Steam just got better on Linux! Valve has released a new beta of the Steam client that includes a number of new features and improvements for Linux users. The biggest change is that the Steam client now supports multiple monitors. This means you can now have your main window on one monitor and your game windows on another monitor, or even have them side-by-side. This is great for multi-tasking and makes it much easier to keep track of what’s going on in your game. Another big improvement is the way Steam handles video playback. Now, if you have a video playing in the background while you’re playing a game, Steam will pause the game and let you continue watching the video without having to quit and restart the game. This is great for keeping kids occupied while you finish up a level or race against time in a game. There are also several smaller improvements included in this beta release, including better support for keyboard shortcuts, faster startup times, and more reliable chat functionality. If you’re a Linux user and want to try out these new features, head over to the beta page on Steam and sign up for the test program! ..
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, partnered with Valve earlier this year to create a containerized ‘Snap’ package for Steam. The Snap package bundles Steam with all required graphics and API libraries in one easy download for any Linux distribution that supports Snap — including Ubuntu, KDE Neon, Debian, Fedora, Pop!_OS, and others.
Canonical has now rolled out updates to the Steam Snap. The main improvement is that Steam games will use bleeding-edge versions of the Mesa graphics library, provided by the popular “Oibaf” repository. Canonical said in a blog post, “this means your games will be able to take advantage of bleeding edge Mesa libraries without impacting the stability of your system or the overhead of adding the PPA and re-enabling after upgrading.”
There are more updates for the Snap package on the way, too. Canonical is working on migrating the Mesa libraries to a content Snap, so they can be managed independently of Steam — for example, you could choose the older stable drivers if you run into problems with newer versions. The Proton compatibility layer for running Windows games will also be enabled by default at some point.
Snap packages are still controversial, since they aren’t fully an open standard (Canonical controls the only Snap ‘app store’), and can have performance and usability drawbacks. However, Steam and installed games seem like the perfect use case for container technology like Snap — games rarely need access to external files, and non-games software usually doesn’t need bleeding-edge graphics drivers.
Steam is available from Snapcraft. If you still don’t like Snap, or your Linux distro doesn’t have it installed, Steam is still available as a regular Debian package. There’s also a community-developed Flatpak version, ideal for distributions not based on Debian.
Source: Ubuntu
