There's a big linux community here, so I thought I'd let everyone know that Steam is now available on Linux and there's currently a sale on all Linux compatible games (valid until 21 February 2013).
If you're not already familiar with Steam, it's basically a large store and management application for games (and perhaps other types of programs in the future). While technically a mode of DRM, I could argue that it's the most versatile DRM. Buy the game once, play on any system it supports and install it on any number of computers. Of course, you can only have one person logged into a Steam account at once, which is very reasonable (we can't have all games free). Steam tends to be a lot more reasonable with its prices than most other sources. Sales are common, with games often being discounted massively (myself, I have so many games I haven't even started to play half of my Steam library).
Anyway, long story short, I'm not really trying to sell Steam to you, just giving everyone a heads up that a number of Linux titles are now available on Steam. The selection is currently very small (it's being expanded and Valve is planning to release a console that will utilize Linux as an operating system), but there's some gems out there such as
Team Fortress 2 (free),
Faster Than Light ($4.99),
Trine 2 ($3.74),
Anomaly ($4.99),
World of Goo ($2.49),
Amnesia: The Dark Descent ($5.00), and
CounterStrike: Source ($4.99). Mostly indie titles, but it's expected to see more big names soon. All the listed games score 80 or higher on Metacritic.
Steam's also the most common medium for purchasing games on sites like Amazon or directly from developers, since all they need to do is give you a Steam key and Steam handles the rest. As a side note, Steam does have regional pricing. The prices I listed are the North American prices. The European site, for example, uses the Euro while the Australian site uses the Australian dollar. Sadly, the regional prices sometimes don't match up. Australian gamers, for example, are better off on a site like
GOG, which ironically sells Steam keys and sometimes at better prices. Of course, at the moment, the linux Steam library is heavily discounted on the Steam store.
Purchasing a game on Steam will work on all operating systems it supports. So if you were to buy Faster than Light for your linux system, it would also work on Windows or Mac (just download Steam on the appropriate OS and log into your account).
Steam Linux Sale(valid until 21 February 2013; 10:00 am PST)
