Why Gaming Sucks On Linux

lseltzer writes "Efforts have been made to improve the situation, but things have actually gotten worse for gaming on Linux rather than better. If you're a gamer you're just plain better off running Windows and dual-booting (or VMing) between the two operating systems than hoping your games will run in Cedega or some such product." From the article: "So where does all of this leave Linux gamers? One word: Windows. Yep, you read that right. If you're a gamer, do yourself a favor and just buy a copy of Windows and set up a dual-boot system. Why bother to torture yourself with the headaches presented by Linux gaming? Why should you continually not have the games you want to play? Why settle for half-assed solutions that might or might not run the games you crave so desperately?"

Comments

this article is bull

[Zaire]

I say this post is total crap...I hate winblows with a fkn passion and Im not about to give up cause some @$$hat says it isn't worth the hassle....I say to the one who wrote this article go F*** Yourself with an Iron Stake.

if everyone gave up nothing would ever get done and nothing would ever change.

Re:OpenGL

[Svartalf]

Ahem... Have you ported a game? Do I know whom you are?

In reality, I know or know of MOST of the people professionally doing this very thing.

Direct3D to OpenGL's fun, but not impossible- and with OpenGL 2.0, most of the "fun" just goes away.
Sound? Most of the major players out there are using Miles, FMOD, or OpenAL- ALL OF WHICH ARE SUPPORTED UNDER LINUX. It's only when someone uses something "odd" that sound's a real problem.
File I/O is NOT different, paths might be, but you shouldn't be using that sort of thing in the first place. Data should be in a "My Documents" type place which has it's analog in Linux as well.
Networking... Heh... Only if you use DirectPlay. I know, I've written several compatibility layers to other networking layers. OpenPlay, Grapple, TNL, Quake3 Networking, and RakNet come immediately to mind- and in all cases, they're EASIER to use than DirectPlay. And more fun, they're cross-platform. If you use WinSock2, you're mostly using BSD Sockets in the first place so if you roll your own it's a short effort to port it.
OGL Vendor extensions? DO NOT USE THEM. Nobody in their right mind does anyhow- everyone uses the ARB or EXT extensions which is an easy thing to figure out.

What takes time is not the functionality. It's that people keep doing BAD coding practices, etc. and that takes time to undo. I really, really wish people would quit trotting out this tripe about it being "hard" to make Linux to Windows ports because of the things you describe.