Slashdot Mirror
Where Can I Find Linux Porters?
David asks: "Many small software developers would love to get their software up and running on Linux, but where can competent Linux porters be found? I ask because, a while ago, I released a shareware game called Lugaru. I developed it for Mac OS with the intention of porting it to Windows and Linux. I was able to easily find several developers willing to port it to Windows at a reasonable cost (a fair portion of the sales) but I am clueless about how to find people with the Linux expertise. It is frustrating because I get many emails and forum queries asking me about a Linux version. I really want it to happen and am willing to pay - the problem simply is that I don't know how to go about finding Linux developers. So, I ask Slashdot."
Linux trains
Linux cruise ships - plus you can learn how to code in Perl at the same time on a cruise.
But seriously, just because you want to port something doesn't mean other people want to port it, so you would be better off trying to contact people interested in your game in the first place, who can code for Linux or who have ported before, as they are most likely easily "rewarded" by special insights into how the game works, or you could also reward them with special game tokens (like having an island named after them or a building in a standard or Linux-only map) or other things.
Hope this helps.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Well that would sort of guarantee it wouldn't make any money wouldn't it? If customers are asking for linux editions, I would have to guess there is a market.
.03 release. If you pay people to finish it, I can almost guarantee you they'll keep working until it's done.
Hmmm, get a few bucks off of shareware or make no money off of open source. Tough one.
Also it should be noted, that many open source projects don't get enough volunteers and end up half finished on source forge rotting with some Alpha
Erm, he already has a program, and it's a game which doesn't seem to use any traditional widgets. Why would it help to know about a traditional widget toolkit that can be used to write new, non-game programs from scratch?
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
The game already uses SDL, OpenGL and OpenAL. I doubt this guy needs QT nor wxWidgets.
> your little game just got posted on Slashdot.
> I predict a 1000% rise in the amount of sales
> over the next week
Why did you think he submitted the story to Slashdot?
"Two things inspire me to awe -- the starry heavens above and the moral universe within." - Albert Einstein
It probably helps to get free advertising from the slashdot editors.
Badass Resumes
Dude, step three is "???", or optionally "...", step four is "PROFIT!!". Get your trolls right please.
not so weird...
if you're just some random guy asking for their source.
Write code in a proprietary language at the whim of a single vendor? One that doesn't even have a Mac version? No thanks.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Frankly my past experience is that if there are professional developers that can actually port from Mac or Windows to Linux that have time on their hands, steer clear. I was a long time DOS/Windows developer, I still do all my hobby projects primarily in Windows (Visual Studio is awesome) and later port to Linux so I can use them on my work machine.
It ends up, I started working for a company that releases a program that approximately 1% of the computing world uses (do the math, it's alot), and I was given the task to port the product to Linux. Well, let's just say, back then (circa 1999), it was a nightmare to an extreme since cross platform typically meant implementing the Win32 API on Linux (wine sucked then too). And well, the end result was to eventually build a team of 20 Linux porters responsible for the 40+ Linux platforms we need to support.
We look high and low for these guys and we jump for joy when we find one that's even moderately experienced.
If I were a shareware shop with limited resources looking for someone to port my project to the least used gaming platform, I would seriously prefer to hire on a university grad or two to do the project. One guy to do the code since it appears that most of the code is cross platform anyway (opengl openal etc...) and one guy to make builds and packages for the major disti's.
The alternative is unemployed hackers since the guys who have experience doing this type of stuff are too busy.
Uh...?
Try this. Compile your program and wxWidgets with -g3 debugging symbols. Run your program in GDB. Type ALT into a select box. See where the program crashes. Fix that code.
How hard is this? You have the source code to wxWidgets, you have the source to your app... This is a trivial problem.
My other car is first.