Valve focuses first on Ubuntu with Linux support Steam

Valve is initially targeting Ubuntu 12.04 with its Linux port of Steam and Left 4 Dead 2. The game developer’s Linux team has Steam and Left 4 Dead running and aims to provide the same functionality and performance as the Windows versions.

Valve focuses on Ubuntu first because development is easier and faster with a defined test environment of a single distribution. In addition, Ubuntu was chosen because this is a popular distribution.

The progress of the Steam and Left 4 Dead 2 port to Linux is being tracked on a new blog from the game developer. The announcements follow confirmation that Valve is working on Linux versions during a visit by website Phoronix in April.

The team is working to keep the Linux variants in line with the versions for Windows. For example, Steam under Linux gets all the functionality that is available on Microsoft’s operating system. According to Valve, most of the features are already working and an internal beta will be launched soon to test automatic updating and compatibility.

Since the Steam client without games offers little added value, Valve is also working on a port of Left 4 Dead 2. Although the horror game has been running natively under Linux for some time, there is still work to be done on improving the performance. Ultimately, the team wants the game’s Linux port to perform as well as it does on Windows.

When the Linux version of Steam and Left 4 Dead 2 will be released is not yet known. Valve does promise to transfer other games from its catalog to Linux after Left 4 Dead 2 .