Why Linux?

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If you're running a server, Linux all the way, it's much more reliable and generally runs things a lot smoother.

Gamer? Windows
Programmer? Linux
Casual? Windows
Work? (spreadsheets, etc) Windows, probably...
 
Cue said:
Programmer? Linux
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It should match the platform you're programming for really (unless it's a console, then you have no option but to do cross building).

Cue said:
Work? (spreadsheets, etc) Windows, probably...
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Macs are also used at work quite often.
 
After some serious buggering up on my part on an attempt to dual boot, and a BSOD _on_the_install_disk_, I ended up going ubuntu exclusive. It's been better than I thought it'd be, but it's hardly been the golden gift to mankind the open source hype would have most believe. The biggest drawback I've noticed is the gaming aspect, which is _way_ limited to say the least. I get the feeling that had I had constant internet access this would be alleviated in some manner from all the support available online, however. Still, Windows for games, and everything else runs smoothly on here. I'll be dual booting XP and Ubuntu when I finally get that new hard drive.
 
In my opinion, anyone who's serious about gaming will get consoles, as the hardware in computers is so different from each other, and can't be exploited directly and fully. You won't have almost any problems with programs on Linux, except for maybe Office and Photoshop, but most users don't need those, and there are alternatives out there for them (although not as feature rich). You can run them under WINE if you really want to.
And, no offence, but most Windows software is crap freeware gadgets, and often for a given program, an alternative has been made.
Just don't expect to get stuff from the shelf, as you either get them from packages or sources.
BSDs are pretty much the same, but they're cleaner and not as fragmented although except for FreeBSD (and maybe DragonFly?) they don't support 3d accelleration at all.
There's been some work on getting 3d working on NetBSD, too.

Seriously, Linux for a beginner is even easier than Windows, as you won't get those craploads of spyware and such if you do something wrong, as multiuser is default not optional like on Windows.
I started using Linux on my 11th birthday.
I prefer BSDs much more over it though, nowadays, as Linux is too fragmented imho.
 
About normal programs, any of the major OSes will do, so our only real problem here are games really. And here we have problems. Even if we get all the consoles (which aren't very cheap this generation anyways), not all games are made for consoles. Some are only for computers. In those cases, what do you do? Get all the major OSes too? (well, that would be ideal, but I see it hardly possible) There comes the problem. And like it or not, Windows has the most games by far. So here Windows wins, even if it's the worst platform for making games (it's the hell when it comes to deal with hardware having high performance).
 
Just had another quick scan through some of the replies in this post, it seems to me that many people wont use Linux due to the lack of games. True, this is one of the main problems on my part due to the PC games I currently own. However there is hope and that is simply if enough of the market ask for games to have Linux support in general we would get it.

As for the lack of software issue, trust me that is simply not true. For every windows exclusive application there will be about 5 Linux alternatives. The only way you could say that Linux has less software is due to the fact most Linux software is also made for windows, were windows don't give Linux use of there software.

Ultimately though until more people demand Linux support of the game developers Windows will continue to monopolies the market.
 
Game developers and publishers are actually paying a lot attention to Linux these days, so eventually a game market will grow for Linux. But still, don't expect this to be big enough until in a few years (two or three at least). Anybody ready for a Windows vs. Linux gaming war soon? :P
 
I think that a part of the problem is that game companies can't implement their dear DRM (crap) and protections on Linux, and that makes their obselete business method die. The only ones so far that are actually paying attention to Linux are iD software and indie game developers, almost all big companies ignore it. And also they often can't even support Windows decently, go imagine with Linux what hell it'd be - there are hundreds of distributions, but the last point doesn't stand up with the BSDs. I like how iD releases, release the game, then after some years you release the sources under the GPL and under a commercial license if someone wants to exploit those without giving the sources. But the data stays commercial. It's a win-win situation, really. You also make people symphatize with you, and you get more sales, and the end user also wins, because he can modify the game to his heart's content
 
Big companies don't look much at Linux because they don't want to risk, period. Linux is talked in most (if not all) developing conferences (including the GDC), both by developers (even from big companies) and marketing professionals, so even if companies don't pay much attention to it, Linux is definitely not being overlooked.

Anyways, yeah, that about making the game free after its commercial life is over (say two or three years) seems good enough for me. And eventually some people will wait rather than trying to get a pirate copy. Still if the source code isn't released, most people just want to play the game, so even releasing the binary version for free you may make most people happy. It could even be more like this:
  • Initial commercial release
  • Freeware release
  • Open source release
This way companies wouldn't have to care much about their engines being used by the competition. After two or three years, an engine may still be useful. Double that time, and it'll eventually be obsolete already for those big companies (through still good enough for homebrew games).
 
Ehm... you have misunderstood me. I said it is good to make the sources dual-licensed after two or three years, not to make the entire game free.
The data would remain commercial, the executable wouldn't.
 
DRM, again that thing that I cant stand. As for the companies it's simple. Don't use it! Make the game usable only after the user has paid the company a 'professional fee' for the initial release. i.e hook it up to a server. After that you protect the one bit of source that makes the user have to pay you, then simply let them modify the rest of the source. That way everyone's a winner The companies sit and watch as all the Linux programmers redistribute it for them, they earn a load of cash due to the fact you have to pay them, and I don't have to have DRM installed onto my computer with explosive consequences.

I believe all that the games companies need to do is to take some advice from Del boy and the SAS mainly "Who dares, wins'

As for the OS gaming wars, that would just be a scary thought.
 
Jam said:
DRM, again that thing that I cant stand. As for the companies it's simple. Don't use it! Make the game usable only after the user has paid the company a 'professional fee' for the initial release. i.e hook it up to a server. After that you protect the one bit of source that makes the user have to pay you, then simply let them modify the rest of the source. That way everyone's a winner The companies sit and watch as all the Linux programmers redistribute it for them, they earn a load of cash due to the fact you have to pay them, and I don't have to have DRM installed onto my computer with explosive consequences.
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That won't work. Either you won't be able to compile the game because you miss part of the source code, or you distribute that part of the source code as a linkable object, but then somebody comes and disassemblies it, then makes a replacement for that and voilà, you get a free version. Sorry, but it isn't reliable :/

Jam said:
As for the OS gaming wars, that would just be a scary thought.
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People in Internet love that kind of wars, so eventually it'll happen. Explorer vs. Firefox, anyone?
 
No need to be sorry Sik, it's just my lack of knowledge showing once again. I only mess around with DM, DB, and HTML when I can be bothered, once anything else is mentioned a loud whoosh can be heard. Still, there has got to be a way of distributing a game free source while still making money from the game and any alternate versions.

As for the wars they are completely biased, without any thought and usually descend into flame wars after the third reply. Console wars being a prime example.

I prefer explorer.
 
People won't want to make alternate versions if you still get money from them, simple. As much, allow the game to be modified by changing the data in it but not the source code, through that would defeat the purpose of all of this, right?

Anyways, I was just thinking, even if people didn't disassemble the object file... What if you delete the call to the function inside it? And if it's main(), you could make your own instead. No need to even disassemble it.
 
They might, I know I wouldn't, but I don't like the thought of lining someone else's pockets. Plus I was meaning the right to use the original source. For instance you have to pay for the Mandriva distributions of Linux, but you can still have a fun time with the source, not a good idea.

Yes it probably would work but like you said would kind of defeat the purpose.
 
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