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The data appears to indicate Linux desktop usage is higher than indicated by stats like netmarketshare.com http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustomb=0 as the Humble Bundle data appears to show that Linux users are closer to Mac users in numbers http://support.humblebundle.com/customer/portal/articles/281031-prior-bundle-statistics How can Canonical and Linux desktop users in general do better with demonstrating their OS preference and real world usage to vendors?

There is no good reason not to develop on OpenGL, especially if you only have resources to develop for or the other, since OpenGL runs on anything, but DirectX restricts you specifically to Win* systems.

Major studios, however, can't seem to see the writing on the wall, much less read it, which is why indie studios and crowd-funding projects are taking the industry by storm, as witnessed with the recent campaigns for Planetary Annihilation, Project Eternity and the still-in-progress Star Citizen. On all of these projects (and many others besides), the number one request by backers or potential backers has consistently been for Linux and Mac support.

Add to that the fact that from the very beginning of the Humble Bundle program, Linux users have consistently donated more for their games (and significantly so) than Windows and Mac users, and there can be no question that just because they use a free OS, Linux users are more than willing to pay for games they can play natively, and developing for it is just a good idea all around: better performance, wider market, less licensing hassle... what's to lose?

I know you think you're funny, but most people spend more than I do on the humble bundles (well, most linux users) so clearly there's a paying linux games market out there.

The average Linux donation for HB 6 was $10.47 --- for ten games or about 10% of retail list for the bundle. The total return from the Linux gamer somewhat better than 25% of the $2 million plus total --- call it $500,000 to be split among developers, charities, and the HB itself. The Humble Indie Bundle 6

The top contributor, Markus Persson, of "Minecraft" fame, donating $10,000.

There are real problems in using the promotional pricing of the indie Humble Bundle as evidence that the average Linux gamer will pay the full price for the first-run product.

You walk away with some good games to boot.

Hey what do you know? A new one just started!

Yes, what the world needs more than anything is for people to finance computer hobbyists making games that wouldn't sell otherwise.

It's lucky we've found a cure for cancer, solved world poverty and disease so on.

You walk away with some good games to boot.

Hey what do you know? A new one just started!

Unfortunately I've met more than a few Linux users who think all software should be no cost, they are just unwilling to consider paying for something. Others will pay, but only a small amount.

It's not a comprehensive answer to the question, but the makers of the Humble Bundles (packs of mostly cross-platform indie games sold through a name-your-own price model) publish their sales figures, and they consistently show Linux-using buyers choosing to pay more than Windows and Mac buyers do -- sometimes much more. (For the first Humble Bundle, for example, the average buyer chose to pay $9.18, but the average Linux-using buyer chose to pay $14.42.) So there's at least some data that suggests that Linux users are not the pikers one might expect them to be.

and the users expect all their software to be free?

Interesting contradictory fact. Scroll down and look at the payment statistics. Linux users evidently pay about twice as much as Windows users when given the choice. I have bought two bundles before, and both times the pattern was the same as with the latest bundle.

...What we have found is rather interesting: Android users are actually pretty generous, to the tune of a $7.43 average purchase price. This puts Android users well-above Windows ($5.73) slightly above Mac ($7.02), but below the still mighty Linux ($9.92).

This runs directly against the chorus of posts branding Android users as cheap pessimists and disproportionally resistant to spend money on apps when compared to other platforms, especially when it comes to games.

Mod Parent Up! Between Steam sales and the Humble Bundles, I've got a nice, cheap source of entertainment without pirating anything. Honestly, right now the biggest problem I run into is reminding myself that I've already got the virtual equivalent of a big stack of games I haven't played yet and I shouldn't make any more impulse Steam buys. (I usually grab the Humble Bundles regardless, because I like the idea of supporting charities and indie game devs.)

Speaking of the Humble Bundle, if any of the Android devs that have complained about piracy are reading this, check into getting your game into the next Humble Bundle. In the time I'm writing this, it looks like the current bundle will tick over 87,200 sales with an average of $6.22 per copy. If we assume an even 12-way split between 2 charities, the developers of the 9 games listed, and the "Humble Bundle Tip", that's over $45,000 and there's still over 7 days remaining.

(A quick check of http://humblebundle.com/ shows that it's selling slightly faster than I estimated - almost up to 87,300 by the time I finished posting)

So Linux users pay the most but does that figure include Android linux? I suspect not. Else it would be low like the windows average. (I pay $1.)

