Why games are the key to Linux adoption

I just ordered my first computer yesterday: 4GB RAM, a 250 GB SATA 3gb/s hard drive, a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, a Nvidia 9800 graphics card, and a comfortable 20″ monitor. But while these were all expensive (especially the video card), none of them compared to one item on the list: Windows. That’s the hope that Linux companies must look forward to.

The problem: current adoption methods

Right now, a popular Linux evangelism idea is to force Linux as a pre-install option onto retail computers and wait for the market share to magically shoot up. With the exception of the niche netbook market, this really hasn’t happened (and the netbook market share happened in-part because of customized netbook-specific Linux distributions). What’s going wrong?

One problem is that Microsoft subsidises Vista. They hand out cheap copies at bulk discounts to companies like Dell and HP. Then, you add on the marketing crapware like the 90-day McAfee trial or the infamous 999 minutes AOL trial, and the price goes down even more. That’s why you’ll often see Vista computers at a cheaper price than Linux computers, especially at large retailers like Dell.

A second (and much harder to combat) problem is the lack of knowledge about Linux. No one actually realizes that Linux has apps that will handle most file formats around. In fact, most people still think that file formats are tied to operating systems. Heck, most people still think that Windows = IBM. No wonder everyone’s scared of Linux.

The solution to the problem: gamers

Gamers are adventurous folks. That right there is a positive sign. Linux adopters often need to be adventurous in order to even install a new operating system. But even better, gamers often build their own computers, either from scratch, a barebones kit, or a stripped down retail box. And as I pointed out above, what is often in the top 3 most expensive items on many gaming computers is the Windows Vista retail CD, ranging from the $214 Home Premium to the $249 Ultimate Edition. Gamers, therefore, are a ripe target for the open source community.

The problem with the solution to the problem: no games

Unfortunately, therein lies the problem: gamers need games. Sure, Linux has some decent games like Sauerbraten, Enemy Territory, Tremulous, Wesnoth, and Unreal Tournament. But what else? Civilization: Call to Power (a 1999 clone of Civilization). An old, unsupported version of America’s Army. X-Plane, a flight simulator. The original Medal of Honor. Just about the only recent brand-name games released are Savage 2 and EVE Online. Meanwhile, most of the free games on the market, built by volunteer developers in their spare time, have graphics that remind some of the original NES or are playing catchup to games created five years ago.

The solution to the problem with the solution to the problem: Linux companies

Here’s what Linux distributions need to do to even have a shot at taking a few percentage points of the market share. They need to start sponsoring companies like the old Loki Software and Ryan Gordon’s subsequent efforts. And they have a chance now. Steam, the popular game store, is possibly thinking about porting games to Linux. Companies like Canonical, Red Hat, and Novell would do well to sponsor some of that work.

In addition, Linux companies can start doing their own in-house porting. Canonical has a huge community of willing developers. Certainly, not all of them would feel comfortable porting proprietary code to the Linux platform. But some would. And this is very feasible: many Linux companies have lots of experience working with commercial developers. Canonical even has its own commercial repository for its “partners”.

Finally, Linux companies also need to start paying attention to the open source gaming community. Why? It’s lacking. However, gamers can get excited about free games. They just have to be up to par with commercial games. The problem is, commercial companies pay hundreds of employees to build a game for several years, while many competing gaming projects only last several years before the developer moves on. It’s time for open source developers to start getting paid for their jobs. Who better to pay them than the companies that benefit most?

Written by Andrew Min

December 28th, 2008 at 10:36 am

Posted in Articles

Tagged with Linux, Open Source

50 Responses to 'Why games are the key to Linux adoption'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Why games are the key to Linux adoption'.

How could you leave out the Quake Series? All Quake 1 to 4 are working natively on Linux. Also many new games are playable with the use of wine the win32 compability layer.

more info on http://winehq.org

Mr.N

28 Dec 08 at 1:36 pm
Yep, I agree. I just bought an Intel Core2 Quad, 4Gb RAM and a GeForce 9400GT video card.

Problem is: I’ve nothing to show it off with!

Sure I can install WINE, and fiddle with it to the ends of the earth to get some SEMI-recent games working, but I’d prefer if I was showing off my hardware with native Linux games.

