Not "experienced" enough to qualify for Valve's first Steam for Linux beta? That's okay -- patience pays off. Poised as an early Christmas present, Valve has opened Steam's Linux beta to all users. The team is tweaking how it handles bug reports too, eschewing the existing forum-based system for a public GitHub repository -- though the Linux forums will remain open for community discussion. New and updating beta testers will be treated to a few minor fixes -- correcting excessive CPU usage from the client while running Team Fortress 2 and adding a few needed details to the Linux variant of Big Picture mode. With just under 40 games working on the Penguin-suited OS, Newell's Windows 8 alternative is starting to gain ground. It's going to be interesting to see where it goes.

[Thanks, Devon]