The blog for Humble Bundle had a post about Android users. Based on user specified platform, Android users on average pay relatively well for the Humble Bundle ($7.43 for Android vs $5.73 for Windows vs $9.92 for Linux). http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/20036460987/android-gamers-showing-their-generosity

So besides that what else has changed for Linux since RedHat gave up on the desktop and Loki fell?

Valve is now porting the source engine to Linux (Left4dead 2 first, but other titles are sure to follow).

Many indie games on steam have been offered via humble bundles (which require they provide a Linux version).

And here I compiled a list of Kickstarter games (Thanks to the Phoronix and reddit/r/Linux community) that got funded and are releasing with a Linux version.

And of course, with all the work they're doing porting steam and the source engine to Linux, it would make sense that Linux would be a strong contender for their 'Steam Box' .

First of all, the Linux userbase is really small to begin with. Within that small userbase, you have two relatively large groups:

1. The ideologues, who really believe in RMS's idea that proprietary software is unethical. 2. The cheapskates, who aren't going to pay for software.

Who's left to sell to?

[citation needed]

Also if that's true, then how come the highest average payment per player are linux users, for the humble bundle as of now?

Actually, the latest Hunble Bundle is still in progress, and is their first go at music. http://www.humblebundle.com/

Alternatives are getting here I would say.

Check out the current Humble Bundle: http://www.humblebundle.com/

FLAC Audio and DRM-Free, not a penny to the leeches! And if you think that the bands are too hippy, you can choose to send all of your money to the EFF who actively fight said leeches.

I'd be glad to be pointed to evidence stating the opposite, but I'm under the impression it's just a handful of publishers who are getting rich and the rest of the industry isn't getting a lot out of selling PC games.

I think it's more accurate to say that like all mature markets, there are a handful of companies at the top of the heap raking in the dough by the double bucketload. However, unlike the console market, the PC gaming market has plenty of alternative storefronts for the smaller publishers to sell their wares and remain profitable. (And I haven't even really scratched the surface!)

The end result is that there is a far, FAR richer variety of games available for PCs than there is for consoles.

Most existing Steam users will still want to keep their paid-for Steam accounts on Windows 8. Thus Windows 8 appstore is hardly a threat to Steam, really. But Steam is certainly a threat to the Windows appstore, especially if every Steam user on Windows 8 ends up installing Steam anyway - and that could bring trouble.

What if the person doesn't like Windows 8? Yes, Valve is decrying it because it will hurt Valve's business model to have a competing Microsoft app store. But, love it or hate it, Windows 8 will be fundamentally different from Windows 7, and many users dislike major changes. Many people will not switch and hold off buying a new PC until their current hardware breaks. Most will remain a Valve customer on Windows 7.

But now, lo and behold, a linux version of steam gets released by Valve. Will it instantly convert the masses (or even a large percentage) to Linux? No way. It may convert a few, but I predict most people leaving Windows 7 will go to Windows 8; not linux. (If windows 8 gets a reputation as bad as Vista did on release, I would still wouldn't expect more than 5% conversion to linux, and that is generous figure.)

I actually expect that the people fed up with Windows will opt to go with Apple than linux, because thanks to iPhones and iPads they have learned that Macs are available to replace windows PC's. (Ask a non-geek about linux and many still give blank stares even if they have an android phone.) And while many may threaten to leave for a Mac, their thoughts can change back quickly when they look at the price vs. power argument. (this will happen even if the Mac is more powerful than what they will ever use... just because of the perceived value of the additional power.) Ultimately, I doubt more than 10-15% would go this route even with a poor showing by windows 8.

However, there is one type of person not represented... The existing linux user. It is not unusual for many linux users to either dual boot or keep an extra computer with windows just to play games. Now, if you tell them that they no longer need a windows machine, I expect the majority of these people to drop windows very quickly once they have a selection of games to play. (I expect this even if the catalog is 25% of the size of the number of windows games.) The only thing about this group that is beneficial to Microsoft is that this existing group is small; based on the number of people who browse the web with linux, this group only accounts for somewhere between 1% and 4% of the population. (And I truly believe the 4% figure is a little high.)

I came up with the 25% figure because of an earlier post of someone mentioning the amount of their library working when they moved to the Mac version of Steam. Due to the kernel and OpenGL, I would estimate a similar number of titles on linux.

I believe that 25% is enough to keep the linux users entertained so that they do not need to boot into windows or using their extra machine on a regular basis. Of course they draw of a strong game will get them to occasionally go through the hassle of using windows.

