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The Linux community is one full of passion. From the outside it may seem strange why a small percentage of people around the world care so much about an operating system, after all it's merely a tool or set of tools used to complete certain tasks.
For many of us it isn’t that simple however, and we have a multitude and wide variety of reasons which drive us to support Linux in the way we do. Be it contributing code, running websites like this one or simply advocating the OS and showing its greatness to others.
Some have different views to others, some may insist on calling it GNU/Linux and may insist on only using free software, while others may be less ideologically inclined and simply use Linux because it's the best operating system out there. What unites all these people is the operating system and the desire for it to succeed, seeing it widely adopted or improving in many areas.
In fact, this desire for success and to show the world that we exist has led many of us to take regrettable actions, ranging from abusiveness in forums to insulting the CEO of a major game development company or even going as far as threatening developers who aren’t supporting the platform.
In the gaming world, what often makes many of us flip out most (or the more level headed among us, respond in a constructive manner) is when two simple facts are stated:
1 - Linux only accounts for a small percentage of the desktop market.
2 - Many Linux gamers dual boot or have access to a Windows machine.
While there is not a huge amount we can do about the first of these two points, the second is one which always perplexes me considering it's so simple to amend. If there are so many of us who care so greatly about Linux succeeding (often to the point where we act immaturely) then why do so many of us commit the “cardinal sin” of the Linux world and use Windows?
When I set out to do the GOL survey, one of the things I expected was the number of dual booters to slowly decline as more games come out. In June of last year there were 500 Linux games on Steam. Since then, that number has risen to 1000 and we’ve had huge games like CS:GO, Dying Light, Borderlands 2, Dead Island, Civilization: BE and many AAA games right round the corner.
Despite this, and despite the passions which surround Linux, our survey has shown no significant change in the amount of people dual booting or who have a Windows partition, unlike the amount of people using Wine which seems to be showing signs of declining. In many ways, it seems as if while Linux gaming is making leaps and bounds, Linux gamers are standing still.
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The controversial phrase “Sie wissen das nicht, aber sie tun es” (they do not know it, but still they do it) from Das Kapital comes to mind, though condescending and completely incorrect in this case. Dual booting is far more cynical, a case of “they know very well what they are doing, but still they do it”.
We are all fully aware that the thought of Linux users dual booting and using Wine as a motive not to port a game to Linux has crossed the minds of many developers and even though we may badly want that game on our OS of choice, we still choose to be part of that percentage which makes that argument a valid one.
So why this doublethink? With the recent case of the WoW petition, it is a certainty that all those signing the petition who play WoW do so either on Windows or through Wine. It is easy to see how Blizzard CEO said what he said:
From his perspective, why should he spend money on porting a game to a platform when nearly all the people who would benefit from it are customers already? The irony of the petition is that its very existence also negates its purpose (unless, of course, Linux users were to abandon Blizzard altogether).
As much as I personally loathe the idea, the unavoidable fact is that we do live in a global free market which defines culture as an industry and decides who gets access to that culture based primarily on the profit motive. Culture, in this case, is video games and to many companies giving Linux users access to that culture does not fall within the worldview of putting profit above all else.
It is somewhat presumptuous to state to people whose lives are dictated by this fundamental premise that they are wrong in their conclusions. Simply put, yes 2% (or thereabouts) may be worth it to many developers financially, but when taking into account that with a game like WoW many (if not most) of their potential 2% like the game enough to sacrifice their principles in order to play it, then the rigid logic of the free market implies that WoW (and games like it) will never come to Linux so long as those individuals continue to choose the game over the operating system.
In essence, that 2% in many cases is non-existent and rather than being its own separate "market segment", developers like Blizzard will continue to see it as a percentage of the Windows market which also happens to use Linux on the side, that is, until people stop dual booting. Simply put, there is a significantly higher chance of games getting ported if users use Linux and Linux alone.
Thoughts and suggestions
The intention of this article isn’t to tell people what to do or to shout people down for not thinking in the same way as I do (in fact, if I see discussion heading in that direction, I may well see to it that comments are deleted). The intention is to create a debate surrounding a few simple questions to which there are no right and wrong answers:
- Why do you dual boot?
- Do you see yourself first as a gamer, then as a Linux user?
- Are the 1000+ games on Steam and hundreds more on other sites still not enough for you to be a 100% Linux gamer?
- If you feel so passionately about Linux that you’ll take questionable actions to defend it, then why not do the most simple thing and stop gaming on Windows?
