Title: The state of Steam on OpenBSD | |
Author: Solène | |
Date: 01 December 2021 | |
Tags: openbsd gaming steam | |
Description: Steam isn't available on OpenBSD, this article explains | |
why | |
# Introduction | |
There is a very common question within the OpenBSD community, mostly | |
from newcomers: "How can I install Steam on OpenBSD?". | |
The answer is: You can't, there is no way, this is impossible, period. | |
# Why? | |
Steam is a closed source program, while it's now also available on | |
Linux doesn't mean it run on OpenBSD. The Linux Steam version is | |
compiled for linux and without the sources we can't port it on OpenBSD. | |
Even if Steam was able to be installed and could be launched, games are | |
not made for OpenBSD and wouldn't work either. | |
On FreeBSD it may be possible to install Windows Steam using Wine, but | |
Wine is not available on OpenBSD because it require some specific | |
Kernel memory management we don't want to implement for security | |
reasons (I don't have the whole story), but FreeBSD also has a Linux | |
compatibility mode to run Linux binaries, allowing to use programs | |
compiled for Linux. This linux emulation layer has been dropped in | |
OpenBSD a few years ago because it was old and unmaintained, bringing | |
more issues than helping. | |
So, you can't install Steam or use it on OpenBSD. If you need Steam, | |
use a supported operating system. | |
I wanted to make an article about this in hope my text will be well | |
referenced within search engines, to help people looking for Steam on | |
OpenBSD by giving them a reliable answer. |