The developer behind Banished, a city builder/survival game coming to Linux has written up their thoughts on Linux. It does make for an interesting read.
Sounds like overall he had a reasonably positive experience. A few annoyances like an installer failing to create partitions on his SSD:
He is still trying to get Intel/Nvidia working together with Optimus, I thought that wouldn't have been an issue by now, as last time I tried it (last summer) the Nvidia drivers were capable of switching, but he didn't give specifics on that.
He ended up settling with a program called SlickEdit for doing code on Linux. I've never heard of it, so worth pointing out as he seems pretty happy with it.
I am concerned he is using X11 and OpenGL directly, instead of using a library like SDL. Any time this happens multi-monitors become an absolute pain.
The reason the 3rd party library's tend to be bigger, is that they handle all the sore spots for you. Which is why SDL is so useful. There's also the fact that Mir and Wayland are coming within the next year or two likely as the default, and this could cause headaches for him. SDL already have support for both.
It's really great to see a developer talk about Linux, and not in a ranting way, but a productive "here's what happened" sort of way.
I really can't wait to play it, be looking forward to it since I first saw it released on Windows. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Sounds like overall he had a reasonably positive experience. A few annoyances like an installer failing to create partitions on his SSD:
QuoteGetting linux going should be easy right? Download ISO, burn disc, install in new machine. But then the installer fails to make partitions on my brand new SSD! That was ok, nothing is ever easy – so I decided to setup the partitions myself using gparted. Does it work? No. After two days I figured out that for some reason the install wouldn’t work with the drive plugged into easy-to-access SATA5. Plugged the drive into SATA0 underneath the video card, and we’re running!
He is still trying to get Intel/Nvidia working together with Optimus, I thought that wouldn't have been an issue by now, as last time I tried it (last summer) the Nvidia drivers were capable of switching, but he didn't give specifics on that.
He ended up settling with a program called SlickEdit for doing code on Linux. I've never heard of it, so worth pointing out as he seems pretty happy with it.
QuoteSo when I told fellow programmers I was going to deal with straight X windows and GLX, they told me I was crazy and would regret it. But really, all I need is to create a window, and render OpenGL into it, and get some keyboard/mouse input.
I am concerned he is using X11 and OpenGL directly, instead of using a library like SDL. Any time this happens multi-monitors become an absolute pain.
QuoteWhen said and done the X11 code I had to write was far far smaller than any 3rd party library that handled the same things, has no extra dependancies, and compiles fast.
The reason the 3rd party library's tend to be bigger, is that they handle all the sore spots for you. Which is why SDL is so useful. There's also the fact that Mir and Wayland are coming within the next year or two likely as the default, and this could cause headaches for him. SDL already have support for both.
It's really great to see a developer talk about Linux, and not in a ranting way, but a productive "here's what happened" sort of way.
I really can't wait to play it, be looking forward to it since I first saw it released on Windows. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: KimyrielleTbh, in my experience installing Linux on a -new- PC was never as easy as it should be. There is always, -always- at least one component in a brand new PC that's not supported by the newest available distro of your choice (that or it's just my bad luck, but in 17 years of using Linux I never had one single smooth install). So the fumbling and tweaking starts. And yes, it's annoying. It usually works flawlessly with the next distro release, but new PCs need an OS too.
I got a new laptop last summer (IIRC in June) and at least back then the NVidia drivers couldn't handle Optimus. Not sure if anything changed in the meantime. Laptops are an even bigger pain to install Linux on btw. The latest one I got (an Acer) had a firmware obviously written by a complete hack of a noob programmer, that would boot the Windows bootloader as soon as it detected it in UEFI completely ignoring what's configured in GRUB. Took me ages to figure that out.
Heh, he doesn't believe that he will regret directly writing to X, but he absolutely will. :D
And why would one want to use a commercial code editor when we have tons of awesome open source ones? oO
Must be bad luck then. My desktops never gave me any problems (even my brand new i7 Skylake rig) and my laptops (Lenovo E130 and L430, HP 6715, Acer Aspire One) always behaved nicely (with AMD graphics I had to rely on the open source drivers though and at least two of them came without an OS at all).
