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Looks like the upward trend shows that it is not in fact “game over”. Steam making sure than the vast majority of games run fine on Linux at the first try is m

Looks like the upward trend shows that it is not in fact “game over”. Steam making sure than the vast majority of games run fine on Linux at the first try is much more impactful than WSL in the grand scheme of things.

pjmlp 2y ago
[flagged]
- littlestymaar 2y ago
  > As long as it keeps translating Windows, For people to be able to play games on your platform, there must be games running on it, and the reality is that people won't bother developing commercial games targeting explicitly Linux, at least not if Linux is at 2% market share. Being able to run the games which already exist is a massive adoption boost. > and doesn't lose to the handhelds running Windows proper. It's not just about handhelds, I don't have a Steam Deck yet I can use pretty much all games I want on my Linux Desktop thanks to Valve's work. > Lost opportunity to actually make Linux gaming take off. No, unless you restrict “Linux gaming” to games that are natively developed for Linux, which is pretty much arbitrary. Should Linux reach double digit market share, then maybe it will become commercially viable to do so, but the reality is that before Valve did their magic, playing on Linux was hit or miss and every gamer around me had a Windows dual boot. It's not the case anymore, and that's really weird to see it as a “lost opportunity” (but I know some people really love to be contrarians on HN).
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Of course I am restricting it to native Linux games, the others are Windows games, developed and sold for Windows customers, that happen to be running on Linux thanks to Proton. One could be running a VM of some sort for exactly the same purpose. To the point that studios with Android NDK versions don't even bother to have them on GNU/Linux.
    - littlestymaar 2y ago
      > Of course I am restricting it to native Linux games, And of course that's completely arbitrary. > the others are Windows games, developed and sold for Windows customers, that happen to be running on Linux thanks to Proton. And so what? > One could be running a VM of some sort for exactly the same purpose. Except it keeps you monitored by Microsoft abusive telemetry, need much more RAM than what you'd normally need, and requires a Windows license. Dual-booting was the convenient way of doing this before proton came out, not VM. And proton made dual boot obsolete, which is a very good deal given that Microsoft regularly messes with it… > To the point that studios with Android NDK versions don't even bother to have them on GNU/Linux. Games developed for Android are made for touchscreens, so it's not like porting is easy. And again, nobody is ever going to develop games for a platform that barely even exists as a gaming platform. Valve makes the platform exists at all, which is a big deal. But until market share hasn't reached something like 20% at least, nobody will bother developing games for it. MacOS still isn't a serious gaming platform despite its huge market share compared to Linux, it's ridiculous to expect Linux to ever become one with native Linux games.
      - pjmlp 2y ago
        > And of course that's completely arbitrary. Not at all, in the context of gaming on Platform X, the games made for Platform X matter, it is irrelevant how many games from Platform Y, Platform W, Platform Whatever, Platform X can emulatate/translate, those games were not designed, or developed with Platform X in mind to start with. > Games developed for Android are made for touchscreens, so it's not like porting is easy. Many also support gamepads, something that after 30 years should work mostly on GNU/Linux, assuming one gets the right brands to start with. > MacOS still isn't a serious gaming platform despite its huge market share compared to Linux, it's ridiculous to expect Linux to ever become one with native Linux games. What Apple cares about is iDevices gaming, there is enough money to be done there, at the same level as Playstation/XBox/Switch.
        littlestymaar 2y ago
        > in the context of gaming on Platform X, the games made for Platform X matter, it is irrelevant how many games from Platform Y, Platform W, Platform Whatever, Platform X can emulatate/translate, those games were not designed, or developed with Platform X in mind to start with. Irrelevant according to who? Do you even play games? Because gamers don't care at all, and that's why emulators are so popular and why they are chased by console vendors who want to maintain their exclusivity. In practice all that matters to gamers is whether or not a game is able to run properly on the device they already have, everything else is frivolous. > What Apple cares about is iDevices gaming And Linus Torvalds doesn't care about gaming on Linux at all, and neither do distro vendors, so what? The only people who care about games running on Linux are Valve and gamers, and we're both really happy to see that we eventually have games on Linux. That it doesn't meet the bar for your own personal idea of what “games on Linux” means isn't blocking Valve's profit or players enjoyment of the current situation.

