This gives me another reason to recommend AMD/ATI over nVidia. The first one being that nVidia refuses to release their card specs, unlike AMD and Intel.
It's all about the time/cost/market share thing. Until Linux has a larger market share it's not worth the cost of developing games for Linux. Mainly though because most studios have their DX toolchain and developers without masses of Linux experience.
It's not even about the DirectX API either, it's about the IDEs, the HLSL/GLSL shader ones aswell as the C++ ones, it's about Photoshop and 3DS Max and whatever audio applications they use. Until there is a better alternative on Linux (and it has to be better, no studio is gonna change for "the same") then we are pretty fucked when it comes to commercial games for the most part. I hate the idea of developing for a single platform (not just in games, but generally).
Cross-platform games aren't that much harder to write. DirectX is a small part of any decent engine, everything is abstracted away like crazy. SDL/OpenGL/OpenAL can do pretty much anything that DX can do, in some cases even more (read geometry shaders on XP).
So basically the technology is there to write a totally cross-platform game just as easily. It's down to the toolchain and the cost of changing from what they are used to. The only thing that will force that switch is a greater non-Windows market share. Unfortunately, we are stuck in the catch-22 where 90% of the people I recommend Linux to stop listening when I tell them that they can't just go into a shop and buy a game and expect it to run. My hopes lie with Wine, once Wine is 99% compatible then the Windows specific toolchain won't matter any more.
Okay, I stoppped buying Microsoft products in 1996 at Windows 95.
How does their version count work?
Windows 3.1 = Windows 3.x Windows 95 = Windows 4.x? Windows 98 = Windows 4.x? 5.x? Windows ME = Windows 4.x? 6.x? Windows NT = Windows 4.x? 7.x? Did I miss any? Windows XP = Windows 5.x? 8.x? Windows Vista = Windows 6.x? 9.x? Windows 7? = Windows X? My guess is that they are counting NT as a server OS not a desktop OS, in which case Windows 7 is the 7th desktop version going by your list.
I actually knew straight away where the problem was in that code, but only because I have ingrained in me that size() is unsigned thanks to the warnings from GCC (try writing a for loop that uses an int as the loop variable, and compare with something.size() as the condition). The header file thing is because it doesn't specify in the standard which header files an STL implementation must include from another header (e.g iostream is *likely* include istream, but then again it might not). It might work on your compilers implementation, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will work on another.
That is slightly different, firstly Apple make the hardware as well as the software and bundle it as the complete product. The don't pretty much pay manufacturers to distribute their OS. Secondly, Apple is not a monopoly, Microsoft is.
...is to ban the bundling of Windows with new PCs. If the customer wants Windows they should pay for it separately as an entity in itself and preferably with a choice between other operating systems.
the Department of Information Systems at Eotvos University in Hungary is working to adapt that thinking to more modern titles. Besides Ms. Pac-Man, game like Tetris and Baldur's Gate...
I really have to cut down on what I drink, I've woken up in the 80s again.
I think we need to cut Bill some slack as he rides off into the sunset. No one can dispute the impact that Microsoft and Gates has had on the world of computers and technology in general. Yeh but is that a good impact? If Bill didn't get there first someone else would have taken his place and how do we know if Microsoft and Windows didn't make it, we wouldn't be far more ahead technologically now than we are?
I'm writing this while on my other monitor I'm wasting (another) half an hour implementing an iframe/javascript hack so that this pop-up menu will work in IE6... I'm not convinced Microsoft has done us good overall, if only I could see that alternative timeline where Bill decided that he wanted to go backpacking around the world rather than sit in front of a monitor.
SDL + OpenGL + OpenAL + OpenTNL (or HawkNL) + ODE + DevIL + FreeType. There you go, Windowing + Input + Threading, Graphics, Sound, Networking, Physics, Texture loading and Fonts all with a similar syntax (i.e. glEnable, alInit etc.) all also aim to be cross-platform and importantly, all bind together really well and will compile on pretty much any modern Linux distro, Windows or Mac OS. Of course Microsoft provides math functions (but honestly.. you only need to write a math lib once and there are plenty free ones out there anyway). Write a game using those libraries and you hardly need to do anything to make it completely cross-platform (just file paths *cough*boost-filesystem*cough* and a few other bits and pieces).
