We recently touched on one way of being a Linux gamer. Recent news that Valve Software will soon be releasing a Linux client promises to provide another option for Linux gamers. The news could not come at a better time as the world will shortly focus on gaming with the upcoming, industry-only E3 conference, the crown jewel of the gaming industry.

While there are still no details on the list of game titles that will be available, the announcement alone is reason for any Linux gamer to get excited. Steam is a content delivery system for gamers which allows you to buy and download game titles and related media, once you have the client installed.

This journey started three years ago, in September 2007, with a job posting by Valve Software for a Senior Software Engineer where one of the responsibilities was to "port Windows-based games to the Linux platform." Steam was unveiled to the public on March 22, 2002 at the Game Developer's Conference. Valve Software approached both Microsoft & Yahoo about partnering with them in building the platform but both declined, forcing Valve to develop the content delivery system from scratch. In March of this year, Valve announced that Steam, which had only been available on Windows, would also be available on Mac OS X. On May 12th, Steam for Mac was released to the public with over 50 games available for the client. Valve sweetened the pot by making Portal a free download (until May 24th), for both Mac and Windows clients. Shortly after the Steam for Mac OS X announcement, Phoronix broke the story by finding Linux-related references in the beta client of Steam for Mac. Since then, Valve has also confirmed that it will make Steam available to Linux users in the coming months.

Be sure to check back, as we will be having an in-depth look at the Steam on Linux client as soon as it is released.