Desura Linux Game Client Goes Open Source

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Desura Linux Game Client Goes Open Source

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 21, 2012 @05:44PM from the penguin-entertainment dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Desura game distribution client for Windows and Linux and developed by ModDB is now open source software. The open source version of the client is called Desurium and is hosted on GitHub."

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do you by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 17:48 · Score: -1

eat poop?
1. Re:do you by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 23:02 · Score: 0, Offtopic
  
  We all eat poop. It's just been filtered, but surely some remains.
2. Re:do you by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 06:23 · Score: 0
  
  I do, actually. No joke -- it's surprisingly tasty and a delicacy despite it's abundance and reputation. Consider -- lobster is now an expensive delicacy but there was a time it was so cheap and plentiful that it was served daily to Main prison inmates. They rioted and demanded better food!
  You have to get over the odor and thought of it. But if I stopped to think about pretty much anything I eat, I'd probably starve to death (or be a strict vegetarian that only ate hydroponic, organic food that I grew myself). As for the odor, I've come to enjoy the scent of a good shit. Are you familiar with durian, the "king of fruits"? It smells like rotting flesh (to be charitable).
  Of course, I don't eat any random turd lying in a toilet bowl just as you wouldn't eat a hamburger you found in the dumpster or moldy bread or an apple with a worm in it. My shit comes from a girl that goes on a three-day diet of strawberries and bananas and the poo is tested for pathogens before I consume it.
3. Re:do you by galanom · 2012-01-23 01:00 · Score: 1
  
  We all do, indirectly. I mean, we eat animals which eat poop, like pigs or rabbits.
Ium by Cyphase · 2012-01-21 17:49 · Score: 3, Insightful

Is -ium the new suffix to describe the open source project of commercial products?

--
by Cyphase ( 907627 )
1. Re:Ium by kvvbassboy · 2012-01-21 17:54 · Score: -1
  
  No, but it sure is a new craze to add a "DB" at the end of everything, to make it sound cool.
2. Re:Ium by Tr3vin · 2012-01-21 18:37 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Yeah, it sure is crazy how a site that hosts a large database of game mods uses "DB" in their name.
3. Re:Ium by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 18:39 · Score: 0, Flamebait
  
  Nice try. Are you implying that it was a new craze in 2002 you snobby fuck?
4. Re:Ium by Hsien-Ko · 2012-01-22 02:57 · Score: 2
  
  At least it's not a "Planet"
5. Re:Ium by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 03:27 · Score: 2
  
  Is -ium the new suffix to describe the open source project of commercial products?
  No, the name was chosen because the heart of the application is the Chromium Extension Framework, or CEF. Choosing Desurium as the name of the open source project was a way of giving credit to the CEF project.
Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 17:51 · Score: -1

Nobody games on PCs anymore
1. Re:Wat by KorrodeAU · 2012-01-21 18:12 · Score: 0
  
  noooooooooooooo
  
  i'm a PC gamer, here i'll prove it, look at all these emotes i know:
  o/ >.> -,- :> ;o ^^
  
  plu5 1 c4n t4lk liek dis
  
  All that and i own no consoles!
2. Re:Wat by epyT-R · 2012-01-21 18:13 · Score: 2
  
