OMG! Ubuntu! learned from a reader that Reddit users on /r/linux_gaming have already figured out a way to bypass Valve’s Beta Invitation – which allow users to start exploring Steam on Linux much earlier than the folks at Valve had likely planned for.

In order to enjoy the Valve on Linux Beta early users have been using the following steps…

From Terminal:

wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb sudo dpkg -i steam.deb && sudo apt-get install -f

Then From Unity Dash:

Launch Steam App Login to Steam You will get a message saying you aren’t in Beta. Close this.

If you are on amd64 architecture then you will also need to run “sudo apt-get install libjpeg-turbo8:i386 libcurl3gnutls:i386 libogg0:i386 libpixman-1-0:i386 libsdl1.2debian:i386 libtheora0:i386 libvorbis0a:i386 libvorbisenc2:i386 libvorbisfile3:i386 libasound2:i386 libc6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libx11-6:i386 libxau6:i386 libxcb1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386” from terminal without the quotations.

Finally from terminal run “steam steam://open/games” without the quotations and you will experience Steam on Linux providing you have all the package dependencies and follow the above steps.

More information on this bypass can be found on /r/linux_gaming subreddit and readers are reminded that although this is not a hack but just a loophole that requires not modification that it could in some manner still violate the Valve Terms of Service so we suggest caution.

Some video of Big Picture and Steam on Ubuntu 12.10 is available here and video of Team Fortress 2 on Ubuntu is here.