The response to s&box from Facepunch going open source has been "overwhelmingly positive"

By Liam Dawe - 3 Dec 2025 at 4:36 pm UTC

Last updated: 3 Dec 2025 at 4:48 pm UTC

Open source rocks so it's pleasing to see it go well for Facepunch with s&box. They've now added native Linux binaries for the dedicated server and game client. If you missed the open source news be sure to check the previous GamingOnLinux article.

As a quick reminder on what s&box is — "s&box is a game creation platform built on the Source 2 engine and our spiritual successor to Garry's Mod. Play, create, and share games, explore community creations, and experience endless sandbox fun with powerful modern tools."

Speaking in a fresh update blog post the developers noted the response has been pretty awesome. From the post:

Open Source Response

The response to us going open source has been overwhelmingly positive, in a week we've received over 3000 stars and over 80 pull requests and 30 already merged.

Thank you to everyone for contributing and being interested in the project, the pull requests have been great so far from small bug fixes to proper features. It's giving us a lot more momentum.

We've been refining the repo sync workflows, GitHub actions now run formatting and unit tests on PRs, so any older PRs will need to update their branch to pass these tests.

In regards to Linux that also got a mention:

Open Source: Linux Binaries

I've added native Linux binaries to the open source repo for enthusiasts to play around with, these are for the dedicated server and game client only. Source 2 tools don't compile for Linux.

These are not shipped on Steam as they're not usable yet.

It will be interesting to see if any proper Linux support expands from this. Fun to see though, and since it's open source anyone can try and do anything with it thanks to the permissive MIT license (GitHub). But for now on Steam, you'll still need to run it with Valve's Proton compatibility layer. The game / game editor also isn't technically even released yet, it's still in developer preview while they build it up towards a proper Steam release.

More developers should do open source!

s&box
Platform: Proton / Wine

Official links:

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.

Tags: Early Access, Misc, Open Source, Sandbox | Apps: s&box

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About the author - Liam Dawe

I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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2 comments

ElectricPrism 3 hours ago

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I did hear criticism that you need MS Visual C++ Studio to build the binaries and that there is no guarantee pull requests are granted that allow you to build outside of Windows, fair argument. We'll see.

I try to be fair, credit where credit due, they seem to be pivoting to a direction via the MIT license that makes them grow into something valuable.

At this point my reaction isn't pessimistic, but not really more than mildly optimistic. If they get a good track record for a few years I will expect great things to come from this.

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GustyGhost 2 hours ago

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Not too unlike Nvidia and their efforts with their kernel driver / Nova. Baby steps are being taken and it will take a long time yet for them to earn my trust.

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