Steam For Linux: A Respectable Showing 372
An anonymous reader writes "Valve has just released its February, 2013 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, and the results are absolutely mind blowing. Linux is now standing strong as a legitimate gaming platform. It now represents 2.02% of all active Steam users."
That's in keeping with what new submitter lars_doucet found. Lars writes: "I'm an independent game developer lucky enough to be on Steam. Recently, the Steam Linux client officially went public and was accompanied by a site-wide sale. The Linux sale featured every single Linux-compatible game on the service, including our cross-platform game Defender's Quest. .... Bottom line: during the sale we saw nearly 3 times as many Linux sales of the game as Mac (Windows still dominated overall)."
Direct link to results (Score:3, Informative)
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey [steampowered.com]
Not a bad showing for Linux, all things considered. The top variant of Linux is nearly tied with Windows 8.
Re:Direct link to results (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Direct link to results (Score:4, Interesting)
Is _Wine_ in there?
I use Wine in XP mode to play L4D2 on Fedora 64-bit. I know Steam knows who plays in Wine, but is it part of the stats?
I also have the Fedora client from OpenSUSE, but I usually just play L4D2. Viz. It's the best quick-game for me atm; but before Wine I played a lot of AssaultCube, which is brilliant on older hw and laptops on older connections.
Re:Direct link to results (Score:5, Informative)
Not a bad showing for Linux, all things considered. The top variant of Linux is nearly tied with Windows 8.
That's a wildly misleading statement, since it doesn't include 90%+ of the Windows 8 sales:
Windows 8 64 bit: 8.89%
Windows 8: 0.74%
Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit: 0.71%
2.02% so quickly? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not bad at all. Is Microsoft shaking in their boots? Not really. Are they watching carefully? You get your ass. Is this an opportunity to upend the horrorshow that is Windows 8? I hope so.
Is answering your own questions a bit douchy? Perhaps.
Re:2.02% so quickly? (Score:5, Funny)
Mentally replace "get" with "bet" to make sense of the comment above. Is this embarrassing? A bit. Did I laugh when I noticed the mistake? You get your ass.
Re:2.02% so quickly? (Score:5, Funny)
You don't get a lot for free in life, but at least you get your ass.
Re:2.02% so quickly? (Score:5, Funny)
You don't get a lot for free in life, but at least you get your ass.
Or vagina.
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You don't get a lot for free in life, but at least you get your ass.
Most don't give their ass away for free, as shown here: http://www.littlefriendsranch.com/Donkeys%20for%20Sale.htm [littlefriendsranch.com]
I'd demand top dollar for your ass if I were you! Unless there's something wrong with your ass. Then god bless the kind soul who gives your ass a nice home. Just remember to treat your ass well. Insurance doesn't cover most things that can go wrong with it.
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"When god gave us our asses, he had to stick them round the back just so that we wouldn't sit and stare at them all day..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdkfmUhZRh8 [youtube.com]
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Re:2.02% so quickly? (Score:4, Informative)
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If that happens Steam may end up with the equivalent of the ASUS tradeshow lunch with Microsoft after which the CEO of ASUS publicly apologised for linux on netbooks and discontinued selling them. Microsoft probably have Steam by the balls almost as much as they have ASUS.
If it doesn't happen in the next year or so, too late... many gamers will "upgrade" from Win7 to a Linux distro (instead of Win8).
Re:2.02% so quickly? (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope. That's why Valve is doing this... to avoid having MS having them by the balls.
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They are doing this for their console. Everything else is P.R.
Re:2.02% so quickly? (Score:5, Insightful)
Valve is incredibly successful as a store selling games on Windows. Creating a Linux gaming platform is an enormous amount of work to enter a currently miniscule market. The ONLY reason Valve is doing it is they are worried about Microsoft deciding, in Steve Ballmer's immortal words, to "choke off their air supply".
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But then Microsoft was not in competition with ASUS, it's the good old fashioned "don't mess with our business and we won't mess with yours". Steam's relationship is more similar to Microsoft's launch of Surface, the OEMs are basically being told Microsoft has a long term plan to supply the hardware themselves and boot them from the market. That's not a message they can accept, nor can Steam accept Microsoft's pushing of the Windows Store which is a very direct competitor to the Steam Store. Mac, Linux, the
Re:2.02% so quickly? (Score:5, Informative)
I think Valve (the owner of Steam) are going for Linux because they are afraid Microsoft will eventually turn Windows into a "walled garden" like Apple's iOS, introduce their own application store and force out competitors like Steam.
