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Looks like Valve may be preparing a 64bit version of the Steam client

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Valve may be preparing a 64bit version of the Steam client with an update in the Steam Beta Client that was released yesterday.

Their wording in the patch notes certainly suggests that's what they're doing:

Added support for shipping different binaries to 64bit vs 32bit operating systems in Steam self-updater. This support is being added in preparation for future updates.

Considering the client is already 64bit on Mac, it would make sense to bring that to Linux and Windows soon too. With most people now on 64bit, it was only a matter of time before they did this. Going by the Steam Hardware Survey, few people remain on 32bit. Giving their updater the ability to know the difference between systems, would be the first step towards rolling out 64bit to those systems that support it and eventually warn people on 32bit systems when that eventually becomes deprecated for the Steam client.

We already know they're planning an overhaul of certain parts of the client, with various leaks and Valve eventually talking about it. It's entirely possible that this is in preparation for that to happen.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Steam, Valve
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IDNO Aug 10, 2018
I hope they make SteamOS 3.0 totally 64bit yeah i know. totally 64bit system is very hard to do. :)

Even windows has still 32bit programs and such..
Ketil Aug 10, 2018
Quoting: IDNOI hope they make SteamOS 3.0 totally 64bit yeah i know. totally 64bit system is very hard to do. :)

Even windows has still 32bit programs and such..
Actually, going from 32 bit to proper multilib with 32+64 bit was harder than going from 32-bit to 64-bit and forget about the applications not supporting 64-bit yet. Back in 2006 when I ran gentoo we didn't have any proper multilib support. We compiled the 64bit applications, and either ran 64-bit only, installed binary 32 bit libraries, or had a chroot with a separate install for 32-bit applications. After some time they changed the ebuild format so that compiled the libraries for both (or had a pure system of 64-bit only).

If I remember correctly I believe debian and ubuntu wasn't too great at multilib at that time either. Looking at the debian wiki I see a news item from 2010 backing me: "Multiarch-ready apt (v0.8) has made it into squeeze. Dpkg wasn't quite ready unfortunately."


Last edited by Ketil on 10 August 2018 at 10:26 pm UTC
ison111 Aug 11, 2018
QuoteWe already know they're planning an overhaul of certain parts of the client, with various leaks and Valve eventually talking about it.
Is there any chance part of this overhaul will include making Steam behave in a more standard way with regard to package management? Meaning allowing package managers to handle updating Steam instead of Steam updating itself?
But either way, a 64bit client will be very cool.
Scoopta Aug 11, 2018
Oh thank fuck. Maybe I can finally disable 32 bit compatibility on my system. It all depends on how many 32 bit games I actually want to play so I guess I should start looking at that.
solar_dome Aug 12, 2018
Some games that say they are 64 bit, still use some 32 bit components.

An example would be GRIP
https://www.cagedelement.com/grip/

A relevant part of wine wiki:
https://wiki.winehq.org/Building_Wine#Shared_WoW64


Last edited by solar_dome on 12 August 2018 at 3:06 am UTC
Scoopta Aug 12, 2018
Quoting: solar_domeSome games that say they are 64 bit, still use some 32 bit components.

An example would be GRIP
https://www.cagedelement.com/grip/

A relevant part of wine wiki:
https://wiki.winehq.org/Building_Wine#Shared_WoW64
But that's a strictly Windows problem so what does that have to do with the Linux version of steam?
solar_dome Aug 14, 2018
Quoting: ScooptaBut that's a strictly Windows problem so what does that have to do with the Linux version of steam?
Just a Windows problem? That is good to know.
In that case, it just concerns linux+steam+wine users.
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