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Garry Newman of Rust and Garry's Mod regrets supporting Linux

By - | Views: 24,168

Note: This is an editorial, this is obviously my opinion. I own Garry's Mod and Rust, and I am speaking as an annoyed customer.

Garry Newman's latest lovely remark is that if he could do it again, he would never support Linux. It joins the list of lovely quotes from him about the platform.

@adevland Of course. If i could do it again I'd have never supported linux.

— Garry Newman (@garrynewman) January 22, 2016

He's already admitted before that he and his company do a "shitty job" (his words, not mine) of supporting Linux.

It's great that his games are on Linux, and a few thousand Linux gamers have purchased copies, but he needs to do better at supporting something he is selling.

He claims he supports Linux as it's the right thing to do, but it has to be more than that. You have to actually properly support your sold goods, and not belittle your userbase repeatedly like he does. He represents his own company after all, what kind of message is he sending? Not a good one.

Garry really needs a PR person to stop this happening.

Update: He went to reddit to explain a little better:

QuoteI wasn't trolling here. I wasn't making a pronouncement. I was replying to a tweet.
We release games on Linux because it feels like the right thing to do, to not exclude a platform just because it doesn't make financial sense.
We get shit because we don't properly support linux because it makes up less than 1% of our audience. We get a lot of negativity from the linux community because we don't spend as much time testing on it as we do on Windows.
So the obvious conclusion I arrive at is that we'd be better off if we'd have never released for linux. Our attempts to release our games for Linux are shit and aren't appreciated. That's made abundantly clear every time one of these posts is made, so what are we doing it for?

It's a vicious cycle, he makes remarks that are stupid in public, then moves to defend himself on reddit (with remarks about us not appreciating it *sigh*). It happens every time he does it and it's another reason why I think he needs a PR person.

I would one day like to write something nice about Garry and his studio, but he's not making it easy for me.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial | Apps: Rust
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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.
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Xpander Jan 28, 2016
And thats entirely correct statment. It his opinion. Its not worth for him to support our platform. I dont see anything wrong in there. People really want to make so much drama about every post he makes about linux.
omer666 Jan 28, 2016
When I think about it, I only have put something like 1 hour or so in Garry's Mod since I bought it 2 years ago. If I could do it again I'd have never bought it.

About Rust... Well I don't buy games on indefinite early access. I don't buy MMO either. And finally the concept's execution and the community are so silly altogether that I just can't get interested in this in the slightest.

When survival means running naked avoiding snipers...

As a comparison, I'd be much more interested in trying out Ark...
Liam Dawe Jan 28, 2016
Quoting: XpanderAnd thats entirely correct statment. It his opinion. Its not worth for him to support our platform. I dont see anything wrong in there. People really want to make so much drama about every post he makes about linux.

Why should we support someone who constantly belittles the platform we are trying to help grow? His comments are never helpful, never productive and all it does is fuel anti-Linux hate in his circles.

There's many better ways to go about it, like not saying it, or explaining it in a better way. He knows this, he chooses to be like how he is because Linux is small so he doesn't really care.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 28 January 2016 at 9:39 am UTC
SurDaft Jan 28, 2016
He may not do it again, but atleast he was within the movement to start developing games for linux. He contributed to the games that are available today, on SteamOS and linux.

I may not play them much myself, he did contribute towards other people developing their games for linux.

Anyway GamingOnLinux thank you for being my source of linux gaming news, my first comment here so I thought I would say hello! :P
Xpander Jan 28, 2016
Quoting: TheBossWhy should we support someone who constantly belittles the platform we are trying to help grow? His comments are never helpful, never productive and all it does is fuel anti-Linux hate in his circles.

There's many better ways to go about it, like not saying it, or explaining it in a better way. He knows this, he chooses to be like how he is because Linux is small so he doesn't really care.

And random internet name calling is never helpful either. It again shows how hostile/toxic linux community is.
And Linux is Small thats the fact. This game is also in Early Access (be it there forever or not).