  some would argue that no one games anymore, period because modern 'games' are really little more interactive movies designed to create 'wow' moments as backdrops to social communication (audio chat mostly).
3. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 18:23 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Nobody games on PCs anymore
  That is completely correct, Mr. Sony. Desura must be losing a lot of money on this, soon they will have to close down like Valve did because of Steam.
4. Re:Wat by Telvin_3d · 2012-01-21 18:24 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Some people obviously don't actually play modern 'games'. I'd love to see some definition of what made classic games more 'game' than things like Battlefield, Portal or Minecraft.
5. Re:Wat by sakdoctor · 2012-01-21 18:30 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Portal (2007) is retro gaming at its finest.
6. Re:Wat by IronSight · 2012-01-21 19:31 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I think for me, gaming in the retro-ages were a bit more exciting since well, the social aspect is much different than it is today. For instance, I have fonder memories of playing games at the arcade or on the home console, in person with the other players. As in, we weren't playing with anonymous people we didn't know. We also had a certain code of conduct of how you acted when playing with friends or even people you didn't know at the arcade. You would show good sportsmanship (most of the time), something that you don't see online much of anymore. It was actually a healthy thing back in the days of the atari, nes, snes, n64 because you *were* being social. You were hanging out with your friends in front of the tv/arcade machine. Now it's practically anti-social. You lock yourself away in front of the tv or computer alone, you don't give a crap about the person you are playing with, and you hear nothing but people just being flat out rude. I think this is why things like the Wii sold so well. It encouraged family and friends to come together and play together. Bringing back that old social aspect. Parents playing with kids, kids playing with their friends, etc. A reason why people were all loving games like Guitar Hero/Rock Band was getting 4 friends in the same house playing together. Same with how successful the Halo lan parties used to be. A room full of people all playing at once brought much excitement. Like the Successful Daytona USA series having 2-8 arcade machines all linked together for some exciting competition with a room full of energy. Something that is missing today really with online gaming. The energy, the spark, the togetherness. Another thing that made the games exciting was back then, hardware was evolving FAST. Something that is pretty stagnant now. I mean, from the Nes/Master System to the Snes/Genesis/NeoGeo to the Playstation/N64/3DO/Saturn/CDX then to the PS2/Dreamcast/Xbox we saw HUGE advances in hardware and game quality, but the last few years have been pretty boring. PC wise it has been fun (6 core cpu's, 32gigs of ram in a system, 2-3 video cards in SLI, terrabytes of hard drive space, multiple monitor setups with huge resolution), but the games aren't coming out that utilize the full potential of such a system. So well, we just wait, bored, for the consoles to catch up so we can get some more ports, while they want to carry on with the same old hardware for another decade to save money on R&D. Every once in a while we get a gem like Skyrim or Rage to keep us busy for a week, then we sit bored again just playing some crappy mmo for a while.
7. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 19:39 · Score: 0
  
  Eh, I'd say only in so much as Battlefield is Wolfenstein 3d and Minecraft is lego.
8. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 20:36 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Nobody games on PCs anymore
  Nobody the whole internet on PCs anymore
9. Re:Wat by wanzeo · 2012-01-21 20:51 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  The major change I have seen is that games have gone from focusing on physical technique or strategy to focusing on the story. I place games like half life, mass effect, and homeworld on the same level as my favorite books or movies when it comes to an ability to move me emotionally.
  While I remember older arcade games from my childhood fondly, they lacked the narrative depth of more modern games, and were basically a challenging distraction. I sometimes wonder if the video game will become the 21st century's most distinctive art form.
10. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 23:01 · Score: 0
  
  Nobody games on PCs anymore
  Nobody the whole internet on PCs anymore
  Nobody game's on PCs anymore.
  Better now?
11. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 23:23 · Score: 0
  
  The major change I have seen is that games have gone from focusing on physical technique or strategy to focusing on the story.
  There's games in the SNES era that did this; that's maybe where the RPGs started to blossom. There were console RPGs before that, but they were usually pretty lacking, and less common.
  And the PC was always like that. Text adventure games, through clicky adventure games and CRPGs.
12. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 01:02 · Score: 0
  
  No, not by a long shot.
  Stop trying
13. Re:Wat by dissy · 2012-01-22 01:09 · Score: 2
  
  I'd love to see some definition of what made classic games more 'game' than things like Battlefield, Portal or Minecraft.
  Well that's simple. Elitism and snobbery!
  To those people, the definition of a game is pretty straight forward:
  "If I don't like it, then it is not a game at all"
  "If I do like it, and so do others, it is a pop game"
  "If I do like it, and others don't even know it exists, then it is a true game"
  Seems to fit perfectly with the GP comment too.
  Of course the true definition of a game is "Something you do to have fun or compete at"
  But don't let the game snobs hear you say it, you might get mauled ;}
14. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 01:50 · Score: 0
  
  I'd say Chrono Trigger was the first to merge Gameplay and Story successfully.
15. Re:Wat by Windwraith · 2012-01-22 01:58 · Score: 2
  
  Portal and Minecraft are very old-school games, the very example you reply to is wrong.
  What makes classic games classic? Emphasis on gameplay over anything else. Quick games you can start in less than 5 minutes without sitting through options or too much story. Yet complex enough to last a long time and relying on skill rather than invested time (except RPGs of course) (and as opposed to random, dime-a-dozen-note the emphasis, that means "not the good ones"- iOS/Android games that are extremely shallow). Minecraft exhibits such characteristics, Portal does, but also has a nice story on top at the same time (a brilliant game in short). Battlefield might not be my favorite title but it's pretty old-school if you think about it, it just happens to be mostly online stuff.
  But where Portal and such do it right, there are plenty of games where gameplay is a mere afterthought.
  Also those were the worst possible examples ever, really. I don't think any old-schooler/hardcore gamer can complain about Portal, and never saw it happening myself. I did see complaints about Minecraft but mostly because its former lack of an "end" (and I haven't seen any other complaint in that style since it got an actual End).
16. Re:Wat by Windwraith · 2012-01-22 02:28 · Score: 1
  