There are 2 reasons Microsoft has a hold on the games market:
1. They provided a decent, well-supported solution first (well by the time they got to DX7 or 8 anyway) 2. Big games developers can't just change the way they work without a very VERY good reason.
The only way we can expect a shift in Linux support in games is if Linux market share gets to about 20% and ATI/nVidia really start supporting open source drivers properly so Linux drivers can as fast (if not faster) than the Windows ones. It will happen... it'll just take time.
The numbering system in Ubuntu is based on year, month of release (e.g 7.10) Obviously in development no-one knows if they are going to meet the deadline or miss it like they did with 6.06. This is the reason that the code names are used.
To make it clearer, development has just started on Hardy Heron, or what is likely to be known as 8.04. To start development the Ubuntu devs create repositories named after the codename (e.g. Hardy). If they used 8.04 and the deadline was missed and the release was actually 8.06 they wouldn't easily be able to change the repositories and other stuff.
The names are just code names, after release the number is the identifier that is used by Ubuntu (see if you can see 'Gutsy' on the Ubuntu.com front page, it's not there) its just usually the the code-names stick it peoples' minds.
So to sum up, the code names are there for a perfectly logical reason, and the animal thing is just a consistent naming theme that was chosen.
Some of the complaints in the article are valid. Sound applet crashing for example. However, most of these things don't come in a default Windows install either, they are things that Dell installs extra.
For example DVD playing is NOT in a default Windows install, it might be in a shipped DELL Windows PC however. Also, Windows downloads codecs automatically too, (I'm not sure why there is a criticism here). Obviously the recognizing of the iPod is a fault of Ubuntu. But not being able to sync with it... well.. does it say on the iPod packaging that Linux is supported? Surely the complaint should be with Apple? Judging from Apple's recent actions I doubt Linux support is one of their priorities.
The way I see it most of the complaints can be easily solved by DELL: 1. Pre-load Banshee instead of Rhythmbox. Banshee syncs iPods amazingly well, of course this means a custom Ubuntu build though. 2. Install the restricted codecs before shipping. 3. Pay someone so they can legally install the DVD codec stuff (I don't know the details of the law but surely there is some way they can ship this) 4. Install that touchpad control that was mentioned earlier in the comments
That fixes all but the 2 minor bugs (applet and recognizing of the camera/ipod) both of which are probably fixed now, or will be in Gutsy.
It takes time to switch, and to find comparable applications. Then you need to figure out if you can even keep things like your documents, your finances, etc. There's also added support costs, in time and / or money.
How is that any different to the upgrade to Vista?
At least if you switch to Ubuntu or something your software is free, your support is free and if you are still stuck there is the option of paying for support. OK there is more of a learning curve but it's a small price to pay when you are saving so many £££s.
Indeed. We may have won the battle, but the war isn't over.
What is particularly interesting about the result is the "new" members of the voting body (you know the ones that don't normally voted but suspiciously wanted to this time) all voted for YES. Its obvious Microsoft has been bribing voters, surely this won't go unnoticed by the heads of ISO? Perhaps it's time the changed the rules to prevent this happening again?
Slashdot Mirror
This gives me another reason to recommend AMD/ATI over nVidia. The first one being that nVidia refuses to release their card specs, unlike AMD and Intel.
You can also demonstrate type mismatches by putting a picture in a box and then ask a student what it means to 'add 1 to a picture'.
My teacher at college explained this by using an egg box as an array... then telling us to store a banana in it ;)
Download winetricks then run:
sh winetricks dotnet11 dotnet20
Bingo. .NET under wine.
It's all about the time/cost/market share thing. Until Linux has a larger market share it's not worth the cost of developing games for Linux. Mainly though because most studios have their DX toolchain and developers without masses of Linux experience.
