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."

Comments

Qt toolkit (Or Similar)

[guaigean]

For running a cross platform API, I'd suggest Qt. It is free for OSS dev's and a license for commercial is like 1500 USD if I remember correctly. It's very quick to learn and also supports OpenGL addons etc. Ports code to Mac, Win, and *nix.

Make it open source

[alvieboy]

Make it open source and you will surely get lots of volunteers.

Does shareware still gives money these days? I doubt, but again it's only my humble opinion.

Re:Make it open source

[Total_Wimp]

It probably helps to get free advertising from the slashdot editors.

Worked for me. I had no idea it existed until this article. Now that I've seen the page, I can't wait to try the game.

I know it's a little off topic, but I've been very impressed with some of the independant games I've seen. Another favorite of mine is Tread Marks that was about tanks that race and shoot each other with the futuristic weapons they pick up. It had deformable terrain (picture big craters) that worked very well. I haven't seen that feature in any game since.

Now this one comes along with karate bunnys. Now that's cool. And you can be sure I haven't seen it anywhere else.

I guess I have a point somewhere... Oh yeah, here goes: This is something I haven't seen before. It looks cool. It's something I'd probably never see unless it was on /. A) I'm glad this got attention and B) I wish more independant games would get the same attention.

TW

Re:Make it open source

[anagama]

Like what? I switched to Mac OS X from Linux after 10 years because Linux sucks as a desktop OS. There is nothing easier to do in Linux than on OS X.

I don't see it that way after about 7 months of daily usuage of Panther, and a varied set of linux distros, mainly SuSE 9.1, as well as Ubuntu/kubuntu/mepis/knoppix/SuSE 9.3 and one of the BSDs for a short time (test systems, not my main desktop -- although I do believe I'll go with 9.3 on that -- I really like ubuntu though, hard decision).

I will grant you that osx artwork is typically better than what you find on linux machines. But after a while, usuage, not eye candy, becomes more crucial. So here's how linux beats osx.

• Task switching (I want to cycle through all windows with one key sequence, rather than alt-tab switch apps, alt-` switch windows w/in apps. Plus, you cant alt-anything into a docked window).
• Middle click paste (nuff said -- only works with X11, not native mac apps).
• Multiple desktops (see prior post).
• Mouse focus (being able to scroll a background window without losing focus on the foreground is sweeter than sex).
• Clicking on dock program icon doesn't maximize the document if it is minimized in the dock.
• Clicking on an application icon won't open a new window if a window already exists and in many cases, if it did exist but was closed.
• Don't know about your firewire drive, but burning discs is easier with k3b than with finder.
• Menu items in the title bar is awkward when the window itself is way off to the right of the screen but the menu item is way off to the left.
• One button on my powerbook -- see sidetrack above -- another $15 to make the system useful
• ODBC, mysql, openoffice was a huge RPIA to set up on a Friend's tiger machine -- works fine in Panther though. Tiger is it's own mess though (apparently a mess at least, I decided not to try it after reading about the problems it was causing people on the unix side of things).

I could think of more if was sitting in front of my powerbook instead of my linux system. Sadly, there are trackpad issues keeping linux off my powerbook -- eventually though, someone will reverse engineer the trackpad and then I'll have nice looking machine, running a nicely performing OS. Can't wait.

Re:I find Linux porters in the following places

[Stevyn]

It seems to me you're assuming he was looking for someone to do this without receiving money, but he said he gave people a part of the sales for other ports. He's selling a commercial game and doesn't seem to be expecting someone to port it for free. Hell, it'd be easier legally to pay the person.

My advice is to find a forum where these people hang out and post some messages. But he'd have to be careful about appearing to be spam and copying the same message on lots of forums. I understand my advice isn't much, but let's not assume he's looking for some freebie work for a commercial program.

Re:WINE?

[njchick]

That's only in theory. In fact, very few architectures are supported, and x86_64 is not one of them. I tried to port Wine (just the library) to x86_64 recently, but it turned out to be a lot of work and even required knowledge of assembler (for such things as "atomic compare and exchange"). Volunteers are welcome!

Re:sourceforge.net

[computerjunkie]

That doesn't make it any less a commercial endeavor.