Why would anyone run Linux on a gaming laptop, given that this would pretty much preclude playing any actual games?
2) You can run some games on Linux too these days.
Overall out of those 2000 games a lot are borderline games, and out of those that are a lot are borderline playable on Linux since Steam doesn't really enforces strict rules.
So no the Linux gaming market is still pitiful it's not much better than it was 5 or even 10 years ago with Wine if anything it's worse since DX11/12 games pretty much do not run on Wine.
On the indie side things are much better so if you are only a very casual gamer or really like some old school stuff you'll have things to play, if you want to play AAA titles Linux isn't where you find it.
- <1% AAA titles vs Windows ? There are less than 100 AAA titles every year on Windows, and I'm pretty sure we get more than 1 % based on the recent releases of Shadow of Mordor and Tomb Raider 2013. Of course the percentage is still small but certainly not in that range.
- there is more and more Day 1 AAA support than ever for Linux. XCOM2. Dying Light, just to name a few. Such ports are not always flawless but there were non-existent before. You can't say there is no difference at all.
- 2000: a lot of them are indie games. Whether those are borderline games or not is left to your opinion, but I personally have several hundred games on Linux that are actual games and not "mobile-games ported to Linux" kind of games.
- Not better than 5 years ago ? You must be kidding. 5 years ago apart from WINE there was basically close to no official Linux support. The earliest support before Valve jumped in were indie devs like 2D Boy. Since them the amount of official support has massively improved by ANY metric.
- WINE has improved a lot actually. First, DX9 translation is becoming extremely close to native Windows performance, and it's not rare to see DX9 games performing better on WIndows than on Linux. Then, DX11 support is actually coming by the end of 2016 (based on a recent interview with the main supporters of WINE, Codeweavers).
- Vulkan is now out there and since it will be a cross-platform API unlike DX12, you can imagine broader support for Linux in the future.
So, I don't share at all the level of negativity of your comments. There's never been any better time to game on Linux than now.
There are now more games on Linux than there ever have been thanks to the rise of indie games, crowdfunding and Valve's efforts with SteamOS. Just a while ago Gaming On Linux noted that 8 out of 10 of the current most popular games on Steam are now available or coming soon on Linux.
I hope Valve really is in it for the long term as the Steam survey numbers (floating around 1% for Linux) are still very poor and most non-indie developers don't find the saler figures to be worth it. I don't think things would become as nearly as bad as they did back when Loki folded even if Valve decided SteamOS is dead though, thanks to indie games and Kickstarter.
Not having VR with HTC Vive on Linux/Steam machines on day one seems like a missed opportunity. It's a new platform where it would have been easier to get a significant portion or even all of the games also on Linux.
I've said that out of the big publishers only 2K seems to want to support Linux currently XCOM2 was the only "AAA" game that came out with day 1 support of Linux performance issues aside (Pretty much all the big games on Linux on Steam have considerably higher system requirements and do have performance issues, Shadow of Mordor is near unplayable).
2) 2000: a lot of them are indie games. Whether those are borderline games or not is left to your opinion, but I personally have several hundred games on Linux that are actual games and not "mobile-games ported to Linux" kind of games.
Again which games, I have 3714 (I have a Steam account since HL2 like most others, and on this summer sale alone I've spent nearly 400$ already on games) games in my Steam Library some of them do have Linux support (Valve and a few 2K games) but for the most part none of the games I or my friends play come with Linux support
3) Wine has improved but you again missing my point completely 5 years ago I could play most games on Wine today due to lack of DX11 support I cannot play any new games on it, yes DX11 support will eventually come but atm the library of new games I can play on Wine is smaller than what I had around 2006/7.
4) Vulkan is now but there isn't much to any support for it as of yet, it's too early to tell what's going to come of it, but I doubt it will get a large scale adoption it's just the matter of things, OpenGL tanked, Mantle tanked, like it or not DX is king currently.
5) Well I don't know about you but I remember when I could play WoW, Warcraft 3, and Call of Duty etc. on Linux using Wine on day 1 pretty much these days it's not the case so for me there are actually less titles I would want to play on Linux, but hey different strokes.
1) Shadow of Mordor (2014). Tomb Raider 2013... 2013. Less than 3 years for both of them, and that's just a few. Saints Row IV, released in 2013, on Linux in 2015. I could go on and on.
2) There's about one game out of 5 that has Linux Support these days. Some on Day 1, most of them within a year or two of their Windows release. Of course there are 4/5 with no Linux support, but that's expected with a library that just started 3 years ago. And if you have 3714 games on Windows, you probably have a bunch of non-games in your library in Windows as well.
3) No, you could not play most Windows games 5 years ago on WINE. Tons of them failed miserably to even start. DX9 compatibility has never been better than now, so actually for most DX9 titles you can play more games than before. DX11 is a gap, but that's something that will disappear progressively as well.
