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Valve release an official statement about the future of Linux support, they "remain committed" to Linux gaming

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Gaming

After the recent upset caused by Canonical's plan to drop 32bit support in Ubuntu, then to turn around and change their plan due to the uproar caused by it, Valve now have a full statement out about their future support of Linux gaming.

Firstly, to get it out of the way, there's nothing to worry about here. Valve said they "remain committed to supporting Linux as a gaming platform", they're also "continuing to drive numerous driver and feature development efforts that we expect will help improve the gaming and desktop experience across all distributions" which they plan to talk more about later.

On the subject of Canonical's newer plan for Ubuntu 19.10 and onwards in regards to 32bit support, Valve said they're "not particularly excited about the removal of any existing functionality, but such a change to the plan is extremely welcome" and that it "seems likely that we will be able to continue to officially support Steam on Ubuntu".

Read more

Also: Steam Play updated as Proton 4.2-8 is out, DXVK also sees a new release with 1.2.3

Original and more coverage

  • Update on Steam, Ubuntu, and 32-bit support

    There has been a lot of news and discussion over the weekend on the topic of Steam on Linux and officially supported and recommended distributions. For those not in the loop, last week the Ubuntu project announced their intent to change how they're approaching 32-bit library support for future Ubuntu versions[discourse.ubuntu.com]. Following that announcement, we made a statement that Ubuntu 19.10 wouldn't be officially supported or recommended to our users going forward. As the Ubuntu project indicated, they let us know of their intent and walked us through the details earlier this month, which was much appreciated. We don't think it is unreasonable that they would want to take steps that are in the best interests of the project. That being said, we don't think it's an especially positive move for Steam and gaming-oriented customers who rely on this support.

    To provide some background, support for 32-bit libraries is required in order to run not only the Steam client, but also the thousands of games available on Steam that only support 32-bit environments. Enabling the Steam client to run in pure 64-bit environments, while feasible, would leave the vast majority of the current Steam library inaccessible to such users without an additional compatibility layer. Ensuring that all games a user owns remain fully playable wherever possible is a core principle of Steam, and we don't believe any solution that arbitrarily splits a user's library would be acceptable.

  • Valve Reaffirms Commitment To Linux While Also Releasing Updated Proton

    Following all the drama caused by Canonical announcing last week they'd stop their 32-bit archive with Ubuntu 19.10 and that leading to a mess of concerns including Valve saying they would not be officially supporting Ubuntu 19.10 and later, today they issued a statement reaffirming their commitment to Linux.

    Pierre-Loup Griffais, the longtime Valve Linux developer who last week said they would not be officially supporting Ubuntu 19.10 and later, penned a post on the Steam Community board today providing more insight and praising more distribution choices compared to when Steam on Linux first started.

Joey Sneddon's article about it

  • Valve Say Steam WILL Support Ubuntu 19.10

    Ubuntu gamers can breathe a sigh of relief as Valve has confirmed that Steam for Linux WILL support Ubuntu 19.10.

    Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais says Ubuntu’s recent rethink over plans to axe its i386/32-bit archive means it is “…likely that we will be able to continue to officially support Steam on Ubuntu.”

    Hurrah!

    The confirmation follows several days of high drama in the Linux Community, all resulting from Ubuntu’s initials plan to retire its 32-bit archive in the upcoming October release.

    It was that decision — which had been discussed by Ubuntu developers for some time — that stunned many. It resulted in a jaw-dropping tweet from a Valve developer, who announced that “Ubuntu 19.10 and future releases will not be officially supported by Steam or recommended to our users”.

Valve Now Says Steam Will “Likely” Support Ubuntu 19.10

  • Valve Now Says Steam Will “Likely” Support Ubuntu 19.10

    While Valve isn’t thrilled about Ubuntu’s likely plan to drop compatibility with legacy 32-bit software after Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, there are no immediate changes to announce. Linux gamers can keep using the next few releases of Ubuntu to run Steam’s library of games. The community has been heard.

Valve To Work With More Distros To Improve Linux Gaming

  • Valve To Work With More Distros To Improve Linux Gaming

    As a part of the ongoing Ubuntu-Steam spectacle, Valve has published a new update on their website. The Steam-maker company has reaffirmed its plans to continue to support Linux gamers and work with leading Linux distributions that are known to be popular among gamers.

    Starting with Ubuntu, Valve has confirmed that it will continue to support Steam officially on Ubuntu. “It seems likely that we will be able to continue to officially support Steam on Ubuntu,” Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais wrote in the update. This statement comes after Ubuntu decided to ditch its plans to retire the 32-bit packages starting with the upcoming Ubuntu 19.10 release.

Steam will to officially support Ubuntu

  • Steam will 'likely be able to continue' to officially support Ubuntu

    Earlier this week, Valve raised concerns around Ubuntu and Canonical’s plan to remove 32-bit software support. Valve said that it would need to drop support for the popular Linux distro if this happened and would need to begin recommending something else for users. Since then, Canonical has said that it will change plans and work to support certain 32-bit libraries based on community feedback, which means Valve will “likely be able to” continue supporting the OS.

    In an update post on the Steam for Linux discussion board, Valve’s Pierre Loup provided some background on the situation and talked about why dropping 32-bit support would be an issue. While Steam itself could run in pure 64-bit environments, removing 32-bit support entirely would “leave the vast majority of the current Steam library inaccessible” without an additional compatibility layer. Valve has been investigating ways to avoid 32-bit system dependencies within Steam for a while now but if 19.10 released without any 32-bit compatibility, Valve would need to “fully complete such a system in the 19.10 release time frame” and would require “fundamental change in Steam’s runtime environment”. The end result would have been a confusing and messy experience for end users.

Valve to continue Steam gaming on Ubuntu Linux

  • Valve to continue Steam gaming on Ubuntu Linux

    When Canonical announced that, beginning with October's Ubuntu 19.10 release, 32-bit -computer support would be dropped, it didn't expect there would be much blowback. It was wrong. Developers and users, especially of Steam games, threw fits. So, Canonical, makers of Ubuntu Linux, reversed course and asserted it wouldn't drop 32-bit software support in Ubuntu 19.10 and 20.04 LTS after all.

    So, everything's back to normal, yes? No.

    True, Valve will continue to support Ubuntu. But Ubuntu will no longer be called out as "as the best-supported path for desktop users." Instead, Valve is re-thinking how it wants to approach distribution support going forward. There are several distributions on the market today that offer a great gaming desktop experience such as Arch Linux, Manjaro, Pop!_OS, Fedora, and many others.

Canonical Backtracks On Pulling Of 32-bit Packages in Ubuntu

  • Canonical Backtracks On Pulling Of 32-bit Packages in Ubuntu Linux

    Last weekend, there was a huge uproar in the Linux community aimed towards Canonical and its decision to pull support for 32-bit libraries, after Ubuntu announced it would end support for 32-bit applications, starting with its next release.

    The decision was not well-received, especially by the gaming community, and Valve announced plans to drop support for Ubuntu in Steam.

    However, Canonical confirmed on Monday that following feedback from the community, it was clear that there is still a demand, and indeed a need for 32-bit binaries, and as such, it will provide “selected” builds for both Ubuntu 19.10 and the forthcoming Ubuntu 20.04.

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