This really is a great accomplishment on Steam’s part considering the state of 3D hardware support in Linux. That said, I do use OSX only as a desktop OS mostly because of the state of 3D hardware support in Linux.
The virtual memory subsystem in OSX is real pile of crap. In my experience, the Linux kernel is more stable, and much better performing than the OSX kernel. And, I’ve never seen him play games with this much regularity.įirst off, before I piss off lot of people, let me start by saying that for the most part, I think Linux rocks, in fact I actually use Linux far more often than OSX, but I use Linux as a compute node / developer env, and not as a desktop OS. I did use to play some of those games a few years back. So, we went to the game store and I spotted the Orange Box. The funny side note is that my kid wanted a couple of other games. But, I’ve told him “No” because I don’t have Windows at home and I like it that way.
I think the most creative and best games I’ve ever witnessed is Portal.Īnyway, can you (or someone) tell me more about Orange Box on Linux? My kid has begged for the PC version because it seems to get updates and has weapons he doesn’t have. Never the less, your mention of the Orange Box caught my eye. So, I don’t really comprehend the significance the Steam engine and what it means to those who wish to play games on Linux. If you are successful, the landscape in the next 30-40 years will be different enough that most of the previous things wont apply anymore, and you won’t actually be doing people a disservice by trying to push them on to something different. Kids don’t buy software, they spend a LOT of time on computers, they are more willing (and better at) learning things about computers then adults, and they don’t have to work at a job using windows. If you really want to be an evangelist, best thing to do is market to the kids and give the adults up as a lost cause. The way most people use their machines, it doesn’t really matter what OS they use, windows does the job and they are used to it. Lastly, people really are pretty happy with it. A lot of people also have a financial investment into windows, and probably won’t want to just throw that away. They also will not use something different from everyone else, because they don’t know (or want to know) enough about computers to make an informed choice.
The problem is that only computer geeks actually enjoy learning how to use computers, normal people hate it, and have no problem paying the 130$ or so required for an OEM windows 7, if it means things work more or less the same as they are used to. The problem is that its not enough to be “good enough”, “as good”, or “better”. A lot of people have asked me about it before, because some guy that was at a computer store/in a cafe/fixing their computer/at their work/ etc told them about it and that it was better then windows. Linux marketing is totally there, it is just grassroots, which is actually way better then traditional marketing. A casual MMO player is probably 15-20 hours per week, and that is just one MMO (albeit, the biggest)
The average non-geek person is hardly aware of its existence.Īs of dec 2k9, world of warcraft had 11.5 million subscribers. Linux is reduced basically to word of mouth and perhaps seen as a “techie” term in specialized articles. Apple and Microsoft spend megabucks in various types of media on maintaining awareness for their operating systems. Please note that I mean it in the sense of, for example, actual graphical designers who absolutely must have Photoshop on their home PC, not the casual user who pirates Photoshop, only uses 1% of its capabilities and can’t be arsed to look for a legal alternative.
The users who absolutely must have specialized software which is only available for Windows are borderline cases. It has Open Office which covers the needs of most users, it has a very decent desktop offering (the actual experience, the design, the hardware support, the applications), it is more secure than Windows (yes, even 7). I would venture to say that in fact Linux does not, anymore, lack anything in particular to be actually useful to the average PC user. (Some figures go as far as 1 in 10.) That means that in America PC gamers are roughly 5% of PC users. I’ve googled around for some figures and from what I can tell (2yr old results), in America about 40% of computer users play computer games BUT only 1 in 7 of these do so on the computer. Not an irrelevant one, sure, but incomplete. Gaming is a poor metric for what people desire in a desktop. Gaming is probably the last reason for many users to still use windows over linux.