I think we need the right combination of being open and forgiving towards devs that are new to Linux without allowing them to take us for fools.

That's why I am still royally pi55ed (really, word filter?) at GoG for just outright denying us existing Linux-Versions but (to my own surprise) I'm not mad at CDProject Red and the eON guys for making pretty much every beginner-mistake there is.
In my judgement,the former is taking us for PR-Speak-swallowing idiots the other is just getting everything wrong about how the Linux community ticks.

My main gripe with The Witcher 2 isn't about the wrapper. With new games it's a no-go but with existing AAA titles it's tolerable.
It just would have been nice to know beforehand that it isn't even beta.
I bought it although I knew that it probably wouldn't even start with my Radeon card (and although I already own it on GoG).
Had they been straightforward and just said "This port sucks, we know it but we had to start somewhere and now we need your help" the reaction would have been a lot more welcoming.

All that said, I think the guy who voluntarily jumped right into the lion's den to discuss issues was torn apart way too harshly.
I wouldn't be too surprised if any plans for Witcher 3 on Linux are reevaluated right now.

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This is just awesome news. Quite impressive from CD Project Red.

Well GOG ehm, this is a bit awkward now. But I'm sure your installer and Linux experience will be just awesome.

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Judging from my personal environment, those stats right now are as unimportant as it gets.
What's important is how the perception of Linux among gamers, even the casual ones, changed.

People who called me "elitist" togue-in-cheek a year ago now dualboot with Ubuntu as secondary OS.
"Hey Elitist, trouble with your LAN connection? Aww!"
got replaced by
"That isn't anywhere near as hard as everyone says! Would you recommend Ubuntu or rather another Distro?"

From elitist to OS-expert in one year. People asking about Distros!

Of course those lads don't play on Linux yet. They have Windows installed, which to this point is far, far superior for gaming.
But I havent heard a snarky comment about me gaming on Linux for a long time.
Instead Linux is widely considered the next best thing after Windows, expected to take the crown in the long run (a.k.a. when Windows 7 becomes obsolete).
It is taken seriously.

Really, don't mind those stats just yet. If you know where to watch ,just lean back and enjoy how the tide slowly turns.

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Right now I'm quite content with my Phenom II X4 - Radeon HD6670 - fglrx combination.
Until mid-2013 however, it sucked to own an AMD system. Every fglrx update would make me break out in sweat in anticipation of a borked system. That's not the case anymore.
Yes, I wouldn't complain about speedier development also, but that's about it.

On the pro side is what kept me an AMD customer since a long time: They hit the sweet spot considering bang-for-buck and power consumption.
A lot of AMD products beat competitors that cost double the price.
Energy ? My above mentioned configuration (with the HD6670 being passively cooled): 75 W idle, <130 W on load. And it's by no means a weak system.

As said, not for performance enthusiasts, surely. But me, trying to build the most efficient system I can, I do hope that AMDs Open-Source efforts gain more traction and will sort out some of the remaining weaknesses.

God forbid a PC hardware monopoly. The gone by Microsoft era would look harmless and innovative in comparison.

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I'll be nice and say I see a certain learning effect.

To me that statement sounds like "Crap, I'm gonna miss the bus. Don't run, stay cool! I'll have to pay a fortune for a cab but at least the others won't laugh at me. I'll just tell them I prefer cabs to crowded busses."

Of course it makes sense to let others scout the territory if you're scared of it but now the best they can hope for is to become a "me-too" brand.

Well, "fragmentation" is obviously a smoke screen they are trying to hide behind.
Not that it is a non-issue, steam games run better on some distros than on others (OpenSuse, I'm looking at you!), but that's the problem of the Distros in question not Steam's.

GOG and CD Project know this. If not, if they really didn't get it by now, they're doomed.

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Quoting: DrMcCoy

Quoting: CaldazarDo you think in 30 years from now there will be such a thing as different brands of kernels / OSes?

Yes. There will never be one swiss army knife of operating systems to rule them all.

Thanks for the links. I admit I didn't think of them. i didn't even know half of them.

You're probably right concerning the industry space, to a degree at least. There will be niches, yes.

But the household area, beginning with entertainment, the area Valve is aiming at?
Let's put it that way: I own an old early 90's cube of a TV, with broken remote control.
Still I'm not buying a new one because even today it is obvious that it is a dying device.

