I'm finding the whole thing hard to take seriously. Coronavirus sounds like something you get from drinking beer.

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If it was a switchover where that was the only way, I'd certainly be against it. As an option, seems like a decent idea which would be the right approach for some and might get some people into it and paying them money who would otherwise have given it a miss. Maybe they should consider a "Rent to own" model where if you subscribe long enough to have paid for bloody everything, it's yours.

For me personally, that humble bundle was too good, I just picked it up with a stack of DLC.

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Quoting: BielFPs

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI dunno. IBM (Windows) PCs became big at home because they were what people used at work. And the Chinese public sector is big.

It's big with android devices for sure. I'm not sure about how strong is their notebook market, my currently Acer doesn't flash the BIOS without Windows, so I can assume that Windows is still the only standard for them, and desktop for home users is nowadays a niche between designers and gamers mostly.

Wait, in China the public sector, like at work, use Android devices to get their work done? Is that really a thing in offices? Because I know in North America a lot of people have shifted to tablets and even phones for home use, but at the office desktop machines still rule--because you're, like, trying to do things, write stuff and such.

Quoting: BielFPs

Quoting: Purple Library GuyEven if it doesn't influence home use much, the Chinese government sector all by itself has to be bigger than most countries. If they really dump Windows off most government machines like that article claims, the flippin' Year of the Linux Desktop just arrived. Not much help for gaming, admittedly. Or not directly, not yet.

The only way I think the government would move to Linux is if they see Windows as a privacy threat for them like Trump sees their devices for USA, and even so, I doubt we would see any contribution back to "us"

Sadly the Chinese government is more worry about watch their people, and Windows is for sure a excellent tool for the job

Goes beyond privacy threat now, seems like it's also part of the trade war--like, you fuck with our tech companies, we'll fuck with your tech companies. I have doubts about that article Linas linked--

Quoting: LinasThere is big potential for Linux in China. Due to the conflict between Trump and Huawei, the Chinese are threatening to drop Windows in all of the government offices [External Link].

--I've heard things of the sort before and nothing much happened. Still, did you read it? The Chinese government seems quite positive and quite aggressive in their scheduling this time around. It could be real. If it is, it'll be a big thing. And they might not contribute back, at first at least, but they wouldn't be the first to try operating like that and realize in the end that it's just too much of a pain to keep maintaining an effectively forked version.

Or maybe it's intended mainly as a trade bargaining chip, something they can swap for the Americans easing off on Huawei. But the Americans won't. The US foreign policy establishment see the security of American world domination as far more important than security of the actual United States or the people living there. And they see high tech dominance as a crucial part of that world domination. Huawei doing important high tech stuff and supplanting US-associated multinationals worldwide is, to the US foreign policy establishment, not a minor trade loss but an existential threat; they will do almost anything to try to stop it.
So if the Chinese make threats as bargaining chips, such as "We will dump Windows if you don't stop hassling Huawei", even if they have no real intention of doing it they may well end up having to follow through or look weak.

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Quoting: ShmerlFor drawing, try Krita. It's a lot better than Gimp for that. The later is a good raster image processing editor.

So where does Inkscape come into all this?

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Quoting: GuestI don't need a distraction free painting application. What I need is an actually good painting application. Close to working on paper? Is there something special about paper that I missed?

Probably.
If a whole lot of people, some of them talented, think there's something special about something, and you don't see what it could possibly be, then either they're all morons or there's something you missed. There's certainly a chance you're a genius and they're all morons who just haven't realized that they're actually getting nothing from whatever it is . . . but I know where my money would go.

Quoting: GuestI've always found artists who strap a piece of paper to their tablets to get that paper texture feel when they draw pretty sad to look at.

My, aren't we judgemental.

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Quoting: BielFPs

Quoting: LinasThere is big potential for Linux in China. Due to the conflict between Trump and Huawei.

I personally don't think the government can be a change factor for home users to switch to Linux, due to the fact that most of then are used to windows XP/7 (pirate copies of course) and even the companies are used to care only about windows and android (which are systems they can force arbitrary software to common users).

I dunno. IBM (Windows) PCs became big at home because they were what people used at work. And the Chinese public sector is big. Even if it doesn't influence home use much, the Chinese government sector all by itself has to be bigger than most countries. If they really dump Windows off most government machines like that article claims, the flippin' Year of the Linux Desktop just arrived. Not much help for gaming, admittedly. Or not directly, not yet.

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Quoting: BielFPs

Simplified Chinese the current most popular language on Steam.

I wonder how is the current status of Linux usage in the Asian market (Japan, China and South Korea).

I believe it can currently be summed up as "pathetic". Frankly, I think they have lots of good reasons to use Linux, but it seems they have more reasons not to (not sure how good those reasons are though).

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Quoting: Linuxwarper

Quoting: SirLootALotIf a game is developed for only one platform it is not an exclusive. It becomes exclusive at the point where an agreement is done with whoever to exclude a certain platform from development.
It is one thing to not care about a platform. Actively hindering that platform to prosper is a different thing.

Totally agree, developing for one platform is not exclusivity. That said I would wager alot that many if not all of the games in 2020 will be exclusive to Stadia because of a agreement.

I wouldn't bet against "many" exclusives--that's rather an indefinite target. Ten, which we have already, could be "many". But if it gets into "the majority" territory, there's gonna be some serious backlash given how much of the world can't actually use Stadia at all. At that point they've effectively stolen gaming from everywhere in the world that can't access Stadia. Be a lot of people worldwide hating on Google, just when issues like "antitrust" have started to be raised seriously even in the USA.

Google could probably pay off all the game companies enough to go for it anyway if they really wanted, they've got more money than God, but how long could they keep on paying all the game companies to dump half their markets? More likely they'll just do enough high profile games to drive a bunch of people to the store in the first place, hoping that many will keep using it once they've had a taste.

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Quoting: TacoDeBoss

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: mao_dze_dunMicrosoft and EA are both friends with Valve again

They are? I don't follow the broader news in this area; how did that happen?

Microsoft and EA are both releasing their games on Steam again - I think they're both realizing that the restrictions to Microsoft Store and Origin are just limiting their profit margins. No idea, but Microsoft being all buddy-buddy with Valve is turning out to be a very bad thing for us.

Eh, that's not "friends" or even a collaboration for mutual gain. That's just MS and EA suffering a tactical defeat from Steam's superior network effects, and facing reality.

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Quoting: KohlyKohl

Quoting: DamonLinuxPL

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: LinasIn Denmark I see people using Linux on their laptops from time to time. MacBooks are very popular. But I don't think I have ever seen a Chromebook, either in use, or in a shop. Not anywhere in Northern or Eastern Europe for that matter.

I've never seen one either.

In Poland, Linux market share in some of stats is about ~2% and ChromeOS only at 0.09%, even if you can buy almost any ChromeBook model in Polish stores.

The biggest reason that Chrome OS is so popular is the US is because they replaced iPads in schools.

Seems reasonable. Chromebooks are cheaper than iPads and better for schoolwork--they do fine for most stuff you actually need for school, not as well for lots of distracting stuff, and they have a keyboard.

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