> It encourages developers to write for Linux.

Valve actually encourages devs to only provide Windows builds compatible with Proton, or at least it used to, to the disappointment of some professional porters. Mainly because several devs kept leaving their Linux builds abandoned while still maintaining their Windows ones.

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bryanlarsen 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Hopefully developers are being encouraged to target Proton, as it's the subset. Presumably anything that works on Proton will also work on Windows, so it makes sense to target Proton.

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beAbU 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

If the windows build already performs better than on native windows, why faff around with another build target and all its associated complexities (testing, etc).

Targeting Linux means probably targeting all distros, and that's asking for trouble I reckon.

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kelnos 4 days ago | parent [-]

> Targeting Linux means probably targeting all distros

Valve actually distributes a runtime (or at least used to), that's based on Ubuntu, and provides a stable target for developers who want to release a Linux port.

But I agree in general with your point; if the Windows build already performs great on Linux through Proton, why go through the effort to release a native Linux build?

	▲	0x457 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		They still distribute runtime(s). Proton runs inside one of those runtimes. You're talking about 1.0 version, 2.0 was based on debian 10, and 3.0 is based on debian 11. It still has some assumptions about host system, though, but that's a problem for those who package steam. For example, my non-FHS NixOS provides everything required, and it works out-of-the-box.