Overall, I might be interested if I lived in South Korea and had a blazing fast connection.

As to who it's good for . . . well, I suspect in the medium term the trend towards software disappearing into the cloud, with stuff like this or things being browser-based, probably is good for Linux the OS (although perhaps not for Free Software more generally). Basically, it's a trend towards making the local OS unimportant. If any OS will in effect run everything, then what do you base your choice of operating system on? User friendliness at this point is mainly a matter of style; all the OSes can do it. So what's left?
Well, Linux won't phone home and tell Microsoft, Apple or the NSA all your pr0n watching habits. That's the only firm differentiator I can think of if everyone can run all the software: Lack of a Big Brother.

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Quoting: elmapul"(As a side note, the barriers to jumping to Mac remain about the same--expensive hardware--but may be starting to grow a bit IMO. Apple don't seem to care as much about MacOS as they used to, Metal and non-gaming-oriented hardware seem likely to make Macs lag on the game side, and Apple just isn't run by a driven genius any more)"
apple dont care so much about macOS because iOS is making them tons of money.

That is absolutely true, but for our purposes it doesn't matter. Apple can make tons of profits and do very well as a company, but if they do so by emphasizing iOS and phones, it could still represent an opening for Linux in the desktop-and-laptop space. I'm fine with that--they win on their terms($$$), we win on ours(Linux increased market share leading to better drivers, more games etc), everyone's happy.

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Quoting: DuckeenieThe link you provided was interesting but requires a little context - That feature is disabled by default so nothing more than an option for anyone who needs it. No fire here!

Some seem to be hypothesizing that this is in the nature of a trial balloon or thin end of the wedge--that in the longer term they will shift the status of the "feature". Given Microsoft's past behaviour this does not seem far-fetched. Is it guaranteed? No. Is it something to take note of? I would think so, yes.

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Quoting: Aryvandaar

Quoting: Stupendous Man

Quoting: Aryvandaar"ONE BILLION YEARS INTO THE FUTURE...", come on, really? ...

How is that any different from "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away"? I agree, it's ludicrous, but come on, it's fantasy! ;-)

Fantasy/=/ridiculous. Just because something is fantasy it doesn't mean that you should throw everything that makese sense out the window.

Really, ridiculous is hardly ever about the setting. It's about what you do with the setting. I don't actually see how any particular temporal setting can be more ridiculous than any other. A lot of the most ridiculous things I've seen take place in that silliest of settings, the present day. And some of the most serious and important stories I've read take place in completely imaginary settings which never existed and never will.

A billion years are, eventually, going to pass. At that time, things will be happening. Probably not the things depicted in the game, but that would have been true whether it was set a billion years from now or fifty years from now after a hypothetical apocalypse. What's the difference? All I'm getting is a sort of parochial refusal to deal with things too far outside one's frame of reference.

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Quoting: Alm888

Quoting: liamdaweI...don't think you understand how percentages work my friend. A very basic example: 0.8% of 100 million and 0.8% of 115 million is a different number, you know that right? A basic example, but it should make my point very clear.

No thank you, I've got my university education and I am well aware that 0.2% from 1 million is better than 10% from 10000. But it does not change the fact that Linux share is shrinking relative to other OS-es. By the time Linux gained additional 10000 users Windows secured another million, if

I think the two of you are ignoring the elephant, admittedly perhaps just outside the room: The Steam Survey is as far as I know the only measure of Linux usage that has been showing a (percentage) decline. Every other major source purporting to measure Linux usage shows an increase--some a gradual increase, some a quite large increase, but none a decline that I know of. Liam is perhaps forgetting his own article on this subject, which I found quite an eye-opener!

If it weren't for that, I'd pretty much agree with Alm888: An increase in raw numbers which is also a percentage decrease because the other raw numbers are growing faster, is not going to make Linux look more attractive as a platform, and would not represent anything one could really tout as "growth" in Linux.

It just so happens that Linux as an overall platform for personal computing is probably in fact growing, with the Steam survey an outlier. This is a different scenario. And I think chances are good of continued growth. The story of (Desktop) Linux IMO is of an OS which has always had good bare bones, and a main competitor (Windows) which has always given its users reasons to switch, but with lots of little barriers to entry (some artificially created by Microsoft). Over the years, the open source community and certain other actors (such as Valve) have chipped away at the barriers to entry, whether it's user-unfriendly features, lack of polished software available, lack of games, obscurity, difficulty installing or whatever. Some have completely disappeared, some have been shrunk but are still there a bit. Windows for its part has reduced some of its problems (such as instability) but added others (such as spying on you like crazy, reduced compatibility with older Windows software, and, by many accounts, user-unfriendliness). So there is still stuff pushing people away from Windows, and the barriers in the way of jumping ship to Linux are far lower than they used to be, although there are still some (obscurity is still significant, for instance). It's to be expected, then, that a somewhat higher proportion of disgruntled Windows users will be able to jump ship. And this is the real question: Will Linux continue to seep into the desktop space over the next while? If it does, game developers should continue to find it worth developing for even if no more Steam Machines are ever sold, especially as the barriers to cross-platform development seem to be set to continue falling.

(As a side note, the barriers to jumping to Mac remain about the same--expensive hardware--but may be starting to grow a bit IMO. Apple don't seem to care as much about MacOS as they used to, Metal and non-gaming-oriented hardware seem likely to make Macs lag on the game side, and Apple just isn't run by a driven genius any more)

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I just hope it doesn't end up with

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They thrust boobs and other bits in your face constantly

You say that like it's a bad thing. :D

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Not my schtick at all, but it's not a niche where I've seen much for Linux so hurrah!

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I'll probably get this. I've been interested in it for a while, but y'know, no Tux no Bux.

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"Closed-wheel". So up to now the wheels on all the cars have had gaps in them? You'd think that would make it hard to race.

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