Can gaming be the turning point for Linux on the desktop?

jeremy · 05-21-2013, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Get into Linux and play some great games with Steam

The way we're complaining you'd think Linux is overlooked and underused. The amazing truth is that the majority of supercomputers run one type of Linux or another, and it's the leading OS on servers. Besides these, it's put to work on millions of low-power embedded systems around the world - a little something called Android.

So why then does the desktop remain a Windows bastion, while Linux is left shivering out in the cold? The same question could be leveled at the Apple Macintosh. Even with the hysterical success of Apple's wider products, the Mac as a desktop system accounts for just under seven per cent of the market. Linux is no higher than five per cent, and web use points the figure down to a pathetic 1.5 per cent.

Even with the attractiveness of the Mac's ease of use - which brutally contrasts with the stubborn user-friendly-free design of Linux - both still have the same fatal flaw: few games.
Until now. Valve, with its release of Steam for Linux - and more recently the announcement it's going to release an open gaming-platform based on Linux-powered PC architecture - could totally revitalise the desktop fortunes of this able OS.

We're going to take a look at how learning to run Linux, getting it installed and knowing the new gaming platforms can help you get gaming on a free and easy-ish to use OS.

More at techradar...

--jeremy

H_TeXMeX_H · 05-21-2013, 10:11 AM

Just make sure to read the EULA, which includes an arbitration clause that denies you the right to class action lawsuit. You will also have to accept that pretty much all the games through Steam are DRM'd.

Now, the question is whether FLOSS philosophy should be traded for supposedly increased popularity ...

jeremy · 05-21-2013, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H

Now, the question is whether FLOSS philosophy should be traded for supposedly increased popularity ...

I think the question of whether we want Linux to be "popular" or not (and what the repercussions of that happening would be) is one that isn't considered often enough.

--jeremy

H_TeXMeX_H · 05-21-2013, 10:19 AM

I think there will be many repercussion that will come along with popularity. I don't think Linux will die any time soon as it is and has been. With new users, things may change that could change Linux to something unlike what it was.