Valve's Linux Development Blog Goes Live

im with liam, hamish and troy.
hate to have my proprietary games/programs installed system wide.
i like to have Games folder in my $HOME, where all my games are located and Programs folder where all my proprietary programs have.

when u have some issues with ur linux or want to switch distro then its also good to just wipe / and use the same /home partition or just link the new distro to same /home partition and use the same apps as they were by not reinstalling any of them.

my 2 coins

Quoting: "MyGameCompany, post: 5041, member: 68"I would say the 2 best installers on Linux right now are [URL='http://installbuilder.bitrock.com/']Bitrock[/URL] and [URL='http://icculus.org/mojosetup/']MojoSetup[/URL]. The latter is free, and has been used for dozens of commercial games. Bitrock is expensive (wasn't when I first bought it), but is very powerful and easy to use. Both installers provide you with a single, user-friendly, and easy to maintain package that works on any distro.

Have you heard of/looked at [URL='http://nixstaller.sourceforge.net/viewpage.php?page_id=1']Nixstaller[/URL] (I did some hunting up and that's what Overgrowth uses)? In addition to providing normal, customisable installer behaviour, it's also capable of optionally building distro packages on the fly (currently supporting 10 Linux distributions plus a few flavours of BSD and Solaris). So you get the benefits of a standalone installer that runs on anything, customisable install locations, *and* package manager integration without having to maintain multiple builds/installers. None of the other installers I've looked at seem to give that kind of range, and since some people specifically care about having software registered with their package managers, surely this option is All Things To All People.

That said, it does seem to be pretty slow compared to the other installers you've mentioned (at least for building RPMs).

By the way, thanks for sharing those numbers. It's nice to hear that you've got good diversity amongst your customers. Off topic, do you have any other figures/stats that you make available? I had a quick hunt through your blog forum thingy, but didn't spot anything.

Quoting: "Cheeseness, post: 5045, member: 122"Have you heard of/looked at [URL='http://nixstaller.sourceforge.net/viewpage.php?page_id=1']Nixstaller[/URL] (I did some hunting up and that's what Overgrowth uses)?

Nixstaller is mainly used for games Edward Rudd ports, such as Penumbra, Amnesia, and Overgrowth. I have not seen anyone else use it though, which may be a shame given what you described.

Quoting: "Hamish, post: 5049, member: 6"Nixstaller is mainly used for games Edward Rudd ports, such as Penumbra, Amnesia, and Overgrowth. I have not seen anyone else use it though, which may be a shame given what you described.

Games are the only proprietary software I run, so I wouldn't know first hand whether or not there's anything else using it. I did read mention of some gene sequencing stuff called Newbler or something that uses it.

It's GPL'd, so it shouldn't be hard for anybody to get their hands on. Perhaps other packagers just don't know about it or are keen to use mojoinstaller because it's a higher profile icculus/loki thing?

I just noticed that we're getting wildly off topic :D

Yeah but there are newer more pertinent topics about Valve started, so do not worry. ;)

Quoting: "Cheeseness, post: 5045, member: 122"Have you heard of/looked at [URL='http://nixstaller.sourceforge.net/viewpage.php?page_id=1']Nixstaller[/URL] (I did some hunting up and that's what Overgrowth uses)?

This is the first I've heard of it. Thanks for sharing the link. When I get around to updating my Linux dev articles and/or assembling a Linux dev book, I'll be sure to include it in the list.

Quoting: "Cheeseness, post: 5045, member: 122"By the way, thanks for sharing those numbers. It's nice to hear that you've got good diversity amongst your customers. Off topic, do you have any other figures/stats that you make available? I had a quick hunt through your blog forum thingy, but didn't spot anything.

My current sales breakdown by OS is 60% Mac, 20% Windows, and 20% Linux. Most of the Mac and Windows sales are for Dirk Dashing 2 and Fashion Cents Deluxe. Most of the Linux sales are Dirk Dashing 2, with a few copies of Dirk 1 and The Adventures of Rick Rocket being sold too. I may post a blog entry with more specifics in the future, but I'm not prepared to do that yet. I'm kind of in a holding pattern. I haven't really even started promoting Dirk 2 yet, since I'm waiting on the writer to finish the strategy guide for Dirk 2 (should be done very soon now). Once that's done, I can start running the ad campaigns I've got ready to go, issue the press release, submit it various distribution channels, etc.

Quoting: "MyGameCompany, post: 5060, member: 68"This is the first I've heard of it. Thanks for sharing the link. When I get around to updating my Linux dev articles and/or assembling a Linux dev book, I'll be sure to include it in the list.

Awesome. At the very least, having more options to choose from means more educated decisions :)

Quoting: "MyGameCompany, post: 5060, member: 68"My current sales breakdown by OS is 60% Mac, 20% Windows, and 20% Linux. Most of the Mac and Windows sales are for Dirk Dashing 2 and Fashion Cents Deluxe. Most of the Linux sales are Dirk Dashing 2, with a few copies of Dirk 1 and The Adventures of Rick Rocket being sold too. I may post a blog entry with more specifics in the future, but I'm not prepared to do that yet. I'm kind of in a holding pattern. I haven't really even started promoting Dirk 2 yet, since I'm waiting on the writer to finish the strategy guide for Dirk 2 (should be done very soon now). Once that's done, I can start running the ad campaigns I've got ready to go, issue the press release, submit it various distribution channels, etc.

Cool, thanks for sharing. If/when you do a blog entry about it going into more detail, I'd be keen to read :)