Linux growth after valve make gaming a more viable option

[barryonepointfour]

Does anyone think it will grow much because of gaming on desktop pc, so not steamboxes? I have a depressing feeling it won't

[L.E.D]

Does anyone think it will grow much because of gaming on desktop pc, so not steamboxes? I have a depressing feeling it won't

 

It might a little, what I would like to see more is the bigger titles move over and I REALLY want Adobe to start programming on Linux, Man I want AE and Premiere and Photoshop in there, I know there is replacements but nothing beats the originals...

[_ASSASSIN_]

not really, until I start seeing drivers from Nvidia and AMD, and HUGE triple A games using linux (not valve games) I will consider it, and might move, but win 7 just has ease of use, plus for school it's just better

[qwertywarrior]

AMD already said they will make an OPEN source version of their driver for Linux

 

this will be awesome for gaming on linux

[sabot]

I would be so happy if Steam was fully supported on linux, I would switch from windows in a heartbeat.

[Xelithium]

I really doubt Linux will ever become a gaming platform.

[Crabtr]

not really, until I start seeing drivers from Nvidia and AMD, and HUGE triple A games using linux (not valve games) I will consider it, and might move, but win 7 just has ease of use, plus for school it's just better

Start seeing? Nvidia's Linux drivers get you pretty much the same and sometimes even better performance as you'd get on Windows. AMD's are pretty far behind but they're actually starting to catch up now and are even launching an open-source driver. That said why aren't Valve games "triple-A?"

 

 

I would be so happy if Steam was fully supported on linux, I would switch from windows in a heartbeat.

What do you mean by "fully supported on Linux?" The client can be installed to pretty much any distro (albeit a little harder on others). If you mean every game working on Linux that's not under Valve's control. Steam's simply a distribution system so they can only influence developers (and so far it's working rather well), not port their games.

[_ASSASSIN_]

Start seeing? Nvidia's Linux drivers get you pretty much the same and sometimes even better performance as you'd get on Windows. AMD's are pretty far behind but they're actually starting to catch up now and are even launching an open-source driver. That said why aren't Valve games "triple-A?"

they are, but there the only one's pitching in, who cares if the whole industry doesn't follow right?

and good to know about the drivers

[AdamG1401]

It took me 2 days and a 3rd party installer to get a driver on Ubuntu Studio for my 7870 XT. Until such basic things as drivers are 1/2 click installs, it'll have next to no traction compared to Win 7.

[ShiverMePenguins]

Does anyone think it will grow much because of gaming on desktop pc, so not steamboxes? I have a depressing feeling it won't

it definitely will. the steam os is being built off of a linux kernal. and lfd2 showed a MASSIVE increase in performance when people switch to linux. it simply is a more efficient os than windows.

[grayperview]

Linux isn't user friendly enough for mass gaming, its improved a hell of a lot.....but simple things to do in windows, can be overly complicated to do in Linux....

 

The day Terminal is needed as much as command prompt is in windows, that's the day Linux will become a viable gaming platform for the masses.

[Samdb]

And there's the virus on the black market.

[rashdanml]

I really doubt Linux will ever become a gaming platform.

Source and Source 2.0 will be natively running on Linux.

Crytek is hiring Linux developers for their Linux port of CryEngine. 

Unreal Engine 4 will be natively available on Linux. 

 

That's 3 major game engines that cover a large number of games across multiple platforms. 

 

Valve is constantly working on porting more games to Linux. Majority of Indie titles are already available on Linux and are still being ported over. Valve is also in the process of working with Triple-A title developers for Linux support. 

 

All of the above is meaningless without driver support though. No worries, Valve is doing that too. OpenGL runs better on Linux than DirectX on Windows in a limited trial with Left 4 Dead 2. OpenGL on Windows also ran better than DirectX. 

 

Add to that Valve's efforts with Steambox (which may or may not be successful, but time will tell). 

 

Linux is a perfectly viable gaming platform; as with any transition, it's only a matter of time. Considering the progress, I'd expect no more than 5 years before a good portion of gamers switch to Linux as their primary gaming platform. 

 

http://steamforlinux.com/

 

It's actually happening. It may not become THE platform, but it'll certainly be a worthy competitor. 

[sabot]

Start seeing? Nvidia's Linux drivers get you pretty much the same and sometimes even better performance as you'd get on Windows. AMD's are pretty far behind but they're actually starting to catch up now and are even launching an open-source driver. That said why aren't Valve games "triple-A?"

 

 

What do you mean by "fully supported on Linux?" The client can be installed to pretty much any distro (albeit a little harder on others). If you mean every game working on Linux that's not under Valve's control. Steam's simply a distribution system so they can only influence developers (and so far it's working rather well), not port their games.

I mean like all my favorite games working. And all new titles coming out on all three platforms.

[_wky]

I read this as "Linus hair growth after valve...." 

 

What is happening to me!

[NaftaLord]

It might happend but it needs big business backing.

Maybe google needs to make a real deskstop linux os for us.

[Xelithium]

I hope it will because i'm very tired of microsoft ruining windows more and more.

Ruining? That is your opinion.

[lutzee]

Most full desktop environments already are capable of being independent from control via the terminal, The reason why terminal is still used is because its what linux users are used too. A lot of linux users will also have used server linux distros at one point, or actively use them, and using terminal is just second nature to perform some operations. 

 

And that includes me.

 

I've set up linux PCs for others, people who have no clue what to do in terminal, but ones shown where everything is don't ever worry about things, its all there you just need to know where it is, just like how you learn where things are in windows.

 

In conclusion I see this as a two sided effort, you have to prove to the game developers that linux is a viable platform that users will use over windows and that its worth them taking the effort to have native linux versions. And that only really starts by actually using linux. Even if its dualbooting, saying "Linux is my primary OS and i'd love to be able to play all the best games on it" will encourage the devs to actually make it available.

As for performance, OpenGL is a great platform and drivers are improving, when games start moving to linux Nvidia will understand that they do need linux drivers

[Xelithium]

actualy its mostly anyone's opinion, except yours well thats not my problem, have you not seen state of windows 8 ?

Sigh. I'm not even going to try.

[Xelithium]

Their still 54% on windows 7 64 bit compared to windows 8 64  which only has 13%  while windows 8 32 bit has only a small 1%

windows 8 ain't all bad but its a huge step backwards.

 

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

Windows 8 didn't give enough of a reason to switch from Windows 7 to the average user. People don't want to re-install their systems etc. The OS is a step forward in terms of performance. And the negative reviews of modernUI scared a lot of people.

 

It is truly a solid OS.