Rumours that Valve are bringing their digital distribution service Steam to Linux have been substantiated by tech website Phoronix, who have released images of Left 4 Dead 2 purportedly running natively in Ubuntu 11.10 with the AMD Catalyst Linux driver. While a formal announcement has yet to be made, the Phoronix writer claims he has personally recommended proficient developers to Valve for the port.

“As I have been sharing for a few weeks, Valve invited me out to their Bellevue, Washington offices after Gabe Newell asked me last month for some referrals of developers with Linux OpenGL experience,” wrote Michael Larabel in this article. “They already have a team of Linux developers working on the client efforts, but they are looking to expand.”

In addition to the images published in the article, Larabel claims he recorded a brief video, which will be probably coming to light soon, and listened to Valve’s legendary top man Gabe Newell talk “for hours” about Linux, Valve’s plans for Linux development, and allegedly how terrible Windows 8 will be. The first Linux-friendly Valve game will be Left 4 Dead 2 from the looks of it.

You can find more details and images in Larabel’s two-page article on Phoronix here. We’ll bring you official confirmation of the Linux client once it’s made.