Remember, that 25% will not stay 25% for long... Valve seems committed to make linux gaming work. Most likely they are developing all future titles with code that lends itself to being cross platform. In addition, the humblebumble, has helped indie developers convert their games to linux and mac. (It is common for humblebumble games to be distributed on steam as well, so I am sure they will be made available cross platform through steam.) Then if you add the number of games that can run through Wine(even if not through steam), or in a virtual machine, and the linux geek will finally get rid of the windows box.

Overall, I do expect this to help Valve. They will create a cross platform game distribution system. People that shun windows, or don't want to upgrade on Microsoft's schedule will start

Humble Indie Bundle
Indie Gala
Indie Royale
Be Mine

These skeptics can't string two original thoughts together: fuss-potting on the DRM aspect, which is clearly not the main focus of this new console!

Time to wake up, The Humble Bundle statistics prove that DRM-free games are indeed wanted.

Similarly, and open gaming platform is much needed. The corporates are just afraid of losing their fatty grips.

Microsoft became the dominant PC OS (groan all you want, you know it's true) so it didn't HAVE to do anything.
They were windows, and most programs were created for windows and windows alone.
All they had to do was keep making more of the same, but that's not going to cut it for much longer.
Things are being ported with greater and greater ease to both the Mac and various Linux Operating Systems.

For years, the main thing holding me back from a Linux OS has been video games and my not wanting to screw with emulators (such as Wine)
However, with things like the Humble Bundle releasing several good quailty games for linux, and services like steam coming to Linux , I honestly think in the next few years I'll probably dump Windows.

If there were enough Linux users to make a difference I would expect that they would give them, the roach motels first.

Actually, I suspect that Linux users would be shown even more expensive hotels than Mac users. A typical Mac user is someone with greater-than-average disposable income; a typical Linux user is highly computer-literate, and more likely to hold a technical job that pays more than average.

For example, take a look at the Humble Bundle website. (Scroll down until you see the stats to the left of the pie chart.) Given a free choice of how much they want to pay for a bundle of games, Linux users paid an average of $12.50, versus $9.99 for Mac users and $7.98 for Windows users. Okay, it might also be that Linux and Mac users are just more generous, but I suspect that available disposable income plays a larger role.

Thanks to efforts like the Humble Indie Bundle, there are already a bunch of games on Steam that have Linux ports.

The Humble Bundle is a reality check:

The average Windows user is paying $7.26 for games which have been widely sold and frequently discounted for Windows sales elsewhere,

The average Linux user paying $12.24 "for the ports."

But in total payments by platform Linux delivers a bare 1/8 of the total. The Humble Bundle V

The Humble Bundle works very well both as a charitable promotion and a sampling of Indie gaming. But it sends a mixed message about Linux as a platform for commercial development and retail sales.

Great!
Remember that all games from the current and previous Humble Indie Bundles (overview of all games) have a Linux version, and most of them are on Steam too. So that's already a nice range of games to start.

Get 'em right here.

Oh yeah, there's music there too. Have I said enough to get Slashdot shut down for linking, and armed men in black uniforms sent to my house to terrorize me? No? Well, how about a few more links:

• Project Gutenberg
• MusOpen
• Library of Congress
• A used bookstore
• An audio file format with no DRM
• The Pirate Bay
• The Pirate Bay via an IP address
• A porn site
• An Arabic news site
• A hacker magazine
• Wikipedia article on 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

I do like your day to day price drops, could be done very transparently and give companies like MS huge amounts of data to mine and figure out the best price point for certain titles.

What I don't understand is that if they have this huge market for "used" titles, there is obviously an issue with pricing, people will pay $20-30 for a console title, and will pay this over and over. The price point of $60 and up is just too high, the amount of free games out there these days adopting a free to play models are creaming it in. And with the advent of things like facebook games ala farmville people are realising that their PC's are plausible time wasters just as much as a playstation was.

I guess I'm sort of going off on a tangent there, what I really wanted to say was if they want to destroy the used game market all they have to do is price it out of the picture, they already can and should have. Their "slim" profit margins argument is weak and a joke at best, steam has proven this time and time again with sub $20 game titles, and so has newer players like Humble Bundle (no I don't work for them, just love their work.) Make games seem cheap as chips and everyone will buy them. Right now they are missing out on people like me who have had enough of their shit and simply won't come to the table any more.

The thing that amazes me most about all of this is that MS is a leader in tiered sales plans, they have done this from the get go in everything they do. Well, except the games console market heh.

