Discussion on:

Major game players come to Linux and GNOME grasps at relevance

After reviewing Windows 8 and realizing that Microsoft was making some big changes, I decided to really investigate Linux. I had played around with various distros over the years but never really made a commitiment. A friend gave me an old laptop and I felt the time was right so I ended up installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and I'm quite happy. As I get to use Linux/Ubuntu on a daily basis with my real world setup, I really like it. I'm still learning and realize it will take some time to master but I'm quite happy with everything that I can do. I really enjoy the flexabilty of Linux. As a Windows gamer for some time and user of Steam, I really look forward to Steam on Linux. I think this will be yet another reason to try/use Linux especially for people sitting on the fence. As you mentioned as hardware support improves it should really improve all aspects of Linux. I look forward to a better Linux future.

Steam on Linux, games on Linux, a dream come true .

Now we just need someone to make that "designed for gaming" distro and we're all set.

Besides drivers for top-end video cards?

Performance tools, libraries (for easy dependency handling). And a "game mode" which turns off everything the OS doesn't need while a game is running, that includes the auto defrags, all scheduled processes, everything. To get the most speed possible from the game. (id have it selectable to what actually gets turned off, you could for example, say, suspend the desktop, keep it loaded, just don't give it any CPU time.) It could also disable the CPU speed changing, keep the hard drive/CD drive spinning for faster access. And stuff like that.

It also needs a proper way to kill frozen games, the current drop to console solution is terrible.


My current windows laptop has these things (except for keeping the CD spinning, I wish it had that for the older CD games), and it works great, I'd like to see that in Linux.

Use an SSD drive its much faster.

For your Windows CD-ROM spinng try using Nero's Drive Speed. You can limit the speed of the CD-ROM's.

Why can't the CD driver be set to keep the drive spinning?
This is something Linux could improve on in making a dedicated gaming distro.

no dropping to console, just install it (if not already), select it from your "start"-like menu and click on the window for the program you want killed. You can also use a graphic task manager just like the one in Windows (ok, maybe not the exact layout but same function).

Though you do bring an interesting idea to mind. Xwindows (the service/hardware part) and the KDE/Gnome/Unity (Window manager + stuff) are separate components. Imagine being able to set your preferred game *as* your default window manager; no KDE or Gnome squeezed in between the game your playing and your hardware. Crtl+Alt+Backspace would drop you back out of a frozen game tickity-boo like it already does for any other DE running on top of Xwindows (or similar graphic UI core). Bonus points if I can alt-F2, alt-F3 between the game terminal and a full DE in the other terminals.

I'd be happy just to have my games fullscreen on top of KDE/Gnome/Whatever though personally; keep all my other stuff going in the background during games not new enough to demand premium dedicated performance.

I can't see anything in the platform that hinders the ability to do such a specialized game focuses distribution though. The existing SuperGamer or linuX-Gamer's DVD distros would be good candidates.

Sadly, it won't render your start menu in full screen game, not always, not if its frozen.
What would be handy is something like ctl alt backspace, but that it just automatically kills the active window and ends the processes associated with it.

What window manager or "desktop environment" do you use? It might have built-in facilities for configuring keyboard shortcuts, and if not there are third-party tools available in the software management systems of most Unix-like open source OSes that can be used to set up keyboard shortcuts.

One of those could be included and be pre-setup for that gaming distro.

The last time I saw an "everything is already set up" distribution project that focused heavily on high performance multimedia stuff including proprietary graphics drivers when needed, it was the Kororaa distribution of the early years of this century. It got threatened with lawsuits for supposed violation of the GPL by distributing closed source drivers with the GPLed Linux kernel, and ended up getting shut down.

So . . . good luck. I think you're probably better off trying to build that around FreeBSD, where there aren't such licensing problems to get in the way.

.. Assuming we still think Nvidia GPU's qualify as high end gaming video cards.

Also, consider what happens to the "but there are no gamers on those platforms and freetards won't pay for our products anyway" BS claims when a service like Steam and title like Left For Dead lands natively on *nix. Valve has Left For Dead running natively on Ubuntu already. The issue has never been lack of consumer interest in native games or willingness to pay for them. (open source folk just don't like to pay exorbitant prices for crap that doesn't justify it.)

AMD can throw a few more resources at the ATI drivers they're working with the community to develop. Nvidia gains even more motivation to throw more resources at the binary GPU driver they already provide for *nix; maybe give it the full feature set and polish of the Win driver finally?

