4 ms·

The traditional Linux-bashing post, which is effectively (to my mind) countered by the traditional response, which is that another indie dev found [1] that most

The traditional Linux-bashing post, which is effectively (to my mind) countered by the traditional response, which is that another indie dev found [1] that most of these issues were not Linux-specific. That is to say, Linux users don't report more bugs because there are a lot of problems running the game specifically on Linux, but because they're accustomed to reporting bugs instead of just ignoring them. 1: https://www.neowin.net/news/linux-gamers-are-way-better-at-finding-game-bugs-than-windows-users-says-game-dev/ https://www.neowin.net/news/linux-gamers-are-way-better-at-f...

ramesh31 3y ago
Not to mention listing "Linux" as a supported platform is about as absurd as saying "Darwin" or "NT". Support Ubuntu LTS and SteamOS, and call it a day.
- lvass 3y ago
  Not really, as Steam packs a full runtime or you could use something like AppImage.
mhh__ 3y ago
Management: Does a bug really exist before it's filed?
- xcrunner529 3y ago
  The cases are high because people keep testing!
chongli 3y ago
I think this can still be thought of as a "nightmare" for some developers. The mindset may be that the developers don't want users reporting bugs. They'd rather the users passively tolerate the bugs. This way the developers don't need to put in the effort to fix them! These developers may prefer not to support Linux because they simply do not want to deal with sophisticated users.
- mixmastamyk 3y ago
  Eliminating your main source of paid work sounds like a bad idea, if you like to eat that is.
- nightpool 3y ago
  Obviously when you frame it like this it sounds insane, but the fact of the matter is that responding to support tickets and triaging bugs have a real, hard cost in $$$ spent. If supporting Linux platforms doubles your time spent responding to support requests and triaging tickets—even if you never fix an additional bug, it could very well be enough to entirely tank the profitability of adding Linux support, well above the value that any additional minor bugs they find might bring.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    They can deprioritize bugs coming from Linux users if they find the triaging by itself so hard, but at that point I doubt they have the bandwidth to fix Windows-reported bugs either. The original post seems more like the approach of managers who are disconnected from reality and gauge everything from some metrics. Bugs = bad, reduce bugs by any means necessary.
    - hot_gril 3y ago
      (Either that or the bugs really are Linux-specific, which is quite possible)
      - Arnt 3y ago
        I've worked on platform-independent code. Even if a bug is platform-independent, the report may well be platform-specific and difficult to reproduce. The real nature of the bug only becomes clear after analysis, and getting the right platform for the analysis may be so much work that the whole thing is impractical. "May be" doesn't mean "very rarely" either. It's sad, really. You may sit in front of your keyboard with an intuition that this bug affects lots of people and know that you can't really work on it, so how to you respond? Sad.

ramesh31 3y ago

Not to mention listing "Linux" as a supported platform is about as absurd as saying "Darwin" or "NT". Support Ubuntu LTS and SteamOS, and call it a day.

lvass 3y ago
Not really, as Steam packs a full runtime or you could use something like AppImage.

mhh__ 3y ago

Management: Does a bug really exist before it's filed?

xcrunner529 3y ago
The cases are high because people keep testing!

chongli 3y ago

I think this can still be thought of as a "nightmare" for some developers. The mindset may be that the developers don't want users reporting bugs. They'd rather the users passively tolerate the bugs. This way the developers don't need to put in the effort to fix them! These developers may prefer not to support Linux because they simply do not want to deal with sophisticated users.

mixmastamyk 3y ago
Eliminating your main source of paid work sounds like a bad idea, if you like to eat that is.
nightpool 3y ago
Obviously when you frame it like this it sounds insane, but the fact of the matter is that responding to support tickets and triaging bugs have a real, hard cost in $$$ spent. If supporting Linux platforms doubles your time spent responding to support requests and triaging tickets—even if you never fix an additional bug, it could very well be enough to entirely tank the profitability of adding Linux support, well above the value that any additional minor bugs they find might bring.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  They can deprioritize bugs coming from Linux users if they find the triaging by itself so hard, but at that point I doubt they have the bandwidth to fix Windows-reported bugs either. The original post seems more like the approach of managers who are disconnected from reality and gauge everything from some metrics. Bugs = bad, reduce bugs by any means necessary.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    (Either that or the bugs really are Linux-specific, which is quite possible)
    - Arnt 3y ago
      I've worked on platform-independent code. Even if a bug is platform-independent, the report may well be platform-specific and difficult to reproduce. The real nature of the bug only becomes clear after analysis, and getting the right platform for the analysis may be so much work that the whole thing is impractical. "May be" doesn't mean "very rarely" either. It's sad, really. You may sit in front of your keyboard with an intuition that this bug affects lots of people and know that you can't really work on it, so how to you respond? Sad.