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Coldpie's posts in this thread seem to suggest that fragmentation is more of an issue than you want to admit here, at least. In terms of drivers... "very close

by cwyers 12y ago

Coldpie's posts in this thread seem to suggest that fragmentation is more of an issue than you want to admit here, at least. In terms of drivers... "very close" is not the same as "as good as," much less "better." Which is again the problem here -- in order to supplant a dominant market leader you actually have to do something better. If your drivers are VERY CLOSE to the quality of Windows, for a a subset of the leading manufacturers, and you can get MOST of the big AAA publishers to do ports, and a LOT of the back catalog can run under WINE... do you see what I'm saying? It's playing catch-up, and it's not quite getting to parity, and even parity is unlikely to get significant market share. As for desktop Linux -- that's a whole other kettle of fish, but I think you'll find that most of the people who are ready to switch to Linux on the desktop already have, and as you say are dual-booting for games. Unless something happens there to convince more people that Linux on the desktop is a compelling alternative, then Linux's overall desktop market penetration is probably a pretty good guide to what Linux's share of the gaming PC market could be unless Valve or somebody is able to provide a compelling "better than Windows" experience in at least ONE aspect.

ekianjo 12y ago
> Coldpie's posts in this thread seem to suggest that fragmentation is more of an issue than you want to admit here, at least. Coldpie's answers about Steam suggest he does not really know how Valve adresses these concerns, however. In a matter of days, the Steam client, originally only made to run on Ubuntu, was running on all other major distros and games ran without issues as far as I know. I don't use Ubuntu and I have had zero problem so far with running Steam Linux games. > Which is again the problem here -- in order to supplant a dominant market leader you actually have to do something better You don't have to supplant a dominant leader to exist. Macs exist just fine without being leaders on the market. Even for gaming I'd prefer run the SAME game on Linux if it were available just because my OS is faster to boot, and uses less resources than Windows and therefore my game can benefit from additional RAM and less overhead. > It's playing catch-up, and it's not quite getting to parity, and even parity is unlikely to get significant market share. It does not matter. These are additional consumers you are leaving off the table if you don't provide games for them. If your game sell millions, 1-2% is in the order of several dozens of thousands of paying customers. You may consider it to be negligible, but that's literally a couple of millions USD of revenues you don't get, and if you planned your game to be multiplatform in the first place, there's no reason not to service them. > but I think you'll find that most of the people who are ready to switch to Linux on the desktop already have, I believe Linux can grow much, much further than where it is now. Currently its awareness in the general population is close to nil. Only people like us know about Linux, and we're a super small minority. Even among gamers Linux awareness is very limited, so there's a lot that can be done in that field before saying the "Linux market is capped". > unless Valve or somebody is able to provide a compelling "better than Windows" experience in at least ONE aspect. Steam Machines will(should) be better than consoles (power wise) and Windows (direct boot into gaming system, OS stripped to the bare essential) and could drive further adoption of Linux, and there will be quite a number of games available for them when they launch. I'm hopeful. But it will take time. Windows gaming will not go away in a single day.

by cwyers 12y ago

ekianjo 12y ago

> Coldpie's posts in this thread seem to suggest that fragmentation is more of an issue than you want to admit here, at least. Coldpie's answers about Steam suggest he does not really know how Valve adresses these concerns, however. In a matter of days, the Steam client, originally only made to run on Ubuntu, was running on all other major distros and games ran without issues as far as I know. I don't use Ubuntu and I have had zero problem so far with running Steam Linux games. > Which is again the problem here -- in order to supplant a dominant market leader you actually have to do something better You don't have to supplant a dominant leader to exist. Macs exist just fine without being leaders on the market. Even for gaming I'd prefer run the SAME game on Linux if it were available just because my OS is faster to boot, and uses less resources than Windows and therefore my game can benefit from additional RAM and less overhead. > It's playing catch-up, and it's not quite getting to parity, and even parity is unlikely to get significant market share. It does not matter. These are additional consumers you are leaving off the table if you don't provide games for them. If your game sell millions, 1-2% is in the order of several dozens of thousands of paying customers. You may consider it to be negligible, but that's literally a couple of millions USD of revenues you don't get, and if you planned your game to be multiplatform in the first place, there's no reason not to service them. > but I think you'll find that most of the people who are ready to switch to Linux on the desktop already have, I believe Linux can grow much, much further than where it is now. Currently its awareness in the general population is close to nil. Only people like us know about Linux, and we're a super small minority. Even among gamers Linux awareness is very limited, so there's a lot that can be done in that field before saying the "Linux market is capped". > unless Valve or somebody is able to provide a compelling "better than Windows" experience in at least ONE aspect. Steam Machines will(should) be better than consoles (power wise) and Windows (direct boot into gaming system, OS stripped to the bare essential) and could drive further adoption of Linux, and there will be quite a number of games available for them when they launch. I'm hopeful. But it will take time. Windows gaming will not go away in a single day.