On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 8:40 PM, Remco remco47@gmail.com wrote:
The binary was not given to Phoronix. They found a link to the Linux version in a shell script for the Mac version. It is still available, and the binaries are periodically updated by Valve.
http://store.steampowered.com/public/client/steam_client_linux
If you run the following shell code in an empty directory, it will download and fix a bug the Linux Steam client so that it will actually show a (nonworking) GUI. You'll need bspatch installed for this to work.
http://pastie.org/private/4ryiocqxbea8uq8dgexg
All of this clearly shows that Valve is working on a Linux GUI of the Steam store, and not a Linux server tool. I ask that you don't do any further hacking on these binaries, nor host them yourself, because this is not free software. You can't just redistribute it. Besides, the goal was to investigate whether Valve was working on Steam for Linux, there's nothing more to see here.
Again, this is nothing new. Valve ran a closed trial of a native Steam client back in 05 (iirc) and all this time there have been strings and Linux compiled object files included with the Win32 Steam. It would be silly to assume they haven't had a hobby project of Steam natively on Linux since then as they have the team with the skills (for the server work). Now that they have a client that works with Mac you can be sure they have one for Linux. How ever a hobby and an actual release are two very different things.
Phoronix has been on this dead horse so long there is no point getting our hopes up until Valve speak.
As for your doom and gloom 'don't touch this golden goose' rubbish. The binaries are freely distributed under license and completely unrestricted to download and redistribute (without modification). We can do what ever we want as long as there EULA isn't broken. I can host it if I wish as can any one else. Plus, for some reason you assume it's okay to 'hack' on these to take a sneak peak but after that you draw the line? Your morality is out of whack.