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Steam on Linux
I’ve always avoided Wine, a Windows-compatibility layer for Linux, based upon the reported unreliability of applications run using it. By this I mean that if you read through the AppDB, which lists applications that work/don’t work with Wine, almost every application sort of partially works with some hacks.
Today I decided to test out running Steam, an application for downloading many popular games, under Wine to see for myself how it worked.
Installing Wine (I choose the beta version from Wine’s repositories) was no different from installing any other application. I quickly proceeded to install Steam. From some guides I learned that I had to move some fonts, but that was fairly simple.
While the installation went without any problems, the store part does not appear to work, meaning that you will have to buy games from a Windows computer.
Since I already had a couple of games waiting, I went ahead and installed Call of Duty 4. As has been pointed out, the PunkBuster anti-cheat system doesn’t work, so you can’t play on PunkBuster-enabled servers, but otherwise everything works just fine, though with some performance hit.
Next I tried to install Unreal Tournament 3 Black. This game didn’t work anywhere near as well as Call of Duty 4. I got as far as the EULA screen, before things got messed up. No text appeared where the EULA should have been and no matter what I did Steam froze up and had to be killed.
Just like the AppDB indicates, applications are very hit or miss with Wine, but I would still encourage you to try it. It is very possible that whatever application you want to install works just fine, and if it doesn’t you can just uninstall it.
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I don’t purchase windows programs unless they are listed gold or platinum in the wine app database.
Even then it’s not 100% perfect but generally I’m happy with how well these programs run.
I’ve been running more and more native applications this last year. I switched rather than go for Vista or wait for Windows 7. I’m also unhappy with Microsoft DRM so there were several reasons for looking at alternatives for my OS.
As far as Native goes, I’ve purchased many native commercial programs and games for Linux this last year. This includes a few games such as Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake 4, Neverwinter Nights and Prey to name a few. For Windows I’ve purchased several copies of Counterstrike Source and Team Fortress 2 which run well under WINE. Also we have Warcraft III and Star Trek Armada and Starcraft 1 running just fine.
In addition there are a number of really fun OSS games out there. Nexuiz, Warzone 2100, Tremelous Alien Arena and World of Padman are incredible. They also have a Windows client so you can play on either platform.
Lan parties at my house are fun
Steam is not the end-all and be-all of the Wine project.
i usually recommend better to use playonlinux, it has a list of working apps/games and does any “patching or tweak” for u to get them working the best possible