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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Ditto, although it was 2006 for me when I ditched windows for good. With all of the great Linux games coming out, I'm also working toward quitting wine. I no longer buy games that aren't Linux native. I haven't played a game using wine in months.
I stream on twitch too, but obs for windows is sadly more advanced than obs multiplatform. If I could make the CLR browser plugin work on obs linux, i'd probably drop the rest.
The flip side of the medal is of course that -not- dual booting will, at least at first, only hurt ourselves, since we will be unable to play the games we want. Only two years ago, not willing to dual boot (or use Wine, which for the purposes of this consideration is the same thing, as dual booting as it takes away pressure on devs to support Linux natively) basically meant not playing any professional-quality games at all. Nowadays, this has of course changed considerably (mainly thanks to Steam) and some of us might be able to get away without ever booting Windows again. But 1000 available games or not, but there are still glaring gaps in Linux gaming. There is a plethora of great strategy games available for Linux I pretty much all bought (yay for Paradox!). But I also love MMORPGs and there is not a single decent one available for Linux. On the other hand, the dozens of platformers and zombie games available for Linux don't do anything for me, because I don't like either platformers or survival horror. Whether or not you still feel any pressure to dual-boot really depends on your taste in gaming, even in 2015.
What I personally do is that I still dual-boot when I have to, but around one year ago I made the decision not to buy any game anymore that doesn't support Linux natively. So right now I get the best of both worlds for myself. I still play the (older) games on Windows that aren't available for Linux, including the MMORPGs. But my money goes to publishers that support the OS I want to use. And that's what counts for me.
My reasoning?
Linux-based operating systems almost always perform better, they're notoriously more secure and day-to-day maintenance (defragmentation, disk-scanning, updates and upgrades, virus prevention and eradication, etc...) is almost entirely automatic - seeing as I'm the "geek" in the house, that would normally mean that I'd run from computer-to-computer doing everything once a month... With Linux-based operating systems, most of this work is automated and/or simplified.
My son isn't a big fan of it - "all of the good games are on Windows-based operating systems!" - but that's why he has a Sony PlayStation 4 of his very own, alongside a Sony PlayStation Vita... And SteamOS will change everything.
Although initially against the change, the wife doesn't mind Ubuntu these days, though misses Windows-based operating systems when it comes to things like updating/upgrading our Sony Xperia smartphones (like most Android manufacturers, Sony only allow updates/upgrades to be applied using a Windows-based computer) and my daighter's LeapPad products...
But for that, we're going to buy an ultra-cheap laptop running a Windows-based operating system - most likely the Kogan Atlas X1510 - and use it for the few times we simply can't get around not having a Windows-based operating system.
So yeah sure, i see new games come out that i would love to play so badly on my PC, but they are windows only...but my loyalty to Linux is way more stronger than wanting to play a game on Windows. Games are great entertainment for a while, but using Linux is much more enjoyable to me.
You must be kidding. :D
Haha nope. I have been way involved with Linux for so long. Side by side with Amiga for a long time (Until my system died) R.I.P Amiga. I only learned windows in order to fix it. I get shit from all my friends who want to play games but i cant because i use Linux. I just tell them "hey, all the games i enjoy playing are on Linux, and i wont ever use anything from Microsoft". It's just the way i have been. I like a learning experience more than entertainment. Even today with all these games on Linux, sometimes i just stare at my steam collection, and im like "dont feel like today". This is also goes with me working alot, and always being tired. I know it sucks trying to get more games to come to Linux from stubborn developers, but every time a new one comes out, it's like the most exciting news of the day.
What kinds of updates? I have a Sony Xperia Z2 but haven't ever had any need for Windows (or a computer at all) to update anything on it.
It's notoriously difficult to convert videos to a format readable on my old Creative Zen with video software on Linux and the software shipped with the unit doesn't work well with Wine. I have pretty much stopped using it now though, so it doesn't bother me, and my Android tablets are more tolerant with file formats.
Since I don't want to leave windows games unfinished or unplayed, I'm using Windows non-stop to complete those games. My game beating ratio is at an all time high, partly this is helping me control the games that I buy and I'm actually completing more than I'm buying so it's working for me.
When I finish with those games I'll move to linux only.
I'm also very optimistic about the future of linux gaming.
With Vulkan, Unity, Unreal Engine 4, Source 2 and SteamOS I believe developers will change the way games are made so that they're developed with cross-platform compatibility in mind, so porting for linux will be almost cost free compared to porting as we currently know it. Also, Blizzard is participating Vulkan, so maybe we can't expect a current game to be released on linux, but it may happen for a new game they release in the future.
Furthermore, it's worth to mention what happened with DX11 not being supported in Windows XP, now I'm no programmer and this is just my speculation but to me it sounds like they wanted to have people move to Vista, rather than XP not being able to support the API. History may repeat itself with that same scenario happening with Windows 7 not supporting DX12, which would mark the strongest push towards other OS for gamers, hopefully and since there are no restrictions with open source, those who decide to stay in Windows 7 will be able to enjoy Vulkan as an alternative.
I think he war referring to your statement that PC gaming wasn't big in '99.