Gabe Newell said:
We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well. It is a hedging strategy. I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space.
quoted from http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/26/gabe-newell-windows-8-is-a-catastrophe [ign.com]
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Well, Steam's two platforms have their own stores. The Apple Mac App Store is pretty innoculous as it's filled with indie games - the AAA titles tend to be on Steam (or a reason why Apple won't be closing OS X anytime soon).
So it's prudent to have it on Linux, and because they'
Re:2.02% so quickly? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The "horror show that is Windows 8" has over 9% in the same survey :)
Windows Phone. 5% = Failure. Linux 2% = Victory (Score:2, Interesting)
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You have a point but:
1) Windows "smartphone" share a few years ago: maybe 60%? Linux share in gaming/desktop has always been low
2) Predicted Windows Phone market share, according to "analysts": 20% or so? Linux desktop: No idea, probably they never bothered to predict
3) Marketing budget: Even with what Steam spends on it Linux must be close to 0 compared to Windows phone
4) shelf space Windows Phone compared to Linux? See 3 I think.
5) Steam for Linux on market: officially since 1 month. Windows Phone? A lot
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Phones are a more open market too, it is easier to compete when the majority of existing users are not locked into a single platform... And windows mobile has been around longer than both android and ios.
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Also, the original-crust Hawaiian BBQ Chicken from California Pizza Kitchen is way better than the Nissan GT-R.
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What is your point, and what exactly are you talking about? Bing *or* Windows Phone?
And this is not "Linux 2%," it is "Steam for Linux 2%." Big difference.
Re:Windows Phone. 5% = Failure. Linux 2% = Victory (Score:5, Insightful)
Bing market share = failure. Linux 2% = Victory.
5% of the market leader is a failure, 2% for the market trailer is a success.
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> Microsoft has never been market leader in either phones or search.
Microsoft has been a desktop monopoly since before the first line of the Linux kernel was written. They are one of the largest corporations on the planet with enough market power and leverage to push their way into new markets easily.
In the market where Linux lives, simply not having been put out of business by Microsoft is remarkable. Apple is very unusual in this and nearly didn't make it. The corpses of companies that tried to offer c
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In the market where Linux lives, simply not having been put out of business by Microsoft is remarkable.
Linux isn't a business. It's a hobby. People work on it for no money, and it's given away for no money. If it was a business, it would indeed be dead. That Linux has failed to gain more than 1-2% of the desktop market despite the fact that it's been given away, is testament to how bad it is.
Google made Android successful, basing it on Linux, by making a real business out of it.
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Sadly, yes. It was never the market leader. At that time, Symbian was the market leader.
The year of the linux desktop is irrelevant (Score:3)
Thanks for coming to the party Valve, we welcome you - now it's time to buy some games for Linux.
Don't Count Your Chickens (Score:5, Insightful)
Right now it's brand new and much-hyped, we could easily be dealing with a case of regression to the mean. [wikipedia.org]
Let's see how the numbers looks 6 months down the road.
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Sadly to an extent this will happen. I dual boot and I love Arch Linux and FreeBSD. So I specifically booted into Linux to buy my games during the sail just to support the platform. But to be honest at home I'm in windows most of the time mainly due to my friends saying lets play a random arma2 mod or most other games, leading to me having to reboot back into windows just to play. I have a feeling this is the case for more people than will admit to it.
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Arma isn't platinum, but silver in Wine atm. Would be fun to get some DayZ action on my Fedora rig (only play L4D2 atm).
Wow, 2% is "standing strong" (Score:2)
I guess MS is making a killing with Windows Phone then :-p
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Nokia said this during official investor conference calls. If they are lying it is fraud. Besides: LG, HTC, Apple and Motorola have all indicated they've had problems with this generation of phones. Factories like Foxconn have complained about this generation of phones and construction problems. The Ashas and the Nokia dumb phones are made in the factories you are talking about, and no Nokia doesn't have any supply problems there. But yes the targets are:
2012- 35m
2013 - 55m
2014 - 85m
and assuming that a
Standards (Score:3)
A Thought (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes more people use Windows, but when XP and 7 finally have their support ended, the people using those Microsoft platforms will be forced into using precisely what they are avoiding, the 'modern' interface. It's going to be interesting to watch if they move to Mac, Linux or suck up to Microsoft and push themselves into that new UI.