  I am what marketing calls a "harcore gamer". Honed in the days of 8 and 16 bits to today.
  I love games that are 2D/sprite-based, and miss many old classics, I dislike a lot of today's games, and I still play my old-time favorites, and still discover games from that time that I find excellent even after I grew old and grumpy.
  But man, those 3 you mention, are absolutely proper games.
  Minecraft is just not specially challenging, but you can find user-made maps that put gameplay as hardcore as it gets (Vechs' maps for example). Portal 2 is good gameplay and a great set of characters to enjoy, I'd consider it one of the best games ever. Battlefield, there isn't much if you aren't into online multiplayer, but I don't see why it's not a proper game anyway.
  If you want to put an example of bad games, use Skinner-box-based games, or those were there are only graphics and gameplay is crappy, or where the graphics are uniformly brown without offering much else, or shallow Mobile games that nobody wants to play twice (there can be good ones of course, but the average game is pretty shallow). Also the amount of shovelware that plagued the Wii and the late life of the DS count as pretty shitty games. Portal is definitely not one of those.
  The only thing that is consistently different from arcade-era games is a lack of difficulty (you can quicksave and/or continue without losing much time in most modern games), but I'd solve that with extra difficulty modes, that's what they are for.
17. Re:Wat by realityimpaired · 2012-01-22 03:34 · Score: 1
  
  Seiken Densetsu 2 (also known as Secret of Mana) came out 2 years before Chronotrigger... and there were games in the Final Fantasy series that did a really good job of that before the Seiken Densetsu series was even imagined. Dragon warrior, too. There were games on 8-bit Nintendo that had both good story line, and fun gameplay, and I'm pretty sure that if you went digging for them, you could find games that did a pretty good job on even older systems...
  Hell, I have fond memories of playing Riddle of the Sphinx on the Atari 2600, and enjoying both the storyline and the gameplay, and that game came out in 1982, fully 13 years before Chronotrigger....
18. Re:Wat by xhrit · 2012-01-22 04:11 · Score: 2
  
  Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was an open ended role playing game designed with an "ethically-nuanced, story-driven approach", and it came out in 1985 for the Apple II. The objective of the game is to lead a virtuous life, and become the spiritual leader of the world of Britannia.
  
  Yeah there are monsters and stuff, but all of the quests are ethical dilemmas and you get points for doing things like helping the poor...
  
  --
  Dungeon Tactics : Free Open Source SRPG
19. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 05:02 · Score: 0
  
  I love people like you who drink the Kool Aid and think you've all figured out.
  I can't possibly be that most of today's games unimaginative and just plain bad, people who have higher standards (the ones people like you love to call "hipsters", even thought it has nothing to do with that) are to blame.
20. Re:Wat by hairyfeet · 2012-01-22 05:19 · Score: 1
  
  Riiiight, lets just tell that to Gabe at Valve together shall we? "Hey Gabe, this AC says folks don't game on PCs no more, just FYI" Gabe "Wooohoo, I'm using this solid gold slide to jump in my swimming pool of money, I'm fricking Scrooge McDuck, Woohooo"...yeah i don't think Gabe looks all that upset. Considering they added capacity like crazy for the big Xmas sale and there were still plenty of "We're sorry, we have sooo many people trying to snatch these deals up things are jammed up, please hang on" messages i don't even wanna know how much cash went through that thing. i know i probably dropped a couple of hundred there easily snatching games and my boys got so many games i don't see them needing any new ones for at least 3-4 months.
  As for TFA, what advantages does this give me over Steam? And don't say "Free as in freedom" because i'm not a programmer and don't get a rat's ass about looking at code. How many games? What kind of services? Does it have chat and matchmaking? Sell it to me, what does it give me that Steam don't?
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
21. Re:Wat by CapOblivious2010 · 2012-01-22 05:21 · Score: 1
  
  some would argue that no one games anymore, period because modern 'games' are really little more interactive movies designed to create 'wow' moments as backdrops to social communication (audio chat mostly).
  Wait, so you're saying that games have evolved to the point that people are actually talking to one another? Ye gads, we can't have that! What's our society coming to?
  Back in the good old days, we played all alone in our parent's basements - like gaming is supposed to be!
22. Re:Wat by hairyfeet · 2012-01-22 05:39 · Score: 1
  
