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Here's a bit of positivity for you today! According to the statistics gathered by the netmarketshare website, in July the percentage of people using Linux on the desktop hit an all time high.

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In June of 2016, Linux market share on the desktop according to their statistics hit over 2% for the first time. People were sceptical, but it seems it has mostly stayed above that 2% mark. In May of this year it did dip down to 1.99%, but as of July it recorded the highest yet at 2.53%.

Going by their statistics, Linux's share of the desktop market has nearly doubled since early 2013. I hope this upwards trend continues over the next few years. Going by their statistics, if it does continue as it is, we may hit ~3% (and hopefully stay above it) by the end of 2018.

Small victories eh?

We still have a long road ahead, but I've personally never been more happy with how Linux has progressed as an operating system and as a gaming platform. Our drivers perform well, we have a lot of great games and a lot of people invested in seeing us here at GOL continue too.

Sure we don't get the latest "AAA" rehash sequel number 4, and there are a number of titles I would personally like to see ported to Linux, but we do have an expanding list of high quality titles. Admittedly we get a lot of trash too, but thankfully there's a lot of great indie developers out there supporting Linux and some bigger developers too (hello Feral, Aspyr, VP etc). Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial
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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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tuubi Aug 6, 2017
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Quoting: KuduzkehpanI'd argue there is no operating system that is any better.

Both sentences are same and false.
No, they are not. Operating systems are not the same as the idealistic systems you attach to them. You live in a monochrome fairytale world of absolutes.

Quoting: KuduzkehpanGnu/linux and its ecosystem are opposite of windows and its ecosystem.
Another overstatement. They're hardly opposites. Very different though.

Quoting: KuduzkehpanAlso communism and its ecosystem are opposite of capitalism and its ecosystem.
This doesn't prove that one is perfect and one is as as far from it as possible. The most prosperous (and I mean prosperous as in most stable and least unhappy) nations today seem to be ones practicing something between these extremes. In fact no nation has ever implemented pure communism or pure capitalism thus far, and I imagine it would be impossible to do so.

Quoting: KuduzkehpanAnd yes there is a good world we can create where privacy humanity and freedom(not freedom of 'you can buy any rights as you can afford) exist.
I believe we should strive to achieve something better as well, and be vocal about the injustices we see affecting not only us, but anyone and everyone.

Quoting: KuduzkehpanAnd thus who dont understands economics i recommend to read Das Capital (Karl Heinrich MARX)
Marx was a dreamer and an idealist. An intelligent and well read one, but a dreamer no less. But so were the fathers of capitalism and the free markets. I agree that an ideal society takes care of its every member and happiness should be the only measure of success, not something based on wealth. Communism doesn't solve that problem. It's an economic model that fails at the human scale, just like any other in existence today.

Can we get back on topic now? If you want to talk politics, we should probably take it to the forums. Personally I'm already bored with the subject.


Last edited by tuubi on 6 August 2017 at 12:19 pm UTC
melkemind Aug 6, 2017
Most people no longer care what operating system they're using as long as it works well and is easy to use. PC gamers use Windows because it's currently the best option, not because they're necessarily Windows fanboys. To compete, Linux first has to become a more attractive option in terms of performance. That might be difficult with third-party ports of games, but we've seen native games start to really give Windows some competition (like Dota 2).

The next step I think would be to make a development suite, some type of nicely packaged gaming development system that allows developers to easily bring games to Linux. If it becomes easier than Windows to make games for Linux, that gives it another advantage.

The last step would be to get some first releases or timed exclusives, if you prefer. A company like Valve would have to step up and make that happen. If great games start dropping on Linux first and run better on Linux, PC gamers will switch.
14 Aug 6, 2017
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Quoting: melkemindMost people no longer care what operating system they're using as long as it works well and is easy to use. PC gamers use Windows because it's currently the best option, not because they're necessarily Windows fanboys. To compete, Linux first has to become a more attractive option in terms of performance. That might be difficult with third-party ports of games, but we've seen native games start to really give Windows some competition (like Dota 2).

...

The last step would be to get some first releases or timed exclusives, if you prefer. A company like Valve would have to step up and make that happen. If great games start dropping on Linux first and run better on Linux, PC gamers will switch.
This is exactly what I think. Just like console sellers, we need a couple really big exclusives that are ported elsewhere later but "runs best on Linux."
stretch611 Aug 6, 2017
Quoting: melkemindThe last step would be to get some first releases or timed exclusives, if you prefer. A company like Valve would have to step up and make that happen. If great games start dropping on Linux first and run better on Linux, PC gamers will switch.
This is a nice dream, but it will not happen with any major game release.

The fact is that development is quite expensive. Even a company like valve which has done a lot to support linux will not drop a linux exclusive, timed or not. After spending a lot of money on development, every big company is going to put it for sale where it gets the most return on their investment. With roughly 90% of the desktop market on windows, that will be their initial target.

While on consoles, some of them do get exclusives despite not being the most popular console, this happens because they have a hardware company behind it paying for the exclusive release. There is no company that has a vested interest in linux to the point that bringing exclusive releases to linux would result in a net gain through hardware sales. (or any other positive investment return.) Sadly, the reverse is true, Microsoft has a vested interest in Windows to the point that if their market share started to erode, it would make financial sense to pay for exclusives to stop any market erosion.

Theoretically, I suppose some type of crowd funding effort could be made to pay for a linux exclusive, however, what would be the real point? IMO, this would just be a waste of money, because 6 months later the dev will port it to the other platforms. It would need to be a constant stream of titles to make a difference, and I doubt the linux community would want to keep paying for this effort, especially considering if it actually made a difference, Microsoft would start doing the same to keep its share and their ability and willingness to spend money in support of their platform far exceeds the linux community.

An indie developer might give a few timed exclusives to linux first, especially with the number of developers that actually use linux. However, being indies, they do not have the reach or the marketing power to make a huge difference.
Kuduzkehpan Aug 11, 2017
Investing on linux pointless if earning money is purpose.
We have to look real examples. What made linux gaming viable.
System76 vendor with linux support
Valve crossplatform developer.
Kronos team high level API VULKAN developer. And many others
So we need more focusing efforts on crossplatform tools. Also we need development suits for them. And a good backing. Just like cannonical novell valve.
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