It's not even about the DirectX API either, it's about the IDEs, the HLSL/GLSL shader ones aswell as the C++ ones, it's about Photoshop and 3DS Max and whatever audio applications they use. Until there is a better alternative on Linux (and it has to be better, no studio is gonna change for "the same") then we are pretty fucked when it comes to commercial games for the most part. I hate the idea of developing for a single platform (not just in games, but generally).
Cross-platform games aren't that much harder to write. DirectX is a small part of any decent engine, everything is abstracted away like crazy. SDL/OpenGL/OpenAL can do pretty much anything that DX can do, in some cases even more (read geometry shaders on XP).
So basically the technology is there to write a totally cross-platform game just as easily. It's down to the toolchain and the cost of changing from what they are used to. The only thing that will force that switch is a greater non-Windows market share. Unfortunately, we are stuck in the catch-22 where 90% of the people I recommend Linux to stop listening when I tell them that they can't just go into a shop and buy a game and expect it to run. My hopes lie with Wine, once Wine is 99% compatible then the Windows specific toolchain won't matter any more.
In Cowboy Neal's basement?
"We'll be back soon...
Due to overwhelming interest, our Cuil servers are running a bit hot right now. The search engine is momentarily unavailable as we add more capacity.
Thanks for your patience."
Hmm, something tells me Google probably aren't THAT worried.
See your nearest vampire/zombie movie theater for more information about this procedure...
Is that a movie theater run by vampires and zombies, or a theater run for vampire and zombie patrons? ;)
How does their version count work?
Windows 3.1 = Windows 3.x
Windows 95 = Windows 4.x?
Windows 98 = Windows 4.x? 5.x?
Windows ME = Windows 4.x? 6.x?
Windows NT = Windows 4.x? 7.x?
Did I miss any?
Windows XP = Windows 5.x? 8.x?
Windows Vista = Windows 6.x? 9.x?
Windows 7? = Windows X? My guess is that they are counting NT as a server OS not a desktop OS, in which case Windows 7 is the 7th desktop version going by your list.
I actually knew straight away where the problem was in that code, but only because I have ingrained in me that size() is unsigned thanks to the warnings from GCC (try writing a for loop that uses an int as the loop variable, and compare with something.size() as the condition). The header file thing is because it doesn't specify in the standard which header files an STL implementation must include from another header (e.g iostream is *likely* include istream, but then again it might not). It might work on your compilers implementation, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will work on another.
That is slightly different, firstly Apple make the hardware as well as the software and bundle it as the complete product. The don't pretty much pay manufacturers to distribute their OS. Secondly, Apple is not a monopoly, Microsoft is.
...is to ban the bundling of Windows with new PCs. If the customer wants Windows they should pay for it separately as an entity in itself and preferably with a choice between other operating systems.
it said Santa was building a super computer :)
Here: http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:KUKtLm1iDokJ:kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_24+http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_24&hl=en&client=firefox-a&gl=uk&strip=1
the Department of Information Systems at Eotvos University in Hungary is working to adapt that thinking to more modern titles. Besides Ms. Pac-Man, game like Tetris and Baldur's Gate...
I really have to cut down on what I drink, I've woken up in the 80s again.
I'm writing this while on my other monitor I'm wasting (another) half an hour implementing an iframe/javascript hack so that this pop-up menu will work in IE6... I'm not convinced Microsoft has done us good overall, if only I could see that alternative timeline where Bill decided that he wanted to go backpacking around the world rather than sit in front of a monitor.
#include <iostream>
//Gets your frustration level
using namespace std;
#include "windowshelper.h"
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
switch(getWindowsVersion()) {
case WIN95: cout << "HIGH" << endl; break;
case WIN98: cout << "HIGH" << endl; break;
case WIN2k: cout << "MEDIUM" << endl; break;
case WINXP: cout << "HIGH" << endl; break;
case WINVISTA: cout << "VERY HIGH" << endl; break;
case WINME: cout << "OH FUCK!" << endl; break;
};
}
SDL + OpenGL + OpenAL + OpenTNL (or HawkNL) + ODE + DevIL + FreeType. There you go, Windowing + Input + Threading, Graphics, Sound, Networking, Physics, Texture loading and Fonts all with a similar syntax (i.e. glEnable, alInit etc.) all also aim to be cross-platform and importantly, all bind together really well and will compile on pretty much any modern Linux distro, Windows or Mac OS. Of course Microsoft provides math functions (but honestly.. you only need to write a math lib once and there are plenty free ones out there anyway). Write a game using those libraries and you hardly need to do anything to make it completely cross-platform (just file paths *cough*boost-filesystem*cough* and a few other bits and pieces).
