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Canonical announced some time ago their Steam Snap which was promoted as stable with Ubuntu 23.04, as they continue to push their own packaging format with Snap but it seems this has been causing problems for Valve.
Not really, usually Steam packages on distributions aren’t maintained by Valve. The only exception are .debs from their website. Even the Steam flatpak is community maintained.
I’ve had no issues with steam on nixos/nixpkgs. Flatpak also had it’s fair share of bugs and games not working because of flatpak and proton using bubblewrap for sandboxing. Snaps sandboxing might cause those issues too, so hopefully they’ll be fixed at some point (or even better, Ubuntu switches to flatpak for desktop apps).
I know it’s because it’s horribly insecure, but it’s kinda funny that fucking winget of all things is one of the only package managers that install Steam without issue.
P.S. I’m a hybrid Windows/Linux user, pls don’t kill me
Edit: insecure and barely a package manager, but works roughly like one for an end user
How would I check which version I have installed? I just used Fedora software to install. I’ll have to check when I get home. Haven’t had issues, though, so probably not worth the trouble.
On Fedora you could do flatpak list --app to look whether Steam is installed as a flatpak. If not it’s installed through dnf, but that can be tested by running dnf list installed | grep -i steam. You could also open Fedora Software and I believe in the top right is a button to select where a package should come from. There’d be the option to choose between flatpak or rpm. Another way to test is to open a terminal and type in steam. If Steam opens, it’s a rpm, if the command is not available, it’s a flatpak (you’d need to use flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam, iirc).
Packaging software is usually not that difficult, especially if it’s already packaged in another packaging format. E.g. .deb and .rpm put the same files in similar places, the difference is mainly how It’s specified where a file goes. Because Snap and flatpak are providing a sandbox, complex software like Steam can behaves unexpectedly (fixed a few years ago for flatpak).
tl;dr
You’re right, it’s not worth the effort. Both rpm and flatpak should work flawlessly. If multiple games actually have issues running trying out a different package might help, but I didn’t have issues for many years, so you probably won’t either.
The article also is too favorable for Valve and doesn’t mention alternative methods. The billion dollar company should allow people to install games on their browsers. The client is nothing but an analytics and tracker. There’s no benefit, just like there’s no benefit in XBox or PS4/5 achievements or their features.
You’re kidding right? The Steam client is overflowing with features, beyond the nice and simple mod manager, multiplayey systems for easy joining it also has a full featured discord alternative inside the chat system with voice and text chat and I think even screen sharing. To compare it to Xbox achievements is just insane for how much the steam client provides.
XBox does the sane thing, why do you think it costs money to play multiplayer. Steam multiplayer isn’t even used because corporations have their own servers. The Client really is useless as it’s just a copy of XBox/PS+
Why is it Valves responsibility to provide alternative install methods? If you genuinely believe it isn’t providing value just don’t use Steam to buy games if you don’t want to install using it.
I would argue this is the most important sentence in this article.
Not really, usually Steam packages on distributions aren’t maintained by Valve. The only exception are .debs from their website. Even the Steam flatpak is community maintained.
I’ve had no issues with steam on nixos/nixpkgs. Flatpak also had it’s fair share of bugs and games not working because of flatpak and proton using bubblewrap for sandboxing. Snaps sandboxing might cause those issues too, so hopefully they’ll be fixed at some point (or even better, Ubuntu switches to flatpak for desktop apps).
I know it’s because it’s horribly insecure, but it’s kinda funny that fucking winget of all things is one of the only package managers that install Steam without issue.
P.S. I’m a hybrid Windows/Linux user, pls don’t kill me
Edit: insecure and barely a package manager, but works roughly like one for an end user
How would I check which version I have installed? I just used Fedora software to install. I’ll have to check when I get home. Haven’t had issues, though, so probably not worth the trouble.
On Fedora you could do
flatpak list --appto look whether Steam is installed as a flatpak. If not it’s installed through dnf, but that can be tested by runningdnf list installed | grep -i steam. You could also open Fedora Software and I believe in the top right is a button to select where a package should come from. There’d be the option to choose between flatpak or rpm. Another way to test is to open a terminal and type insteam. If Steam opens, it’s a rpm, if the command is not available, it’s a flatpak (you’d need to useflatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam, iirc).Packaging software is usually not that difficult, especially if it’s already packaged in another packaging format. E.g. .deb and .rpm put the same files in similar places, the difference is mainly how It’s specified where a file goes. Because Snap and flatpak are providing a sandbox, complex software like Steam can behaves unexpectedly (fixed a few years ago for flatpak).
tl;dr
You’re right, it’s not worth the effort. Both rpm and flatpak should work flawlessly. If multiple games actually have issues running trying out a different package might help, but I didn’t have issues for many years, so you probably won’t either.
Awesome, thanks for the info!
This time they said if you don’t want the deb to use flatpak.
Actually it’s Valves responsibility to tell the snap packager to kindly fuck off and don’t fuck this up for us.
Ive only had issues with the snap or Flatpack versions. At least the Flatpack one is open source.
Fwiw, the steam snap is open source
The article also is too favorable for Valve and doesn’t mention alternative methods. The billion dollar company should allow people to install games on their browsers. The client is nothing but an analytics and tracker. There’s no benefit, just like there’s no benefit in XBox or PS4/5 achievements or their features.
You’re kidding right? The Steam client is overflowing with features, beyond the nice and simple mod manager, multiplayey systems for easy joining it also has a full featured discord alternative inside the chat system with voice and text chat and I think even screen sharing. To compare it to Xbox achievements is just insane for how much the steam client provides.
XBox does the sane thing, why do you think it costs money to play multiplayer. Steam multiplayer isn’t even used because corporations have their own servers. The Client really is useless as it’s just a copy of XBox/PS+
Bad decisions from MS with the original xbl that were copied by the entire industry mostly.
How should that work?
Why is it Valves responsibility to provide alternative install methods? If you genuinely believe it isn’t providing value just don’t use Steam to buy games if you don’t want to install using it.