  Don't forget the Phantasy Star games on the sega, those had some pretty long engaging stories that had plenty of twists. As for as the switch from twitch gaming to today i think the key is finding the right balance between challenging and fun. take a game like ArmA for instance, sure its realistic as hell, but how many are gonna have fun crawling through the grass for 40 plus minutes to get to a position you can fire from that the enemy won't drill you a new asshole? Sure its realistic but that might be a little TOO realistic, on the flip side is what I call the "one man army" like FEAR and Far Cry which while fun, if one guy could slaughter THAT many dudes and walk out unscathed he'd be in some war lab being poked and probed trying to figure out WTH?
  But I'd say we also have to be able to look at the past without rose colored glasses. Sure the games at the arcade were entertaining at the time but looking back many of the games like Pleiades and Joust were nothing but a fancier Simon, rewarding memorization of patterns. Now we wants stories, characters we can enjoy, cool effects, give me a Just Cause II or HL 2 over the games of the past any day of the week, they are just more fun,at least to me.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
23. Re:Wat by Blakey+Rat · 2012-01-22 05:44 · Score: 1
  
  Then you have an extremely limited knowledge of games, and I pity you. Chrono Trigger came out in 1995. There was a entire decade of story-based games before it-- including gems like Another World, Prince of Persia (and its sequel), most of the Lucas Arts games...
  
  --
  Comment of the year
24. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 06:37 · Score: 0
  
  I place games like half life, mass effect, and homeworld on the same level as my favorite books or movies when it comes to an ability to move me emotionally.
  What the hell are you reading?
25. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 09:26 · Score: 0
  
  I was 100% in agreement with you, until you provided awful examples...
26. Re:Wat by mjwx · 2012-01-22 15:57 · Score: 1
  
  To those people, the definition of a game is pretty straight forward:
  "If I don't like it, then it is not a game at all"
  "If I do like it, and so do others, it is a pop game"
  "If I do like it, and others don't even know it exists, then it is a true game"
  Hipsters can be gamers too.
  
  --
  Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
27. Re:Wat by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 18:25 · Score: 0
  
  So in one breath you call them "unimaginative games" and in the next say those games are not games.
  How bout you make up your mind, clean up your English, and get back to us.
28. Re:Wat by delt0r · 2012-01-23 02:13 · Score: 1
  
  Linux... It gives you linux. Steam is not on linux yet if ever. There was a time i would reboot to windows to play games. I don't anymore. So these guys do get money out of me because i can get some linux games. Steam does not. However if they where to offer a linux client and had some of their games available on linux.....
  
  As for why OS is better? Well in this case it means linux distro devs can fix bugs and keep it working if they care enough.
  
  --
  If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
Cool, but what is this? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 17:59 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Yeah, I am not a gamer.
1. Re:Cool, but what is this? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 18:04 · Score: 0, Offtopic
  
  Yep, no one on Slashdot has time for games. Wrong place to advertise.
2. Re:Cool, but what is this? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 18:10 · Score: 0, Insightful
  
  On the plus side, we just ate the mod points of someone very angry.
I knew the lead developer on this project. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 18:12 · Score: 0

He eats shark fin soup and bad mouths microsoft in the same sentence, go figure.
1. Re:I knew the lead developer on this project. by Shark · 2012-01-22 06:04 · Score: 1
  
  What an evil bastard!
  
  --
  Mind the frickin' laser...
I'm guessing.... by tecker · 2012-01-21 18:16 · Score: 4, Insightful

Im guessing that they do want to support Linux as a platform but the maintenance of the thing is killing them. Linux gamers exist but for the small numbers they provide I but the upkeep of the client is killing them time wise. Open sourcing the client makes sense if this is the case, otherwise why bother?

--
Procrastinating life a way at a rapid rate of speed.
1. Re:I'm guessing.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 18:19 · Score: 1
  
  they've been able to manage to eek out a client with one developer working on it. opening it up to the community exposes it to much more support and improvement.
2. Re:I'm guessing.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 22:22 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Because this will get them more customers in the Linux segment?
  Distro maintainers and experienced users do often think of closed source not only as a security risk, but also as a maintenance nightmare. If Desura is open sourced and reasonably easy to compile, it WILL make it into many distro repositories.
  That and the potential to attract some useful contributions from game modders etc. sounds like the most likely motivation to me, really.
3. Re:I'm guessing.... by ornia · 2012-01-21 23:10 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Im guessing that they do want to support Linux as a platform but the maintenance of the thing is killing them. Linux gamers exist but for the small numbers they provide I but the upkeep of the client is killing them time wise. Open sourcing the client makes sense if this is the case, otherwise why bother?
  ...except that they released their Windows client under GPLv3 as well?
  
