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> Windows isn't perfect or better for gaming. This assessment depends entirely on the perspective. From a developer's POV, Windows definitively is the better

by qayxc 5y ago

> Windows isn't perfect or better for gaming. This assessment depends entirely on the perspective. From a developer's POV, Windows definitively is the better platform, as it's very monolithic in that you can rely on the presence and longevity of APIs. Depending on the dev's influence on the market and the success of the game, you even get free optimisation, support, and bug fixes from h/w vendors in the form of game-specific driver patches. From a gamer's POV, Windows has advantages as well, since bugs are rarely OS-related and h/w vendors offer a lot more features OOTB. If you love tinkering with the OS and don't care if some titles or features just won't work, Linux is a valid option for gaming. Otherwise Windows is objectively the better option by default, since I can rely on the games working with all available features (e.g. multiplayer).

shmerl 5y ago
> you can rely on the presence and longevity of APIs That can be moot. Arguably, I can run more Windows games on Linux using Wine than on actual Windows, especially the older those games are. Optimizations or work on drivers done by outside developers isn't unusual for Linux too. In fact something like Cyberpunk 2077 became playable on Linux without CDPR getting involved, except for them providing the game to Mesa and Wine developers before the release. And they even added a whole Vulkan extension to make it more playable without CDPR lifting a finger. Overall I'd say Windows offers no advantages besides being more entrenched among gaming developers for historic reasons. If Linux would have provided the same market size as Windows, developers would work with it no matter OS specific idiosyncrasies, same as they do with Windows now.
- Schnitz 5y ago
  > Overall I'd say Windows offers no advantages besides being more entrenched among gaming developers for historic reasons. So if you were a game developer you wouldn't consider the fact that for every 1 Linux gamer on Steam there are 99 Windows gamers and thus optimize for the much larger market?
  - shmerl 5y ago
    That's exactly what I said above, Windows is addressed not because it's better for gaming or is somehow superior to Linux in avoiding issues like above, but because developers don't want to ignore its market size. With comparable market size, Linux won't be ignored either, its issues regardless.

by qayxc 5y ago

shmerl 5y ago

> you can rely on the presence and longevity of APIs That can be moot. Arguably, I can run more Windows games on Linux using Wine than on actual Windows, especially the older those games are. Optimizations or work on drivers done by outside developers isn't unusual for Linux too. In fact something like Cyberpunk 2077 became playable on Linux without CDPR getting involved, except for them providing the game to Mesa and Wine developers before the release. And they even added a whole Vulkan extension to make it more playable without CDPR lifting a finger. Overall I'd say Windows offers no advantages besides being more entrenched among gaming developers for historic reasons. If Linux would have provided the same market size as Windows, developers would work with it no matter OS specific idiosyncrasies, same as they do with Windows now.

Schnitz 5y ago
> Overall I'd say Windows offers no advantages besides being more entrenched among gaming developers for historic reasons. So if you were a game developer you wouldn't consider the fact that for every 1 Linux gamer on Steam there are 99 Windows gamers and thus optimize for the much larger market?
- shmerl 5y ago
  That's exactly what I said above, Windows is addressed not because it's better for gaming or is somehow superior to Linux in avoiding issues like above, but because developers don't want to ignore its market size. With comparable market size, Linux won't be ignored either, its issues regardless.