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Is the Key to Linux a Games-Based Distro?
An anonymous reader writes "If in the FOSS community we could only get our act together and launch a game-based distro, we will be home and dry. That, at least, is the view of one British games enthusiast, Ian Bonham, who says in the short Linux World article: 'I would be happy to help a group of volunteers create a distro based on games, because I believe that's where the next generation is - NOT in giving away copies of Linux or OOo. That's a short-term ideal. The PS2 and the X-Box(sic) run Linux, so let's create a distro that turns home PC into a console with development potential. Expand that distro to the consoles. And lets get some 'killer' games on that disk.'"
Because I've used Linux at work. I've seen what it can do. I needed to set up a proxy server and got Squid running. I understand what the fuss is about and why everyone is always shouting about it. It's powerful, you can do just about anything that you want with it and it's not as hard to learn as everyone makes it out to be.
Why not run it at home? GAMES!!!
A good deal of people suggest running games under WINE, but from other posts that I've seen, it doesn't seem like WINE does the best job. I'd rather put up with the usual garbage that my Windows machine gives me (random crashes, etc.) because I play a lot of games.
The problem with writing a 'gaming' distro is that you need people to write games for it. While it's not unheard of, it's going to require a good deal of work and what comes first? Users adopt it or game companies release games for it?
It's a great idea and I hope it does take off, but it seems like a lot of work...
No.
Yep, and in everday speech CATV may be ethernet cable, don't make it so
The Quake 3 demo first launched for Linux, then Mac, then a week or two later win32.
Quake 2 always had native Linux support.
Quake/QuakeWorld had Linux support really quick after release - and that was nearly 10 years ago.
Seems like all of id's titles quickly have a Linux port, not only for the server (like Half Life) but for clients as well.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Well, I'm a games programmer, I've also been using computers for over 20 years, and I suspect that the key to Linux is NOT a games-based distro. My thinking is as follows:
Hardcore gamers go where the games are. That is currently either Windows or consoles. Casual gamers can't use and probably won't learn Linux. I mean, I have trouble using Linux, and I'm the one writing the games, how do you think the poor punter walking into EB or wherever is going to respond to trying to learn it? And do you think they're going to do it just for games? Hmm...
As many other posters have pointed out, Windows didn't become a decent gaming platform for many years, and many iterations of DirectX. Yes, there were good games, but the biggest things started happening with DX. Think back beyond that to the DOS gaming days. That is pretty much where we are with Linux right now.
Is there a solution to this? I'm not sure. Some sort of DirectX-a-like might help games development, but the usability and marketing and so on all have to work before people will know that you CAN play games on Linux, and that they WILL work. Getting them to know what Linux is might also be a good start...
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