5 ms·

Linux Tycoon is the premier Linux Distro Building Simulator game

105 points by Fargren 15y ago

jamesu 15y ago
An interesting concept, but the lack of a demo and the plain looking screenshots puts me off buying. Some of the better simulation games i've played simulate things in locations. You can usually see and interact with people walking around and customize the look of the area which makes for a fun sandbox environment. e.g. Theme Hospital, The Sims, Game Dev Story. In comparison, simulating a Linux distro on its own doesn't quite have the same feel to it.
- Rickasaurus 15y ago
  Dude, I'd pay four bucks just for the laugh I had reading the description page.
- njs12345 15y ago
  Speaking of Theme Hospital, looks like there's a recent project to create an open source implementation: http://code.google.com/p/corsix-th/ http://code.google.com/p/corsix-th/ Could be good, especially if it goes the way of OpenTTD and gets its own open source data files.
fleitz 15y ago
As much fun as herding cats. Given the screenshots why is it even an app instead of a website, at least then it'd be social. "Finding that perfect balance between a fun game experience and an accurate simulation of Linux Distro building is a bit of a challenge?" How many people, even in your target audience could compare this? Right now I'm thinking of Linus, Theo De Raadt, Richard Stallman, and Jordan Hubbard playing SimDistro on their 360 complaining "Our CVS commits, never apply that cleanly, it's totally unrealistic for that big of a patch to have applied that cleanly"
- phamilton 15y ago
  http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity Here's some stats on the 321 distros that distrowatch keeps track of. On each distro there are at least a couple of maintainers, sometimes a dozen or more. Plus the thousands of people who have done Linux From Scratch.
- koeselitz 15y ago
  Have Linus Torvalds or Richard Stallman ever actually built their own distro at all? I seem to recall Linus saying he didn't have time for that, and he'd rather leave that task to somebody else who cares about it more. More to the point: there are hundreds upon hundreds of different distros out there - it's not even that hard to make your own. Technically, anybody who compiles the kernel specifically for their own system and chooses a base of software around their kernel could call that a "distribution" and put it on the internet for anybody to use with a small amount of effort. You don't even need to know how to code anything to do that - you just have to know some command-line stuff. That's kind of what I like about this - a game that "takes out the hard stuff" and just gives an overview of building a distro and what goes into it. If this helps educate people about the process and get more people learning about computers, I think that's great.
  - fleitz 15y ago
    Ok fine, as long as in the game you have to start referring to Linux as GNU/Linux whenever RMS is within ear shot lest you lose a day to one of his insufferable speeches on terminology. If that's the case then I'd say it's realistic. It's a joke bro, lighten up.
    - koeselitz 15y ago
      I have adjusted my hue and saturation accordingly.
pclark 15y ago
I would buy this if I could pay via any means except PayPal.
Aqueous 15y ago
How about a game that simulates people not building their own Linux distros, and instead contributing their efforts to improving the thousands that we already have?
Paul_S 15y ago
The screenshots are so unrevealing that I think a demo is warranted or better still - a free beta. When did people start paying for beta access? 10 years ago people would complain about that - now they're grateful for the opportunity to do the QA. Is this made by that guy from the linux action show who hates freedom? I saw the episode where they abuse poor old RMS and found it shocking.
- taudelta 15y ago
  "Is this made by that guy from the linux action show who hates freedom? I saw the episode where they abuse poor old RMS and found it shocking." Yes it is. I also found the interview quite shocking and they probably did nothing to prepare for it which is probably why it ended up that way.
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  > now they're grateful for the opportunity to do the QA. Because nowadays, you can use that beta time to get used to the game, to find out all of the quirks and patterns that aren't bugs, but will still give you a leg-up on the game when it's released for the masses.
agentgt 15y ago
I would really like an Apple/IBM simulation game where you go sue people for any sort of patent infringement while maintaining your offshore workforces (or your legion of consultants for IBM). Or maybe an Oil company or Tobacco company simulation game where marketing and messaging are critical. Or how about a GOP nomination sim game... I smell Super PAC! :)
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  PACman?
theorique 15y ago
Thought this was a late April Fool joke at first.

