam, then you can go with any of the options mentioned above for games. If you want Windows only games, then you have to install the Windows version through Wine. Check out PlayOnLinux and Winetricks (which automates the Steam install for you).

Great, that is the type of response I'm looking for ^^

I know that the linux version of some programs are not the most friendly for non-techies. Is this the case for the Steam, or is it still intuitive to use? My brother does not know a lot about technology.

thank you, it looks like something my brother can handle once I take care of the initial install and setting things up