Sorry to hear you're so cynical. Do you suppose I have only leached and never contributed? I have published work for which I have never received one damn cent. It was good work but it's insufficient quantity to win a research position. I don't expect I'll ever see any money. And that's fine. Yet the publisher has the gall to erect a paywall to try to collect money for themselves in exchange for copies of my and others' work, and never pass any of it on to us. Technically, I can't distribute copies of my own work because I had to agree to transfer the copyrights to this publisher in exchange for the privilege of being published. You and I have the misfortune to be working in this industry before better compensation methods are developed. We still don't have them in place.

feel free to send me examples of folks who put together small software packages that could be copied without limit and made any money.

There's the Humble Indie Bundle. You already mentioned Red Hat. There are many other Linux and FreeBSD distros. Mozilla. MySQL. Xiph's audio and video codecs, Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora. GNU software. LibreOffice. There's a whole world of libre software, as I'm sure you fully realize. Many of these are charities, in a legal sense. Yet even charities have to do business and marketing, and bring in some money somehow, and these all do. You may argue that the people behind these did not make any money. Maybe not directly, and not much, but they nevertheless profited and prospered. They earned a reputation. Consider how universities work. A professor doesn't get anything directly for publishing research. No money from readers or publishers, and often no patents and so no income from licensing fees. What a professor gets is a job at a university.

Yes, I know one of the more effective curbs on piracy is service. As in, the typical MMORPG needs bandwidth and server farms that most people cannot realistically afford, so the vendor can get the users to pay for subscriptions. That's not quite the same as cloud computing, but it's close. Businesses can't count on that for much longer. 10 years from now, Internet connections that are 100x faster may be common, as well as server class hardware that fits in a shoe box and costs less than a tank of gas. Will be easy for anyone to run their own service at that point.

This is simply wrong, try the humble bundle http://www.humblebundle.com/, no DRM and plenty of profit.

The Humble Bundle is a charitable promotion.

You are not obligated to pay anything to the developer.

The Humble Bundle can be a fine showcase for the Indie developer, but it is not a gold mine.

There are usually four or five games to a bundle, each from a different developer. Earlier bundles may be added to the pot if you pay as little as a penny more than the average sale.

The average contribution about $5 ----

for games which originally sold for $20 each in the Windows market.

"Sadly, and I speak from experience, if you don't have some DRM your game will be pirated and you will make zilch."

This is simply wrong, try the humble bundle http://www.humblebundle.com/, no DRM and plenty of profit. The games which lack DRM and make no money are usually not very good or have made the Proun mistake ( the only difference between the demo and the pay version is access to a single map, not enough incentive to buy it for most people)

$480,000? that number is not the final number!! ... look at the real data, LIVE:

http://www.humblebundle.com/

its already at $505,000 and this in just one day... you still have 13 days left of sales

now look that the previous bundles: in wikipedia .. the last one sold almost $2.4 Million

yes, WoW is a lot more... but many games can get that much? WoW is not just a game, its a monthly service and its the TOP seller... of all the MMORPG, not yet came close to it and most of them just closed after losing money for months

Not all games have success, even in windows... the humble bundle proves that if a game is good, porting it to linux will pay it self and will generate profit... the numbers of of linux a little behind of the Mac... and you cant deny that is a game market in the Mac people

of course, if the game is bad, its not the porting to linux that will make it profit... nor developing a game JUST for linux... but using certain technologies, apps and frameworks make possible porting a game to windows, mac and linux without increasing much the cost

I got an email yesterday for a new Humble Bundle for Android (and Window/Mac/Linux). Just checked the total sold so far, and it is at over 484,000.00 already. As usual, Linux users pay the most for the bundle.

Seems like Linux/Android/Mac games are viable if you find a niche way to market them.

http://www.humblebundle.com/

Hypothetical - If I'm an independent game developer who relies on game purchases to finance myself to make future games, what do you expect me to do?

Let's look at the not-hypothetical-at-all practical and functional answers to this question, which has already been handled quite adroitly by that community...

Fund them upfront -- granted this seems to work a lot more for Board and Card games (too many examples there to list even a significant fraction of them), but there's no specific reason it couldn't be used by indie video game developers (and maybe they'd get better at estimating costs after a project or two).

Let people decide how much they think your work was worth -- hey look, you could buy them all for $0... but people don't.

