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Steam Linux beta begins, list of games grows

"This is a huge milestone in the development of PC gaming" - Newell.

Imagine the booming voice of Brian Blessed and read: a limited access beta test for Steam on Linux has begun!

The list of games available has grown quickly to 26. Among them Dungeons of Dredmoor, Frozen Synapse, Trine 2. Larger games include Team Fortress 2 and Serious Sam 3: BFE. There's no sign of Left 4 Dead 2, but we know Valve to be working hard adapting it for Linux.

Perhaps Brian Blessed and Gabe Newell should merge into one extra-superhuman being.

The beta will begin with a fistful - 1000 - of testers but widen as days and weeks roll by. Valve said 60,000 people filled out the survey required for participation.

Linux - Ubuntu 12.04 - support arrives as Microsoft introduces Windows 8 to the world. On one hand there's a historically open environment, on the other an increasingly closed platform. Valve's Gabe Newell has been one of the most high profile critics of Windows 8 - was Linux Steam support fast-tracked because of it?

"This is a huge milestone in the development of PC gaming," said Gabe Newell of the Linux beta launch.

"Steam users have been asking us to support gaming on Linux. We're happy to bring rich forms of entertainment and our community of users to this open, customer-friendly platform."