And how do you get to a big enough market share to become a default compilation target? I'd argue that Wine/Proton are a bridge to that.
If you can make every game available on Linux via wine/proton then you would have to assume that every one of the Windows holdouts (Ok, most. Some people always find excuses) will swap to Linux as their primary machine, you can then, with reasonable confidence say "Linux has X marketshare" and then make a decision on whether that is worth your development time.
I just don't think that marketshare is going to be anywhere near what it would require to become a default target and I say that as a die hard linux user.
I totally agree, I'm just debunking the year of the Linux Desktop hype. This has been sad so many times, and still not happening. Just as it's not happening this year.
This is from personal experience because I was very excited about SteamCMD. But after trying to run some dedicated servers (for some sim-racing titles), I still got win32 binaries and had to run them thru Wine. Switched back to Windows because the performance was noticeable worse.
Again, it's fine for casuals but for the average PC gamer a big no no.
> And how do you get to a big enough market share to become a default compilation target?
The problem isn't even market share, it's that Linux Desktop doesn't constitute a targetable platform because it is so fragmented and unstable. This is why Steam has to pack in its own runtime libraries just so native Linux games have some kind of known base system.
> Ok, most. Some people always find excuses
Excuses? Like there's some kind of moral imperative to use Linux? People have reasons they prefer to use other environments. I've used Linux Desktops on and off for 20 years and I've watched statements like this consistently turn away interested users through this kind of dismissive bullshit.
> The problem isn't even market share, it's that Linux Desktop doesn't constitute a targetable platform because it is so fragmented and unstable. This is why Steam has to pack in its own runtime libraries just so native Linux games have some kind of known base system.
This is the correct way to deploy most software on Linux. Everything outside of glibc and openssl should be part of a standardized runtime. Look at what flatpak is doing.
> Excuses? Like there's some kind of moral imperative to use Linux?
That's not what I meant at all, apologies if I was unclear.
I meant of the people (gamers specifically in this context) who say things like "Oh I would use linux but X" and then X gets solved so it's now Y that is the blocker for them moving to linux. These are the excuse finders I was talking about. They speak a big game about wanting to switch but always find one more thing preventing it from happening. They are of course a small minority.
Also I didn't mean to imply that everyone wants or needs to move to linux, more that there are already a number of people wanting to move but they are waiting for X to happen before they can/will move and that wine/proton has been great for helping some of them to make the switch.
> I've used Linux Desktops on and off for 20 years and I've watched people like you consistently turn away interested users through this kind of dismissive bullshit.
I'm not sure where this is coming from or how I'm turning away interested users but that was not my intention.
Ok, fair, I've altered the wording. I may have reflexively lumped you in with the kind of Linux Evangelist who likes to claim that "Linux is good enough for everyone" and actively dismisses any use case that contradicts that.
If you can make every game available on Linux via wine/proton then you would have to assume that every one of the Windows holdouts (Ok, most. Some people always find excuses) will swap to Linux as their primary machine, you can then, with reasonable confidence say "Linux has X marketshare" and then make a decision on whether that is worth your development time.
I just don't think that marketshare is going to be anywhere near what it would require to become a default target and I say that as a die hard linux user.