Before you can hope for a "Golden Age of Linux Gaming" I think you first have to aspire to "Dark Ages of Linux Gaming".
If all game developers woke up tomorrow and collectively threw away DirectX in favor of OpenGL, they still would have little incentive to port the game over to Linux. They'd have three possible markets: Windows users which comprise the vast vast vast vast majority, Apple users which though sizable are nowhere near a prevalent as Windows boxes, and everyone on/. -- well, at least the ones that don't have a Windows of Apple box.
Linux's greatest enemy isn't Microsoft, but Linux itself. The fact that Linux users pride themselves on having to mess with the arcane alchemies of the OS is part of the problem. Linux is the anti-Apple. By in large, a Mac just works. Everything is simple and easy. Windows not as much as Apple, but it's very much there. For someone to use Linux and have it "just work" requires them to have a lot of experience with that OS.
So before you worry about the Golden Age of Linux Gaming, maybe you better work on the Golden Age of Linux Desktops.
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Before you can hope for a "Golden Age of Linux Gaming" I think you first have to aspire to "Dark Ages of Linux Gaming".
/. -- well, at least the ones that don't have a Windows of Apple box.
If all game developers woke up tomorrow and collectively threw away DirectX in favor of OpenGL, they still would have little incentive to port the game over to Linux. They'd have three possible markets: Windows users which comprise the vast vast vast vast majority, Apple users which though sizable are nowhere near a prevalent as Windows boxes, and everyone on
Linux's greatest enemy isn't Microsoft, but Linux itself. The fact that Linux users pride themselves on having to mess with the arcane alchemies of the OS is part of the problem. Linux is the anti-Apple. By in large, a Mac just works. Everything is simple and easy. Windows not as much as Apple, but it's very much there. For someone to use Linux and have it "just work" requires them to have a lot of experience with that OS.
So before you worry about the Golden Age of Linux Gaming, maybe you better work on the Golden Age of Linux Desktops.