Let's say they pushed themselves into that new UI. Now after months and years of using that, they will be hooked into it by Microsoft's hooks. At that point, switching to Mac or Linux would be extremely difficult due to the UI differences. It would be devastating for the future of Linux without a similar UI, that's what worries me. For Linux to have any future, the users of these OS's which support is ending, need to jump in our (Linux) lake and let their feet get wet.
That's how I'm thinking, it may be difficult for some to understand what I mean. In any case, Defender's Quest shows that there is money in the Platform. And I don't give a hoot what Microsoft is doing, I have already jumped in the Linux lake and no interest in going back again. But there are a lot of folks that, apparently, enjoy being chained up and forced to do things. You can't save the world, so grab whoever you can, unchain them, and run as fast as you can before the roof caves in.
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Linux has always had choice over UI, there is no reason someone couldn't create something similar if users actually wanted it.
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Yes more people use Windows, but when XP and 7 finally have their support ended, the people using those Microsoft platforms will be forced into using precisely what they are avoiding, the 'modern' interface. It's going to be interesting to watch if they move to Mac, Linux or suck up to Microsoft and push themselves into that new UI.
People were saying the exact same thing about Office 2007 6 years ago. As long as the magic word "Microsoft" is on the splash screen and in the title bar, it appears to make precisely no difference - you only get wailing and gnashing of teeth if that word is taken away.
In a hypothetical universe that wouldn't result in being sued to kingdom come, I wonder what would happen were you to build your own distribution based on Ubuntu but with some strategic rebranding - call the OS "Microsoft Windows 9", rebrand
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Me thinking you are thinking too much like an user. Take the boss of the 100 people in front of the Microsoft 9 version and tell him that his entire: document management, email, collaboration, vertical solution will migrate over at no cost. Tell the boss of the 100 people in front of Ubuntu that he's looking at 500k in server / software replacements including consulting time.
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The equivalent GUI for Linux is Gnome 3. Gnome 3 is arguably better for non touchscreen because the Gnome developers weren't quite as aggressive as Microsoft, but shifting the balance once everyone owns Metro / Touchscreen will not be hard. KDE also has some touch enabled stuff though I'd say they are lagging a bit.
So Linux will be fine.
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KDE have taken the highly sensible approach of keeping their touch stuff segregated from their standard point-and-click stuff- it's in the KDE Plasma Active package. Same approach as Unity (with "Unity Touch" distinct from "Unity not-touch"). It's a myth that Unity sucked because it was touch optimised (it isn't in any way)- the ways that Unity sucked were entirely distinct from the issue of touch screens.
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It takes about 30 seconds to download a "classic start bar" mod for Windows 8, and then you never have to see Metro/Modern again. There's about a dozen to choose from, and at least one of them is even on the front page of ninite.com. A friend of mine did this on his first boot of Windows 8 and didn't even know (or care) how to get back to the Metro interface.
Seems a little incomplete. (Score:3, Interesting)
When you buy a game on Steam, you get access to it in all available Steam formats. That means that for people who may use OSX, Linux, and Windows (as I do, for example) may not necessarily count as a "linux" sale, even though I'll play some of the purchased games there.
wtf (Score:5, Insightful)
News flash, that game's so old it probably plays perfectly in wine anyway. When steam for Linux starts getting AAA titles within a few weeks of the windows release then they will have something worth talking about.
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When steam for Linux starts getting AAA titles within a few weeks of the windows release then they will have something worth talking about.
The Cave: released Jan 23 2013 - Double Fine Productions / SEGA
Let me guess, this doesn't count as far as you are concerned cause it isn't Call of Black Ops or whatever the latest shitty FPS is?
If this was Microsoft... (Score:5, Insightful)
If this article had been on neowin and had praised Microsoft's new OS for breaking through on a gaming distribution platform after a lot of marketing effort from the distributor including an opening sales and had managed 2% share, Slashdotters would have been cackling and calling it hype.
