This article is mostly written with Windows users in mind, as such it explains some of the obvious differences between Unix1 and Windows.
This article was inspired by TotalBiscuit's "Port Report" series which discusses the quality of console-to-PC ports. I decided to treat Steam for Linux as such: A Windows-to-Linux2 port. Some people say I am entitled and expect too much, I feel I only expect as much as TB expects from a PC-port of a Console game. A game that actually runs like a PC game and doesn't obviously show it came from console and is a shoddy port. This is currently what Steam for Linux is, a shoddy program that clearly shows its ancestry as a Windows program that does not work well. I attempt to narrate in this article some of the reasons why.
This article is also long and thorough, so I'll give you a tl;dr at the start of every point. The tl;dr for the entire article is that Steam for Linux has a shoddy port.