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Microsoft Unhappy With Bungie's Use Of Linux
Noctavis writes: "According to this article at Inside Mac Games, 'Mat Soell [of Bungie] indicated in a forum post several days ago that some Microsoft employees they have spoken with were unhappy that the Myth servers ran on Linux, as of course Windows NT is the platform of choice at the Redmond campus.' For those who may not know: Bungie Software, now Bungie Studios, was acquired by Microsoft earlier this year and its upcoming title Halo will apparently be the flagship game on the X-Box in a year from now; some say its "killer-app." It has since been reconfirmed for the Mac & PC, but the timetable for such a release has not yet been revealed. (Anyone think we can realistically expect it sooner than 3-6 months after the X-Box release?)"
Hello-
:-)
Matt (two t's, IMG) Soell here to hopefully clear the waters that people have thoughtfully muddied in my name.
There is NO ugly corporate pressure from MS demanding that we change our servers. None, zilch, zero, null.
There have been a few scattered individuals who've made comments to the effect that we might want to consider an MS server solution. This has never come from anyone in a position of authority and has never been more than a passing suggestion of that individual's own opinion. They are as entitled to their opinions as we are to ours. The decision is still ours to make. In other words, it was no big deal, and that's all I've ever said about it.
It's like me sending a letter to Inside Mac Games suggesting they fact-check their articles so they can avoid presenting biased inference as fact or at the very least spell people's names properly. They might feel a wee bit of annoyance at my suggestion but they'd still be free to ignore it completely. Know what I'm saying?
No doubt some of the conspiracy theorists already think I'm typing this with a gun to my head, so there's probably no point in dragging this out because people are going to believe whatever they want to believe. But I'll say it again in a way that hopefully no one can misinterpret:
There is no interference from Microsoft in our choice of servers or anything else.
-Matt
Well, realistically, why wouldn't they be upset? It's equivalent to, say, Ford Motor company reacquiring Hertz, and finding out that all their executives drive Cadies...
It doesn't really mean anything tho... People aren't buying and playing Myth because of what server it runs on...
NecroPuppy
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
I'm tired of little digs at Microsoft masquarading as news around here. I use Unix and I don't like Microsoft very much. But I don't want to whine like a spoiled puppy about it either. Can we stick to the real stuff the matters, like new products, on-line rights and privacy, and science?
If halo is delayed until 3-6 mo. after the xbox release (currently slated for October 12, 2001), its tech will be extremely dated. As PC Games go, it'll be left in the dust if MS doesn't release by April. Unless they've got one hell of a surprise up their sleeves, they've got to make a Q1 ship date.
I don't think anyone was bitching that they weren't using their own server OS, we thought it was humorous that they tried to move it to NT and failed, leaving it running whatever open source OS it started with (FreeBSD? IIRC)
You would think that they would learn from their own mistakes, and admit that NT is not the answer for EVERYTHING and let well enough alone, but they will probably attempt another conversion and cause plenty of outages in the process.
Finkployd
Bill: ...and of course they use NT so they're a perfect acquisition ...er... some free operating system
Ballmer: No, my leige, they use
Bill: What?
Ballmer (perspiring): Uh... It's not one of ours...
Bill: OF COURSE IT'S NOT ONE OF OURS! NONE OF OURS ARE FREE!
Ballmer (wetting pants): It's Linux, my lord...
Bill: Well fix that, you imbecile! What's the point of being a Mighty Evil Master if I can't have my whims!
Ballmer: Yes, my liege! Your lordship!
2 years later
Ballmer: News, my liege!
Bill: It better not be another one of those damnable snipes about the International Space Station plummeting in flames into Lake Erie after Win2002 hung the piloting systems. I'm sooo tired of that.
Ballmer: No, my liege, we have converted the Myth servers to our own O/S.
Bill: Ah, good, how's that going?
Ballmer: Err.. Well it's funny you mention 'plummeting in flames'...
It's all true! ±5%
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
btw, What is the plural of OS?
If it's Microsoft operating systems, the plural is SOS.
Fross.
"Mat Soell indicated in a forum post several days ago that some Microsoft employees they have spoken with were unhappy that the Myth servers ran on Linux..."
