Something that has bugged me for some time now is the use of the term PC to describe Windows, in the time we live in PC is such an insanely broad term why do developers still say PC?
Wikipedia describes the term PC as:
So if you take that into consideration if someone says "PC" should it not work on any general-purpose computer? This is why when I see "Available on PC" my heart fills with dread. It would be like saying "available for Playstation", well which one?
We have Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and let's face it Ubuntu Linux mainly even though people of other distro's don't like to admit it and will probably jump down my throat for even stating it, but Ubuntu is the single most popular distro around, it is the only distro Steam officially supports for a reason. That's a whole 'nother argument altogether though so try not to focus on that too much.
These are the three main desktop operating systems yet a lot of developers are still keen to say things like "Available for PC & Mac". Every time this comes up I think to myself "what PC" or "what Mac version?". It can be quite bad for Mac too, Mac describes all of Apple's Mac computers so it requires you to dig further, going back again to the "available on Playstation" thing. Well which version of Mac?
Now when they say "Available for PC, Mac & Linux" that is moving further away into insanity, is a Mac not a personal computer? Is Linux on your desktop PC somehow not a PC either? Pretty sure my Nexus 4 phone is PC.
I ask you the community, how can we get developers to start at least saying "Windows, Mac & Linux", the term PC has stood for too long, it's time to get it retired. It's not a correct way to list platforms and a lot of us already know it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Wikipedia describes the term PC as:
QuoteA personal computer (PC) is a general-purpose computer.
So if you take that into consideration if someone says "PC" should it not work on any general-purpose computer? This is why when I see "Available on PC" my heart fills with dread. It would be like saying "available for Playstation", well which one?
We have Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and let's face it Ubuntu Linux mainly even though people of other distro's don't like to admit it and will probably jump down my throat for even stating it, but Ubuntu is the single most popular distro around, it is the only distro Steam officially supports for a reason. That's a whole 'nother argument altogether though so try not to focus on that too much.
These are the three main desktop operating systems yet a lot of developers are still keen to say things like "Available for PC & Mac". Every time this comes up I think to myself "what PC" or "what Mac version?". It can be quite bad for Mac too, Mac describes all of Apple's Mac computers so it requires you to dig further, going back again to the "available on Playstation" thing. Well which version of Mac?
Now when they say "Available for PC, Mac & Linux" that is moving further away into insanity, is a Mac not a personal computer? Is Linux on your desktop PC somehow not a PC either? Pretty sure my Nexus 4 phone is PC.
I ask you the community, how can we get developers to start at least saying "Windows, Mac & Linux", the term PC has stood for too long, it's time to get it retired. It's not a correct way to list platforms and a lot of us already know it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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It would be no use to educate people what a real PC is. Just like we use Linux to mean different things (I mean a lot of things), there is nothing wrong referring to Linux as Linux and not as PC (its just a
name used to indicate something). We don't need to be caught up in the name, because it is far better if someone mentioned Linux and meant Linux than the if someone mentioned PC and meant nothing in regards to Linux.
Anyways, it would be better if people started saying Windows, Mac and Linux. However, I don't have problems when people specifically mention Linux and use whatever term to refer to others.
name used to indicate something). We don't need to be caught up in the name, because it is far better if someone mentioned Linux and meant Linux than the if someone mentioned PC and meant nothing in regards to Linux.
Anyways, it would be better if people started saying Windows, Mac and Linux. However, I don't have problems when people specifically mention Linux and use whatever term to refer to others.
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But it would help the casual PC gamer at large to use the same icon as the case badges. If the sticker on your laptop looks like this your OS can run this game that has been tested to run on stuff as weak as Intel GMA IGPs.
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Quoting: Quote from n30p1r4t3One word: Apple.This! I've written it a while ago on this site that it was Apple who got this nonsense started. It irks me as well that this has become the marketing standard now as it is just plain wrong from a technical perspective. It was pretty smart however on Apple's side, as it made them look positively different while at the same time lumping the other options (Windows, and preemptively Linux) together and then making this group look bad.
"Hi I'm a mac," "and I'm a PC."
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I agree with you here,
For users PC was always Windows, most of them don't even know about other OS's.
And while in truth Mac IS a PC - there should be some difference in names for those OS's, and while it should be "Windows and MacOS", historically DOS was there first.
And as we know DOS was installed on all IBM's PC's at that time and it still wasn't DOS vs Mac at that time, it was a PC vs Mac.
It's similar to the stupid fact that even today we keep calling "Native Americans" in America, "Indians" even trough we know for centuries now that America isn't India and American natives aren't Indians -we just damn used to that misleading name.
For users PC was always Windows, most of them don't even know about other OS's.
And while in truth Mac IS a PC - there should be some difference in names for those OS's, and while it should be "Windows and MacOS", historically DOS was there first.
And as we know DOS was installed on all IBM's PC's at that time and it still wasn't DOS vs Mac at that time, it was a PC vs Mac.
It's similar to the stupid fact that even today we keep calling "Native Americans" in America, "Indians" even trough we know for centuries now that America isn't India and American natives aren't Indians -we just damn used to that misleading name.
