If his game costs $100k to port... then something horrible has happened. Sounds pretty neutral overall though. I suspect he's waiting on the result of the summer release of SteamOS/Machines to see if that 1% to 2% increases at all.

I take it from comments like that that he had nothing to do with the Braid port then?

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One of my first ever Kickstarters and a title that I'd given up on! Great news - will dig out my key and register it for some weekend play.

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I avoid all Early Access games, which form the bulk of this article and I wonder how many other Linux gamers do so too - our platform is often an afterthought in the development process, which means little incentive to get involved early.

Looking forward to buying/playing Soul Axiom and 4089 (when they're ready), but probably won't touch any of the others sadly.

Crea looks very Starbound-y, Goscurry is an exercise in frustration and Rust is made by Facepunch, who act like spoiled children.

I might take another look at Maia, but wasn't it the one that launched in Early Access that was so early that there was basically nothing to it? Which is another reason I'm not a fan of EA titles.

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Desperate for some Dishonoured action again...

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The Outward devs have clarified their position on GoD Factory: Wingmen when I queried them on the Steam Forums:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/262750/discussions/0/35221031821921844/?tscn=1429109542 [External Link]

It's a little big vague for me still. I'm not certain that backing Outward will actually result in a Linux release - it sounds like they'll aim for Windows again, then outsource the ports. Will attempt to clarify.

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Quoting: maodzedun

Quoting: scaineBut I'll bite anyway. Care to expand on what you think users won't like about the Unity Launcher? Be specific. As I say, I've been an Ubuntu user a long time and I agree that the 11.04 and 11.10 iterations were raw - I tended to revert my use of those versions back to... oh, I can't remember the name of it now... Docker? Something like that. But by 12.04, Unity Launcher was solid and since 15.04 is about to launch, that means that I've been using this Launcher for nearly 3 years and had no idea it was somehow magically "bad".

What's wrong with it?

Canonical took the worst from Windows' taskbar and OSX's dock and stuffed it into the Unity Launcher. You can't change it's position and you can't get rid of it - so much for Linux's flexibility. Also there is no Show Desktop button by default. It has no preview thumbnails and no click to minimize unless you force them (sort of) with Compiz. We're talking about basic Windows functionality, let alone comparing it to something as flexible as KDE for example. If they allowed me to get rid of the launcher for real, I'd just slap a Cairo dock or something and be a happy camper, but as it is - it's absolutely horrible.

Those are the pretty much the features that makes Unity so appealing to its target audience. I was willing to change my outlook to accommodate the Launchers way of working and it's wonderful when you do so. If you simply berate it for two of its strongest features, no wonder you'll hate it. Sounds like you're not the target audience though, so nothing is really lost, right?

For the avoidance of doubt - here's a brief breakdown.

You can't move it for many reasons. Best use of screen space, assumptions can be made about layout, fits with the phone/touch paradigm, code base is significantly simpler. With hindsight, the phone paradigm is the main winner here.

You only switch to windows and don't minimise them because there's fewer things more frustrating in Windows that clicking on the icon of a hidden but non-minimised window and waiting for it to appear, only to later realise it's now minimised. This is broken. Canonical fixed it. Hell, Gnome fixed this by doing away with the concept of minimise, didn't they? Or at least, they were going to. Have they done that yet? Fingers crossed.

Show desktop isn't a button the Launcher any more. But what's to stop you from turning it on, exactly? Settings/Appearance, Behaviour, click on "Add show desktop icon to the launcher".

Can't argue about previews - there's no option for that. I don't think even the Compiz previews add-on works properly. If that's a deal breaker, then so be it.

But yeah. Lots of hate (and not just you!) for something that is very tidily and specifically designed to be what it is. I'm not saying you should like it, really, but a lot of the complaints about it revolve around people who literally can't see past the fact that it's on the left. Just that.