4) OpenGL did not tank, it's still widely used in many industries. Oh and even the latest Doom on Windows actually uses OpenGL and NOT DirectX.
5) WoW, Warcraft 3, Hearthstone, Starcraft 2, DIablo 3 play fine on WINE nowadays. Overwatch does not, because it's DX11. but that's an expection.
No, really, it's better than it's ever been.
I really don't understand the slightest basis for your arguments.
Let's make it easy:
How many AAA titles (AAA in the industry is defined as games with budget of 50M$ or higher) are released each year? Out of those AAA titles how many games are released on Linux each year?
Out of the 3 big publishers (Ubisoft, EA, Activision) how many Linux titles come out each year? I've been the 1st to call 2K out so I'll give you them even still only a small portion of their games actually see the light of day on Linux
Out of the indie game titles what percentage comes out to Linux (hint much lower than you think)?
With games that come out on Linux and Windows which would perform better under the same hardware (A simple review of the requirements of both Linux and Windows game on Steam would hit to that)?
Also how comes that a partially closed source OS (SteamOS is not FOSS) that relies on a closed source platform (Steam) with DRM on top is somehow a champion of gaming on Linux? Give me a break... when games would start coming out to Linux with true multi-platform support let me know.
Until then I'll still use WINE which unlike you I had no troubles using even in 2006-2007, sure nothing worked perfectly but hey it doesn't work perfectly now either.
You can spin this all you want but let's face the truth gaming on Linux isn't "better than it's ever been" it's pretty much the same as it was because the ~2000 or so titles on a closed source platform like steam is still a drop in the bloody ocean, and it's really not how one would want to do gaming on Linux. If you are going to champion closed source and DRM then what do we even need an open OS to begin with? SteamOS is a black box running on top of Linux it's not any more open or free than some high end appliance you buy that uses some GPL software. Heck the PS4 and XboxOne probably run some GPL also.
You are mixing tons of different topics that are unrelated to your original point. So, Strawman tactics I guess.
The key point is, can a Linux gamer play more games now than 5 years ago ? The answer is clearly yes. That's all there is to say.
Really because I have played over 200 hours, seems to work just fine in my Arch Linux system...
Talk about moving the goal posts
For the Record, Most windows systems struggle to play games at 4K unless you have 2 980TI's in SLI or the new 1080, my system could not play Shadow of Mordor @4K if I installed windows, linux has nothing to do with it
Further I am not selling out the money for a 4K display, I have 4 1080p monitors, and 1 1920x1600 hooked to my system, I play games on the 1920x1600
It runs just fine at that resolution on a couple generation old card.
Older games and some indies work just fine, some of the newer games require much stronger hardware on Linux.
But we aren't any closer to being able to download day 1 titles and run them on Linux today than we were 5 years ago.
Steam and SteamOS are nice but it's still not enough to dent the Windows domination of the gaming PC market. And considering that Valve and Ocullus seem to ignore Linux at this point is kinda sad since VR couldn't captured Linux gaming easily.
As for Valve and their Lack luster support of SteamOS, again you have to look at history, and why Valve started the SteamOS project, they do not have some Philosophical need to support an OpenSource Operating system, When Widnows 8 was announced it clearly looked like Ballmer was going to turn MS into Apple, and close the ecosystem. This was a direct threat to Valve's business model, so they responded as any company would with an attempt to diversify and at the same time control the platform for themselves.
With Ballmer Leaving, Windows 8 almost universally being rejected by consumers and business, and the release of the More Open and Traditional Windows 10 the "need" for SteamOS (in Valves eyes)has lessened considerably, which is why Valve has not pushed it as strong as they did a couple years ago. They still recognize the Risk being primary on Windows as such they will not kill the project but the "New Microsoft" seems to be embracing being more open than at any point in MS history so.... Including having their own Linux "distro" for Software Defined Networking, and working directly with RedHat and Canonical
Indie games doesn't automatically mean casual games or old school stuff. I personally find triple A a bit of a misnomer seeing how the gameplay is seriously lacking in a lot of those games. In the end when I want to watch pretty pictures I will rent a movie.
This is how you ensure that it only gets worse.
> The only big publisher that releases games for Linux is 2K
Warner Brothers, SEGA, Valve, CD Projekt Red, Deep Silver and Square Enix aren't big?
Microsoft has put out a couple of their smaller indie titles too...
CD Projekt Red is technically a developer (CD Projekt is the publisher ;)) and they've made 3 games only 1 of them The Witcher 2 got released on Linux ~4 years after it's PC/Console release.
Valve isn't a large publisher either, they are a big company but not a large publisher.
Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment has 2 Linux Titles
Sega isn't a large publisher either, only Total War was released on Linux and it wasn't published by Sega for that platform.