105 points by Fargren 15y ago

An interesting concept, but the lack of a demo and the plain looking screenshots puts me off buying. Some of the better simulation games i've played simulate things in locations. You can usually see and interact with people walking around and customize the look of the area which makes for a fun sandbox environment. e.g. Theme Hospital, The Sims, Game Dev Story. In comparison, simulating a Linux distro on its own doesn't quite have the same feel to it.

Rickasaurus 15y ago
Dude, I'd pay four bucks just for the laugh I had reading the description page.
njs12345 15y ago
Speaking of Theme Hospital, looks like there's a recent project to create an open source implementation: http://code.google.com/p/corsix-th/ http://code.google.com/p/corsix-th/ Could be good, especially if it goes the way of OpenTTD and gets its own open source data files.

fleitz 15y ago

As much fun as herding cats. Given the screenshots why is it even an app instead of a website, at least then it'd be social. "Finding that perfect balance between a fun game experience and an accurate simulation of Linux Distro building is a bit of a challenge?" How many people, even in your target audience could compare this? Right now I'm thinking of Linus, Theo De Raadt, Richard Stallman, and Jordan Hubbard playing SimDistro on their 360 complaining "Our CVS commits, never apply that cleanly, it's totally unrealistic for that big of a patch to have applied that cleanly"

phamilton 15y ago
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity Here's some stats on the 321 distros that distrowatch keeps track of. On each distro there are at least a couple of maintainers, sometimes a dozen or more. Plus the thousands of people who have done Linux From Scratch.
koeselitz 15y ago
Have Linus Torvalds or Richard Stallman ever actually built their own distro at all? I seem to recall Linus saying he didn't have time for that, and he'd rather leave that task to somebody else who cares about it more. More to the point: there are hundreds upon hundreds of different distros out there - it's not even that hard to make your own. Technically, anybody who compiles the kernel specifically for their own system and chooses a base of software around their kernel could call that a "distribution" and put it on the internet for anybody to use with a small amount of effort. You don't even need to know how to code anything to do that - you just have to know some command-line stuff. That's kind of what I like about this - a game that "takes out the hard stuff" and just gives an overview of building a distro and what goes into it. If this helps educate people about the process and get more people learning about computers, I think that's great.
- fleitz 15y ago
  Ok fine, as long as in the game you have to start referring to Linux as GNU/Linux whenever RMS is within ear shot lest you lose a day to one of his insufferable speeches on terminology. If that's the case then I'd say it's realistic. It's a joke bro, lighten up.
  - koeselitz 15y ago
    I have adjusted my hue and saturation accordingly.

pclark 15y ago

I would buy this if I could pay via any means except PayPal.

Aqueous 15y ago

How about a game that simulates people not building their own Linux distros, and instead contributing their efforts to improving the thousands that we already have?

Paul_S 15y ago

The screenshots are so unrevealing that I think a demo is warranted or better still - a free beta. When did people start paying for beta access? 10 years ago people would complain about that - now they're grateful for the opportunity to do the QA. Is this made by that guy from the linux action show who hates freedom? I saw the episode where they abuse poor old RMS and found it shocking.

taudelta 15y ago
"Is this made by that guy from the linux action show who hates freedom? I saw the episode where they abuse poor old RMS and found it shocking." Yes it is. I also found the interview quite shocking and they probably did nothing to prepare for it which is probably why it ended up that way.
pavel_lishin 15y ago
> now they're grateful for the opportunity to do the QA. Because nowadays, you can use that beta time to get used to the game, to find out all of the quirks and patterns that aren't bugs, but will still give you a leg-up on the game when it's released for the masses.

agentgt 15y ago

I would really like an Apple/IBM simulation game where you go sue people for any sort of patent infringement while maintaining your offshore workforces (or your legion of consultants for IBM). Or maybe an Oil company or Tobacco company simulation game where marketing and messaging are critical. Or how about a GOP nomination sim game... I smell Super PAC! :)

pavel_lishin 15y ago
PACman?

theorique 15y ago

Thought this was a late April Fool joke at first.