- As someone with a tendency towards a specific genre, do you feel the current Linux suggestion doesn't cater to your gaming needs?
Ideally, I would like to see the number of dual booters decline after reaching some sort of consensus that it would be in all our best interests. I see myself as a Linux user first and a gamer second, and haven’t had Windows on a single computer since ~2008. However, I bear no animosity towards those who think differently. If all that comes of this article is an enlightening debate surrounding these issues and perhaps leads others to oppose the statements made in this article through other articles or through comments, then I’ll still be more than happy.
Even though I may have my own views as to how things should progress which may differ from those of others, I think we can all agree that being respectful, helpful and constructive goes a long way - be it to each other or to the developers which are (or aren't) porting our games. Though dual booting might not be something will (or maybe even should) disappear overnight, aggression and abuse certainly should. Likewise, the same goes for buying Linux games before porting - something which has been repeated and discussed time and time again. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
For many of us it isn’t that simple however, and we have a multitude and wide variety of reasons which drive us to support Linux in the way we do. Be it contributing code, running websites like this one or simply advocating the OS and showing its greatness to others.
Some have different views to others, some may insist on calling it GNU/Linux and may insist on only using free software, while others may be less ideologically inclined and simply use Linux because it's the best operating system out there. What unites all these people is the operating system and the desire for it to succeed, seeing it widely adopted or improving in many areas.
In fact, this desire for success and to show the world that we exist has led many of us to take regrettable actions, ranging from abusiveness in forums to insulting the CEO of a major game development company or even going as far as threatening developers who aren’t supporting the platform.
In the gaming world, what often makes many of us flip out most (or the more level headed among us, respond in a constructive manner) is when two simple facts are stated:
1 - Linux only accounts for a small percentage of the desktop market.
2 - Many Linux gamers dual boot or have access to a Windows machine.
While there is not a huge amount we can do about the first of these two points, the second is one which always perplexes me considering it's so simple to amend. If there are so many of us who care so greatly about Linux succeeding (often to the point where we act immaturely) then why do so many of us commit the “cardinal sin” of the Linux world and use Windows?
When I set out to do the GOL survey, one of the things I expected was the number of dual booters to slowly decline as more games come out. In June of last year there were 500 Linux games on Steam. Since then, that number has risen to 1000 and we’ve had huge games like CS:GO, Dying Light, Borderlands 2, Dead Island, Civilization: BE and many AAA games right round the corner.
Despite this, and despite the passions which surround Linux, our survey has shown no significant change in the amount of people dual booting or who have a Windows partition, unlike the amount of people using Wine which seems to be showing signs of declining. In many ways, it seems as if while Linux gaming is making leaps and bounds, Linux gamers are standing still.
The controversial phrase “Sie wissen das nicht, aber sie tun es” (they do not know it, but still they do it) from Das Kapital comes to mind, though condescending and completely incorrect in this case. Dual booting is far more cynical, a case of “they know very well what they are doing, but still they do it”.
We are all fully aware that the thought of Linux users dual booting and using Wine as a motive not to port a game to Linux has crossed the minds of many developers and even though we may badly want that game on our OS of choice, we still choose to be part of that percentage which makes that argument a valid one.
So why this doublethink? With the recent case of the WoW petition, it is a certainty that all those signing the petition who play WoW do so either on Windows or through Wine. It is easy to see how Blizzard CEO said what he said:
Michael MorhaimeLinux usage represents less than 2% of installed desktop operating systems browsing the web, and I would assume most of those people also have access to a Windows or Mac device capable of playing Blizzard games.
From his perspective, why should he spend money on porting a game to a platform when nearly all the people who would benefit from it are customers already? The irony of the petition is that its very existence also negates its purpose (unless, of course, Linux users were to abandon Blizzard altogether).
As much as I personally loathe the idea, the unavoidable fact is that we do live in a global free market which defines culture as an industry and decides who gets access to that culture based primarily on the profit motive. Culture, in this case, is video games and to many companies giving Linux users access to that culture does not fall within the worldview of putting profit above all else.
It is somewhat presumptuous to state to people whose lives are dictated by this fundamental premise that they are wrong in their conclusions. Simply put, yes 2% (or thereabouts) may be worth it to many developers financially, but when taking into account that with a game like WoW many (if not most) of their potential 2% like the game enough to sacrifice their principles in order to play it, then the rigid logic of the free market implies that WoW (and games like it) will never come to Linux so long as those individuals continue to choose the game over the operating system.