Free-To-Play -- provide services, cosmetic add-ons, and bonuses for revenue

Those are just your basic answers. Handing out your game for free isn't the end of the world... and in many cases has proven to be a far better business model than actually trying to sell it!

P.S. It also works for music -- give it away, sell performances and physical copies worth actually owning.

Yeah, I've been kind of disgusted with major game companies for the past few years as well. The only games I buy any more are developed by Indie devs. Gotta love the Humble Bundle. DRM like this always costs the company more by pissing off legitimate customers than it could ever hope to regain by preventing piracy. In order to profit by preventing piracy, you not only need to stop an individual from pirating the game, but convince them to buy a legitimate copy of the game.

First off, it's effectively impossible to completely prevent piracy. You can make it more difficult, but it will always still be possible if the pirates are determined enough. There are in general three types of people who play PC games. Those that refuse to pirate anything (let's call them Consumers), those who will sometimes purchase games, or sometimes pirate them (Casual Pirates), and those who never pay for games (Hardcore Pirates). Those Hardcore Pirates are inherently lost. No matter what the company does, they will not gain any profit from them.

The optimal solution is to stop Casual Pirates as well as possible, while not losing any of the Consumers. DRM like Ubisoft is pushing is going at it backwards. They need to incentivize purchasing rather than attempting (futilely) to prevent piracy. The old-school method of having an activation key tied to your install, and simply preventing the same key from playing multiplayer at the same time worked well in my opinion. It wasn't an onerous burden on legitimate users, and those who pirated did not have full usage of the software.

www.palemoon.org
http://www.humblebundle.com/
http://ps3history.consolehistories.net/
http://psvitahistory.consolehistories.net/

> That sort of situation should be accounted for and non-profit piracy should not be prosecuted.

Should not be prosecuted is an unusual one (I've frequently seen people argue it should be legal), but I'd still be cautious that for many copyright works (music, film, books being obviously examples) non-profit use is the most common, and this risks people never paying for the material at all.

OTOH, the humble indie bundles ( http://www.humblebundle.com/ ) do well and rely primarily on people being honest, so it's a much better argument than "should be legal".

Don't forget about the Humble Bundle! Get yourself a few games, donate all the money to Child's Play. They work on all platforms, and are DRM free. They do new bundles throughout the year too, so you can donate year round.

Can I just point you to the statistics on here?

In case you don't know, the Humble Bundle concept is about taking a handful of independent games every few months, packaging them up for Windows, Linux and Mac, and then asking people to pay what they feel is a fair price for the bundle.

Look for the pie chart about 2/3 of the way down the page, then at the average Linux donation is higher than that for Windows or Mac - and that, incidentally, is always the case with every Humble Bundle they issue.

No, as a Linux user I am not after a sainthood by any means, but this is a clear demonstration that the idea that just because people use Open Source and/or free software means that they are not prepared to pay for good commercial software is utter nonsense.

My wife has an iPhone, I have an Android phone and I'm also a UNIX/Linux/computer geek. Just about all the apps she has installed on her phone are, to me, a total waste of time, as are most applications that I have seen on both the Apple Store and Google Marketplace. So there is probably some truth in saying that Android is used by more "tech-heads" than iPhones are, and those "tech-heads" couldn't give a toss about applications that make their phone look like an emptying glass of beer when they hold it to their mouth and tip it. That, therefore, could be a core reason why more apps come out for iOS.

I have three Xbox360s, each for a different room of the house. In addition to game consoles they function as media consumption devices for Netflix and for my mountain of movies on the NAS. However, It is such a pain in the ass to migrate between them (and you must, if you want your gamer profile & saved games to interoperate), that I've actually disconnected TWO of them and replaced them with smaller quieter Linux media centers (screw it, If I can only play games on one, I'll only play games on one).

The DRM they employ is hurting their business. I'm thankful that I can re-download my content on different consoles, or swap my hard-drives around, but the fact is, I can only be signed in to XBL in one room at a time, and my Netfilx bandwidth isn't tied to XBL servers except artificially. When I want to play a game online, no one else can watch the movies or surf the marketplace which I pay to access. Yes, I can use separate accounts, but I shouldn't have to fragment my usage needlessly. Besides, I tried that already, trying to find the right drive or profile to play a specific game or movie is RIDICULOUS.

Also, this "online pass" bullshit that's bundled with games has to stop. I already pay for XBL services, MS provides the matchmaking API, its XBL. Dear Epic, I've bought and played every game you ever made from Zork to Gears, but when your activation code prevented me from playing the game I purchased, because another player had used the online pass first, I decided to boycot you... We have 1 disc. Only one of us can play at a time online anyway. You once did produce truly beloved Epic MegaGames, but this bullshit attempt to rape the used game market has caused me to hate you.

