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I get so tired of hearing people trot out the humble bundle example. Linux has historically been mostly ignored by game devs. Of course linux users are going to

I get so tired of hearing people trot out the humble bundle example. Linux has historically been mostly ignored by game devs. Of course linux users are going to (initially) earnestly support developers in the hope that more games/devs will start coming their way. Lets say the humble bundle worked as a means to encourage a non-trivial amount of indie devs and publishers to build for or port to linux. Lets say this trend remains significant for more than a year or two. I don't for a second believe you'd see anything close to the same level of support. Right now games on linux are a commodity. I defy someone to find another software category... hell, an individuel piece of software that has enjoyed any real, monetary support from the linux community. You don't get to argue enterprise support for distro X or open source framework Y from Z corp. Show me end users purchasing software for linux. Don't get me wrong, I used linux as a desktop for years and still use it every day on the server. I'm a fan but the desktop community? As a developer, I wouldn't waste a second of my time building something for linux unless it was purely an open source passion project. Linux desktop users seem overwhelmingly more than happy to eschew a paid product for a free one even when the free one is absolute crap by comparison. <Insert snide comment about linux desktop users not valuing their time as evident by their use of linux as a desktop in the first place.> I hate to use the term freetard but as someone who makes money from building things, that's how I largely see the linux desktop community. To put it bluntly, there isn't much evidence that they are worth the time.

rednukleus 14y ago
> linux desktop users not valuing their time as evident by thier use of linux as a desktop in the first place. You lost me here. I dual boot Windows and Linux - Windows is currently the best platform for games, Office, and a few legacy and specific apps; Linux is the best platform for programming (unless its for Windows or Apple specific programs) I don't think using Linux is a waste of my time.
- dickbasedregex 14y ago
  This was mostly a joking jab and honestly not as true today as it used to be. I spent a lot of years fighting just to get a gfx or network card working with any distro but that was honestly a long time ago. Linux has come a long way. I'll agree that linux is a fine development platform. I might well switch back if the direction OSX/Apple goes continues to be questionable.
venomsnake 14y ago
Well ... first - games are different type of code than Photoshop. If you want to see whether Linux people like to pay for content - you better check their video rental and music histories. Second - there is good portion of linux users that are not die hard Stallman followers. They are just not the vocal ones. Some people know that you sometimes just have to ship the binary for various reasons. The fact that Sublime Text has version for linux that is supported, means that it is profitable enough to do so. People don't mind paying for good software. They mind being ripped off and feeling powerless. And there is sizable group of people for which the games are the only major dealbreaker of switching to Linux.

rednukleus 14y ago

> linux desktop users not valuing their time as evident by thier use of linux as a desktop in the first place. You lost me here. I dual boot Windows and Linux - Windows is currently the best platform for games, Office, and a few legacy and specific apps; Linux is the best platform for programming (unless its for Windows or Apple specific programs) I don't think using Linux is a waste of my time.

dickbasedregex 14y ago
This was mostly a joking jab and honestly not as true today as it used to be. I spent a lot of years fighting just to get a gfx or network card working with any distro but that was honestly a long time ago. Linux has come a long way. I'll agree that linux is a fine development platform. I might well switch back if the direction OSX/Apple goes continues to be questionable.

venomsnake 14y ago

Well ... first - games are different type of code than Photoshop. If you want to see whether Linux people like to pay for content - you better check their video rental and music histories. Second - there is good portion of linux users that are not die hard Stallman followers. They are just not the vocal ones. Some people know that you sometimes just have to ship the binary for various reasons. The fact that Sublime Text has version for linux that is supported, means that it is profitable enough to do so. People don't mind paying for good software. They mind being ripped off and feeling powerless. And there is sizable group of people for which the games are the only major dealbreaker of switching to Linux.