  With only a single developer being employed at the company for the native GNU+Linux port, of course the arguement can be made that they did a cost-benefit analysis and determined that crowd-sourcing development talent and time from the Internet would yield a superior product that improves faster. This is not a testament to small numbers of GNU+Linux users, but rather the efficiency of modern Free Software development methodologies. The fact that they GPLv3-ed their Windows client is further proof of this fact.
I play PC games by Osgeld · 2012-01-21 18:22 · Score: 0

Never got around to buying a HD tv and a 600 dollar (for the longest time) console
BUT, I just dont like download games
I have a sucky internet connection (comcast economy) , its far more convenient for me to go 5 min down the road and get a disc from walmart, I do have a few games, but shit like now I just reformatted my machine yesterday, and those few games are going to take quite a few all night sessions to download ... again, for the 4th time since I purchased them, just so I wont hog up the internet connection so no one in the house can use it
in the meantime while I gear up for my second night of downloading portal(1) I have already re-installed about 200 gigs worth of game shit from disc
1. Re:I play PC games by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 18:34 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  you can backup local game files in steam either manually or using their own backup function.
  steam is incredibly well built in this regard, you can even throw _some_ game files into the corresponding directory, and steam will recognize them and skip them for download...
  for example, i installed steam on wine on a linux partition, and then copied game files manually from a windows installation in the same box, and voila, steam did not complain about anything, and all games worked fine.
2. Re:I play PC games by Osgeld · 2012-01-21 19:18 · Score: 1
  
  yea but by the time I download it, archive it, use my discs .... is it really any less effort than driving to walmart and getting a boxed copy on a stamped disk?
3. Re:I play PC games by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 19:32 · Score: -1
  
  I have a sucky internet connection (comcast economy) , its far more convenient for me to go 5 min down the road and get a disc from walmart, I do have a few games, but shit like now I just reformatted my machine yesterday, and those few games are going to take quite a few all night sessions to download ... again, for the 4th time since I purchased them, just so I wont hog up the internet connection so no one in the house can use it
  in the meantime while I gear up for my second night of downloading portal(1) I have already re-installed about 200 gigs worth of game shit from disc
  You sound like one of the more loosely attached life support tubes hooked to PC gaming. Unless you utterly lack a living room, just switch and be much happier.
  
  Never got around to buying a HD tv and a 600 dollar (for the longest time) console
  So what is the reasoning NOW? Again, you don't sound terribly attached... PC gaming does not cater to people like you anymore, the retail space is almost gone, and I bet you'll go through consoles at less than half the rate you rebuild your PC. I mean the choice it yours, so do whatever, ride the death spiral all the way to the end if you want.
4. Re:I play PC games by gmhowell · 2012-01-21 20:10 · Score: 2
  
  yea but by the time I download it, archive it, use my discs .... is it really any less effort than driving to walmart and getting a boxed copy on a stamped disk?
  It depends on how drunk/stoned you are.
  
  --
  Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
5. Re:I play PC games by badboy_tw2002 · 2012-01-21 20:49 · Score: 1
  
  600? Really? I know your trying to make a point but making up shit just makes you sound dumb. Its been 4 or more years since the highest end ps3 was 600, and youve been able to get an xbox for under 200 for 3 or so. If walmart is just 5 minutes away you should know this.
6. Re:I play PC games by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 00:35 · Score: 0
  
  yea but by the time I download it, archive it, use my discs .... is it really any less effort than driving to walmart and getting a boxed copy on a stamped disk?
  If you are competent at using your computer; yes, of course it is (I only have 1.5Mb DSL myself). Though you seem to be using DVDs for backups when HD prices have been as low per GB, so you may not be the brightest LED in the matrix if you know what I mean.
7. Re:I play PC games by yahwotqa · 2012-01-22 00:59 · Score: 1
  
  So, you're not their target audience. Move on.
8. Re:I play PC games by Briareos · 2012-01-22 03:35 · Score: 1
  
  yea but by the time I download it, archive it, use my discs .... is it really any less effort than driving to walmart and getting a boxed copy on a stamped disk?
  Opening up Windows explorer, navigating to the steamapps folder then dragging the copied folder of the game I want to re-install from my NAS into the steamapps folder over gigabit ethernet is exactly how more effort than driving somewhere, buying something and installing that from several discs?
  Are you serious?
  np: Pink Floyd - Have A Cigar (Wish You Were Here)
  