In essence, that 2% in many cases is non-existent and rather than being its own separate "market segment", developers like Blizzard will continue to see it as a percentage of the Windows market which also happens to use Linux on the side, that is, until people stop dual booting. Simply put, there is a significantly higher chance of games getting ported if users use Linux and Linux alone.
Thoughts and suggestions
The intention of this article isn’t to tell people what to do or to shout people down for not thinking in the same way as I do (in fact, if I see discussion heading in that direction, I may well see to it that comments are deleted). The intention is to create a debate surrounding a few simple questions to which there are no right and wrong answers:
- Why do you dual boot?
- Do you see yourself first as a gamer, then as a Linux user?
- Are the 1000+ games on Steam and hundreds more on other sites still not enough for you to be a 100% Linux gamer?
- If you feel so passionately about Linux that you’ll take questionable actions to defend it, then why not do the most simple thing and stop gaming on Windows?
- As someone with a tendency towards a specific genre, do you feel the current Linux suggestion doesn't cater to your gaming needs?
Ideally, I would like to see the number of dual booters decline after reaching some sort of consensus that it would be in all our best interests. I see myself as a Linux user first and a gamer second, and haven’t had Windows on a single computer since ~2008. However, I bear no animosity towards those who think differently. If all that comes of this article is an enlightening debate surrounding these issues and perhaps leads others to oppose the statements made in this article through other articles or through comments, then I’ll still be more than happy.
Even though I may have my own views as to how things should progress which may differ from those of others, I think we can all agree that being respectful, helpful and constructive goes a long way - be it to each other or to the developers which are (or aren't) porting our games. Though dual booting might not be something will (or maybe even should) disappear overnight, aggression and abuse certainly should. Likewise, the same goes for buying Linux games before porting - something which has been repeated and discussed time and time again. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I was in and out with Linux since 2008 (trying, deleting, reinstalling, so on...). Then I started to seriously dualboot after the release of Ubuntu 10.04 and I completely dropped Windows after the release of Ubuntu 12.04. I'm using wine for games that have no acceptable replacements on Linux (MMORPGs and World of Tanks). Anyway, these are games that I play occasionnaly and 90% of my gaming is on Linux.
For the Blu-ray rip problem, it might not be a solution, but I use K3B to rip my DVDs (I keep them on a network drive for streaming everywhere at home). It is supposed to Rip Blu-ray too but I can't confirm, I never had the chance to try (no blu-ray drives on my pcs). It's just a suggestion, if anyone knows or wants to try it...
This said, going back to Windows is a no-go. I'd miss too many Ubuntu features that are important to me:
Switching and customizing the desktops at will and apps like K3B, Amarok and Kodi (that is much slower on Windows) to name a few and I didn't mention the amazing community that is ready and willing to help.
Yeah... I think I'm a Linux user. Gaming is the icing on the cake. :)
Not in the topic, but I just bought a Roccat Kova+ (50$)... It's just awesome!
because i need 2 different Linux distros? my main in 99% of the time and SteamOS to fiddle with from time to time where I think virtualizing it wouldn't provide even close to full picture of how it works? ;)
I was on the fence cause there were many things I'd lack going to linux, such as a practical art program or certain games. However steam and krita has sorted that out for the most part.
I feel however my decision to wait wasn't the best for what outcome I want, which is for the platform to do better. If I want better things and more support on linux I should have put my time, energy and some cash to it instead of being passive. Waiting doesn't bring the 2% linux users staitistic any closer to 3 or 4 %. I have no idea wether that statistic is even correct but just used it to make my a point.
However this is just my feelings about it, other people probably have their reasons to remain on the fence though.
As for wine. I use it for work (Unity Editor), haven't used it for gaming in quite a while, although I might try and finish off some old titles (that are unlikely to ever be ported) from my library through wine (instead of letting them go to waste).
I've used both a mix of linux and windows for a long time, switching back and forth.
In the last year or so, I've not used windows nor wine and I'll likely never use windows ever again.
And while there are 1000 linux games on steam, in my honest opinion many of them are trash indie games I wouldn't ever play, but hopefully that will get better.
I'm not saying all indie games are trash, just that alot of them are, sorry indie developers. It's a lot like the xbox live marketplace when I used to have xbox, the indie games on xbox live were mountains and mountains of absolute trash, but you'd find a few good ones in the mix every so often, it was just tedious to actually look through the trash for the gems.
