If you look at the combined stats, Linux is mostly eating away at MacOS market share. Which is not surprising, given that Apple basically let their system rot until very recently. This trend might slow down, because of the big MacOS update, but I don't think Apple will change much. They are too busy with their mobile craze, to really pay attention to the desktop. MacOS will continue to bleed users to Linux.

Quoting: stretch611Sadly, It appears that our growth is at the expense of Apple... not Microsoft.

That is a good thing for Linux. Firstly, MacOS users are more likely not be interested in Windows, while at the same time their growing dissatisfaction with Apple pushes them to look for better alternatives. Linux is quite a natural choice for them. I.e. for instance, more than once I've heard from former MacOS users, that they switched to Linux because of OpenGL stall, and not being able to run recent games in Wine. Apple sure know how to shoot themselves in the foot. Though these are most probably "power users", who do something more than casual usage of their systems. The rest are less likely to switch.

To unsit Windows on the other hand, there should be more pre-installed systems. I.e. we need a major partner with someone like Dell and etc.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: manus76even if there was a direct link between Apple's practices and the state of linux gaming at the moment, I haven't seen anyone demonstrating such a link.

1. Lock-in taxes cross platform development making it more expensive.
2. In practice it means some simply won't do it, and will limit their releases to bigger platforms (not Linux).

MS, Apple, Sony and the like do a lot to perpetuate lock-in and tax developers who don't want to limit releases to their platforms. Example of that is them not supporting Vulkan on their locked systems.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: manus76I can't recall seeing anyone putting a gun to people's heads, forcing them to buy an Apple product (or Microsoft's for that matter).

This doesn't reduce the damage lock-in proponents are causing to Linux.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: etonbearsGood question! That's why I say it is unclear.

See update above. Looks like X.org foundation is working as a representative for Mesa in Khronos, so that should probably cover it.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: etonbearsNo. Khronos operate an IP framework, the essence of which is that Khronos members agree not to assert any patents they hold against other members implementing a Khronos specification.

So, Mesa project is not protected by that agreement? or X.org/Mesa are now an "adopter" member and that would suffice?

See https://www.x.org/wiki/BoardOfDirectors/MeetingSummaries/2016/11-10/ [External Link]

UPDATE: Looks like it can help: https://www.khronos.org/files/adopters_agreement.pdf [External Link]

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: KimyrielleI'd argue Apple is easily the most evil technology company on Earth.

I share the sentiment :) Though Apple are just more visible than some. There are many crooks around, which just don't get into public eye. Qualcomm for instance?

Quoting: KimyrielleBack on topic, I actually think the numbers aren't THAT bad - we seem to outdo our actual market share in the desktop OS market, even (which most think is a bit less than 2%).

The numbers actually match well what's reported by Net Market Share [External Link].

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: JanI don't get the hate for the "crooked policies" of commercial entities.

You don't get why lock-in is bad? History can teach some lessons. Remember all kind of attempts to balkanize the Web? ActiveX, Flash, Silverlight and etc. It took a huge amount of effort to carve out a common standard and make sure that lock-in stuff started dying out. Lock-in is always a tax. It increases costs of development, because of needless work duplication. It is crooked, especially when entities like Apple and MS use it with intention to deter developers (discouraging them from releasing cross platform). That's the whole point of lock-in, it's an anti-competitive (i.e. monopolistic like) practice.

In the context of Linux, take a look at this: http://www.catb.org/esr/halloween/halloween1.html [External Link]

That's how lock-in jerks express their intentions in their own words:

OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized, simple protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new protocols, we can deny OSS projects entry into the market.

You can replace "simple protocols" there with open standards and "server applications market" with any market. Same idea.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: JanWhy should Nividia or AMD develop an API for Apple? They don't develop APIs for Microsoft or any other company either.

Not sure what you mean. On Windows, all major vendors (Intel, AMD and Nvidia) develop and support open APIs like OpenGL and Vulkan. They don't develop it "for MS". They do it for users and developers who rely on these APIs. So again, what stops them from doing it for MacOS? Only Apple's crooked political insistence on lock-in.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: JanIf that is true, allow me to ask you a question: Who is developing the official NVidia Web Driver for macOS to support their latest GPUs like the GTX 1080 if Apple prevents them to do so?

Apple surely let them to do something, but not enough to address lacking APIs. That's why I have quite a strong disrespect towards Apple. They are one of the worst lock-in jerks in existence.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: JanYou do realise Apple has their own graphics API called Metal?

Which is a jerk lock-in reaction, to open competition (Vulkan), which Apple politically decided not to support. That disgusts me in Apple pretty a lot.

Quoting: JanThey have officially dropped OpenGL support and encourage all developers to switch to Metal

Forcing developers to adopt lock-in, by using bit rot is another stinky political move. Basically, Apple wants to tax cross platform developers. In this sense, they are worse than MS these days.

View this comment - View article - View full comments