Why Linux is *not* a gaming platform

Why Linux is *not* a gaming platform

In a blog entry, "Debunking Linux and its Relationship with Gaming", the author presented a line-up of decent games available on the Linux platform. It is an attempt to debunk claims that Linux is not an ideal platform for gaming. Is it?

Personally, Linux's strengths is on the server-side. This is where Linux eats up the market share from competitors like Windows and other Unix-like flavors. Linux is the easiest server operating system to install, configure and deploy.

On the desktop (and subsequently on the gaming machine), it is quite different. If I have correctly processed the gist of the Con Kolivas interview about why he quit contributing to the Linux kernel, Linux on the desktop may be a bit of a second class citizen. And as such, gaming on linux desktop may be relegated to third. Now, if this is the case, game developers will not be attracted to the platform since nobody plays graphics-intensive games directly on servers in the server farm, right? :)

IMHO, if this does not improve, i.e., Linux performance on the desktop still remains an afterthought, then I really doubt if we will see impressive games on our favorite platform.

What do you think – will we really see games on Linux or does it even matter?


This entry was posted on Saturday, July 28th, 2007 at 3:51 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Why Linux is *not* a gaming platform”

  1. Alastair Gould Says:

    I don’t know what your talking about. Linux Preformance is pretty much the same as windows preformance. Infact some windows apps work better on wine then on wine. Windows server does not use a special server kernel. Games run exactly the same on desktop versions and server versions. Linux is the same. Plus with linux there are plenty of patches to customise it, to your preformance ideals. This is open source advantage.

  2. Alastair Gould Says:

    I don’t know what your talking about. Linux Preformance is pretty much the same as windows preformance. Infact some windows apps work better on wine. Windows server does not use a special server kernel. Games run exactly the same on desktop versions and server versions. Linux is the same. Plus with linux there are plenty of patches to customise it, to your preformance ideals. This is open source advantage.

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