Nah, I'm staying clear of Unity 8 until 16.04, when it'll be considered more "ready". It's mostly still just a phone interface at the moment as far as I can tell. Hopefully Canonical learned their lesson with 11.04 when Unity was introduced in a half-finished state. If you're going to force change, at least make it a pleasant change, right?
I do miss Planetside 2. I was getting a little too hooked on it though, having joined a clan and gotten involved in twice weekly training sessions in my Vannu Scythe. Honestly, it was becoming a bit of an addiction. Best for everyone that I moved on, I reckon!
Driver/hardware support. I have one hell of a gaming rig and Linux simply cannot make use of it at this point in time. I have 3 GPUs and 3 Monitors. Unless a game can run @ 5760x1080 and manage on a single GPU (because that is all Linux will use) or it is a game that I don't feel that multiple monitors adds to the experience then I currently have no choice but to boot windows to play those games.
I wish this were not the case because many of the games I already had now have Linux versions available and in the last couple of years many of the games that have come out that I wanted have come to Linux. The ones that are available I do purchase them on Linux and usually play them for the first few hours on Linux so that the sale is counted as such... but that hardware/driver support thing drives me back to playing them on windows (after my sale is counted towards Linux) to get the gaming experience that I want and have spent a bunch of my hard earned money to get.
2.) - Do you see yourself first as a gamer, then as a Linux user?
This question is not so black and white.
I've been a gamer pretty much all of my life. My father is a gamer/nerd so gaming and computers were instilled in me from the first time I was able to handle a joystick to play Frogger or Space Invaders or Pacman on Atari and then a mouse and keyboard when we finally got our own computer (IBM PC) in the late 80's. I was 11-12-ish years old the first time (yes, it happened multiple times :D ) I wiped out our families windows install (by accident) while trying to install and play with slackware (95-96-ish). My dad was none too happy, but he did play around with slackware for a bit before making me reinstall windows ;) and in the end he and I did figure out how to get the dual boot setup right so that I was able to continue messing around with Linux. He knew what Linux was but had never used it and was amazed that I had figured out what it was, downloaded it and installed it myself. Even if I broke stuff in the process ;)
From the get go I was fascinated with Linux, partly because it was different, partly because I felt like a hacker (lol, I was like 12, give me a little break =) ) and because I liked how "in control" I felt over my OS and not the other way around.
I continued to use both for many years mainly because of needing windows stuff for school and gaming. When I moved out on my own my family couldn't afford to get me a computer of my own and I certainly couldn't afford one myself. I went without for nearly 3 years (age: 19-21). I used the PC's at the library most of the time when I needed to. I finally got up on my own two feet and was able to scrounge together some crappy parts and I was back in business. My $$ situation has slowly but surely became better over the last 10 or so years and I've built/evolved quite a few computer since then, but I pretty much always had Linux installed. I love it and it is the OS I prefer to be in.
As a gamer though I've just always used windows for it up until recently because I never even really considered using Linux to game on until Steam was brought to Linux. I was super happy as Linux has been the default boot for years and I use it for everything except for gaming. My Windows install has ONLY Steam, Origin, MSI Afterburner, games and an anti-virus installed. That is it, and has been that way for a long time. I don't even have a boot menu show up, my PC just boots Linux when I turn it on. I must press f11 and manually select "that other drive" from the bios boot menu in order to even get to windows.
The rest of the computers in my home only run Linux. My home file server runs Arch, my HTPC runs Arch, my Lenovo laptop runs Arch. My gf and my phones and tablets are Android. My PS3 has Linux on it. Hell.. the thermostat that controls my homes central air conditioning runs Linux ;)
3.) - Are the 1000+ games on Steam and hundreds more on other sites still not enough for you to be a 100% Linux gamer?
Yes and No, however mostly no unfortunately. We now have quite the library of games and I'm glad that 1/4 of my steam library is now available for Linux. We now have 900 super indie titles that I am mostly simply not interested in, 50+ games that I could be interested in but simply run like crap (looking at you Unity) and crappy ports that were crappy console ports themselves. There are a good 2-3 dozen games that are older or are not super resource intensive and run just fine and I happily play those in Linux. I barely slept last weekend when I played through 25 hours of Torchlight II! Then we have the games that are available and I would love nothing more than to not have to boot to windows to play... but then I run into lack of hardware/driver support and/or horrible performance and back to windows I must go.
*Obviously I've fudged those numbers but I'm not far off when looking at my steam library and GOG drm free games.