  --
  "I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
9. Re:I play PC games by Osgeld · 2012-01-22 07:34 · Score: 1
  
  fine give me about 2 grand for a HD tv and a xbox, until then shut the fuck up if you have nothing to contribute
10. Re:I play PC games by Osgeld · 2012-01-22 07:35 · Score: 1
  
  fine give me 200 bucks for something I obiously dont care about, to me its not worth the money to pay 200 bucks for a 2004 computer
Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by spektre1 · 2012-01-21 18:47 · Score: 4, Informative

Or anything else, other than a surrender of a right, and a public sharing of it. A bit testimonial sounding here, so I apologize, but this is a doorway to getting game developers to start taking linux seriously. I just started using the Desura client and found that it runs faster on Ubuntu than on Windows. Just sayin'. Installing and purchasing are painless too. If you game, I wish you'd help promote it. Take it seriously and try not to be so flippant and judgemental. I'm going back to porting one of my projects to SDL now.
1. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 19:12 · Score: -1
  
  Linux shill!!!1
  If there ever was one...
2. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by emilper · 2012-01-21 21:20 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  just installed Desura:
  + had my Humble Bundle games in my account
  + Fallout 1 is in their list
  + very easy to install the games
  - Fallout 1 is more expensive than on GOG ...
  - trouble with two monitors: the few games I tried see them as only one in full screen
  - yeah, 1€ = 1$ ... come on, guys, really ?
3. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by jawtheshark · 2012-01-21 22:14 · Score: 2
  
  1$ = 1€ has been standard for everything electronics and software, ever since the dollar became weak. Be glad you're not living in the UK where it is 1$ = 1£. I don't like it either, but non Dollar users are second class world citizens.
  What the Desura client concerns: first thing to fix is that it gets installed multi-user in a correct way. Then it's up to the Distro maintainers to package it correctly and put it in their reporitories.
  
  --
  Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
4. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 01:27 · Score: -1
  
  1$ = 1€ has been standard for everything electronics and software, ever since the dollar became weak.
  Not sure if trolling or ignorant...
  
  Be glad you're not living in the UK where it is 1$ = 1£.
  Oh. Ignorant, very ignorant.
5. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by Blakey+Rat · 2012-01-22 05:41 · Score: 2
  
  I just started using the Desura client and found that it runs faster on Ubuntu than on Windows.
  What the...
  What does that have to do with anything? So I'm going to switch from Steam, or GOG, or whatever because Desura "runs faster"? What does "runs faster" even mean in this context?
  Look, when I'm picking a game purchasing platform, I can guarantee you that "runs faster" is pretty much the last thing I care about.
  
  Take it seriously and try not to be so flippant and judgemental.
  I'm tryin' but your post ain't helpin'!
  
  --
  Comment of the year
6. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by spektre1 · 2012-01-22 09:02 · Score: 1
  
  Yah, it was. I was a bit distracted when writing that, so I apologize. I only meant by "run faster" that it feels way snappier than on other platforms I had tried it on, which matters to me because I hate bad UIs. I deal with enough of those at work.
7. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by mgiuca · 2012-01-22 17:53 · Score: 1
  
  As a Linux user, it's become pretty hard for me to take Linux gaming seriously since Nvidia launched Optimus and left us Linux users out in the cold. I just bought a new laptop with an Nvidia card and I had no idea what I was getting myself into: even simple 2D games run sluggishly on my brand new $400 graphics card in Linux, because it falls back to the Intel integrated card and there appears to be no way to get the real graphics card to work without booting Windows. I've lost all respect for Nvidia, but more importantly, it looks like I won't be playing any more games in Linux until I buy another new computer in a couple of years. :(
8. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by delt0r · 2012-01-23 02:17 · Score: 1
  
  Why do you need to switch? I think you can use both.... If Desura has a game you really want, you don't have to dump all your steam games.
  
  --
  If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
9. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by delt0r · 2012-01-23 02:21 · Score: 1
  
  ?? what? I have many linux boxes here with a range of nvidia cards. They all run at about the correct speed. As in at full speed with the expected performance you would get in windows.
  
  Of course many of the mobile cards do have low expected performance... and are not cheap either. You pay for small or power saving it seems... But then laptops are not really where high performance gaming is at regardless of OS.
  
