PC gaming revenue on its own is around $45 Billion a year and there are all sorts of vertical market software that only runs on Windows.

But even if all most people want is browser, why go through the hassle of running Linux?

I usually recommended a Windows PC to most people because on the low end, they are cheap, disposable, and if the one odd program they might want to run isn’t available, I didn’t have to hear about it.

If they know what they want, I didn’t have a problem recommending an Air and now for a lot of use cases, a Neo.

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dijit 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I work in games (formerly AAA).

Chicken and egg problem.

Valve is making enough headway that game makers take Linux seriously. We’ll likely see a lot more native releases over time. (once the worry about anticheat subsides).

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p_ing 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Why bother making native releases when Valve/Proton will take care of it? Who wants the headache of supporting another build and directly supporting N flavors of Linux distributions?

When it comes to games, Linux has an OS/2 problem.

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lemagedurage 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Steam runtime already gives developers a single target rather than having to support different distros individually.

If Steam Deck, the new Steam Machine etc take a significant part of market share, I think it will be more enticing for game developer to release a native version for Linux. Providing a native version should still be more robust and performant.

	▲	p_ing 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> still be more robust Why? The only stable ABI on Linux is Win32.

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raw_anon_1111 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

And still why should normal people go to Linux over Windows? Linux support is still not that great from OEMs and for the unwashed masses your local Best Buy or Apple Store.

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mrj 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Have you read the article? There's real frustration with Windows. It's so bad that my 15 year old, who only really uses his computer to launch Steam, asked me to help him install Linux. He had heard about Bazzite and already knew his gpu would be compatible. He gets about 20 fps more on Linux and can choose when updates are applied. There's no forced online login, ads in the OS or copilot prompts. His browser doesn't revert to Edge.

He doesn't really want to care but Microsoft's decisions have made their main product into an annoyance.

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raw_anon_1111 6 hours ago | parent [-]

And people would be less frustrated with Linux?

	▲	mrj 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes, as I explained. He's happy with it. He doesn't care about the OS just wants it to launch programs like it's supposed to.
	▲	GTP 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Some people, myself included, are already less frustrated with Linux. Which means it is likely that other people would be less frustrated if they tried Linux. Not 100% of them, of course, but some for sure.

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butterlesstoast 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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dijit 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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motbus3 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I believe this even without checking the numbers. That said, I now own a steam deck and I only buy games supported.

There is a new game with no support? So sorry. Can't be done