4.) - If you feel so passionately about Linux that you’ll take questionable actions to defend it, then why not do the most simple thing and stop gaming on Windows?
I am very passionate about Linux, and to the point some of my friends roll their eyes when I talk about it, but I am not delusional. We are small and even our total 2%-ish market share is NOTHING to most of these game publishers. Then you have to remember that only a fraction of that 2% are gamers... so even if that whole 1%-ish who are gamers suddenly refused to purchase/play non Linux games it would not matter one single bit to most of these companies. Simply put, we are lunch money to these people.
I've been called a pessimist, but I prefer to consider myself realistic and logical. It keeps me from being really disappointed in life for the most part. I'm rarely sad and/or disappointed, I'm either level or super happy.
5.) - As someone with a tendency towards a specific genre, do you feel the current Linux suggestion doesn't cater to your gaming needs?
Yes and No.. answer is pretty much the same as #3. There are a bunch of game franchises that I really enjoy that are not available and there are a bunch that are available and spanning multiple genre's. I'm still stuck with the lack of hardware/driver support for many of those that are available for Linux and I do want to play, or the ports are simply horrible.
- Conclusion -
The last couple of years has opened my eyes to gaming on Linux, I would love nothing more for Linux to be on a level playing field when it comes to hardware/driver support and game performance compared to windows and I think we are going to get there. Amazing things have happened, we had multiple AAA day one released last year and this year so far with MORE coming. The ride is not over yet, but I'm glad to be on the coaster and I will not be getting off. I love picking up 4-packs of games when they are on sale and my wallet allows and giving the extra copies out to the gamers here. If nothing else it ensures that there were 4 more games that were counted towards Linux and you guys get games!
The games are here or are coming. The push for truly multi platform game code is massive, with pretty much all of the major AAA engines now supporting nearly all platforms and the indie engines having been supporting it for a long time. OpenGL is one hurdle I have full faith in Vulkan to overcome. Not that OGL is bad, It wasn't really conceived with the notion of gaming, the most commonly used core profiles are closer to a decade old, it has tons of "cruft" that has built up over time and it is just seldom used properly it seems and/or tends to be an afterthought. I'm no programmer, I'm only regurgitating what I've gathered over time, but experience seems to back it up.
With many pieces of the puzzle finally starting to come together the last real thing I need is hardware/driver support and I know it will come once that puzzle really starts to look like a picture. With the huge AAA games that are really resource intensive we have or are getting Nvidia can't ignore SLI on Linux for much longer. If that means makign their binary driver better or helping to make the FOSS driver better (lord knows it needs help) and Hopefully AMD really starts to step up their game for those who prefer their cards or the FOSS driver really catches up even more.
TL : DR - HARDWARE AND DRIVER SUPPORT ;)
I only dualboot for it because imo it is set to replace my favourite game of all time - Tribes 1.
And while as an engineer at heart, I'll use whatever tool to make something work (i.e. Windows to be able to play the pre-alpha Star Citizen releases), I think in the past couple of years I have started to buy only Linux games, and play only Linux Games and games on Linux, with the exception of Star Citizen. After Star Citizen comes onto Linux and all my gaming is on Linux, I will probably never dual boot into Windows again, since I currently (for the past year) only dualboot for gaming. (I may have to keep my Windows partition for study/work development/testing purposes). And sacrifice the games that I would've otherwise been able to play which are on Windows only, just like how I will probably never play FF XV and KH3 even though I love both the series (and more importantly, gameplay!) because I will probably never buy a console again. [had a PS1, PS2, and Wii]
Then there are those OS and software installation/upgrade/virus hassles etc.
As for gaming, never was much of a gamer to be honest. Probably because I suck at competitive gaming. Sure I played some DOS games, had a PSOne, played RA2, AoE, GTA3, CS, Hitman2:SA and some sports games on Windows but those are pretty much all the games I can remember now. The original 'steam looking for linux devs' announcement brought gaming into my mindset though. I 'suddenly' found out that HIB was a thing and the rest is history.
If the GoT game (*huge fan of the books here*) by Telltale did not tempt me enough, nothing will. That should actually be an example for those of you who are still hung up on some games. There just comes a point when you need to put your foot down: an operating system should be more important than any application. Although it's probably a safe bet that unlike me you are 'real' gamers and just can't help it :D
I do understand people with work-environment-enforced specific software needs, though.
Given the above, I'm obviously a GNU/Linux user first.