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Are You Ready to Switch to GNU/Linux?
Edvard:
Good points well made.
Despite the sparring, I'm beginning to believe you and I are rowing the same direction, albeit on different boats.
You're welcome aboard any time, skipper. ;)
And with any luck, I may be able to get you to give me some money~! :D :P
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I'm actually looking forward to it! ;D
Hell, it might even be the first Mono app I install on purpose...
(please forgive the Mono-paranoia, others have enumerated reasons far more abundantly and eloquently than I can. Suffice it to say I will avoid it until it is unavoidable, which it soon may be...)
Renegade:
Good points well made.
Despite the sparring, I'm beginning to believe you and I are rowing the same direction, albeit on different boats.
You're welcome aboard any time, skipper. ;)
-Edvard (January 01, 2011, 11:24 PM)
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Agreed. It's a difficult topic. I sometimes don't articulate things properly the first time around.
And with any luck, I may be able to get you to give me some money~! :D :P
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I'm actually looking forward to it! ;D
-Edvard (January 01, 2011, 11:24 PM)
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ME TOO~! :D
(This year has really taken the wind out of my sails with 2.5 months spent overseas, wedding reception in Canada, software conference in the US, wedding and 2 receptions in Vietnam...)
Hell, it might even be the first Mono app I install on purpose...
(please forgive the Mono-paranoia, others have enumerated reasons far more abundantly and eloquently than I can. Suffice it to say I will avoid it until it is unavoidable, which it soon may be...)
-Edvard (January 01, 2011, 11:24 PM)
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The patent scare from MS is there, and I understand the reservations, but they have the right idea: A spec. that lets you write software in any language you want for any OS (where the spec. is implemented naturally). It's simply brilliant. The CLI really is spectacular.
I'm basically trapped in Windows with no real options. I wish I had a choice. But I have to work in the same world as my clients. Which for me is just all the more reason to root for what I see as the best option in moving to making the OS irrelevant.
Back to cleaning...
JavaJones:
The games market may be saturated on platforms that actually have lots of games (i.e. Windows and consoles), but I think that's a much more dubious statement in relation to platforms with very few games. You can't generalize the entire market because of the very strong differences between platforms and their respective audiences/markets.
Mac and Linux in particular are still fairly open markets because there are not many game options on either. Mac is getting better, as is Linux, at different rates, with Mac getting some larger games faster than Linux. But still both have far fewer games than Windows and console platforms, so saturation is much less of an issue.
I also want to support and somewhat reiterate what Renegade said about dev time vs. anticipated profits. This is an unfortunate but very real factor that drives the reality of gaming on Linux and, to an extend, Mac. It's not just a matter of market size, which is certainly an important consideration. A dev also has to think about how much time, energy, and ultimately money they need to spend to support a platform. If one platform costs you an additional 10% of your dev budget to support, it better end up selling more than 10% of your game copies, otherwise it's just break-even and not worth it.
This issue is further compounded on Linux, more so even than OS X, by the poorer (though improving) standardization and support across distros, especially for 3D graphics, and also by the lesser availability of tools, engines, and knowledge for game dev on Linux vs. Windows or even OS X. One big example would be the Source Engine, available for Windows, Max OS X, and the major consoles, but not Linux. This ties in with the lack of Steam availability on Linux, rumored to be coming for some time now, but still not available (this would be a big boost for Linux game dev as it's used quite a lot now by small devs for game distribution and payment). Fortunately the Unreal Engine is available on Linux, but it does generally run games that are more expensive to create and thus higher risk for minor platforms. These are just examples, the general availability of game dev tools on Linux is just not as good as Windows.
It takes a bit of vision to take a risk on a platform with less possible customers, and fortunately that's exactly what we see happening with OS X and, to a lesser extend, Linux these days. It's still a risk. The risk is unfortunately higher with the Linux platform due to having fewer available tools, engines, and general knowledge base to draw on. This makes time and cost go up, and makes the already small Linux market become less attractive.
So the bottom line is if anyone wants Linux to become a more attractive gaming platform, they don't just need to be willing to pay for games, they have to support the development of good tools for game development. Cross platform dev is not easy or cheap, but it can be made much more so through availability of proper tools.
- Oshyan
Renegade:
Cross platform dev is not easy or cheap, but it can be made much more so through availability of proper tools.
-JavaJones (January 02, 2011, 05:06 PM)
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Amen~!
To sound like a broken record again... To sound like a broken record again... To sound like a broken record again... To sound like a broken record again...
GO MONO~! :D
40hz:
To sound like a broken record again... To sound like a broken record again... To sound like a broken record again... To sound like a broken record again...
GO MONO~! :D
-Renegade (January 02, 2011, 08:46 PM)
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Sorry.
Strongly disagree.
Insanely bad idea.
Spoiler
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