  --
  If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
10. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-23 12:54 · Score: 0
  
  A straight Nvidia card isn't the same as a Nvidia/Optimus config. There are ways to get Optimus to work but for right now it is pretty painful. You are pretty much stuck with using the Intel graphics on the Core chip for now. The Optimus is a passthrough design and isn't support (yet) under Linux. (http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html)
11. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by mgiuca · 2012-01-23 13:10 · Score: 1
  
  But do your Nvidia cards have Optimus? My previous laptop (bought in late 2007) had an Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB, and that played games pretty well on Windows and Linux (but it was starting to get a bit old so I bought a new one). This laptop (bought in late 2011) has an Nvidia GeForce 540M 2GB, and it runs fine on Windows, abysmally on Linux. I haven't played any serious 3D games, but 2D games like Braid and Jamestown are sluggish, and I've tried my own (poorly optimised) 3D game and it runs at half the framerate as on my four year old hardware.
  The reason is that the GeForce 540M (and all new Nvidia cards) have two video cards built in -- one "integrated" Intel video card and one serious Nvidia card. On Linux, it will always use the integrated one, because Optimus is not supported. I have installed Bumblebee and I am aware that people have reported success getting the Nvidia card working, but so far I haven't managed to get it going (and I've been told on this particular model that it is impossible to get it to display to the laptop display; it is only possible to get the Nvidia graphics working via the HDMI output). Anyway, not asking for tech support, just a warning.
12. Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-31 07:37 · Score: 0
  
  I think it is the publisher who set prices across regions. Steam and others all have problems with 1€=1$
  http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=770231&highlight=%221%80%3D1%24%22
  http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2317501&highlight=%221%80%3D1%24%22
  http://steamcommunity.com/groups/1eu1us
eke out a client by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 18:58 · Score: 1

eek out a mouse
Swapping Discs by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 19:26 · Score: 1

It's less effort than constantly having to stick/swap discs in the DVD-Rom drive every time I want to play a game...

yea but by the time I download it, archive it, use my discs .... is it really any less effort than driving to walmart and getting a boxed copy on a stamped disk?
I think I understand by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 20:05 · Score: 0

This is a place where the distribution groups can get the latest updates before they release the real version on TPB
Qt by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-21 20:40 · Score: 1

I can't wait for the far superior fork that utilises Qt instead of GTK!
1. Re:Qt by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 22:49 · Score: 0
  
  Because limiting yourself to KDE users is somehow superior?
2. Re:Qt by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-23 01:35 · Score: 0
  
  Using Qt does not limit you to KDE users any more than using GTK limits you to Gnome users.
Humble Console Bundles? by tepples · 2012-01-22 01:03 · Score: 2

You sound like one of the more loosely attached life support tubes hooked to PC gaming. Unless you utterly lack a living room, just switch and be much happier.
Let me know when the Humble Bundles hit the consoles.
1. Re:Humble Console Bundles? by CronoCloud · 2012-01-22 03:06 · Score: 1
  
  A few of the games from the bundles, have had console releases.
  But really, no one gives a fuck about indie gaming...they say they do for geek cred, but the majority run out and buy the newest "call of the battlefield of resistance honor" when it comes out. No one really wants puzzle clones designed by some well meaning aspie dude living in his grandma's basement. They want games with REAL art, that that will require a team, perhaps a small team, but the days when 1 guy in a garage could effectively compete are over. And if any of those indie teams are smart, they'll sign a deal with a bigger dev house or publishing house ASAP if they're any good.
  Sure Minecraft may have been downloaded X amount of times, but how many of those just got it because of the hype, messed with it a bit, and never touched it again.
2. Re:Humble Console Bundles? by drinkypoo · 2012-01-22 04:45 · Score: 1
  
  What you say is true but I for one do not buy new games because they cost too much. I do buy indie games when they are very good, which is more about working correctly without me having to dick with anything than about the nice art. On the other hand, I won't pay for something like minecraft because it's too conceptually simple. If more people would work on minetest we wouldn't need minecraft :)
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Value added tax difference by tepples · 2012-01-22 01:05 · Score: 2

yeah, 1€ = 1$ ... come on, guys, really ?
Prices expressed in € generally include VAT. Prices expressed in $ generally do not; sales tax is either added as a line item (for sales in person or mail order sales within one state) or payable to the state government at the end of the year (for interstate mail order sales).
1. Re:Value added tax difference by Hognoxious · 2012-01-22 03:45 · Score: 2
  
  For a long time it was the case that a CD selling in the US at $10 would be Â£10 in the UK. At the exchange rates back then that's more like $15, and VAT isn't 50%.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Bitch please... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 01:58 · Score: 1