But if their incredibly ambitious vision is to work, then Launcher on the left it is. Just for once, I'm willing to change to accommodate Linux, when for many years, Linux changed to accommodate me.

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Quoting: maodzedun

Quoting: KimyrielleI am actually surprised that the numbers aren't going up more noticeably compared to 1-2 years ago, since it was always thought that the lack of games would be one of the major reasons holding back Linux growth. With all the games now available, one should think this is less of a factor now - but we're still around the 1% margin we always have been at. Maybe the Steam machines will do something about it.

Overwhelmingly larger Windows catalogue (for AAA games), crap performance from AMD hardware in Linux and abysmal from Intel, inability to use a lot of software, a sheet long list of distros that will totally confuse any new commer, Unity Launcher in the most popular distribution, overall higher level of tech knowledge required to use Linux...

Well, you started off pretty strong there. Some good points. Perhaps you should have stopped before you got into murky waters of Unity-hate and blatant opinion on the ease of use of Linux or the toxicity of the user base.

But I'll bite anyway. Care to expand on what you think users won't like about the Unity Launcher? Be specific. As I say, I've been an Ubuntu user a long time and I agree that the 11.04 and 11.10 iterations were raw - I tended to revert my use of those versions back to... oh, I can't remember the name of it now... Docker? Something like that. But by 12.04, Unity Launcher was solid and since 15.04 is about to launch, that means that I've been using this Launcher for nearly 3 years and had no idea it was somehow magically "bad".

What's wrong with it?

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Quoting: masteredu

Quoting: KimyrielleI am actually surprised that the numbers aren't going up more noticeably compared to 1-2 years ago, since it was always thought that the lack of games would be one of the major reasons holding back Linux growth. With all the games now available, one should think this is less of a factor now - but we're still around the 1% margin we always have been at. Maybe the Steam machines will do something about it.

Sry to say that, but I believe its the fault of the distributions:

The top players are Linux Mint, which is community driven, Ubuntu which looks ugly, is slow and uses outdated software and represents linux for a lot of people and I believe Arch (?) which is however community driven as well.
1 year ago Ubuntu and Canonical had a very good position but nowadays I dont believe anyone really supports Ubuntu anymore with their egoistic behaviour...

Can't take you seriously after comments like that. You think Ubuntu is ugly and slow? I don't and I've been using it since 2006.

Valve don't care what we think though, either. They need the most popular distro and to stand behind it. Until that becomes SteamOS, it's Ubuntu. Everything else is irrelevant. Sure it's great that Steam works on other distros, but irrelevant.

Quoting: mastereduJust think about, if you would have friends and family, would you *really* recommend them to use Linux? Like really? I wouldn't.

Yes. Really. I would.

And I have. Got a few friends now, tired of Windows, not wanting to waste money on a new laptop they only use for web and email. One Ubuntu install later, all fixed, all happy. Not sure what your solution would be, but mine worked out okay. Of maybe 7 or 8 such installs over the past four or so years, only one bought a new laptop and that was after running Ubuntu for about two years - loved it, but needed a new laptop after battery issues with the old one. They despise Windows 8, but haven't (yet) asked me to revert it back to Ubuntu, probably because they know it takes me a couple of hours of tinkering to get all their stuff "just so". I imagine it will happen eventually though.

What's your problem with recommending Linux?

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Yeah, you're bang on with that Reassembly comparison. Looks like a cartoon version of that game...

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Pretty much one of my favourite games of all time. And free - source code available under GPL3. However, I paid £4.99 for it on Steam and had I known how many hours I would pour into this game, I'd have gladly paid three or four times that amount.

And I haven't even scratched the surface! I play on Adventure mode which gives you around 4 or 5 lives (depending on how far you get) and I've played almost exclusively Archmage. And I haven't finished the game even once. The depth is simply awesome, but unlike something like DOTA2, you're not required to have read every nuance to enjoy yourself first.

If you die in ToME, it's your fault. And I've died a lot.

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