Valve’s CEO Gabe Newell made headlines when he trashed Windows 8 in the media. He blamed Microsoft for removing one of the PC’s greatest assets – its openness – and replacing it with an unfamiliar interface. As a result, Newell said that his company would begin developing games for Linux as opposed to only Windows operating systems.
Well, Gabe wasn’t kidding. The Steam for Linux beta has gone live and entered testing with a whopping 26 titles already included. Those titles include the massively popular Team Fortress 2 as well as Amnesia: The Dark Descent, World of Goo, and plenty of other games.
Steam for Linux also supports Big Picture mode, Steam’s interface system designed for those who use larger TVs to play Steam games or watch movies.
Gabe also got a parting shot at Windows in his press release, stating:
“…We’re happy to bring rich forms of entertainment and our community of users to this open, customer-friendly platform.”

Although Microsoft has prided itself for building Windows 8 with the customer in mind, it looks like Gabe disagrees. You don’t have to read too far between the lines to realize that Gabe doesn’t think much of Windows 8.

How to get Steam for Linux today

Steam for Linux is currently optimized for Ubuntu 12.04, which is the most popular and stable Linux distro available today. Once Valve has tweaked their platform during the beta testing phase, the program will become available (for free) to all Ubuntu users. Gabe hasn’t said whether or not Steam for Linux would make its way to other Linux distros as well.
If you want to help Valve test Steam for Linux, then you can fill out an application form here. Valve is looking for experienced Linux users only, so if you’re just looking for a little Team Fortress 2 action on your Linux system, then you’ll have to wait until the general release at some point in the near future.