Here is the final result, if anyone is interested:

Dear Humble Indie Bundle,

As an owner of five of your bundles (and as someone who would have happily supported more if circumstances would have allowed it), including the Humble Indie Bundle V, I ask of you not to think of this as an attack on the Humble Indie Bundle nor, as some have suggested, an action that ignores the positive changes you have done for the Linux game industry. Rather, this is merely a means to try and ensure that these positive changes can continue. We also hope that through this we can help to ensure that both the Linux community and the Humble Indie Bundle can continue to have a positive and meaningful relationship.

Linux users have been supporting the Humble Indie Bundle from the beginning and a relation of mutual trust has grown between the people behind the Bundle and the Linux community. Unfortunately, we feel this trust has been violated by the inclusion of a non-native Linux game in the latest Bundle. This is not merely a complaint about one game included in one Bundle, in this case LIMBO. It sets a horrible precedent for the future, encouraging other developers to merely put out unoptimized Windows binaries of their games running through a WINE or similar layer merely to con Linux users out of their money. We can not allow this to happen, not to the Humble Indie Bundle.

Considering this, and not wanting to boycott the Bundle as many of the developers that were involved were very much deserving of our money as were many of the charities, I tried to think of a constructive way to demonstrate our concerns in an organized and collected manner. A petition was the best means I could find to accomplish this. Over the past few weeks I have collected a total of 543 signatures as of the time of this writing. Each of these signatories had their own views and many added their own commentary alongside their signatures. But we are all agreed that the Bundle went down the wrong path with the inclusion of a non native version of LIMBO.

I have received a variety of responses from the community due to my actions, including praise and support but also criticism and attacks, some of which were very personal. I took these as a demonstration of the amount of feeling people have invested in these Bundles, and with that in mind, analyzed my own feelings on the matter. I came out of it that much surer of why this protest was necessary and why the Humble Indie Bundles must continue to give everyone the most value for their money. There is too much good will invested in it, and Linux users contributed to this in the knowledge that it would help promote the Linux gaming. That is why we did this; we want the Bundle to continue in this purpose.

I have also noticed that you have recently posted that you want to hire more Linux game developers. We appreciate this and hope it will continue to lead everyone in the right direction. A link to the petition is included bellow. Please go through it and read people's comments, and I would appreciate any feedback you could give me on the matter.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hib-native/ [External Link]

Thank you,
Hamish Paul Wilson

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Actually, Hamish already created that.

If it makes you feel any better whizse, I was very much concerned about that as well. That is why I have worded everything the way I did, why I did a petition instead of just sending an angry email, and why I am doing this in the most organized fashion possible. I wanted someone with a clear head to handle some of this anger. I hope that you can trust me to have one...

But considering Linux users have been a large chunk of their purchase base since the beginning, I do not think this is unreasonable. Especially when you consider those people who emailed Jefferey Rosen asking for free copies for whatever reason, and he actually gave some to them during the first bundle.

This is about gathering data more than anything else, just to prove that enough people actually are upset, and not just a bunch of trolls. I do sincerely hope I am not confused for one, because it is certainly not my intention. I just care.

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Just because there is support offered for the binary does not change the point - the same thing applied to Cedega and Transgaming, or Cider on Mac which has a rather dubious history. Now, because it is Codeweavers it is better than Transgaming as Codeweavers are also not code thieves and actually do support the development of WINE, but it does not change the point that we would prefer native binaries and always got them before.

Other developers had to fulfill that requirement, and some put a lot of work into it. That is just unfair.

Also, Robert, keep in mind you can choose how your money is distributed - so you can still support the developers and charities you want to support. Just make sure you do not support Limbo (or if you a really concerned humble tip) in your price calculations

By the way, I just had an orange surge last night - jumping from 39 signatures to 113. We will see if it will do any good or not.

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I am not against the WINE project - I was using WINE to play an older game right before I came here to post this. Now, I am personally against purchasing modern Windows games to play them on Linux, but that is a subject for another thread.

