Hopeful applicants of Valve's Linux testing survey have much to rejoice today as a limited-access beta client for Steam's Linux version awaits testing starting today. Valve's official announcement states the studio received over 60,000 entries for its request for testers, and a slowly increasing group of players will receive access to the client going forward.
Steam Linux operates on Ubuntu 12.04. "An overwhelming majority of beta applicants have reported they're running the Ubuntu distro of Linux,” Steam Linux team member Frank Crockett wrote. “We intend to support additional popular distros in the future, and we'll prioritize development for these based on user feedback.”
Team Fortress 2 leads the pack of two dozen games available for Linux users which is viewable from the client itself. Valve still seeks more testers for future Linux betas, so head over to the survey page if you're interested.
Meanwhile, GOG's Trevor Longino recently criticized Valve for supporting only one distro. While GOG doesn't yet have Linux support, Longino says "...we want to try to get it where the majority of gamers, if they're on Linux, will be able to get a game and expect it works."
