by[MyIS]Zips
07-16-2012

The Valve Linux blog has its first entry today with word that the first Linux title from Steam will be Left 4 Dead 2. The team's primary objective right now is to ensure a smooth gameplay experience of Left 4 Dead 2 on Ubuntu 12.04, and to have it perform "as well as it performs under Windows."



Why Ubuntu? There are a couple of reasons for that. First, we’re just starting development and working with a single distribution is critical when you are experimenting, as we are. It reduces the variability of the testing space and makes early iteration easier and faster. Secondly, Ubuntu is a popular distribution and has recognition with the general gaming and developer communities. This doesn’t mean that Ubuntu will be the only distribution we support. Based on the success of our efforts around Ubuntu, we will look at supporting other distributions in the future.

After successfully porting L4D2 to Ubuntu, interest grew within Valve and, as a result, the team and projects we were working on also grew. Currently, our focus is on the following projects:
- getting the Steam client onto Linux with full functionality
- optimizing a version of L4D2 running at a high frame rate with OpenGL
- porting additional Valve titles

Ultimately, the goal of the Linux team is to bring a full featured Linux Steam client over and to fully port over Left 4 Dead 2. No release date for either the Steam client nor Left 4 Dead 2 on Linux has been revealed, but rest assured that they won't be giving up any time soon.