Baldurs Gate
Never Heard of It by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 02:34 · Score: 1

I've never heard of this company or its games and "client" before. Can someone please explain what exactly the open sourced software does? Is it anything of value or is it simply a portal through which you fill the company's pockets, a la Valves Steam client?
I hate to sound negative about any software being open sourced, but so many companies use open sourcing as a marketing ploy or as a way to cut thier support costs, so I'm always suspicious about ones I've never heard of before.
1. Re:Never Heard of It by tenco · 2012-01-22 03:37 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I hate to sound negative about any software being open sourced, but so many companies use open sourcing as a marketing ploy or as a way to cut thier support costs, (...)
  Companies use business practices and marketing to increase their revenue? Run for the hills!
2. Re:Never Heard of It by Barbariandude · 2012-01-22 09:07 · Score: 1
  
  Major differences between it and steam: 1) Major emphasis on independently produced games 2) Linux support 3) Inbuilt mod support It is made by the same people who run indiedb.com and moddb.com. It allows the creators of mods to quickly and easily reach people, it allows developers of games that have a linux version to easily and simply target every distro (rather than just Ubuntu with the Ubuntu Software Center, for example) and it gives independent developers a quick and easy way of getting their games on a major platform. The disadvantage, compared to steam, is they have a comparatively tiny selection of AAA titles.
I like it by Georules · 2012-01-22 03:59 · Score: 2

... but why did the user interface have to be a blatant rip-off of the steam platform? Could they not think of a different color palette at least?
1. Re:I like it by yeshuawatso · 2012-01-22 16:23 · Score: 1
  
  Simple business decision. If the biggest cost of moving to a new platform is usability, then it would make sense to copy the competing platform to reduce the learning curve. Furthermore, hardcore gamers tend to go for the carbon, black, grey look more often than most. Personally, I've never understood why everything including the window shell has to be some form of black polished metal, but I don't use all of my free time gaming either.
2. Re:I like it by Georules · 2012-01-23 03:06 · Score: 1
  
  I'd say this business decision is flawed. Most every gamer friend I have looks at it and thinks it's just a rip-off of steam. They dismiss it before they realize it offers a lot of interesting products steam doesn't have.
It makes sense... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-22 04:17 · Score: 0

There's probably a lot more Linux expertise in the Open Source world than in the private sector. Having said that, having a few paid Dev's for the Linux client would be preferable. Do the dollars not justify it? Only Desura could say. But, as a Linux gamer, and if the Humble Bundles are any indication, I would think it's justified. To me it seems like a lame excuse to say you support Linux.
The answer, IMHO, would be to develop a client that works on the major distro's (Ubuntu, Suse) and is supported. Then make the code open source so the community can develop off-shoots that workk with other distro's like Mint, Chakra, Arch, Debian, etc. etc. To me, this is a great compromise. Trying to make a client that works universally with all distros is just not feasable.
Does anyone else agree?
DRM? by mgiuca · 2012-01-22 16:27 · Score: 1

I'm not too familiar with this platform, but a quick browse of the site shows that the client supports some kind of DRM (if nothing else, their developer page lists "Check player authentication (are they allowed to play the game / banned)" under API Integration). Wouldn't open-sourcing the client allow anybody to produce a version that ignored any DRM checks in the client?
When you open source a game, I suppose it's your choice as the developer. But when you open source a content delivery platform, doesn't that affect all the other publishers? (I'm no fan of DRM, but I'm just wondering how this open source changes the nature of the platform.)
1. Re:DRM? by aiht · 2012-01-22 17:07 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know the details of the implementation, but I'm pretty sure that any DRM could be included as part of the game, rather than the client (which, in case you're not familiar with it, is basically just a GUI shell for purchasing, downloading and launching games).
  Open-sourcing the Desura client itself would not necessarily impact any libraries that are linked into the games, even if those libraries were also provided by Desura.
  Actually, even if they open-sourced the DRM library itself, the games you download will still be compiled (presumably statically) with their own original copy of the library - so, to circumvent the DRM, you'd have to patch the game to use your own modified DRM code, just as you would had nothing been open-sourced.
2. Re:DRM? by mgiuca · 2012-01-22 17:42 · Score: 1
  
  Aha. Good explanation (especially about the static linking).
  If they did open source the DRM library as you say, it would still be a risk -- presumably if you have the source code to a statically linked library, it is not too difficult to recompile a given function and then hack it into the executable. But then, all client-side DRM is susceptible to hacking, and this would make it non-trivial to do so.