What the TFA is is hype and wishful thinking. Linux has an enormous long way to go before its even considered worth porting to as part of current game development.
Its a start, but no more than that.
Those of us who are old enough can remember lots of dawns in the IT industry - most of them false.
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If this article had been on neowin and had praised Microsoft's new OS for breaking through on a gaming distribution platform after a lot of marketing effort from the distributor including an opening sales and had managed 2% share, Slashdotters would have been cackling and calling it hype.
What the TFA is is hype and wishful thinking. Linux has an enormous long way to go before its even considered worth porting to as part of current game development.
Its a start, but no more than that.
Those of us who are old enough can remember lots of dawns in the IT industry - most of them false.
You don;t even need to imagine it - this is exactly the reaction slashdot commenters had when Steam for Mac launched (along with a lot of questioning why it wasn't a simultaneous Mac+Linux launch).
How times have changed!
Still, the more gaming platforms we can establish as "legitimate" (ie, directly and actively supported by a major distribution platform), the more likely we are to see all of the alternatives to Windows grow.
mind blowing? (Score:2)
It sounds like a lot of the kiddies dont remember Loki Games.
Loki pretty much did what steam did but with actual game disks. But they did it the hard way. Linux ONLY and paying dearly to game studios to help port or wine wrap the games.
Every linux guy I know still has several Loki game disks in their collection.
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It sounds like a lot of the kiddies dont remember Loki Games.
Loki pretty much did what steam did but with actual game disks. But they did it the hard way. Linux ONLY and paying dearly to game studios to help port or wine wrap the games.
Every linux guy I know still has several Loki game disks in their collection.
I have Rune. It's a little difficult to get it to run because the infrastructure has changed over the last 10 years, but last I played it a couple of years back, it did still work.
This was actually the reason I didn't buy Deus Ex on first release - I was waiting for the Linux port. Sadly Loki imploded before it could be completed.
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Every linux guy I know still has several Loki game disks in their collection.
I'm hoping they get put on Steam (or Desura, it works damn good in Linux too) soon.
The first step in statistics: (Score:2)
The first step in statistics is to understand what the data you have represents.
The hardware survey represents all hardware samples, month by month. Now take into account the fact that those samples include dual and triple booting systems, which is a difficult number to derive from the data provided by Steam.
My experience from reading the Steam forums as a beta tester suggests to me that a large portion of the Linux test base were multi-booting. My feeling from reading the support threads is that many of
I don't have to reboot anymore (Score:2)
I have used it since the beta (Score:5, Informative)
I have actually used it since the beta invite popped into my inbox. For those of you who havn't tried it here is a short summary:
I run Arch Linux, which is not supported. Valve only supports Ubuntu and provides the software as a .deb file which contains the "bootstrapper", basically a "netinstall" version if you were to make a comparision to the average Linux distro. The bootstrapper is easily taken apart via a script in the custom installer program that some of the Arch Linux folks whipped up and ends up installed system-wide by default.
This caused some problems for people like me, who are too paranoid to install untrusted software system-wide or even in my own home directory. I gave it a separate user account and denied the installer root access (which it asked for every time it tried to auto-update). It cried and bugged out, but you could run TF2 from day one. As they continued to improve the software they actually listened to the complaints at github (where they keep their Linux issue tracker) and made the software runnable as a regular user. It now resides completely inside my 'steam' users directory and the bootstrapper is long gone from the system-wide install.
If you are like me, and only run ALSA, hating PulseAudio's tentacle guts, you can actually run Steam anyway. They are using SDL as the backend, so when launching Steam you just export SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa before running it, and you'll get sound! Even in-game voice is operational, but you still can't permanently disable it to get rid of all the jackasses screaming into the microphones.
Steam itself still uses the look from it's Windows roots, the ugly custom-skinned UI. And it can't be resized on my machine, which runs PekWM. It is also slow as molasses to start, and so is TF2. That might be in part to me using ONLY a 3G modem for my gaming though. The store also works like a charm.