Hmm... I'll bet some Microsoft employees don't like kung pao chicken. Does that warrant a headline like "Microsoft Unhappy With Chinese Government"?
The assumption that Microsoft speaks for every employee and that every employee speaks for the company is utterly ridiculous. Does every Slashdotter agree with every other Slashdotter? Would you be willing to adopt the views of "some Slashdot viewers" when talking about the views of "the open-source community"?
The comments about the usage of Linux for the server has very little to do with the entire article. As a matter of fact, what you see quoted in summary is the whole discussion of the OS issue from the article. I was hoping for information on the topic.
I went there expecting to read about the OS server war, and was greated by text about the Mac gamers not wanting the software messed with. I have nothing against Mac gamers, I was one once myself. Frankly, I don't give a rats ass about 99% of what this article was really about, and would have appreciated a more balanced summary.
Slashdot should have done a better job with the commentary on this one, or at least added more about the "meat" of the article.
I think this qualifies as news for a gaming site...this is not really late breaking Linux, or techie news. The geeks at the compund may have forgotten the second part of their slogan on this one. (Stuff that matters.)
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
I think a lot of people, including IMG are over-reacting to Mr. Soell's comments. His original forum post at Rampancy.net only indicated that a few people made some "snarfy comments." It is not like Microsoft in general is in a state of discontent because Bungie Studios is using Linux to power their Bungie.net servers.
Honestly, I doubt Microsoft in general really cares, as long as the product works and makes them money. Granted they don't make much if anything off of Bungie.net, but the people who use it are the same people who are going to buy Halo when it is released.
So, I guess the point is: there is no need to over-react because a couple of OS fanatics made a few remarks...people here do it all of the time...
In fact, OS X RULES AND ALL OTHER OSs STINK!!
btw, that was sarcasm.
out.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
"We've spoken to a couple people here who've made snarfy comments about us not using an MS server for b.net and we've ignored them."
Sounds a fair bit different than what Inside Mac Games reported, doesn't it? Sure, you can translate that to mean "M$ is unhappy", but he never actually SAID that. It's just people falling prey to a media organization (insidemacgames in this case) who are buttering up their stories with scandal and comments that scare people.
It increases page views (heck, how many of you visited the url given in the story?), and that's all they're trying to do.
As far as I can tell, Bungie was a privately held company, with 20% held by TakeTwo. MS bought TakeTwo's ownership, TakeTwo got ownership of programs, including Myth & Oni, as well access to current and future technologies.
So blame Oni's absence on TakeTwo.
If I'm correct, and Bungie is a private company, then they weren't bought unless they (the owners) wanted to be bought. By all accounts, this was not a corporate raid, or hostile takeover. MS made an offer that Bungie liked, and they went with it.
So blame Bungie if Bungie is screwed by MS. If they made a pact with the devil, it's their own doing.
Another perspective comes from their CEO. They saw the writing on the wall (and to infer), didn't want to go the way of Looking Glass Studios. So they got a big company with deep pockets to give them access to what they would need to stay in business for a good while longer.
Here's the full quote:
Why is this happening?
For two reasons:
A. Microsoft is offering us the opportunity to lead the way on a next-generation console system. We will not only be one of the premier developers for the platform, but we'll be working directly with the Xbox team, helping to optimize the hardware and software for each other. We'll influence the design of the system; we'll help to ensure that the Xbox is the best platform to code for, and the most impressive console on the block. Such an opportunity does not come often. Bungie has always tried to keep abreast of the industry, if not ahead of it, and next-gen consoles seem like the place to be if you develop games. This deal allows us to get into that market in a big way.
B. The business of publishing entertainment software independently has changed enormously since Bungie started. Bungie was not in immediate danger of going under, but we realized that within a few years we'd need a strong partner if we wanted to keep making games the way we always have. We opted to make what we saw as an inevitable move while we were still in a position of strength, rather than wait for circumstances to force our hand. The ultimate goal is to ensure Bungie continues to exist and continues to produce the high-caliber games for which it is known.
Here are locations of info:
MacCentral report on acquisition
Bungie Corporate Info
NDB.com
Bungie Acquisition FAQ
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D. Fischer
ShoutingMan.com