The bigger challenge may still be getting OpenGL or something up to the level of DirectX in terms of developer hand-holding. If Valve has a way to provde that gaming cradle on top of the hardware though then I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to not having to stop everything I've got running and boot over to a game dedicated Windows install just to enable a few hours of Skyrim escapism.

So they could discount this engine and sell it to others, then you would already have a functioning Linux engine.
And I'm sure once Source is on Linux, others like Unreal will be ported as well to keep with the competition.

In case that was confusing, the name of their engine is called "Source".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(game_engine)

Some months back I found a version of Linux called Zorin OS that has a range of alternate GUIs that look like Win 2000, Win XP, Win Vista, Win 7, Mac OS and others. It's based on Ubuntu and uses the Ubuntu repositories etc, just have some alternate GUI overlays. I've had people look at my system and ask how come I'm still running Win 2000 as it's that close to what they remember of the Win Classic desktop.

"But the vast majority of end users didnt see it that way. And, in the end, even welcoming users like myself found the GNOME 3 desktop to be lacking in some areas."

Gnome brought this on themselves.
If you don't listen to your users, don't be surprised if they abandon you.

It seems like MS is planning to do the same.

"... and by 2020, Ubuntu Unity will probably be the de facto standard on most Linux desktops and tablets."

I'll be very surprised if that turns out to be true (on desktops).
Most Linux users I know, HATE Unity.

Most Windows users I know, HATE Metro.
Even my housemate (who hates MS) is stunned by the awfulness of Metro.

Have Gnome and MS been infiltrated by Apple agents?

When I first made the upgrade to 12.04 I hated unity. There was some quality about it that just made me loathe it. All of my friends agreed, and we trashed it and went to other window managers.

Some time later a graphical issue came up from an issue with drivers, and for one reason or another didn't effect unity. So I started using it until I could fix the drivers... and fell in love with it. It's different, but it's also simple and clean with lots of shortcuts for power users.

Gnome-Shell is also a good solution. Frankly I think the dash on Gnome-Shell is better than Unity's. If we could merge the two it would be heaven.

At this point, all of the friends who bashed unity with me are now using it exclusively, and love it. All desktop changes are met with resistance, but that's simply because tech users ironically seem to loathe change. Unity is a great platform, once you get over yourself and give it a chance.

Uncluttered workspaces, switching workspaces on the press of a button, apps on call from fav.bar (about 12-14 max needed), other apps on demand from apps window - all of these make for a clean interface. Yes it could be more configurable etc etc, but its open source after all, DIY if its such a big deal!

Ubuntu Unity? Really?

I despised gnome (2) from day one, absolutely hated it. But I love gnome3, I use if for certain tasks just about every day. I was an anti-gnome evangelist, I couldn't just let it lay, I was compelled to try to push people away from it.

Gnome3 is the most revolutionary development to come along since the window and a start menu, IMHO.

I hope someone gets multi touch going in gnome3, I believe g3 would be the ideal environment for a tablet form factor. (or even a large phone) It's smooth and logical, doubly so from a touch-enabled perspective. I'd bet if you could get g3 running on top of android you'd have the majority market share using it.

Unity has it's good points, but just as gnome 2 I find it incredibly boring. I know that's not the most rational reason to use a desktop environment or not, but I find digging into tasks is more enjoyable when the DE makes it fun/interesting to get there.

I find it much simpler and more intuitive than unity.

A *nix user confirms : Unity is crap and was deleted from my linux machines as soon as I saw it.

and yes, I'm the second person who voted "neither" in the poll, because I prefer KDE or just X and a console and won't be gaming on *nix .

nt

The last thing we need now is another flamewar over the "One True Desktop Environment".

Been a while.. hello in passing.

Yeah . . . I'm not here nearly as frequently as I once was. Interface issues, intermittent brokenness, and what I perceive as a declining quality of discussion here have all conspired to make my interest wane.

"and what I perceive as a declining quality of discussion here have all conspired to make my interest wane."

Of course your absence is a major factor in driving that quality down the incline... not that I'm sayin' anyone has a duty around here.

I like your response; it's equal parts compliment and chastisement. Of course, one of the reasons I'm not here as much any longer is that when CBS decided I was no longer eligible to write articles for TR, I no longer had my own articles' discussions to follow, which had become probably 50% of the time I spent here over the years.