An interesting feature is that you can actually switch between the OpenGL game window and the rest of your desktops seamlessly, with no apparent bugs or performance loss. Faster and more painless than on Windows. This wasn't always the case though, as early versions would switch to your desktop as soon as you got an archievement and completely screw up your mouse input once you switched back. This has been long since fixed though.
The only recent bug I came across was an apparent lack of support for multi-user environments, where I once started the bootstrapper as my regular user by mistake and let it install, thinking it was an regular update. Once it was up I figured what was wrong, uninstalling it and starting up as the 'steam' user, whereas it sefaulted hard. It took several hours and a lot of support ticket reading to figure out that leftover temporary file descriptors left from the first session screwed up the second one. Kinda stupid bug for a modern software, but that's what beta testing is for I suppose.
For me, Valve has really made my Linux experience a lot better. Hat's off to them. Now I just need to find some TF2 servers with players that are as beligerent and offensive as me!
Re:THIS JUST IN: LINUX DEAD, NETCRAFT CONFIRMS IT! (Score:4, Insightful)
Interesting... it took a game distribution platform to convince people that Linux is a viable gaming platform. Isn't it ironic?
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I went to comdex in my Loki t-shirt and got mistaken for a Loki employee. I went to a LUG meeting and people were flabbergasted that there were games for Linux. I have had to "beat the bushes" sometimes to find games for Linux.
Humble Bundles have benefited from being widely publicized without any real effort on the part of those running it. They have benefited from the same media effect that Apple enjoys. Steam is the same way.
They end up being a success even if the people making the games put no real effor
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Does not match my experience, I have 43 Linux games on Steam (mostly redeemed from Indie Bundles) and they all work fine, even on my Intel HD 4000. A quote from your "prime example",
The game runs under Linux and I bought it, but had I known it's Flash I would not have bought it...
seems to agree with my experience (not that I like flash, not that I like the status of flash on linux, but if it works, it works).
Re: Too bad they're selling broken games (Score:2)
Genuine question- why would you use the steam key when you have direct access to a drm-free version? Was this just curious testing, or am I missing something?
Re: Too bad they're selling broken games (Score:5, Informative)
You buy the indie bundle... humble bundles for example and you are entitled to a DRM free copy. Awesome.
You use the steam key anyway because its as easy as using any other linux package manager. You select what you want, you click play and a few minutes later your playing. You switch to your laptop up stairs, launch steam, click what you want ... and start playing.
The DRM free direct downloads are great in the event steam fails or is down or something. But honestly, for all that I dislike about steam, it is easy to use. I use GoG a lot too, but find myself wishing that I could download and install those games via steam as well. Its just nice not to have all the clutter of manual downloads, manual patches, expansion packs, etc.
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Actually, manual downloads and patches sounds great to me. Means you retain control over how you want to use your game installation, such that if a newer patch is rubbish you can choose to stick with something earlier. Yes I know in Steam you can tell it to not update a particular game, but sooner or later Steam will force the update either due to resetting that setting, or a reinstall which will necessitate
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I don't like this automatic control because there are some games, like RAGE and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which have problems with their respective latest patches that don't exist in former ones.
The fact that it makes keeping everyone in sync version-wise trivial for multiplayer, is a godsend, that more than offsets the regression-bug argument I think.
Avoiding a few regression bugs is certainly not worth the effort of manually downloading and manually patching every game one wants to play.
People seem to e
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I use GoG a lot too, but find myself wishing that I could download and install those games via steam as well.
This. I have about 100 games from GOG and love their DRM-less nature but were they to partner with Steam and offer some kind of "manage in Steam" upgrade for 5% to 10% of a game's price I'd surely go for it. (Not all of them at once though.)
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Some of the Flash games, like Lone Survivor, doesn't really work any longer..
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How is that easier then "other linux package manager"? If I want a game or application, I just click on "Install" and a few minutes later I'm playing/using that application.
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Its not easier then using another package manager with a repo. Its as easy. But that is a lot easier than visiting various game websites downloading things, downloading updaters, etc etc etc
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Sorry I misread. Yes you are right of course.
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Odd, I have no problems with Machinarium on Linux & I'm pretty sure it's a Flash game as well. I may be wrong though.
Re:A respectable showing. (Score:5, Informative)
Yes 2% share in a few weeks VS a gigantic company that has thrown billions into advertising.
