Last Word on Loki

A random reader sent in: "Loki's public CVS and FAQ database are now being hosted at icculus.org. The information, and a bit of evangelizing about Loki's demise can be found on icculus.org." You might take a look at the Linux Gamers' FAQ while you're there. Update: 01/25 21:05 GMT by M : Scott Draeker sends word that there will be an "official" repository of Loki code, including apparently some projects that weren't finished, hosted by SEUL in the near future.

Comments

For what it's worth, I bought a Loki game today

[DG]

I've never been much of a fan of the concept of software for sale, as product. To my mind, writing software is a SERVICE, with the end result free for all to use.

So Loki was providing the service of selecting games of good quality, and porting them to Linux where I could use them with my OS of choice.

As such, I wasn't a Loki *customer* so much as I was a Loki *sponsor* or *patron*.

And accordingly, I paid for every Loki game I have. RT and M2 I bought direct from Loki. D3, SoF, and Q3 I bought from the local EB.

Myth 2 I bought yesterday, when I heard they were closing. If I had more ready cash, I would have picked up the rest of their ouvre.

Oh well. Farewell Loki, you did great work. I did what little I could to support your efforts.

Your patron,

DG

way to go

[Ender Ryan]

This is truly sad. It's really amazing that with all the ranting and raving about Linux that goes on here, very few people voted with their wallets and paid for some truly great products from Loki.

I'm really disgusted by this.

So, to all you who never put your money where your mouth is, thanks a whole fucking lot, hypocritical fuckers.

Oh well, that's how it goes. You all better show some friggin support in the future so you can redeem yourselves ;-)

Re:Well, here's why we need cross-platform games

[OSgod]

And here I though Java was like Linux:

1. Promies the world
2. Deliver a compromise lowest common denominator system
3. Find out that high performance user interaction applications don't run on it
4. Find out that complicated business applications don't run on it -- especially vertical market
5. Quitely fade away

Linux has a very good coding environment

[Kiwi]

[Using Linux is] doing without ... gaming, coding

I find it very interesting that you feel that using Linux means doing without gaming nor coding. Let me guess: You live in the United States (more details on why I have this theory below).

Linux has had a large number of games ported to it; I believe Loki ported 20 or so before going under. I find that this is enough games for me to waste far too much time playing; my open source coding project would not be in its current state if I spent any more time playing games on Linux; and I only have two games which I regularily play on my Linux laptop. I have not had time to finish either game.

As for coding, I find the coding environments of Linux extremely usable and powerful. For example, the Perl interpreter allowed me to create, within one day, a new unified documentation format for all of my program's documentation when people who translate my documentation requested this.

When someone says "Linux does not have a usable coding environment" what that person is saying, in effect, is "I am not willing to take the time and effort to learn the excellent coding environments the Linux has". Which I find very strange.

Programming, after all, is not like playing a video game. Programming is a discipline which takes time and effort to learn. The effort to learn, say, the Emacs environment or the most common Vi commands, is trivial compared to the effort required to learn how to write a usable and maintainable computer program.

My general experience is that Europians are generally more willing to take the time and effort to learn the language of Linux; most of the people who are helping me out with my open-source project are from Europe. I think this is because most Europians have had to learn one or more foreign languages; learning a foreign language makes one intently aware of the time and effort needed to accomplish something truly worth accomplishing.

Programming code is not like watching "Allie McBeal" on TV; my general experience is that people who need automated tools to generate code write code that is inefficient, difficult to read, and unmaintainable.

Linux is not a charity case

The free software foundation is, in fact, a charity.

- Sam