reality check [LWN.net]

reality check

Posted Jun 6, 2008 19:21 UTC (Fri) by elanthis (subscriber, #6227)
In reply to: Acer likes Linux for laptops (c|net) by pr1268
Parent article: Acer likes Linux for laptops (c|net)

Most real home users are sticking with XP over Vista because of compatibility with old
software, mostly games.

What makes people think that "people want to stick with XP for legacy software compatibility
reasons" in any way translates to "people will want to switch to the even-less compatible
Linux rather than Vista" ?

I know it's really hard for most Linux users to grasp the importance of gaming to regular PC
users, given that Linux users are essentially forced to give up PC gaming in order to BE Linux
users. (And I doubt many of you use Wine/Cedega to play games -- and those of you that have
will know that they don't come anywhere close to good enough in terms of software support.)

14% of all game sales are PC games:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/01/30/pc_game_sales_con...

Games like the Sims have sold 50 million copies (that's the Sims itself, not the whole
franchise, with is over 100 million) -- think how many active users that must result in who
have no interest in any OS unless it offers 100% seamless compatibility with the Sims, Sim2,
and all its expansions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_g...

Real-world people don't care about Linux. Real-world people don't care about OPERATING
SYSTEMS. They care about the applications they want to run. XP isn't popular because of XP
itself, it's popular because it has a HUGE library of software that people want to run. It
was popular when it first released because (for the most part) it has excellent compatibility
with the library of Win9x software (although you'd be really surprised how many people stuck
with Win95 or Win98 for years in order to retain good DOS application compatibility). XP is
more popular than Vista because XP is more compatible with all that legacy software than Vista
is, and it's WAY more compatible with all that legacy software than Linux is likely ever going
to be.

Until I can take the CD for all of the top 20 best-selling PC games, stick the disk in the
drive, have the auto-run window pop up, get the installer to run without hiccup to completion,
get game updaters/patchers running with no need for a terminal window, and start the game with
no bugs or glitches... until then, Linux is the definition of "fail" to the home user market.

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reality check

Posted Jun 10, 2008 20:18 UTC (Tue) by mikov (subscriber, #33179) [Link]

I think the point is that *only* 14% of game sales are PC games. The vast majority of games are played on consoles. So in fact the importance of PC gaming is lessening, which is good for Linux.

Only in the short term. The decline of PC gaming is very bad for the PC, and consequently it is very bad for Linux too.

There may soon come a time where we will have to purchase extremely expensive "development workstations", simply because there will be no market for PCs. All the bases will be covered by smart phones and game consoles. Unfortunately those devices are static and proprietary.

reality check

Posted Jun 6, 2008 21:52 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

Until I can take the CD for all of the top 20 best-selling PC games, stick the disk in the drive, have the auto-run window pop up, get the installer to run without hiccup to completion, get game updaters/patchers running with no need for a terminal window, and start the game with no bugs or glitches... until then, Linux is the definition of "fail" to the home user market.

Interesting. By your logic Mac and eeePC should be definition of "fail" to the home user market - but reality is quite different. Note: with Mac you ONLY have a choice of ONE supplier with very limited number of models and eeePC was more-or-less single model for a long time - yet the platforms are alive and well. So while games ARE important they are not THAT important...

reality check check

Posted Jun 7, 2008 18:10 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

Computer users in my extended family are not gamers; sometimes they just play simple games like solitaire, but no 3D blockbusters. My girlfriend e.g. is fine with a web browser and an office suite, and she uses OpenOffice and Firefox, so she might as well be using Ubuntu. I believe the same is true for most people, and even more with the latest consoles.