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You make it sound like Valve is a poor struggling indie company and not a major player.
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...yes. Never mind the fact that Microsoft is a monopoly that chose to clone Word Perfect and force feed it to everyone. Corel's real problem was supporting Linux.
You are confusing cause and effect here.
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So, have you asked "mainstream" developers why they don't have their steam games ported to Linux yet? Or is your category of 'shitty games' inclusive of all Steam games as well?
Re:Only shitty games (Score:5, Informative)
While there's certainly some indie games, games like Counter-Strike (standard and Source), Half-Life, and Team Fortress 2 are available and are quite popular. Not bad for starting out for a new platform. I'm sure that'll increase in time.
Re:Only shitty games (Score:4, Insightful)
Companies won't port games unless they see enough potential customers, and they have traditionally made the assumption that there are very few linux game players and that the few there are would just dual boot to play games anyway.
If enough people buy the linux games available on steam, then you will get more being made, and you will also see developers creating their initial games with portability in mind (eg using opengl instead of directx etc) to decrease the cost of porting.
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Actually, Waking Mars was bar none the best game I played last year.
Thanks for the tip; I'd never heard of that game and just gone to look it up on their website. Looks like $10 of my money is going to be well spent there...
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Proves that more intelligent people are gamers... as more computer illiterate people use Mac than linux.
Almost ever single OSX users who is someone who rejected a platform where gaming is great (Windows) to move to a platform where gaming was so/so. Given the capacities are not hugely different and price leans higher that means that anyone who picked OSX over Windows probably doesn't game much. Moreover the Apple crowd in general has been aging and I suspect Steam type gaming is much more popular ages 10-30 than ages 30-50.
In the case of Linux the capacities are hugely different. The more advanced Linux window managers have no Windows or OSX equivalents. There are no GUI desktop environments with the level of configurability of KDE for Windows or OSX. Many of the applications for Linux have no equivalents, though they have competitors which are vastly more expensive. ETC...
I think it is not unreasonable you are looking at two very different populations.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Ever hear of growth? You have to start somewhere. I'd say it's not bad. Just give it time, you're passing judgment too soon.
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OSX has commanded more much more than single digit market share during that time either, and usually itself single digit. It has commanded huge profit share but market share, no.
Linux vs OS-X (Score:3, Informative)
He's not confusing iOS w/ OS-X. He's stated the facts about OS-X - that its numbers are static. However, the least that can be said for OS-X is that it at least makes margins that continue to fund the development of the Mac platform. Which unfortunately can't be said for Linux.
For Windows Phone, it's just been out, as opposed to Linux, which has now been there for more than a decade. When you're stuck at 2% of the market year after year, it's worth looking into what you are doing wrong. If in a year
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You are a dwarf calling a midget shorty.
Both platforms suffer from the problem of "paying their own way". You are a deluded fool to try and claim otherwise. MacOS is in the exact same boat as Linux here.
As far as this "compatibility" problem you're trying to manufacture goes: I still play my old Loki games.
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Steam for Linux isn't really about bringing games to existing Linux users. This is preparation for their Steambox hardware. They're creating a market for viable game development on Linux, so that when they release the Steambox, developers won't be hesitant to develop for it. By using Linux, they don't have to provide Windows licenses for every device, thereby keeping the cost of the device down.
So you see, the existing Linux userbase really isn't an important factor in this, though that it does exist and th
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I love using linux, I've used it exclusively for three or four years now. I have my whole family using it, and when it works, it's a great experience. But everything you said here is the truth. Recently an Ubuntu update, one that should have been trivial, killed off my wifi in a way that took me hours to fix. Bullshit like that is unthinkable on Windows, and until it's just as unthinkable for us, the year of linux on the desktop will never, ever come.
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> Bullshit like that is unthinkable on Windows
No it isn't. There's a lot of propaganda about how good and easy Windows is supposed to be but it's mostly boggus.
On the other hand, I just experienced this very thing on MacOS. I put MacOS back on a Mini that had been running Ubuntu for years (without incident).
As soon as it updated itself, networking was completely buggered.
The MacOS update didn't just "kill wifi". It "killed all networking" period.