There are 2 reasons Microsoft has a hold on the games market:
1. They provided a decent, well-supported solution first (well by the time they got to DX7 or 8 anyway)
2. Big games developers can't just change the way they work without a very VERY good reason.
The only way we can expect a shift in Linux support in games is if Linux market share gets to about 20% and ATI/nVidia really start supporting open source drivers properly so Linux drivers can as fast (if not faster) than the Windows ones. It will happen... it'll just take time.
Yes, I mentioned that and explained why. The repositories are the only place (that I know of) where they use the name.
The numbering system in Ubuntu is based on year, month of release (e.g 7.10) Obviously in development no-one knows if they are going to meet the deadline or miss it like they did with 6.06. This is the reason that the code names are used.
To make it clearer, development has just started on Hardy Heron, or what is likely to be known as 8.04. To start development the Ubuntu devs create repositories named after the codename (e.g. Hardy). If they used 8.04 and the deadline was missed and the release was actually 8.06 they wouldn't easily be able to change the repositories and other stuff.
The names are just code names, after release the number is the identifier that is used by Ubuntu (see if you can see 'Gutsy' on the Ubuntu.com front page, it's not there) its just usually the the code-names stick it peoples' minds.
So to sum up, the code names are there for a perfectly logical reason, and the animal thing is just a consistent naming theme that was chosen.
Some of the complaints in the article are valid. Sound applet crashing for example. However, most of these things don't come in a default Windows install either, they are things that Dell installs extra.
For example DVD playing is NOT in a default Windows install, it might be in a shipped DELL Windows PC however. Also, Windows downloads codecs automatically too, (I'm not sure why there is a criticism here). Obviously the recognizing of the iPod is a fault of Ubuntu. But not being able to sync with it... well.. does it say on the iPod packaging that Linux is supported? Surely the complaint should be with Apple? Judging from Apple's recent actions I doubt Linux support is one of their priorities.
The way I see it most of the complaints can be easily solved by DELL:
1. Pre-load Banshee instead of Rhythmbox. Banshee syncs iPods amazingly well, of course this means a custom Ubuntu build though.
2. Install the restricted codecs before shipping.
3. Pay someone so they can legally install the DVD codec stuff (I don't know the details of the law but surely there is some way they can ship this)
4. Install that touchpad control that was mentioned earlier in the comments
That fixes all but the 2 minor bugs (applet and recognizing of the camera/ipod) both of which are probably fixed now, or will be in Gutsy.
Honestly, half the people commenting just seem to think that Microsoft is a happy happy fairy that blesses the worlds computers with magic pixie dust.
2 words. 'Illegal' 'Monopoly'
It takes time to switch, and to find comparable applications. Then you need to figure out if you can even keep things like your documents, your finances, etc. There's also added support costs, in time and / or money. How is that any different to the upgrade to Vista? At least if you switch to Ubuntu or something your software is free, your support is free and if you are still stuck there is the option of paying for support. OK there is more of a learning curve but it's a small price to pay when you are saving so many £££s.
Sorry my mistake. Even still that's a hell of a high percentage to be voting Yes.
Indeed. We may have won the battle, but the war isn't over.
What is particularly interesting about the result is the "new" members of the voting body (you know the ones that don't normally voted but suspiciously wanted to this time) all voted for YES. Its obvious Microsoft has been bribing voters, surely this won't go unnoticed by the heads of ISO? Perhaps it's time the changed the rules to prevent this happening again?
What I'd really like to see is something like Project Builder/Xcode or Visual Studio for Linux.
Two words... Code Blocks