The Steam runtime fix is a big one, I don't have the issue because I'm on NVidia but having to explain to newcomer to Linux that have an AMD card that they can't just install Steam and play out of the box is a real bummer.

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Finally someone realize that the major problem with pulseaudio is the fact that Ubuntu developers are incapable of configuring the thing properly (it's the same on Gentoo as well) and that users of this distro will assume that it doesn't work for the wrong reasons.

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This article is overly pessimistic. More developpers needing to use Vulkan to support a new very popular platform is going to mean more developpers learning Vulkan which in turn mean more developpers using Vulkan, and this cycle goes on forever. And it will also means more developping tools, more improvements...

If we get so much games on Linux today it's not because of SteamOS, SteamOS is dead, it's because of what Valve and SteamOS did, because of it a lot of developpers learnt to develop games for Linux and now they are available on the market, companies are less afraid to develop for Linux anymore because their people have the skills required. Having more and more developpers working with Vulkan out there will mean having more and more people capable of making Linux native games, it's one thing less that companies will have to worry about if they consider having a Linux version, one thing that could make a difference between having it or not.

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Developpers don't want us to beg, they want to create a hype around their game before they consider releasing on Linux, they don't want to release on Linux and go unnoticed. If we get so much games these days it's also because of Liam and GamingOnLinux and also because of the Reddit community, without this developpers would probably would have no way to reach to the Linux gamers and make them know they released the game on Linux.

But developpers don't know us, they don't know how the game will be received by the Linux community, I've heard many times developpers saying that they are afraid to release their working Linux version because if a user on Gentoo / Slackware or whatever cannot run the game he might give a negative review and ruin the game reputation.

That's why it's very important that we stay nice to developpers even when they don't always deserve it, because the reputation of the Linux community is vital for all of us. Sometimes things need to be said, like the fact that X is still not released on Linux months after the announced release date or that Y is still broken months after release, be being unrespectful to the developpers is not going to help in any way.

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They need to have something fast, because Microsoft will almost definitly try to acquire this market and put their own proprietary solutions in place.

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Overwatch, MSG V, GTA V, Call of Duty, Battlefield. I don't care much about those games, but them being released on Linux would really be a big event.

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This rule is necessary for gamepad emulation; make sure you replace 'pgriffais' with a group that the user that runs Steam belongs to

Just put "users" then, it's way simpler.

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Quoting: autonomouseDon't see the problem myself. But Flatpak is a RedHat thing, and RedHat don't like Canonical, so a lot of RedHat people are negative about anything that comes from Canonical.

It's not only Red Bat, there is tons of reasons not to like Canonical :
- They don't contribute much to the Linux community
- They have the "not invented here" philosophy, meaning that if a Linux project is successful they'll always create a concurrent project just for the sake of having one. This takes developers away from the main project and slow down the evolution of Linux (Unity, Mir, Snap...)
- They aggressively patch the packages in their distribution, making it so that bugs in the upstream project are not in Ubuntu but often other bugs are here, making it a nightmare for the original developers (I don't really know if they still do this)
- They partenered with Amazon to put ads on Ubuntu
- They partnered with Microsoft to have Ubuntu running on Windows

I could probably find others but I think that's good enough.

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The fact is the more Linux ports, the more game developpers that know Linux are available on the market. And the more game developers that know Linux on the market, the less expensive the cost of porting / building for Linux. It's one of the main reason we had such an explosion of the number of games on the platform.

But still, game developers with Linux skills are probably still not that common, so I'm not surprised that some studios struggle to find one.

The lack of a big number of developers knowing the platform well is still probably one of the reason (maybe not the major one) we don't get some AAA, and this one is definitely going to be solved by time.

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It could be great if they could find a solution so that the Steam Runtime doesn't break on bleeding edge distributions. Also at some point they'll need to find a way to provide multiple version of the runtime, so that newer games can leverage new features that weren't available a few years ago.

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