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It's a fair observation that my single anecdote is not "data". But if we look at data, are we really going to see that these sorts of issues happen equally often between the two? Believe me, I don't want to defend closed source OSes, and this sort of thing obviously isn't a dealbreaker or else I'd have switched back. But it's a big problem, and not acknowledging it won't get us anywhere.
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Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Dude. I've been running Linux for years without wiping the computer. My desktop has been a steady upgrade cycle from Ubuntu 8.04. I recently upgraded from 12.04 to 12.12 with absolutely zero trouble.
Years ago, sure. Somewhere around Ubuntu 6.4 I had a heck of a time running upgrades. Let's not even consider early SuSE variants, or RedHat in the days of 4.x. For the past five years, however, every computer I run has upgraded flawlessly every time.
I run Linux on all my computers, both desktop and laptop. The company I work for runs Linux on all the servers, all the development machines, and recently switched their customer care group from XP to Linux with an XP-like theme.
None of us have the kind of bitter experience that you are describing. I think your vitriol is rather outdated.
cej102937
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Wow. You're going on and on about how Linux hardware support sucks and Windows' is the best ever. The computer I'm on now, a basic Dell from around 2006, came with Vista. I installed my copy of XP a while back just to update the BIOS. Guess what? The fucking Ethernet card doesn't even work! What good is a god damn creaky 14-year-old piece of shit operating system that everyone has moved on from, even the hardware manufacturers?
It's pretty bad... I've experienced some trouble in the past getting wirele
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Before you know it, you'll be playing Left4Dead on your phone. There's a HUGE untapped market there.
My phone left me for dead long ago.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Firstly, I'd wager that the effort Valve has put in to Linux support is pretty much 2% of their total. The way they seem to work is to undertake a lot of different things, most of which aren't wildly profitable.
Secondly: games on linux is a chicken-and-egg thing. I use *ux daily for work, but my home desktop has been a windows machine forever, because I sometimes want to play games. Most (but not all) of the games I play are Valve titles, so being able to play them on ux makes it more likely I'd give linux on the desktop a serious try, or recommend it to a friend, than before. If they can bring more big developers to the platform (either through improving emulation, or by leveraging the upcoming "steambox" to encourage developers to make their games compatible), then Linux on the desktop becomes a viable choice for home computers for a lot of people that it just isn't at the moment, and then selling games to Linux users becomes more profitable in a spiral of awesomeness.
Every publisher seems to have their own Steam-like service, and the threat of Xbox Live, Windows8 Marketplace and Win8 phones actually interoperating to give one Steam-like system across the PC, pocket and living room is obviously a huge threat. As we've seen time and again, if you're beholden to Microsoft for your business, then you won't be in business for long, so they are pushing an alternate platform through a number of avenues and initiatives to make sure that they have a Plan B for when MS decides that they want to be the sole gatekeeper for the entire Windows games market.
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That 2.02% is way over inflated due to TF2 players installing Linux to get the Team Fortress 2 tux item. /v/, /vg/, reddit, /g/ and the TF2 irc channels were absolutely full of TF2 players that were looking for help to temporarily install Linux. The overwhelming opinion also seemed to be that Ubuntu is terrible and that Linux isn't worth using on the desktop.
The TF2 players learned their lesson after the Mac client release, when playing TF2 during the Mac release got you a pair of earbuds in game - initially the reaction from the "hardcore" players was one of derision, even going so far as to set some servers up that auto-kicked you if you had the earbuds equipped, only for those buds to become high value items in the coming months due to their rarity. Now they're highly sought after in-game.
I get constant trade requests for them, at inflated costs, but I have
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I bought a Mac in 2009 because it was (and still is) the only platform where I can use Photoshop/Lightroom/Steam/vim/ssh/git/ruby natively.
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It doesn't suprise me that Mac games aren't doing that well. Why buy a Mac game when you can run Windows and buy Windows games?
If you RTFA there is an update at the bottom stating that according to his 'Lifetime direct sales" data Macs, Linux and Windows were at 11, 7 and 83% respectively meaning that Mac games out did Linux games in post purchase downloads. That data contrasts with that one weeks worth of Steam sales figures and interestingly enough it wasn't mentioned in the /. summary. Nobody buys a Mac, or installs Linux for gaming. The main interest of Mac and Linux are usually not gaming. It's programming, photo processing, g