Deep Silver is a small Publisher.
Square Enix doesn't really publishes directly they release their games through various distributors like Bandai Namco, the Linux and OSX version of Tomb Raider has been published by Feral Interactive which also funded the development for those platforms.
It's MUCH better than 5 years ago.
> On the indie side things are much better so if you are only a very casual gamer or really like some old school stuff you'll have things to play, if you want to play AAA titles Linux isn't where you find it.
Those "AAA games" used to be casual, over-hyped walking simulators...
But that's peanuts compared to this: It boots CentOS with SElinux enabled and runs my steam games with a FPS comparable to what I had on MS windows.
But please let's not portray Linux as a viable gaming OS.
1. Borderlands 2
2. Shadow of Mordor
3. Cities Skylines
4. Civ V
5. Stellaris
6. Borderlands Pre-sequel
7. Space Run
8. X-Com
9. Wasteland 2
10. Race the Sun
Plus I just bought like 10 or so titles on Steam Summer Sale, all Linux but have not had time to play them. Solar2, universe Sandbox 2, Tropico 5, Portal 2 are a few of those.
>>But please let's not portray Linux as a viable gaming OS.
I game exclusively under Linux now, if the game is not available for Linux native I will not buy it.
I no longer own any Windows Computers.
Also how come you don't run windows but somehow have no problem with a closed source OS (SteamOS) and a closed source platform (Steam) with always on DRM taking over gaming on Linux?
Wanna support gaming on Linux at least support GoG supporting steam is like shooting yourself in the foot...
P.S. of that list you big titles you've mentioned how many of them have "AMD and Intel cards are NOT supported." in their system requirements for Linux? ;)
Because I find windows to be technologically inferior
>but somehow have no problem with a closed source OS (SteamOS) and a closed source platform (Steam) with always on DRM taking over gaming on Linux?
While I do support open source, I do not choose Linux simply because it is open source. I work in a windows shop, if windows was not a steaming pile of shit I would not have a job. When I get home I want my computer to simply work, the way I want it to work, with out problems or having fucking update popups every 5 mins, or having driver issues (yes I infact have more driver issues on windows than Linux, party because I ensure I select hardware that is supported by the Kernel before I buy something so hardware is never an issue for me)
I choose Linux because for me it is the best computing experience for my workflow, not simply because it is open source.
I have only installed SteamOS once, and do not currently have any system running it, I use Arch Linux for any Desktop Systems, and some dev servers. CentOS for all Production Servers, and I dabble in all the others.
As for DRM, while steam does have DRM not all games use it, People often confuse SteamDRM with the other features of the Platform. Steam is a Application Library that has DRM, I have never had an negative experience in relation to SteamDRM so it does not really bother me.
You have seem to confused me with RMS or something.
This argument is about like asking why I use the Nvidia Closed source Drivers... Hell maybe that is your problem with Shadow, you are attempting to use the nouveau drivers
None of the games I play are available on Linux, none of the new AAA titles are available on Linux. With Valve not fully supporting SteamVR on Linux currently through the HTC Vive that's not even an option either.
But the difference is that I don't have some bias and will not attempt to fool anyone by portraying that they can use Linux or SteamOS as a gaming setup, not unless they only play the few 1st party Valve games, bargain bin AAA titles and Indies because beyond that it's very slim pickens.
Gaming sounds of primary concern to you, for others they want the development environment and freedom of Linux and gaming is a very pleasant bonus.
You say you don't have a bias and then finish off by saying you are biased against Linux because it only has certain games. You only like games that are "great" because they hold an imaginary title of AAA.
I admit I am biased towards gaming on Linux. The main reason being I don't like being forced to purchase and upgrade to a slightly different OS to receive the "best" gaming experience. A gaming experience that can be had on the older systems but is deliberately crippled by the software. Hooray for Direct X!
You need to do some research.
> But please let's not portray Linux as a viable gaming OS.
I'm playing on steam+linux for years and I don't really miss anything. There are 1-2 games I'm running on wine+steam but all the others are on linux.
But please let's not portray Windows as a viable OS.
What % of games that come out each year are playable on Linux?
What % of AAA games that come out each year are playable on Linux?
What % of games that come out from the big 3 are playable on Linux?
How come that Windows is bad and evil but somehow a close source platform (which constantly abuses its monopoly go listen to what devs and small publishers have to say about Steam) that runs on top of Linux with always on DRM is acceptable by the free folk?
P.S. How come Steam titles system requirements for Linux so often come with a warning "AMD and Intel cards are NOT supported."?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've been an avid gamer for years but where 10 years ago I gamed only on Windows, that is definitely not the case today.
I'm a programmer, and working in Windows sounds kinda scary to me.
I don't think your question deserves the down votes.