Better features and bug fixes are included in the new patch

Feb 15, 2013 08:04 GMT  ·  By

Valve has just posted a brand new update for the client of its Steam digital distribution service, finally bringing complete support for Linux distributions, but also new chat options, improved performance, new features, and quite a few bug fixes for both the regular and the Big Picture mode.

Steam is one of the most popular digital distribution platforms out there, with over 50 million users from all around the world across the PC, Mac, and Linux platforms.

After spending a lot of time in beta, the Steam client has just been updated with complete support for Linux, but also with a variety of other improvements.

Among them are better chat options, like the ability to send messages to offline friends, but also the elimination of the /me command, which was used by nefarious individuals to make their messages look like they were coming from moderators and Valve employees in order to win the trust of regular users.

Besides the new features, plenty of other bug fixes are available, so check out the complete changelog below, via Steam.

Features

- Added support for Linux - Offline messaging: You can now send messages to users who are offline. They will receive the message when they next log in - Opening a chat dialog with a friend will show some recent chat history - A web chat interface is available, you can find it by navigating to the Steam Community Friend Activity page in your web browser - Added a caps lock warning indicator to the login dialog password textbox - Added support for better content sharing between games - Improved performance and responsiveness of client UI - Improved startup time for users with large screenshot folders - Prevent users from selecting an invalid screenshots folder - Suspend all downloads automatically when a game is launched - Added third party Mod support for games on new content system - Big Picture: Users can now add wallet funds and authorize microtransactions - Big Picture: In-game overlay now moves back on ESC when appropriate rather than closing directly - Added the date that SteamGuard was enabled in the settings dialog - Improved handling of international characters

Fixes

- Fixed several issues with scroll bars in the store and community views - Fixed forum links opening in external browser windows - Reduced retail install time when reading from optical disc on Windows XP/Vista - Removed "/me" chat command, which allowed some users to modify the color of their chat text - Fixed crash on startup caused by corrupt ClientRegistry.blob file - Fixed a top crash related to video streaming - Fixed an issue with cascading menu items - Fixed issue where some game installers cannot write to the registry - Fixed screenshots sometimes not showing up in screenshot manager when copied from another Steam installation - Big Picture: Fixed left/right navigation of game related sections in the in-game overlay - Big Picture: Fixed default font used by the in-game overlay - Fixed launching 64-bit games and applications - When a friend's status changes multiple times consecutively, only the last change will be shown (ie "Friend is now Online", "Friend is now Away" messages) - Fixed Windows error message "Disk not ready" in game install wizard - Made the preview image for guides smaller in the overlay - Caching guide preview images when viewed in the overlay - Added Ctrl+A select-all for system info text

The brand new update for Steam will be automatically downloaded and applied the next time you start up the service's client.