Madbones
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 Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:28 am Post subject: Do you think Linux will ever be the leading OS for gaming? |
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Do you think Linux will ever be the leading OS for gaming?
Why isnt it?
Is it because its people think its too hard to use?
Linux is an awesome OS. I love it. Wine now runs near to perfect on almost anything. So why arent game companies making ports? Not a big enough audience? But, im sure, if game companies made Linux ports (Same should be done with OSX, which is happening thanks to Steam), Im sure more and more people will run out of reasons to stay with Windows.What do you think?
Valve are already developing Steam for Linux, I simply cannot wait.
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clthomps
Blue Jay
Joined: Jan 23, 2012
Posts: 89
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:35 am Post subject: |
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| No. because microsoft has to much market share, and the linux community tends view software as something that is free. |
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Fogman
Econo-class Iconoclast
Joined: Jun 20, 2005
Age: 46
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Location: Ноуя Англия
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:36 am Post subject: |
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I could possibly see MS eventually building an OS around the Linux kernel, so yes, though I really wouldn't want to use it.
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Madbones
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:39 am Post subject: |
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It would be cool to see all the latest and greatest titles on Linux. Mind you, Wine now is pretty much perfect. About to try out 1.4 RC.
If/when I develop games, Im going to make sure there is a port if I can. I love Linux the sheer power of it is amazing.
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<p> “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” -Steve Jobs. </p> |
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kxmode
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Joined: Oct 15, 2007
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Location: In your neighborhood, knocking on your door. :)
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:49 am Post subject: |
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| Game publishers will not release their products on Linux because it has very little market share. |
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Madbones
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Joined: Mar 08, 2010
Posts: 771
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:55 am Post subject: |
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Do you think we will se an increase in population soon?
Valve are developing Steam for Linux, maybe that will be the day Linux starts to rise. Maybe not, but hey, it should get more popular.
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<p> “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” -Steve Jobs. </p> |
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40djbrooks
Snowy Owl
Joined: Dec 07, 2011
Age: 42
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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I agree that game developers should do something for the linux community, there is quite a lot of people who are now using a distro, but the majority use windows. People like the easy route until their machine is infected and needs someone to repair the damage.
As linux only has 1% market share it is going to take some convincing to the developers to port to it. |
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sliqua-jcooter
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Joined: Jan 26, 2010
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Location: Burke, Virginia, USA
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Not until DirectX dies. The simple fact of the matter is it's easier to write a game for Windows/Xbox with DirectX than it is to write a game for OpenGL and then test/debug on the 8 billion platforms that OpenGL runs on. |
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Vigilans
Orgasm Donor
Joined: Jun 20, 2008
Age: 24
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Location: La belle province
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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Though Linux only has a 1% market share, generally these are much more focused, even professional, users, and I think investments into it would be profitable; that 1% is still a very large amount of people to sell games to
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RazorEddie
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| Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 4:40 am Post subject: |
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Not in it's current form. As a developer of closed source software I find Linux very hard to work with due to it's lack of standardization. If you develop a Windows binary it will run on 99% of Windows machines. If you develop a Linux binary it will run without problems on maybe 50% if you are lucky. The rest will have incompatibilities that either make it impossible to run your application without recompiling or your app won't work as expected. Don't even get me started on the huge variety of packaging systems that you have to deal with.
I have one product that is available in both Windows and Linux flavors. My Linux users are a small minority and I get many more support issues per user from the Linux version than the Windows version. Financially it simply does not make sense to continue the Linux version. The Windows version will mostly work under Wine but it is a bit quirky.
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kxmode
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Location: In your neighborhood, knocking on your door. :)
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| Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:19 pm Post subject: |
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A publisher would only release on Linux for two reasons:
1. They strongly support the platform.
2. They have a surplus of funds and aren't reliant on strong sales on the platform.
As most publishers are publicly traded companies they have to answer to the shareholders, and shareholders don't want money wasted on porting, or even developing, for a platform with 1% market share. At 1% market share there's absolutely no return on investment. The ratio between sales versus development cost makes it more likely that it would actually cost the company money to port their games to the platform. That's why they simply ignore Linux. If I was a shareholder of EA or Activision Blizzard and either of them voiced interest in porting their games to Linux I would voice a strong opposition simply because I know the ramifications of sales vs dev costs on Linux. |
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Jono
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Age: 33
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Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
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| Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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| RazorEddie wrote: | Not in it's current form. As a developer of closed source software I find Linux very hard to work with due to it's lack of standardization. If you develop a Windows binary it will run on 99% of Windows machines. If you develop a Linux binary it will run without problems on maybe 50% if you are lucky. The rest will have incompatibilities that either make it impossible to run your application without recompiling or your app won't work as expected. Don't even get me started on the huge variety of packaging systems that you have to deal with.
I have one product that is available in both Windows and Linux flavors. My Linux users are a small minority and I get many more support issues per user from the Linux version than the Windows version. Financially it simply does not make sense to continue the Linux version. The Windows version will mostly work under Wine but it is a bit quirky. |
So, then why not just support it for a few distros that are most popular such as Ubuntu and Fedora for example? |
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Jono
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Age: 33
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Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
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| Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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| kxmode wrote: | A publisher would only release on Linux for two reasons:
1. They strongly support the platform.
2. They have a surplus of funds and aren't reliant on strong sales on the platform.
As most publishers are publicly traded companies they have to answer to the shareholders, and shareholders don't want money wasted on porting, or even developing, for a platform with 1% market share. At 1% market share there's absolutely no return on investment. The ratio between sales versus development cost makes it more likely that it would actually cost the company money to port their games to the platform. That's why they simply ignore Linux. If I was a shareholder of EA or Activision Blizzard and either of them voiced interest in porting their games to Linux I would voice a strong opposition simply because I know the ramifications of sales vs dev costs on Linux. |
ID Software (the developers of Doom and Quake) develops games for Linux platforms. Many indie game developers do it too. |
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RazorEddie
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Age: 42
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| Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Jono wrote: | | So, then why not just support it for a few distros that are most popular such as Ubuntu and Fedora for example? |
Just supporting those two means I have two different packaging systems to learn plus the need to support both 32 and 64 bit (most 64 bit distros are dropping 32 bit support).
So I now have four times the work of the Windows version for less than 1% of my customers.
I am currently using a generic setup system which includes all of the libraries needed apart from X, GTK2 and Mesa. Theoretically it will work with most distros. In practice it still often runs into library hell and I also need both 32 bit and 64 bit versions.
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40djbrooks
Snowy Owl
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Age: 42
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Linux should be able to run on older computers so if they decided to drop 32bit support, then that linux finished. |
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