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I really don't understand why anyone would waste the energy to target Linux beyond making sure that your Windows build also works on Wine.

fileeditview 6y ago
Did you read the article?
- thrower123 6y ago
  Yes. Fine, if you want to do it as a labor of love, but on an economic basis, it's moronic.
kgwxd 6y ago
Even when that's done it never seems to be officially supported. Probably because too much is out of their hands to make any guarantees.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  You simply cannot offer support for Linux users because everything above the kernel is optional. Even if you limit yourself to a few distributions they have a bad habit of changing fundamental userland components every 2 years. Hell, Ubuntu nearly dropped 32bit lib support and consequently their status as the only Linux officially supported by Steam.
  - spystath 6y ago
    I believe this argument is slightly weak. I understand that the ecosystem is very diverse but even on Windows most new games only officially support Windows 10. If you're on 7 for any reason then it's your problem if the game doesn't work. Similarly if you're willing to go down the Linux route developing and deploying only on Ubuntu, for instance, can be regarded as a "single platform". It's my prerogative to use whatever I want on my Linux box but then it's my problem to make sure I have all the required components available for my bespoke setup. I haven't used Ubuntu in years but give me a "Ubuntu executable" and I'll find a way to make it work on my desktop. And if you don't want to limit yourself on Ubuntu Valve is now rolling out their "steam runtime containers" which are reproducible environments for developers to target. There are still issues with the drivers, I'll give you that. But at least AMD/Mesa is moving fast to adopt features. NVIDIA is going to be NVIDIA but at least they are not skimping on implementing OpenGL and Vulkan extensions.

fileeditview 6y ago

Did you read the article?

thrower123 6y ago
Yes. Fine, if you want to do it as a labor of love, but on an economic basis, it's moronic.

kgwxd 6y ago

Even when that's done it never seems to be officially supported. Probably because too much is out of their hands to make any guarantees.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
You simply cannot offer support for Linux users because everything above the kernel is optional. Even if you limit yourself to a few distributions they have a bad habit of changing fundamental userland components every 2 years. Hell, Ubuntu nearly dropped 32bit lib support and consequently their status as the only Linux officially supported by Steam.
- spystath 6y ago
  I believe this argument is slightly weak. I understand that the ecosystem is very diverse but even on Windows most new games only officially support Windows 10. If you're on 7 for any reason then it's your problem if the game doesn't work. Similarly if you're willing to go down the Linux route developing and deploying only on Ubuntu, for instance, can be regarded as a "single platform". It's my prerogative to use whatever I want on my Linux box but then it's my problem to make sure I have all the required components available for my bespoke setup. I haven't used Ubuntu in years but give me a "Ubuntu executable" and I'll find a way to make it work on my desktop. And if you don't want to limit yourself on Ubuntu Valve is now rolling out their "steam runtime containers" which are reproducible environments for developers to target. There are still issues with the drivers, I'll give you that. But at least AMD/Mesa is moving fast to adopt features. NVIDIA is going to be NVIDIA but at least they are not skimping on implementing OpenGL and Vulkan extensions.