So now it’s: Yay! I have a fast computer.

But: I’ve nothing on it that shows you how powerful it is…

Ronnie

28 Dec 08 at 1:40 pm
Way to go! You’ve just ripped off what people have been saying for years!

chang

28 Dec 08 at 2:25 pm
This is what I’ve been saying for years, that games for linux would increase it’s adoption because gamers want output, they want performance, they want efficiency. What’d be better than an open source engine, on an open source platform, that can be tweaked to hell for maximum gaming pleasure?

But every time I’ve brought it up everyone keeps bringing up the argument that gamers are a fucking minority among the potential adopters that’re looking for an equivalent of Windows, and would be a waste of time to focus on.

I’m looking forward to Valve porting their games to Linux at least. Then we’ll see who was right :>

Morghus

28 Dec 08 at 3:58 pm
Instead of saying this guy is ripping people’s ideas off, why don’t we just look into pushing these ideas forward? Talk is cheap, and if you haven’t pushed the idea forward in any real way you shouldn’t be claiming credit for it.

anonymous

28 Dec 08 at 7:45 pm
Why do people think that Linux needs more market share? Why is this the end goal now?

lungdart

28 Dec 08 at 11:04 pm
lots of commercial games listed at the linux gaming world website

think that only savage and eve are the only recent games? there were dozens released in 2008

dukebravo

28 Dec 08 at 11:21 pm
More market share means more ports of important commercial apps, which removes the biggest obstacle to more people being able to use Linux that the open source community is powerless to solve. Even if you don’t personally need any of the commercial programs that aren’t available on Linux, there are many others who might like to use Linux but can’t for that reason.

anonymous2

28 Dec 08 at 11:31 pm
If Blizzard & Bioware had its games as Linux native binaries, I’ll just switch 100%.

And no, WINE is not the solution – eat my texture out of my Warcraft and can’t join LAN game under WINE.

voidptr

29 Dec 08 at 12:33 am
I agree with what is being said here. While Linux waits for the corporate people to see how cheap it is to go open source, Linux doesn’t get that much exposure. Sure we’ve got netbooks and such, but that’s a small market (and will probably shrink over the next 12 months, due to MS playing catchup).

What better way to gain support for home users than if games were ported to Linux. Sure people have consoles at home now, but what I find the hardest with most games for Windows, is that the hardware increases all the time due to Windows overheads. Maybe that’s the next battlefront for Linux, to be adopted by gamers and game companies and as everything is open source, maybe they can then tweak what’s needed to get their games looking good on relatively modest hardware.

AmblestonDack

29 Dec 08 at 7:44 am
Been said many times. Now, to answer your own question, how many Linux games have *you* purchased? If you are still buying games that support only Windows (or Nintendo, for that matter), then don’t act surprised that developers are not budgeting much for Linux ports.

anonymous

29 Dec 08 at 5:29 pm
> Companies like Canonical, Red Hat, and Novell would do well to sponsor some of that work.

Red Hat and Novell don’t really aim at the desktop market, these two kids are aimed at the profitable business/enterprise market.

Canonical doesn’t have the same depth of experience or staff that RH or NOV have.

Its easy to say that someone else should do the work.

There is no solution to this problem, the Linux eco-system does not play “nice” with closed source binaries.

Wade Mealing

29 Dec 08 at 11:00 pm
I agree with this article and have been saying the same as most of you have for a long time. If I could buy Linux versions of Team Fortress 2 and EverQuest 2, I would. GameTap would also be awesome on Linux but I know it’s a big ask.

John Rockefeller

30 Dec 08 at 1:36 am
With a closed source system, Linux simply needs to have more people focus on stable drivers for hardware as it comes out. I think this is part of the problem with Mac as well – you can’t just go pop in a GFroce X280 and run with it like a WinBox system. This is true with most hardware on linux.

Another ‘problem’ with linux is in the distros. When you have a platform that comes in so many flavors, for different sub-uses, it becomes hard to figure out which is best for the users with their specific needs. SuSe, Ubuntu, or Yellow Dog? the answer depends on what you’re going to do, and subsequently which is more current with drivers (to make it just easier at the time – you can GET drivers for them all if they’re available).

