Steam For Linux

Nowadays, when we think of games, we inevitably think of Steam, Valve's digital game distribution service.

Launched in 2003 as a way for the company to provide quick and efficient updates for their in-house titles, the service has since expanded to include third-party publishers, and that is how Steam became what it is today.

The steam client is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Even though  Linux distributions are not exactly known for their game support prowess, Steam offers a few games for Linux as well.

Steam is without a shadow of a doubt a behemoth in today's gaming world. It's a very nice place for gaming enthusiasts where they can play (including tons of free games), discuss, and buy thousands of titles (from simple indie or arcade games to insanely complex AAA names).

Speaking of buying games, Steam offers gamers the ability to preorder upcoming titles (even though this method is not without a series of risks). Another great feature of Steam is the fact that there are tons of recommendations. For example, you can check the Trending Among Friends section to see what your buddies are playing, as well as the Special Offers, Recently Updated, or Steam Curators.

The whole community-related features are great too. You can read a lot of more or less useful reviews (needless to say, one should stay away from Native and Overwhelmingly Negative games).

Steam's engine does a decent job at handling all the automatic game download and installation procedures. Another important aspect to mention is the fact that Steam relies heavily on DRM. This means that users must log in to their Steam accounts to establish a license check (and don't worry about not having a stable Internet connection, you can play games in Offline Mode).

Games can be installed on multiple devices (computers), but you can only log into one account at a time. Better yet, with the help of Steam's Family Share, you can even lend games to other users (up to 5 users). Last but not least, Steam also features a parental control feature that should help you provide the best possible gaming environment for your child/children.

During the latest years, there have been tons of discussions regarding Steam's customer service. It's nothing to point guns towards, but it can be somewhat frustrating.

Of course, you can submit help tickets that can be resolved anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days. A couple of days for a problem that involves a user having spent money and not getting access to his or her game is a lot.

However, by far the biggest issue most gamers have with steam has nothing to do with the customer service, but with the GUI. Not only does the GUI looks and feels like something designed 20 years ago (which it was), but everything is so "busy" with tons of small buttons and fonts, and even smaller option menus.

Last but not least, Steam lacks built-in video capture tools which are somewhat a must-have in this day and age.

Even on Linux, Steam is a great place to be despite all the aforementioned drawbacks. Even though the selection of Linux games is not huge, at least you know that you can buy and read about games on a secure platform that has a very good reputation to back up its services.