Complaining about Windows Vista is a national past time on Internet forums these days. Windows Vista 'costs too much', 'has onerous product activation', 'requires too much hardware', etc. These complaints are often followed up by a very simple boast: 'I'm just going to switch to Linux'. But in today's landscape, how viable is that statment? Is the threat to switch to Linux an empty one, or is it entirely possible?"
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-11-15
They probably don't develop too many games because there is a small fraction of computers with Linux on it. So, the main reason is a economical one: less potential customers.
There is also the API, Microsoft must be lauded for pushing hard Direct X and improve it to the level it is today (of course it is not perfect).
I suspect that there is one more reason, but it is based more on people I know use Linux (or *BSD for the matter) and I can be totally wrong on that: average Linux (*BSD) users (even the ones that also use Windows) are a bit different of Windows ones, tend to be a bit more technical and spend more time tuning/learning than playing. On this regard, they probably are less prone to expend the same amount of money to buy games as a regular Windows user.
Edited 2007-03-07 20:45
Member since:2005-07-18
Member since:2006-07-23
No developers will make a serious game for linux because:
1. Linux only has very low usage share, about 0.4%
2. The game must be released in GPL.
1. The original post raised a point: you can put a whole linux OS together with the game, so that it can be run anywhere. Though I think it is an overly-engineered solution, it did not attempt to say develop a game targeting linux only.
2. No if you develop a game for Linux, you DO NOT have to release it under GPL, depending on what toolkit you use.
Member since:2006-01-17
No developers will make a serious game for linux because:
1. Linux only has very low usage share, about 0.4%
2. The game must be released in GPL.
1. There are lots of stats which say different things. That one is on the low end.
2. Oh really? Well then, I'll just download Doom3 right now. Remember Doom3? Released for Linux the same day as for Windows?
# apt-get doom3...
Nope, didn't work. Lots of non-GPL'd stuff, including games, are released for Linux.
Member since:2005-07-02
No developers will make a serious game for linux because:
1. Linux only has very low usage share, about 0.4%
Actually, it's probably closer to 2.5%...but let's not get into that sterile discussion again.
2. The game must be released in GPL.
That is completely and utterly false.
The reason there are few commercial games for Linux is that the PC games market *in general* has been hurting for quite a few years now, and only a handful of large companies can make it (by opposition to the console game market, which is thriving).
Most game development these days is for consoles, with the PC market increasingly considered an afterthought.
Member since:2005-10-02
1) Incorrect. You are hinting a certain webstats-companies creating webstats for a certain kind of websites. Other sites and other usage measuring shows between 2.5 and 5% on the Linux desktop.
Linux passes the 2% mark in 2002.
2) Incorrect. They can be proprietary. Even when using GTK+
Member since:2005-11-02
No developers will make a serious game for linux because:
1. Linux only has very low usage share, about 0.4%
2. The game must be released in GPL.
You obviously know nothing about the GPL or software licensing in general. It is not true that games and programs must be released under the GPL for Linux. Programs can be run on a Linux system that are released under any license including proprietary ones. That is why you can run Acrobat Reader, Flashplayer, Sun Java, Opera all released under proprietary licenses.
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move."A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane."MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Member since:
2005-07-18
The only reason I stick with the Windows platform is for the games. I dislike Console games due to the limited interface and Mac/Linux/BSD do not offer a a very wide or compelling variety.
Quite frankly I am surprised someone is not specifically trying to develop games for the Unix/Linux platform since you can easily ship the OS with the game itself.