The main thing I am worried about is that this can soil the Bundle's future potential on Linux. It is quite clear from Ryan Gordon's comments that he has a large vested interest in the Bundle as he feels it is the steeping stone we need to get the Linux games industry to finally be fully recognized - an actually vibrant native community where we are not always treated like second class citizens. We have come a long way towards this in the past few years, and I want this growth to continue.

This is a threat to that - it destroys the incentive to build that bright future just for short-term convenience through the use of a hack. It is like the snake-oil sold by Transgaming all over again. A relevant quote from the time of Loki's closure:

The arrival of TransGaming to me is the clearest indication that Loki failed to jump-start a Linux gaming industry as we'd hoped, because TransGaming has nothing to do with Linux games. Their message to game developers is: "Use DirectX and develop for Windows. We'll help you sell your Windows products to Linux users." TransGaming's strategy is the same one Corel used in its Linux applications business. In the end I don't think they'll be any more successful than Corel was.

http://web.archive.org/web/20020202221402/http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/01/24/2118235 [External Link]

Humble Bundle could be seen as the new Loki, what could jump start Linux game development. I do not want to soil that opportunity just because someone did not pay attention when selecting their middle-ware.

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I am frankly suprised by how many people are defending this, when it goes against everything the Bundle was (supposed) to be about, at least on Linux.

It was never supposed to be about WINE. It was supposed to be the catalyst for a more stable native market. Just because we are to be humble does not mean we need to allow ourselves to be tred on.

EDIT: Just to try and add a little levity:

Quoting: Tim SchaferLinux was like a party that sounded fun [but] we were afraid to go to because we didn’t think we’d know anybody there, and the HiB guys were like your socially fearless friend who says, “Don’t worry, we’ll go together.”

When he gets to your house he says: “Is that what you’re wearing?” and you say, “uh…” and he says, “Don’t worry. I know a guy.” And he lends you a cool leather jacket and you go to the party and when you walk in there’s a needle scratch and everybody turns to look at you and your friend gives a cool nod and then everybody goes back to the party.

So kind of like a John Hughes film. Hope that helps explain things. That’s about as technical as I can go. I just hope I don’t accidentally knock over a beer can pyramid that some tough guys are building.

Oh and also, if you want to be cool at the party, stay away from wine. (haha! Linux joke!)

[URL='http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/06/humble-bundle-devs-talk-gaming-on-linux?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+d0od+%28OMG!+Ubuntu!%29']http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/06/humble-bundle-devs-talk-gaming-on-linux?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: d0od (OMG! Ubuntu!)[/URL]

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Quoting: "liamdawe, post: 4395, member: 1"The thing is though, if games that use it sell well, then hopefully you would think people in future would program with Linux in mind for a native version, after all this is a game that has been out for a while.

Another small point to add to this is that, when you consider it fully, we are not actually gaining anything from this but are in fact actually losing something we already had. Instead of just gaining pseudo-support from one developer (as this implies) we are actually potentially losing full support from the Humble Bundle for other titles in the future. It used to seem be native assured, but now this throws that into question.

So why should we let ourselves lose what we already had?

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Quoting: "liamdawe, post: 4405, member: 1"As far as I know no petition for Linux gaming has ever done anything?

I honestly do not know what kind of effect this will have, but it is not like most Linux gaming petitions. It is directed at Humble Bundle, who do have a history of listening, even to a single individual.

I just figured it was better to get organized rather than have islands of unrest in a large humble sea.

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Maybe try using a different program, and if that does not work it is probably time to contact support.

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Indeed, you are right Brandon that WINE is not an emulator.

It does not really change anything though. As a Linux developer yourself, you deserve credit for the work you put into your native ports. By including a non-native game in something like the Bundle, it really is a kick in your teeth as well.

It is saying that you can get away with not putting in the effort.

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The thing is Liam, aren't we beyond that stage these days? Especially from something like the Humble Indie Bundle?

I don't know how much good this will do, but I started a petition to protest the inclusion of a non-native game in a Humble Indie Bundle:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hib-native/ [External Link]

Please add your signatures. It is worded in a very constructive way and it seemed like the most civil way to get our point across.

We can not sell out our values at this stage. Not when we have momentum.

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