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QuoteUbuntu is the single most popular distro around
No matter how many times I asked, no one was able to produce any substantial numbers, or explain methodology which demonstrates that Ubuntu is the most used Linux distro. Surely Canonical likes to hype it in most arrogant fashion, but hype does not equal to a fact. So until this is actually demonstrated, I don't buy this argument.
QuoteIt is the only distro Steam officially supports for a reason.
I'm not sure what their reasons were - Valve didn't really explain it clearly. And in the future, I'd expect them to drop Ubuntu as a base, if they want to stay in touch with the majority of the Linux world which said strong no to Mir, and will use Wayland.
On the matter of "PC" being used to describe Windows - that's very annoying indeed. Complain to developers who do it, and point out the weirdness of such usage. It's an unfortunate artifact left by the years of insane domination of Windows. It will get better, and people will stop using it this way. But it will take time.
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Quoting: Quote from HamishQuoting: QuoteWe have Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and let's face it Ubuntu Linux mainly even though people of other distro's don't like to admit it and will probably jump down my throat for even stating it, but Ubuntu is the single most popular distro around, it is the only distro Steam officially supports for a reason. That's a whole 'nother argument altogether though so try not to focus on that too much.
I am sorry, but if you did not want people to jump down your throat why did you even bring it up? There is stating an on topic opinion in an editorial and then there is flame bait.
Agreed.
While I think PC can be misleading, I don't think it's much of a problem. I bet the next generation, most of which will have never of had a "home phone" will find our use of the term "phone" to describe our mobile pocket computers confusing if they thought about how it undermines it's numerous other capabilities, but they probably won't. If a bathroom has no bath, I still call it a bathroom without pause. It's just a trait of language, I think.
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Quoting: Quote from ShmerlQuoteSo you shoot down one guess, Shmerl, that Ubuntu is the most popular distro, then fire off two wild guesses of your own, that Steam will drop Ubuntu as a base, and that no one else will ever use Mir.
QuoteIt is the only distro Steam officially supports for a reason.
I'm not sure what their reasons were - Valve didn't really explain it clearly. And in the future, I'd expect them to drop Ubuntu as a base, if they want to stay in touch with the majority of the Linux world which said strong no to Mir, and will use Wayland.
Since we're speculating wildly, here's my wild guesses. Valve will continue to back Ubuntu for the simple reason that they're the only Linux distro which is both focused on the consumer space AND has a company/resources behind it.
Also, Mir. Yeah, now that's a super-heated topic, but really it's too early to tell. If I were wearing my cynical hat though, I'd suggest that Canonical's earlier backing of Wayland, only to drop it for Mir was suspiciously close to the point that Valve got involved with Linux after seeing how Windows 8 was turning out. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that Mir was born so that Canonical can work more closely with Valve's vision of SteamOS in a way that they couldn't with a community run display protocol such as Wayland.
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Quoting: Quote from HamishQuoting: QuoteWe have Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and let's face it Ubuntu Linux mainly even though people of other distro's don't like to admit it and will probably jump down my throat for even stating it, but Ubuntu is the single most popular distro around, it is the only distro Steam officially supports for a reason. That's a whole 'nother argument altogether though so try not to focus on that too much.
I am sorry, but if you did not want people to jump down your throat why did you even bring it up? There is stating an on topic opinion in an editorial and then there is flame bait. I could go into a huge rant about the difference between a plurality and an actual majority, and how Ubuntu most definitely does not have an absolute majority and games the system through it's plurality status, but I will pay enough deference to the main point of the article to just leave this here.
I bring it up as it's my opinion, an editorial is an opinion piece remember. It's also coming off the fact that Ubuntu on the Steam survey has ~0.8% of users, Mint is the only one to come close with around ~0.1% which is also based on Ubuntu. Bearing in mind we are a gaming site a gaming survey is a good measure.
Show me hard facts to prove otherwise than Ubuntu being the most popular distro and I may believe it.
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Quoting: Quote from liamdaweQuoting: Quote from HamishQuoting: QuoteWe have Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and let's face it Ubuntu Linux mainly even though people of other distro's don't like to admit it and will probably jump down my throat for even stating it, but Ubuntu is the single most popular distro around, it is the only distro Steam officially supports for a reason. That's a whole 'nother argument altogether though so try not to focus on that too much.
I am sorry, but if you did not want people to jump down your throat why did you even bring it up? There is stating an on topic opinion in an editorial and then there is flame bait. I could go into a huge rant about the difference between a plurality and an actual majority, and how Ubuntu most definitely does not have an absolute majority and games the system through it's plurality status, but I will pay enough deference to the main point of the article to just leave this here.
I bring it up as it's my opinion, an editorial is an opinion piece remember. It's also coming off the fact that Ubuntu on the Steam survey has ~0.8% of users, Mint is the only one to come close with around ~0.1% which is also based on Ubuntu. Bearing in mind we are a gaming site a gaming survey is a good measure.
Show me hard facts to prove otherwise than Ubuntu being the most popular distro and I may believe it.
I think what Hamish was trying to say, or maybe I'm just projecting, that the Ubuntu mention was kind of unneeded. Even if Ubuntu is the most popular, to which I'd agree, I don't see what it has to do with article.
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