I'm spending more of the time I would otherwise spend here working on coding side-projects of my own, these days, though. One example: I'm making plans for a new project to develop a copyfree licensed combination publication and discussion system for the web.

more lament. I understand your absence, in fact I thank you for the amount of time you've been investing around here lately. I just hope you're rewarded in kind for your efforts.

I still can't understand whatever the bur under CBS's saddle led to their decision.

ps- sounds like a great project. Also sounds like you have to start from scratch, lest GPLs and such linger?

Linux Mint has quickly risen among the Linux ranks, and even surpassed Ubuntu, according to DistroWatch. They have their own interface called Cinnamon which is still fairly new, but getting a lot of attention. I don't think Ubuntu is going to be the de facto anything in the future.

What I find amazing, despite the popularity of Linux Mint among Linux users (I also use Mint), you almost never hear about it outside of the Linux community. No books mention it, very few articles (like this one) ever mention it. And yet, just from word of mouth, it has become as popular (or even more?) than Ubuntu.

Ubuntu just has the most marketing, due to Canonical. But, once I tried Mint, I deleted Ubuntu and never looked back.

Boy, that's gonna make some nasty chewing gum.

Hadn't thought of that... apparently the mint devs didn't, either.

I like "cinnamint" toothpaste. I just don't want it on my laptop display.

`

an expensive working girl (off street type) or a star in adult films.

I second that statement. I have worked Fedora, Red Hat, Mandriva, Debian. openSUSE, CentOS and Ubuntu. I settled on, and now only use, Linux Mint due to its Cinnamon UI.

...by never having installed ubuntu on any of my equipment in the first place. Didn't have to delete and format it.

Mint is nice, superior to ubuntu IMHO, but I don't really use it in any production capacity, it's a toy in the lab.

I use fedora 17 with gnome3, I figure if I'm going to use g3 I might as well get it from the source. I prefer g3 to cinnamon, and of course unity.

I still like KDE best over all tho.

I believe Gnome will be relevant again. I don't use it personally, at least not now, but it's always been a very good go-to option. Beyond that, I think it NEEDS to be relevant. Linux is about choices. Linux Mint is a good choice for a Linux desktop, but I don't agree that Ubuntu will not be as relevant. There are too many organizations, big and small, and second-tier distros based on it. And Canonical is pushing the limits, with plans for Ubuntu on Android and Ubuntu TV, among other projects. I'm with Jack on the games things. I don't play games. My kids do, and so far Windows 8 is a train wreck where that's concerned.

But we hates it Baggins! Nasty, tricksy, evil Canonical.

It seems to me that what we hear today about Gnome is exactly what we heard about KDE and is also what we heard about Unity. It also seems to me that this is normal for Open Source, non-commercial software. See without the burden of having to market a "product" for sale, open source developers can release their software earlier than commercial producers like Microsoft. They can let the community flesh out which features are missing, which need more polish and which can be removed. I always look at the first release of a major OS redesign as the equivalent of a commercial Beta. I find it ironic that the very thing Linux users grand stand on (E.G. how much better their software is because of the community) is the one thing they overlook when a new change comes.

Unity? Nope.....I tried, really I did. I much prefer Mint. Not nearly the issues with drivers, plus, I found Unity obtuse. I was always hunting for the app I wanted, and just lost patience.

I tried it and still feel that KDE is way more elegant and handy. However this is my opinion and since Linux gives everyone a big variety of desktops to choose from I really fail to see what the fuss is all about. In addition I would understand people who say they like GNOME, LXde, Xfce or just plain X with twm. It;s only a matter of taste.

With games it's a different story. I am convinced that they are one the most certain methods to attract more people to Linux and I would honestly like to see more being ported. Perhaps this will give me a good reason to stop playing Shi-Shen-Sho

I'm a big fan of certain online games and they are the ONLY reason I still use Windows. I think the drive to support gaming on Linux, regardless of flavor, will be a very good thing. As more support is provided for mass market users, the shift will become more apparent and pick up pace.
On the DM side, I've found gnome to be my personal favorite, but cinnamon, kde, lxde are all very nice too. Unity is far too awkward for my work style and lack of native customization is a deal-breaker. I typically work in a multi monitor configuration and the unwieldy management for that type of setup just gets my goat.

Ni!