There won't be separate devices for playing music either. Your household computer will do that. As well as waking you up early because it knows there is a traffic jam on the way to your working place.
This one device quite possibly will just stream content and computational power to whatever place, terminal or slave-device it is needed.

You see where I'm going? Games just happen to be the area in which Valve is invested right now but the central feature of SteamOS is its streaming capabilities.
It's a sidenote in most reviews but I think it's the center of Valve's plans with Linux.

Getting to your point, it's probably the missing link to a unifying household device(, not some lame UI design others are wasting their time and resources with).

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I see no problem with this.
They are trying to build a brand on top of Linux, that are two different things.

Linux isn't a brand and never was intended to be one (which is exactly the misconception of many GNU/Linux "evangelists" and the reason why they failed so badly).

In the end Linux will just be the Computer OS on top of which different brands of GUIs run.
The same way as most of the cars run on a Benz motor (or Otto/Daimler/Benz/Maybach, for the purists ;-)) on "Benzin [External Link]". Yet when we talk about brands, I'm quite sure I don't drive a Daimler-Benz nor Maybach.

Windows, Apple, Commodore, Atari, etc. pp. such are footnotes from the beginning of a technological evolution.
Do you think in 30 years from now there will be such a thing as different brands of kernels / OSes?
That will just be the underlying technology, the unifying thing of every computer.
Maybe it will even be called "the linux" of a computer, maybe people will forget the name altogether.

Who cares as long as it will be our favourite OS. Just don't forget to thank old genius visionary Stallman for the GPL then; in a way it is like a spreading virus and he knew it from the beginning.

So relax, the "completely unintentional side effect" Torvalds was talking about is taking place right before our eyes. Linus knows it, RMS knows it and Gabe apparently knows it too, playing his (not unimportant) part in making it happen.

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Quoting: Quote from ShmerlYes, some of them are whether they tell me or not. But whether to use the service or not I decide based in part on how they treat their users. And this enough for me to avoid Steam.

Steam usually sometimes tells you about DRM in the system requirements of a game under the label "other requirements", see Batman for example [External Link]. But they still get flamed by their community for not being verbose and accurate enough about it. Rightly so.
For that, there's Enhanced Steam, where the warning is a lot more prominent [External Link].

Upon thinking about it, I also know now why I'm so lax about DRM lately. It got utterly defeated during the last years. Not dead yet but, you know, smelling funny.
Especially on Linux where I can't name a single DRM'd game.

I really switched to assuming that a game I buy hasn't DRM if I'm not explicitly told about any. That's new and I didn't recognize that part of my behaviour untill now.

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Quoting: Quote from ShmerCaldazar: I think I explained it already. I don't mind downloading stuff. I mind inability to make backups which are independent of the service and its DRMed client. Please note the difference.

Ok, you said "install and run".
Now, the first download / install is done with the steam client.

Aside from that, a lot of Steam games are DRM free. As in just copy the game folder out of the steam folder, back it up, uninstall steam put the game wherever you want and start it from there.

Or, in the words of Arcen games [External Link] for example

Purchasing from our site or elsewhere gets you a Steam key for redemption inside the Steam Client [External Link].  The Steam Client allow you to download and update the game.  However, if you wish to take the game "on the go," or otherwise back it up for archival purposes, you can simply copy the game files out of your steam folder and they will remain fully functional even without Steam.

Anyway, my gripe with your post was less about DRM itself but that yet another awesome move from Valve towards Linux folks triggered nothing but completely unrelated (and mostly undeserved) criticism from you.
This increasingly reads as if you just can't stand any move of Valve towards us free 1%ers, much less news about it, because it let's another favourite company of yours look more old-fashioned-dinosaur with every month.

Yeah, no one likes DRM of any form, still I cannot help but watch in awe how heavily Valve ties itself to the smallest, most insignificant desktop-crowd they could find, betting the whole damn company on ridiculously bad odds.
Why? Because we're free over here and that's exactly what Valve is trying to become. One of us.
Such moves are welcome, not "weird"!

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Come on @Shmerl! I like your approach but don't be bigoted.

You know full well that the requirement to download a game via a download-service isn't DRM.
The question is whether you can run and save the game without the parent-service running and yes you can do so with a lot of steam games. There's even a growing list of DRM-free steam games out there.

They are even distrupting the whole business by opening up the consoles.
Now they honor debian devs, basically saying they consider them family and all you have to acknowledge is how you're butthurt that your perceived white knight in the game turns out to be a wimpy chicken, not risking a cent of their revenue for your rescue?

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