===== About =====
First off, I was seriously unhappy with Ubuntu 13.10.  What a mess...  Now that that is out of the way, it makes sense why I just reverted to a clean install of Ubuntu 12.04 x64 (LTS).  I was using Valve's Steam on my 13.04 box before the 13.10 debacle just fine, but I ran into issues starting up Steam on 12.04.  Turns out there were a bunch of missing libraries that it needs.  The good thing is, it's an easy fix!

==== What to do ====
=== Install curl ===
Before downloading the client, it will need curl to bootstrap itself:

<code bash>
sudo apt-get install curl
</code>

=== Install the other libraries ===
There are going to be a bunch of libraries you need to install for Steam.  Just run the following (this is on an x86_64 install, so if you are using an i386 install, you can drop the '':i386'' part):

<code bash>
sudo apt-get install fontconfig:i386 libfreetype6:i386 \
    libavahi-gobject0:i386 libgtk2.0-0:i386 libopenal1:i386 \
    libsm6:i386
</code>

It probably doesn't hurt to also install the ''ia32-libs'' meta package:

<code bash>
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
</code>

That should suck in just about anything you could need.
=== Install the Steam Client ===
Next, just download the latest [[http://store.steampowered.com/about/|steam client]] and run:

<code bash>
sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/steam_latest.deb
</code>

That will install the bare bones latest stuff, which will actually download the client.  It should just work now.  If not, try running it from the command-line using the ''steam'' command and check the output.

=== Helpful stuff ===
Getting the list of missing shared libraries was how I figured this out.  Valve does have a helper page up [[http://store.steampowered.com/about/|here]] that will get you going if you know a good amount about Linux.