Steam's Linux Client Finally Goes 64-bit

Valve has pushed out a new Steam client beta for Linux, and it's a notable one for players on the platform. The headline change: the client binary is now, at long last, a 64-bit application.

Until now the Linux Steam client was one of the last reasons many enthusiasts and gamers kept 32-bit i686 libraries installed on their systems. That dependency is now on its way out.

The client inside Steam Runtime

The second significant change is that the Steam client now runs inside the Steam Runtime container. The goal is a more consistent experience across different distributions: the client will rely on the same Steam Runtime already used by games on Linux.

The update is a natural follow-on to work that began earlier this year with the SteamRT3 beta, which laid the groundwork for the move to 64-bit and for running the client within the container.

The full list of changes in today's client beta has been published on the Steam community site.

Source: Phoronix