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10 years ago GamingOnLinux was created, what a ride it's been

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GamingOnLinux (the website) officially turns 10 years old, this is madness and here’s some thoughts and history on it all.

July is a bit of a special double-event for me, as not only does July 5th mark the birth of GamingOnLinux, July 30th is also my birthday!

What started as a curiosity after my first proper computer came with Linux instead of Windows, has blossomed into a love of all things Linux. I still remember booting it up for the first time, having no idea what was about to happen. Good old Mandrake 9.2, you were my first taste of what was to come. In the years following, I remember trying out all sorts of different Linux distributions from Fedora Core (as it was called back then) to SUSE and eventually Ubuntu came along which really did help me stick with Linux.

I started following what Linux gaming sites were around at the time (R.I.P LinuxGames.com, R.I.P The Linux Game Tome and many more that vanished) and eventually thought I could do better. We started off on a simple .info domain and some sort of phpBB forum, eventually moving onto XenForo with a "Portal" addon stuck on to make it more like a news site and then I eventually did the really dumb thing of writing the entire website from scratch (with help along the way, hello Levi!).

There’s been so many insane ups and downs over the years, we’ve seen a lot of things come and go too. I still remember being excited about Desura, the indie store that was previously owned by the Indie DB/Mod DB people, especially as they had an open source client too although itch.io has pretty much taken up all their slack since Desura died off.

Over the time we’ve been here, we’ve been through the first Humble Indie Bundle back when they actually ported games to Linux (I did some QA for them too), Steam arrived with a bunch of games, GOG added Linux games, Steam Machines appeared and sadly died off, the Vulkan API became a thing, Wine advanced a ridiculous amount to run Windows games on Linux and DXVK came along to push it even further. Then Steam Play pulled up and was like "I hear you want more AAA games?" ensuring things stay interesting (and slightly complicated) for the foreseeable future. We also have the rise of game streaming with services like Google Stadia and Virtual Reality to come too. One thing is for certain, Linux certainly isn’t boring!

In terms of how we’re doing, growth—lots of it!

Very happy with how quickly everything is growing. Great to see so many new faces appearing constantly. It can be hard to keep track of so many places but it’s worth it to let people follow us where they want.

I’ve also spent some time recently improving our Crowdfunded Linux Games page, it will now list the developer and mention if Linux was a stretch-goal. On top of that, the code was overhauled to use something SteamDB also uses, so you can now sort the rows by clicking the headers, instantly search and so on. On top of that, it’s also now listing games in-development, that haven’t yet released which promised a Linux version making it even easier to keep track. Feedback welcome in this forum topic.

Additional website updates:

  • The Trends Charts on our user statistics page will now show the total number of users who picked that option out of how many answered the question in total, in the tooltip that appears when you hover over a point.
  • If someone quotes you on the forum, this is now hooked up to our notification system (reply notifications are in progress).
  • If you're directly linked to a comment or forum post, it's now highlighted to show you.
  • Searching articles has been made easier, as it now has pagination and is not limited to the first 100 results.

 

I wanted to also thank you, all of you. Everyone who reads GamingOnLinux, all those who comment and laugh about my terrible grammar and spelling often (who can forget the hilarious and embarrassing misspelling that was Fistful of Fags - it’s "Frags" Liam, you colossal idiot).

Who can forget all of the wonderful contributors? Many came and went over the years to help out for fun, thanks to all and especially those of you who’ve stuck around.

Naturally, I wanted to give a shout-out to everyone who has helped fund the adventure both past and present, without you nothing is possible! If you wish to support GamingOnLinux, you can do so using these links:

You can also buy games using our affiliate/partner links, which is incredibly helpful!:

All those links are available any time on the Support Us page, found under the Sections drop-down in the top navbar.

I plan to still be here in another 10 years, it will be fun to see how different things are. There’s so much to be excited about, plenty I can't talk about as well the next few years are going to be very interesting. As always, my inbox is always open to suggestions and feedback, email here any time.

Finally, come along to our Twitch Channel around 4PM UTC! Come say hi and help us celebrate.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
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87 comments
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tumocs Jul 5, 2019
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Thanks for the years. Partaking in this looney business for half the time and lurking for the other half. Let us continue waiting for the year of the GNU desktop together forever.
jens Jul 5, 2019
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Cheers!
pete910 Jul 5, 2019
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Gawd!!! That southern fairy still here....




:D
herbert Jul 5, 2019
Hello Liam,

The Linux world is full of disagreement, KDE vs Gnome, Arch vs Ubuntu vs Solus vs etc., and even on GoL the community is not able to agree on buying Steam Play compatible games vs Native only.

I think the only thing we all agree on is about the quality of this website, your every day good mood, the wonderful community you succeed in building.

I'm not a regular commentator here, even on Telegram I do not participate that much, but man, everytime I have a Telegram notification with Steam logo from one of your news, my heart is beating a lot !

Keep up the good work and thank you !
WorMzy Jul 5, 2019
Happy birthday, GOL! :D
Eike Jul 5, 2019
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Happy Birthday, GoL!

This site is my only source for Linux gaming news for years now, so please feel the pressure...! ;-)

I loved the comment about waiting for the year of Linux desktop forever together. Let's do this.


Last edited by Eike on 5 July 2019 at 7:20 am UTC
Cmdr_Iras Jul 5, 2019
Congratulations on 10 years, for the past 5 years (1 lurking) GOL has become not only my primary source for news about games, but one of the few sites that I ensure I visit multiple times a day!

May it continue to grow, all the success of the ste is a testament to your hardwork in rthe background that we often dont see.
Ehvis Jul 5, 2019
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Congratulations on making it to 10 years! That really is some exceptional commitment. I've only been here for the last three, but it quickly became my main place for Linux gaming news. And the extensive community around it is what really makes it shine. Thanks to all who worked hard to make it what it is!
cprn Jul 5, 2019
Happy Birthday, GoL!
toojays Jul 5, 2019
From one July 30 baby to another, congrats on 10 years of GoL!
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