Last Thursday Valve released steam for Linux, which is great news! Since then I’ve been waiting for a chance to try Steam on Linux. My desktop computer however, was not cooperating. It turned out my power supply unit was broken. Since last Monday I have a new PSU, so I was able to try it out!

Starting the Ubuntu Software Center gives a big banner that demands some attention. So I clicked it, and pressed install. For some reason I was asked to log in with my Launchpad account, after which my (free) “purchase” was complete.

After downloading an update and creating an account I was in!

Bastion

The first game I tried after reading some positive reviews was Bastion. First off, it worked without a glitch. The only thing that didn’t work was the trailer of the game, and it provided windows instructions on how to fix it. Anyway, the game was nice to play.

At the start I thought that I was looking at a movie intro, but that was actually part of the game. One thing that bugged me a bit was the fact that I was unable to change the resolution, the screen was available but the options were grayed out.

After playing a bit I also started downloading Team Fortress 2, but at the time of writing it’s still pending.

Try Steam on Linux

Personally I’ve never tried Steam on Windows or Mac, so I can’t compare between the different versions, but what I saw seemed complete. For instance, I was able to pay with iDEAL, so a specific feature only for the Netherlands was functional. Because of the introduction there are even some interesting offers.

I was impressed with the usability, it’s really a first place citizen in the ecosystem. So in short: if you run Linux, try Steam on Linux and support Linux gaming!