In short: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! People will spend a lot more if you make it easier us to do so. Get rid of the DRM, or at least make it marginally usable.
Until then, I think I'll start investing in your competitors: The DRM free, truly cross platform, charity supporting, indie games.

I bought the latest Humble Bundle. Every game, apart from a couple of tech demos, had a Linux version. And unlike previous bundles, there wasn't any arcane installation process: each game had a straight-up .deb to install (plus alternatives for other package management systems).

You can Buy/Donate in there name and give them some good games too.
Humble Bundle Games
Or you can be cheap and just buy for very little and give the games to all your friends. :(

I use Linux as my primary OS, because goodness, it is a thing of beauty. But, I also have a Steam account, and sometimes, I like to play Portal and other video games that aren't available on Linux.

I do wish this would change, because the Humble Indie Bundles show every time that there is a market for Linux games comparable to the market for Mac games, but Linux users are willing to pay a higher average price. Developers are losing a lot of money every second they don't convert their Mac development department to a Linux development department.

Frozen Synapse and SpaceChem? What a coincidence! Both are part of the latest Humble Bundle! I wonder if the anonymous submitter knew that...

First "programming game" I think I ever played was the MECC classic, Robot Odyssey When I went to play it a number of years back it just made me recall how easy games are these days - I think I was able to get through this one faster as a kid than as an adult. Then again I was playing around a lot more this time instead of just trying to beat the game... Don't forget that Frozen Synapse is currently headlining the Humble Frozen Bundle! with about 4 days left to purchase!

Humble Bundle is going again. http://www.humblebundle.com/. In fact, I'm going to do some more looking into open source gaming.

I dont see those participating in Humble Indie Bundle with problems in marketing... in fact, they are making a good money

Big publishers releases today are mostly just remakes of the same games, with better graphics... in fact, many times the game is even less fun to play, because "all" the development work was put in the graphic and very little on new ideas, the game story, bug fix, balance or simply in the fun of playing!

That is also why humble indie have lots success, most of the games are original and very fun to play, even if sometimes the graphics arent the state or art.

Taking things to extreme, to show that what is important is the fun to play, nethack and Dwarf Fortresshave almost no graphic feedback, yet are very famous, fun to play and people play it for years, even decades!

Yeah same here, I'm a geek, I'm not social in real life nor in games, I want to play single player. I'd guess the games market is a place where people like me is fairly common but still they market most games for their online perks... but what do I know about marketing anyway. Funny thing is that you will be able to get a pirated version that works perfectly well for single player (starcraft II anyone?) and with this policy they are only encouraging this, when there's proof that there can be nicer yet profitable ways to sell games.

On top of that as indie game studios now often support linux, I am not sure you are correct.

Less than a quarter of the payments for the Humble Indie 3 bundle were for the Linux versions - even though the average Linux gamer was paying $12 each and the Windows gamer $5. The Humble Indie Bundle 3

Something less than a ringing endorsement fof the port to Linux.

Really? I guess you can't read pie charts http://www.humblebundle.com/

I can read the chart.

But what does it prove?

It proves that the original statement that Humble Bundle makes more money from Linux & Mac combined than from Windows. You know, what I was commenting on. Showing that the parent of my original comment was wrong.

Really? I guess you can't read pie charts http://www.humblebundle.com/

I can read the chart.

But what does it prove?

These ganes are not new to the Windows platform.

Some are at least two years old and frequently discounted.

The competition for the casual gamer and the budget gamer in the Windows market is fierce and the backlist of available titles in all genres that sell online for under $10 is enormous.

The third Humble Bundle has been beefed up at least twice - with the addition of Steel Storm (bew to Linux) and the bundling in of the second Humble Indie Bundle for those paying more than $5.01.

The average donation at 8:25 PM ET Wednesday is $5.02 and for that you get the Flash-based game "Machinarium," quite arguably the best of the lot.

There have been about a quarter of a million sales of the Humble 3 bundle. It's been a grand opportinity for the Linux gamer in particular to bulk-up cheap on commercially produced casual games.

But he can't deliever even a quarter of the sales.

Really? I guess you can't read pie charts http://www.humblebundle.com/

Perhaps, but Linux can generate more money than Mac. http://www.humblebundle.com/ I too will only buy it when the Linux client is released.