Hooray! Your Linux box just got slightly more awesome with the addition of Portal to Steam’s Ubuntu-friendly collection, if you’re in the beta. Portal is Steamplay compatible so if you, like practically everyone else on Steam, already own a copy you may be able to just go ahead and install it without coughing up USD$9.99 for it.

In less substantiated but maybe more exciting news, sequel Portal 2 has been spotted haunting some parts of the Steam Linux store, as spotted by Gearburn. We haven’t seen it ourselves, unfortunately, but even if it’s complete moonshine you can probably expect it to be true eventually, as Valve seems hellbent on getting every Source engine game running on the alternate OS.

Source: PCGamesN

The news that Steam was now officially available for Linux has seemingly empowered many would-be Linux gamers around the world to get their act together, as the latest Steam Hardware Survey shows.

The results, posted by Valve, show an uptake in Linux usage from a combined 0.8% (across all Linux distros) to 2.02%, indicating a more-than-doubling over the total number of Linux users. Of course its only a mere percentage point when compared to the juggernaut that is Windows 7, but such a quick uptake in such a small time is undeniably impressive.

Speaking of Windows 7, that juggernaut has taken a very small downturn, dropping down to 69% of total users. Windows 8 however has made gains, indicating that perhaps gamers aren’t as opposed to the new OS as reports may have indicated.

Source: Steam via PC Gamer

Welcome to the Friday Tech Roundup! Contained herein is a weekly dose of some of the best tech news from across the internet, rounded up for your edification and entertainment. Read on for all the details of how Google is getting ready to deploy their new Glass tech in a public test (for an enormous price), more on the upcoming stoush between AMD and Intel, and how one day — maybe soon — we’ll actually be able to lick the internet.

Valve have officially announced the release of Steam for Linux, following months of beta testing. The client is now available to download from the Ubuntu software Centre.

To celebrate, Valve are holding a sale on all Linux games until 5AM AEDT on February 22. You can pick up Amnesia: The Dark Descent for $5, the original Half-Life for a paltry $2.50, or Bastion for just $3.75, among others.

Team Fortress 2 players who play from their Linux installs of the game will receive a free Tux item for use as well, so get cracking! That offer is only valid until the end of the month.

Source: Steam

A report from German tech site Golem.de indicates that Valve’s upcoming living room Steam Box is set to use Linux, and is slated for an official reveal this year.

According to the German site, Valve engineer Ben Krasnow confirmed at an event recently that the box would run on Linux only, and not include a Windows install — perhaps not an unsurprising decision given the licensing fees that would be involved in Windows, but interesting to have confirmation nevertheless.

Krasnow also hinted at more “secret projects” in the pipeline for 2013 that Valve was very excited to reveal. More information is expected to be announced at the GDC this year in March, or later at E3.

Source: Golem.de via N4G

Valve are very happily announcing that the Steam for Linux beta is now open for everybody to enjoy. This isn’t a final release of the Linux client, but is a great opportunity for Linux gamers to start getting their game on, and just before Christmas too.

A catalogue of Linux-supported games is now available to browse, including titles like Team Fortress 2, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Serious Sam 3: BFE and Trine 2. If you’d like to chat with other users, head over to the Steam for Linux Community Group, or submit bugs via the GitHub repository.

NVIDIA users can grab the latest drivers for Linux here.

Source: Thanks to Ken for the tip!

The Humble THQ Bundle, which can only be described as a rip-roaring success, has caused THQ’s CEO Jason Rubin to expand his platform horizons.

Asked over Twitter whether the company would consider Linux support, Rubin replied that THQ had “Got the Linux message loud and clear via #HumbleBundle feedback. Evaluating cost/benefit as we speak.”

Though this is far from actual confirmation of a Linux release, THQ adding official support for Linux would bring it in behind Valve, who have been recently leading the charge on all things Linux- and gaming-related. It seems things are looking up for Linux gamers!

Source: PCGamesN

Valve’s Linux support for Steam rolls inexorably closer, and now Linux site OMG! Ubuntu have spotted that several games have begun to list Linux system requirements.

PC Gamer notes that the Linux requirements seem to only be visible on Linux operating systems, and screenshots taken for games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent list components like Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Mint 13 LTS, or Fedora 16, fully updated, as their OS. TechGage has screenshots showing the requirements for games like Serious Sam BFE.

It’s also widely speculated that the Steam Box living-room-console-PC, whose existence was yesterday confirmed by Gabe Newell, will use Linux as its backbone.

Source: PC Gamer

There’s a lot going on in the world of Linux gaming today, with Steam not only announcing that the closed beta for which it was seeking participants has now begun, but NVIDIA rolling out a whole new set of drivers specifically for Linux owners.

Valve’s announcement confirms that their flagship Team Fortress 2 is now fully Linux-compatible, along with about two dozen other Steam titles. Also confirmed was the news that Valve is looking at support for Linux distros other than Ubuntu 12.04, saying “We intend to support additional popular distros in the future; we’ll prioritize development for these based on user feedback.”

Meanwhile, NVIDIA have announced that their R310 drivers are now available for Linux, giving “double the performance” for Linux users of their cards. Valve are pretty happy about it too, saying “NVIDIA took an unquestioned leadership position developing R310 drivers with us and other studios to provide an absolutely unequalled solution for Linux gamers.”

The R310 drivers support the latest 600 series of NVIDIA cards and can of course be downloaded from NVIDIA’s site.

Source: Steam, NVIDIA

Valve has begun its beta test for the upcoming Steam client for Linux. For this first beta test, Valve are specifically asking for experienced Linux users, because this first test release includes only the core system and one game. Newbie Linux users are being urged to wait until the next release to take part in the survey, which we can assume will be more fleshed out.

If you feel you fit the criteria of an ‘experienced’ user, or just want to go ahead and do it anyway, you can apply for a position in the beta over here. If you do try it out, do let us know how it goes — either here in the comments or over at the forum. Or both! Ctrl+C/V are your friends.

Source: Game Informer

Only last month it was suggested that Valve were getting ready to deploy the Linux version of Steam, as indicated by some files uncovered in the Steam Database. Now less than a full month later, members of the Ubuntu dev community think the software is ready to go live in a matter of days.

The sharpshooters over at OMGUbuntu made the spot, noticing Valve’s BryceH seeking help in an Ubuntu IRC channel.

“Could an archive or SRU admin accept nvidia-common and jockey from the upload queue? These are needed for the Valve Steam release that happens in a few days,” reads the message. Whoops! Accidental slip-up? Or intentional leak?

Source: PCGamer

Steam is about to get a lot bigger and better, assuming you have a big-screen TV or are a Linux user. A detailed report on Valve posted in The New York Times claims that “on Monday, the company will begin a public test of a new television-friendly interface, Big Picture, for buying Steam games and playing them on computers in the living room.”

As it’s Monday now, we can presume this means U.S. Monday — so fire it up on Tuesday morning and see what’s cracking.

Meanwhile, files discovered in the Steam Database reveal an entry for the Linux beta, suggesting very strongly that the beta for the Linux version of the platform will be with us very shortly.

Source: PCGamesN (and again)