pjmlp 2y ago

[flagged]

littlestymaar 2y ago
> As long as it keeps translating Windows, For people to be able to play games on your platform, there must be games running on it, and the reality is that people won't bother developing commercial games targeting explicitly Linux, at least not if Linux is at 2% market share. Being able to run the games which already exist is a massive adoption boost. > and doesn't lose to the handhelds running Windows proper. It's not just about handhelds, I don't have a Steam Deck yet I can use pretty much all games I want on my Linux Desktop thanks to Valve's work. > Lost opportunity to actually make Linux gaming take off. No, unless you restrict “Linux gaming” to games that are natively developed for Linux, which is pretty much arbitrary. Should Linux reach double digit market share, then maybe it will become commercially viable to do so, but the reality is that before Valve did their magic, playing on Linux was hit or miss and every gamer around me had a Windows dual boot. It's not the case anymore, and that's really weird to see it as a “lost opportunity” (but I know some people really love to be contrarians on HN).
- pjmlp 2y ago
  Of course I am restricting it to native Linux games, the others are Windows games, developed and sold for Windows customers, that happen to be running on Linux thanks to Proton. One could be running a VM of some sort for exactly the same purpose. To the point that studios with Android NDK versions don't even bother to have them on GNU/Linux.
  - littlestymaar 2y ago
    > Of course I am restricting it to native Linux games, And of course that's completely arbitrary. > the others are Windows games, developed and sold for Windows customers, that happen to be running on Linux thanks to Proton. And so what? > One could be running a VM of some sort for exactly the same purpose. Except it keeps you monitored by Microsoft abusive telemetry, need much more RAM than what you'd normally need, and requires a Windows license. Dual-booting was the convenient way of doing this before proton came out, not VM. And proton made dual boot obsolete, which is a very good deal given that Microsoft regularly messes with it… > To the point that studios with Android NDK versions don't even bother to have them on GNU/Linux. Games developed for Android are made for touchscreens, so it's not like porting is easy. And again, nobody is ever going to develop games for a platform that barely even exists as a gaming platform. Valve makes the platform exists at all, which is a big deal. But until market share hasn't reached something like 20% at least, nobody will bother developing games for it. MacOS still isn't a serious gaming platform despite its huge market share compared to Linux, it's ridiculous to expect Linux to ever become one with native Linux games.
    - pjmlp 2y ago
      > And of course that's completely arbitrary. Not at all, in the context of gaming on Platform X, the games made for Platform X matter, it is irrelevant how many games from Platform Y, Platform W, Platform Whatever, Platform X can emulatate/translate, those games were not designed, or developed with Platform X in mind to start with. > Games developed for Android are made for touchscreens, so it's not like porting is easy. Many also support gamepads, something that after 30 years should work mostly on GNU/Linux, assuming one gets the right brands to start with. > MacOS still isn't a serious gaming platform despite its huge market share compared to Linux, it's ridiculous to expect Linux to ever become one with native Linux games. What Apple cares about is iDevices gaming, there is enough money to be done there, at the same level as Playstation/XBox/Switch.
      - littlestymaar 2y ago
        > in the context of gaming on Platform X, the games made for Platform X matter, it is irrelevant how many games from Platform Y, Platform W, Platform Whatever, Platform X can emulatate/translate, those games were not designed, or developed with Platform X in mind to start with. Irrelevant according to who? Do you even play games? Because gamers don't care at all, and that's why emulators are so popular and why they are chased by console vendors who want to maintain their exclusivity. In practice all that matters to gamers is whether or not a game is able to run properly on the device they already have, everything else is frivolous. > What Apple cares about is iDevices gaming And Linus Torvalds doesn't care about gaming on Linux at all, and neither do distro vendors, so what? The only people who care about games running on Linux are Valve and gamers, and we're both really happy to see that we eventually have games on Linux. That it doesn't meet the bar for your own personal idea of what “games on Linux” means isn't blocking Valve's profit or players enjoyment of the current situation.