Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open! [LWN.net]

Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Posted Apr 12, 2012 11:37 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)
In reply to: Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open! by anselm
Parent article: Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Third point:

Most shortcomings of Google Play can be fixed and/or alleviated. The problem of _lack_ of good games is much harder to fix.

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Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Posted Apr 12, 2012 19:35 UTC (Thu) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (7 responses)

It really depends on what one considers »good«.

There are loads of »good« games for Linux as far as I'm concerned, but as I said I'm not much of a game enthusiast, so the bar is pretty low. Many »independent« games these days target Linux as well as Windows and the Mac and I'm told they can be quite entertaining.

Of course if your definition of a »good« game is »one from a big-name game programming outfit that just came out for Windows« then you're probably going to be disappointed most of the time.

Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Posted Apr 12, 2012 20:09 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] (6 responses)

Many »independent« games these days target Linux as well as Windows and the Mac and I'm told they can be quite entertaining.

We were talking about Debian repo, remember? How many of these »independent« games can be found there?

As for »serious software development tools«… we'll probably see them in Google Play Store before 2027 (that's when Google Play Store will be as old as Debian is today).

Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Posted Apr 12, 2012 20:43 UTC (Thu) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (5 responses)

We were talking about Debian repo, remember? How many of these »independent« games can be found there?

I told you before that to be in the Debian repository a package must be distributable by Debian. Stuff you're expected to pay for is generally not distributable by Debian, which if having to pay for something is part of your definition of »good« is a bit of a show-stopper, but derives from the principles on which the Debian project is founded. You give the impression of having been around the block often enough to know about these, so I'll assume here that you're just being obtuse to be obtuse.

There would be (and I think I said this before, too) no problem whatsoever in putting up a for-pay »app store« for games that will run on Debian. This could integrate smoothly with the Debian packaging system and enable the use of whatever convenient libraries Debian provides already. We just need somebody to want this badly enough. Here this discussion turns full circle.

we'll probably see them in Google Play Store before 2027 (that's when Google Play Store will be as old as Debian is today).

We may see them then if we will actually be able to find them in the store among the millions of apps that are not worth anybody's trouble. There will probably be 10.000 software development tools available, 9.995 of which will be useless and/or unusable junk, and we can just hope that the Google Play store folks get their act together in time so we can tell which ones are which without having to look at them all, one app at a time.

Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Posted Apr 12, 2012 20:49 UTC (Thu) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link] (4 responses)

doesn't Ubuntu have an integrated software store where you can buy commercial software as well as using everything in the plain repository?

Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Posted Apr 12, 2012 22:32 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

Yup. It includes small smattering of things (things like Acrobat Reader or DB2… Java was also there till Oracle decided to pull the plug). Most of games are not there either (in fact the last time I've checked partners repo have not included games at all).

Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Posted Apr 13, 2012 2:40 UTC (Fri) by spaetz (guest, #32870) [Link] (2 responses)

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Games/NativeNonFreeComm...

yeah, it contains at least 14 nonfree for-pay games, magazine offerings and whatnot. in fact it quite resembles an app store, by now..

Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Posted Apr 13, 2012 3:01 UTC (Fri) by spaetz (guest, #32870) [Link] (1 responses)

uh, my bad. it seems the games at above link are not necesarily in the ubuntu software store. but they definitively have for-pay content now too.

Seigo: Spark pre-order registration is open!

Posted Apr 13, 2012 10:22 UTC (Fri) by kklimonda (subscriber, #60089) [Link]

Hmm.. why not? I can definitely buy them from the Ubuntu Software Center