I'm not defending Garry, he is what he is, but linux community seems to be too emotional about it.

there are countless games that arent early access and not work on linux or work really bad. And when devs dont say anything at all its a lot worse imo, it shows that they dont even know that they released a game on linux.


my 2 cents.. im too lazy to argue
Liam Dawe Jan 28, 2016
Quoting: Xpander
Quoting: TheBossWhy should we support someone who constantly belittles the platform we are trying to help grow? His comments are never helpful, never productive and all it does is fuel anti-Linux hate in his circles.

There's many better ways to go about it, like not saying it, or explaining it in a better way. He knows this, he chooses to be like how he is because Linux is small so he doesn't really care.

And random internet name calling is never helpful either. It again shows how hostile/toxic linux community is.
And Linux is Small thats the fact. This game is also in Early Access (be it there forever or not).

I'm not defending Garry, he is what he is, but linux community seems to be too emotional about it.

there are countless games that arent early access and not work on linux or work really bad. And when devs dont say anything at all its a lot worse imo, it shows that they dont even know that they released a game on linux.


my 2 cents.. im too lazy to argue

No one here is name calling, simple pointing things out. There's nothing hostile here so far from anyone.

People are too quick to play the "toxic linux community" card, it's not. Every community has toxicity, but there's a certain level of respect people should show, of which Garry has none for anyone using Linux as repeatedly shown by his comments.

We also point out other games that have bad support, this is nothing new. I like to warn people, money is important (at least it is to me), and I would rather put money towards a supportive developer.

Also, people should be allowed to complain about things they buy, it's part of life.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 28 January 2016 at 10:00 am UTC
lucifertdark Jan 28, 2016
Never heard of him.
WorMzy Jan 28, 2016
I'm not sure anyone should be giving this one-hit wonder any publicity, it makes it seem like his opinions have any value at all.
1mHfoksd1Z Jan 28, 2016
Of course Linux is not worthwile for all developers. In some cases it causes more trouble than profit. He's just one of those ones. Nothing wrong with that. As long as he didn't insult anyone, it's fine, it's his opinion and it's a legit one in his case.
Armand Raynal Jan 28, 2016
I think for some things, it is a matter of opinion, but i believe that most of the time, the answer is dicted by common sense.
I also think it is the case of how we should "considere" GNU/Linux.
I think that common sense, with little thinking, lead to considering GNU/Linux as the standard OS. Even if we all now that informaly microsoft windows is leading the market share.
Because it seem evident, and out of discussion, that the actual situation is everything but ideal.
And it seem also evident, with little thinking, that free software should be the norm, the standard, the rule, and proprietary software should be the exception.

A develloper can wether chose to be pragmatic, or to do the right thing to do. Because yes, i think that in almost any situation there's a choice to do, that can tend to an ideal of how the world should be, or something else that can beconsidered as a mistake.

So a developper can wether support GNU/Linux, wether not. He can make his work for him, for money, trying to target people with marketing and all that bullshit, or he can make it for the community, for the people to enjoy it.(remember kids, money comes in second place, not first)

Porting your game on GNU/Linux as a developper means : "I want anybody on earth that would want to play my game, to be able to do so". Because it is NOT normal to accept the license proposed by microsoft, and only free software can be imagined as a standard plateforme openned to everyone.

Didn't you guys, forgot why you went on GNU/Linux ? You did it for the technical aspect ? So you can customize your desktop ? Your system ? run command lines in root ? That's cool and i like to be free to do so if i want to on my system, but honestly, that 's not essential(i don't really give a damn fuck to be honest).
The ethic aspect seems much much much much more revelant to me. And further more, it is the reason why we have so much flexibility, choice, and even the reason why our software is BETTER in every aspect than proprietary one. as it is not defective by design ...


To end that confused monologues, I think "we" do not just want to play on a different system. We want informatic that is ethic, i am wrong ?
Because if you're pragmatic, i think you should go back on windows. Only my personal toughs, thanks for reading.
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