Quoting: GuestI may be mistaken, but i think binary blobs are not officially part of ubuntu, so the blame's on nvidia.

Nope. nVidia updates its drivers frequently enough.
The fact that Canonical thinks it is OK to not provide adequate drivers to 60% of the userbase has nothing to do with nVidia. Besides, there is always "Linux Mint", fixing this little issue. :)

Quoting: RedfaceMesa is not "frozen in stone" for the current LTS release, it gets SRU (Stable Release Updates, see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates) [External Link] 18.04 and 19.10 have now Mesa 19.2.8 released in December 2019 https://packages.ubuntu.com/source/bionic-updates/mesa [External Link] and https://changelogs.ubuntu.com/changelogs/pool/main/m/mesa/mesa_19.2.8-0ubuntu0~18.04.1/changelog [External Link]

Hm, it seems that is true. So, at least Mesa is not completely stuck. This leaves the question about frequency of updates, however.

Quoting: RedfacePPA is short for Personal Package Archive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu#Package_Archives [External Link]
What is NIH about having a mechanism to "Using a Personal Package Archive (PPA), you can distribute software and updates directly to Ubuntu users. Create your source package, upload it and Launchpad will build binaries and then host them in your own apt repository. " from https://help.launchpad.net/Packaging/PPA?action=show&redirect=PPA [External Link]

Oh, excuse me. Maybe I've used the wrong term. "Unnecessary Multiplication of Instances" would be more fitting. Here at Fedora we do not call 3rd-party repositories like "RPM Fusion" some fancy names (and I believe, SUSE branch don't do it either). Even "Debian GNU/Linux" doesn't do that! So "PPA" is strictly Ubuntu-specific.

Quoting: RedfaceRestricting users to only get offcial packages would be more like "NIH"

Now, that would be dumb, won't it? After all, if someone wants to install a 3rd-party application, she/he can just manually force-insert it into the system by simply copying the files into system directories and creating symlinks. Or by compiling from "tarballs". Preventing this will require complete stripping any administrative rights from users. I doubt many distros do it (maybe some government/army custom built super-secured ones do this, however).

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Quoting: ShmerlHow much drag is there?

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libvulkan_intel.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libvulkan_radeon.so
/usr/share/bug/mesa-vulkan-drivers
/usr/share/bug/mesa-vulkan-drivers/control
/usr/share/bug/mesa-vulkan-drivers/script
/usr/share/doc/mesa-vulkan-drivers
/usr/share/doc/mesa-vulkan-drivers/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/mesa-vulkan-drivers/copyright
/usr/share/lintian/overrides/mesa-vulkan-drivers
/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json
/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json

That is for starters. And then the package dependency hell kicks in and this all goes downhill. Fast.

Remember, before libGLVND we could not even have two OpenGL implementations installed at once, so installing Mesa was not an option.

IMO, the less dependencies a project has the better. And Mesa here is clearly redundant. Of course, I think it would be better if the original "Mesa Vulkan Overlay" project was untied from the Mesa in the first place.

Offtopic: There are lots of problems with Mesa. It being critical system component and thus "frozen in stone" in the Ubuntu LTS releases for two years for many people is the most prominent. And in order to not be stuck with hugely outdated software Ubuntu users resort to hacks like untested unstable repositories (due to NIH syndrome Canonical® calls them "PPA"s) thus throwing the whole idea of stable supported system out the window. :)

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Quoting: ShmerlI don't see why it can't be developed at its own pace, and upstreamed at the same time, unless for some reason it can't be accepted back.

nVidia users do not use Mesa, so bundling the utility with it would mean needless drag in the system.

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Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoPlus the STYX series has been released with a good discount...

Not available for Linux. Thus, irrelevant.

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Quoting: GustyGhost

...of the active total and when "viable workarounds exist" with Wine being mentioned.

"Wine is not harmful to Linux gaming
…

Have we learned our lesson yet?

WINE is not harmful to the Linux gaming. Not only WINE existed for long before Linux gaming started to grow in 2011 (hence, WINE could not be blamed for recent developments), but it provides a lot of essential capabilities for swithchng from Windows™: banking and stock exchange trading applications, CAD/CAM/CAE solutions, custom gaming/modding/resource unpacking utilities created by community etc.

WINE is very useful for Linux adoption!

Now, Proton™ on the other hand…
Despite what some very influential top members of this site tell, we did not see any (not just substantial, but any) Linux share growth on the Steam Statistics (yet?). And at the same time I personally have observed the influx of "Linux gamers" on the Reddit sub-forum, theorizing about why native Linux builds are essentially bad as "they become nonfunctional with OS upgrades and have inherently bad compatibility", concluding that "it would be better that every developer stopped wasting time and money on bad native ports and just used Proton™ with Windows API as some sort of gold standard." Seriously, these chaps are flooding the place (refusing to go to "WINE_gaming" sub-forum).

My conclusion is that it is not the technology that is bad, but our disposition towards its misuse. There wouldn't be any problems if we started teaching newbies that WINE not-an-emulation is only a temporary transitional solution for already owned games instead of advertising Windows™ games on the premise that they "Work great with Proton" (examples: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/erl0ww/far_cry_5_now_runs_almost_out_of_the_box_thanks/ [External Link] and https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/enmhl1/nioh_linux_dxvk_wine/) [External Link].

Meanwhile, the drama is continuing to unfold. Even after the explanation and assurances that "from now on refunding should work" people are still complaining about auto-rejects.

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Quoting: ShmerlDo you mean Ruiner developers skipped updates for Linux just on GOG (but did on Steam) or they simply skipped them all? That's a nasty behavior either way.

The later:
https://www.gog.com/forum/ruiner/the_game_will_not_have_16c_version_for_linux_according_to_the_dev [External Link]

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Quoting: ShmerlSomething is rotting in Epic.

???
is?
rotting?

I thought Epic is already rotten to the core. :)
Honestly, in the recent years we were "flooded" with Linux releases cancellations from Kickstarter projects using UE4 as their engine. There was a constant stream of complaints from developers that Linux support in the engine is only nominal and they need to basically fix broken (or differently working) parts of the engine. On a game per game basis as all those fixes are not getting into the upstream "vanilla" engine.

According to my perception of things, if a project chooses UE4 as an engine, there is 80% chance of the Linux version being cancelled. (The remaining 20% are just due to stubbornness and decency of developers willing to overcome obstacles that have arisen).

That being said, my condolences to those heavily (morally or monetary) invested in the game at hand. Even though on-line competitive sports racing games are not my cup of tea (like, at all!) it is still sad to see this happening.

Someone said it is a victory for "GOG/DRM-free believers"… Well, only if a short-lived one at best. GOG cares about Linux users as much as about dirt on the floor. It did allow developers to drop Linux support right at game release and is absolutely content with games like "RUINER" never getting recent Linux updates (yes, I've contacted both GOG's and "Reikon Games" support services -- the decision not to release 1.6c update for Linux is deliberate and official). And I believe "itch.io" and other DRM-free stores do not impose any "Linux support" obligations either. They just don't make fuss about that.

So, in the long term, this "We discontinue our Linux support" practice worrisome. :(

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Quoting: Liam Dawe…

Thank you! After some polish this database will definitely come in handy.

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Quoting: Liam DaweOur own database.

Can we look into this database? It would be handy to browse all games released in 2019. It is hard to keep track (too many games) :)

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"Just Use Proton"™ :wink: they say.

NTNB is my answer. :|

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