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This is in fact not a problem within Linux or better to be said of a free distribution. It is more the problem of the hardware and the manufacturer: Releasing some kind of proprietary, closed black-box is the trick. Either it is not even functional from the start on or it is a very long road getting it working. Best example: Graphic cards from NVidia. Do they work with the open-source driver? Yes, most of them but even not all. Is it possible starting a game with this? Perhaps with much luck. But most time it is more useful installing the closed drivers. Is this better? No and it does not even make any sense on an open operating-system. The same reason I'd call Ubuntu not really open-source and free. Perhaps most parts are open-source, but not all. Kind of crap and only some derivates make this better. So using Linux is not the final guarantee for "freedom", it is even no longer the starting point regarding some distributions and people like having just a clone of "Windows" there. ;)
For me I'll give nothing any longer on NVidia and also most Ubuntu-distributions are not of any interest. With Mesa 11.2 and Prime on AMD many games work very well, even on Trisquel as a really free distribution. Also having the newest hardware of Intel with newest SSD-technology also give me personal the feeling being more insecure at all because there are problems within the hardware itself for some time now.
Last edited by throgh on 9 April 2016 at 7:18 pm UTC
For me I'll give nothing any longer on NVidia and also most Ubuntu-distributions are not of any interest. With Mesa 11.2 and Prime on AMD many games work very well, even on Trisquel as a really free distribution. Also having the newest hardware of Intel with newest SSD-technology also give me personal the feeling being more insecure at all because there are problems within the hardware itself for some time now.
Last edited by throgh on 9 April 2016 at 7:18 pm UTC
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Quoting: throghThe same reason I'd call Ubuntu not really open-source and free. Perhaps most parts are open-source, but not all.
What parts of your Ubuntu desktop distribution are not open source?
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Looks like some people have implored him to use SDL2 instead but I somehow doubt he will listen.
Hopefully he will though. * fingers crossed*
Hopefully he will though. * fingers crossed*
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hardpenguin Apr 10, 2016
That is interesting, thanks for sharing it here :)
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soulsource Apr 10, 2016
"Installing the graphics drivers..." That sounds bad, such as fglrx bad...
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Quoting: KimyrielleAnd why would one want to use a commercial code editor when we have tons of awesome open source ones? oO
It is commercial open source actually. Not free in the FOSS nor Free Software sense so far as I know, and certainly not free beer style free but you do get source with the product when you buy it as I understand it. It's main selling point seems to be in terms of it's ability to run identically across all supported platforms without a lot of setup work and directly importing VS projects and the like.
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TacoDeBoss Apr 11, 2016
Oh no. That means in 2 years when Wayland is popular, we won't be playing this game..
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1mHfoksd1Z Apr 11, 2016
Please use SDL... I am really looking forward to play this... but I'm also looking forward to use Wayland instead of X when it will be popular enough... and I really doubt you will port it to SDL later... and if you plan to do it, then why not do it now, in the beginning, when it's so much easier?
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cRaZy-bisCuiT Apr 11, 2016
I really don't get what's your problem, guys. I installed really a lot of linux distros on different systems. The installation always worked except for one notebook - the RAM in that one had errors which caused kernel panics. Apart from that a little bit of finetuning was needed in some cases to get wireless working with some nottebooks. But for that case: Why don't you just by hardware which is known to work oob? If I want a windows system, I do buy windows compliant hardware. If I want a linux system I should do the same for linux.
With desktops I never had any problems. Including proprietary drivers for the GPU.
Last edited by cRaZy-bisCuiT on 11 April 2016 at 11:07 am UTC
With desktops I never had any problems. Including proprietary drivers for the GPU.
Last edited by cRaZy-bisCuiT on 11 April 2016 at 11:07 am UTC
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