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I remember, long ago when the Linux community was much smaller everyone wanted a killer feature so hardware vendors would do something like this. Never thought

by tete 13y ago

I remember, long ago when the Linux community was much smaller everyone wanted a killer feature so hardware vendors would do something like this. Never thought something like Steam could be such a killer feature.

devx 13y ago
Gaming is definitely a "killer app" of any platform. Heck, there are devices out there with platforms that only do that, and they are very successful. I'm talking about consoles, obviously. Microsoft realized this a long time ago, and so did Apple (starting with iOS only). It took Google even more years after that to finally put 2 and 2 together, and realize that the reason why so many still choose iOS over Android is because of gaming. Same goes for Facebook with Farmville, and so on. So yeah, if you want a very successful platform/OS, definitely focus on gaming as much as you can. It's what brings the "mainstream" in.
- masklinn 13y ago
  > Microsoft realized this a long time ago, and so did Apple (starting with iOS only) This is a common misconception nowadays, but if you look at the early keynotes Jobs was more dismayed than thrilled by his baby being coopted by games. He resigned himself more than realized it. It just happens that — on iOS anyway — gaming concerns and Apple concerns align in that both want a good equilibrium between CPU and GPU rather than a CPU-focused device.
- ajuc 13y ago
  Unix was supposedly created to make it easier to develop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game)
- FedRegister 13y ago
  Apple realized that gaming devices could be a killer app. That's why they licensed the Pippin[1] to Bandai[2]. The fact that it didn't go anywhere was mainly due to them not understanding the market. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Bandai_Pippin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Bandai_Pippin
velodrome 13y ago
Hardcore gamers will do ANYTHING for that extra 1 fps. Linux exposes a lot of options that Windows and OS X will not. Imagine if these particular gamers switch to linux. They can significantly improve the platform by trying everything they can for that extra performance. The improvements could have far reaching consequences. Improvements that could possibly help people solving hard problems (HPC). It is not out of the realm of possibility.
- serf 13y ago
  gamers grabbing a few extra FPS by switching to linux is nothing new. That's not the motivation. The motivation is the ease of transition that is finally coming to fruition. Linux used to have larger barriers in place for a layman.

by tete 13y ago

devx 13y ago

Gaming is definitely a "killer app" of any platform. Heck, there are devices out there with platforms that only do that, and they are very successful. I'm talking about consoles, obviously. Microsoft realized this a long time ago, and so did Apple (starting with iOS only). It took Google even more years after that to finally put 2 and 2 together, and realize that the reason why so many still choose iOS over Android is because of gaming. Same goes for Facebook with Farmville, and so on. So yeah, if you want a very successful platform/OS, definitely focus on gaming as much as you can. It's what brings the "mainstream" in.

masklinn 13y ago
> Microsoft realized this a long time ago, and so did Apple (starting with iOS only) This is a common misconception nowadays, but if you look at the early keynotes Jobs was more dismayed than thrilled by his baby being coopted by games. He resigned himself more than realized it. It just happens that — on iOS anyway — gaming concerns and Apple concerns align in that both want a good equilibrium between CPU and GPU rather than a CPU-focused device.
ajuc 13y ago
Unix was supposedly created to make it easier to develop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game)
FedRegister 13y ago
Apple realized that gaming devices could be a killer app. That's why they licensed the Pippin[1] to Bandai[2]. The fact that it didn't go anywhere was mainly due to them not understanding the market. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Bandai_Pippin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Bandai_Pippin

velodrome 13y ago

Hardcore gamers will do ANYTHING for that extra 1 fps. Linux exposes a lot of options that Windows and OS X will not. Imagine if these particular gamers switch to linux. They can significantly improve the platform by trying everything they can for that extra performance. The improvements could have far reaching consequences. Improvements that could possibly help people solving hard problems (HPC). It is not out of the realm of possibility.

serf 13y ago
gamers grabbing a few extra FPS by switching to linux is nothing new. That's not the motivation. The motivation is the ease of transition that is finally coming to fruition. Linux used to have larger barriers in place for a layman.