Linux developer Michael Larabel recently visited Valve’s offices in Seattle and discovered that the company was hard at work on a Linux version of its popular Steam client. This is confirmation of something that’s been rumoured for some years now, since even before the launch of the Mac OS client in 2010.

According to Larabel, the project has been in on-and-off development for several years, but recently, Gabe Newell himself has taken an interest and spurred things on to the point where the client may be out within a matter of months. This may be due to Newell’s open skepticism of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system, which Larabel describes as “stunning”.

Whatever the situation, this is all good news for the Linux gaming community, which fizzled out after some high-profile successes in the early 2000s, but which has seen a minor resurgence in the indie scene, with several popular independent titles offering Linux versions. Bringing Steam to the platform will not only legitimise the idea of Linux gaming, but will hopefully make it much easier for developers to bring their games to Linux as well.

At least, if Larabel’s photos are to be believed, we can expect a Linux version of Left 4 Dead 2 sometime in the near future.