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In an unsurprising move, Steam has replaced the Linux icon of "tux" with their own SteamOS icon. I completely understand why they did this, but it does make things confusing.

I can see plenty of people getting confused about what the icon is for, as it's so close to Steam's own icon. At least Tux was a clear separation to the Windows and Mac icons. I hope people don't get confused by it, but I can guarantee people will be.

They do need their own clear SteamOS branding of course, as they need to constantly keep it in gamers and developers minds. The problem is, how long before SteamOS is the only "distribution" supported on Steam? I hope game developers and Valve don't become that silly, but there are some problematic developers out there already. At least as long as Valve keep the Steam Runtime working as it is now, other distributions shouldn't have any problems.

For those that don't have the new version:
image

Looks like that little saying going around of "No tux no bux" is going to have to be tweaked?

I'm still excited to see what happens with SteamOS and Steam Machines, and what would happen if they fail miserably. I hope they don't of course, but they obviously won't be an overnight success. I will eat a tux teddy live on air if they are an overnight success (please don't hold me to that).

Well, at least it still says "SteamOS + Linux" right? Let's hope there's never a hint of Microsoft style "embrace extend extinguish".

It's easily possible this change will be reverted though, as certain parts of the site keep breaking, like the title now being "#title_welcome_to_steam". Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Steam
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73 comments
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sunbeam4 May 27, 2015
it's kind of a dirt bag move, leaving the ambiguity of maybe it becoming a closed platform on the long run.
minj May 27, 2015
That logo sucks. I needs to be different. I want my tux back.
adolson May 27, 2015
Eh. Whatever.
Liam Dawe May 27, 2015
Quoting: adolsonIt has been this way for a long, long time. Visit Steam in a browser, and it's still Tux.

No it's not, that's your cache keeping the tux icon. Do a hard refresh.
Beamboom May 27, 2015
I'm totally fine with that. There's so many logos, brands and profiles swirling around in the Linux world, it's all good. It's what we are.
1mHfoksd1Z May 27, 2015
For people who don't know much about Linux this is going to be VERY confusing. Also the Tux logo was like an advertisment for Linux, which was a good thing. I don't think this logo is gonna get people to try Linux as much as the other one did.

Maybe they should keep the Tux logo and also have an additional SteamOS logo only for those games that have full controller integration and work on SteamOS just like on a console. There are plenty of games that don't have controller support (mainly strategy games) but they have a Linux version. Why would anyone install them on a SteamMachine?

Anyway. I find this a pretty minor thing that's not worth complaining. It's not a big deal really. And maybe in time people will recognize that logo as implicitly pointing to Linux, just like the Debian/Ubuntu/Arch/[insert-distro-name-here] logo...
pb May 27, 2015
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: adolsonIt has been this way for a long, long time. Visit Steam in a browser, and it's still Tux.

No it's not, that's your cache keeping the tux icon. Do a hard refresh.

Screenshot after ctrl+shift+r in Firefox: http://s1.zrzut.pl/f6GiOdD.png

Also you didn't discover anything new, maybe you just switched from Firefox to Chrome?
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/2y07g8/did_steam_just_switch_the_tux_logo_to_a_steam_logo/
Liam Dawe May 27, 2015
Quoting: pb
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: adolsonIt has been this way for a long, long time. Visit Steam in a browser, and it's still Tux.

No it's not, that's your cache keeping the tux icon. Do a hard refresh.

Screenshot after ctrl+shift+r in Firefox: http://s1.zrzut.pl/f6GiOdD.png

Also you didn't discover anything new, maybe you just switched from Firefox to Chrome?
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/2y07g8/did_steam_just_switch_the_tux_logo_to_a_steam_logo/

The sale page showed it yes, but the rest of the store did not. I haven't switched any browser, it's a new forced changed for everyone across the whole store where as it wasn't before. Ps. I tested this in other browsers as well, obviously ;)

Try viewing Steam on the waybackmachine if you for some reason don't agree/believe.
melkemind May 27, 2015
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I agree that it's very confusing. It looks like it's just part of the "SteamPlay" logo rather than something separate. Having said that, however, a good marketing campaign could convince people of just about anything. It will be up to Valve to do that and also convince people that they want/need Steam Machines.
Segata Sanshiro May 27, 2015
Boo. I hope this doesn't become like Android now. Linux fanboyism aside though, they need to come up with a new icon for SteamOS because it's just their logo... Hopefully one with a penguin on it.
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