As you state, gamers ARE adventurous – in that many of them will look to play games on different platforms to see which provides the best environment. We’ll go to extremes to play a single game and while at times very impatient we will try to figure out our own solutions (look at the fiasco with Bioshock when it came out).

Then you have the task of getting developers on board with developing games in Linux / Unix. With what little experience I have with ‘programming’ in Linux, I’d assert it is akin to programming and developing games on the Xbox 360 v.s. PS3 – very possible, but the PS3, while more capable, is cumbersome – which means it takes time. Is not time money? Developers get paid for their time and the companies get paid for their work. How lucrative would it be to release… say… World in Conflict on Windows for $49.99 and $69.99 on Linux. Where is the incentive to play it on Linux other than ‘proof of concept’? It would deter both Linux gaming and give Linux OS a dark tint to prospective gaming users.

I think the transition will happen at some point, especially with YDL on PS3, but the homebrew community needs to be better organized FIRST.

This brings me to another caveat of Linux – diversity.

Diversity is an excellent advantage in Linux, but it’s also in my opinion the greatest downfall. When you ahve 50,000 people working on a genre of applications, like IM applets, you end up with a program that offers a lot. But, because 50,000 people never really totally agree on any one thing, you have a handful of programs that some a few things you like across a spectrum of applications instead of a lot of what you like in one application. On occasion you’ll end with with something like “pigeon” or some other ‘trillian-esque’ piece of software and it’ll be great, but in the world of gaming, you already have people going to fists over minor details…

organize first, then move on – that’s my take.

good article though…

Shawn Gordon

1 Jan 09 at 10:49 am
As I suggested to the Ubuntu brainstrom forum a few months ago before my idea was shot down. User rating -6

Could just imagine if some rich millionare/company were to donate money just to create ONE hit video game only specific to Ubuntu….

A re-post:

Written by spitzbubchen the 26 Oct 08 at 16:10. Category: Marketing. Related to: Nothing/Others. New
The intrinsic flexibility of Linux makes it an optimal system that could be customized and developed to offer a more superior gaming platform than compared to Microsoft based products. Ubuntu should consider partnering or collaborating with big name computer video game developers to bring some unique video games only to the Ubuntu platform that can specifically take advantage of Linux’s resources in compared to Microsoft OS’s.

There are several reasons for going into video games:

1) the video gaming population out there is huge and getting huger. If Ubuntu could become the de facto standard gaming platform out there it would drastically increase it’s market share. The market share for desktop Linux has always hovered around 1%, mainly because Linux has never had anything unique to offer with respect to Windows. There has been no real incentive to switch.

2) video games demand serious hardware as the newest graphics cards, sound cards, monitors, interface devices, etc… Having Ubuntu used as a gaming platform would force hardware manufactures to put time and effort in making Linux drivers.

3) video games have a high turnover rate. Once a video game is done, the user will want the next one. The next one out there is a unique product and has no established competing products. This is not the case for standard software applications as office suites or graphical packages. Why bother moving to Openoffice and Inkscape when there exists de facto standard products as Microsoft Office and Adobe Illustrator? The high turnover rate of video games allows an entry point for Ubuntu to gain more market share.

spitzbubchen

1 Jan 09 at 11:24 am
I have been saying the same thing for ages.

The one thing that Linux is really missing is the Gamer. The rest will follow, or if they don’t- who cares we would have games and gamers

Let the silly Office Folk run crappy Windows and MS Wurd.

What if a fund could be started to help pay for the porting of a certain high end game(s) to Linux? I know it would be difficult to organize, but if somebody has the balls to do it I would support it.

DDevine

2 Jan 09 at 2:37 am
Games did not save the Amiga.

Snack

2 Jan 09 at 2:54 am
I am a Linux indie game developer and even though I choosen to use Java for my software(a language that is supposed to be cross-platform) the libraries are all different between the different users and distribution that forces the user to compile new native code.

That will not appeal to your average gamer.

lordmetroid

2 Jan 09 at 5:14 am
gaming companies could port their games to gnu/linux by using wine, in the same way that codeweavers ported chrome:
http://www.codeweavers.com/about/people/blogs/jwhite/2008/9/15/fire-drills-and-proving-a-point

bolo

2 Jan 09 at 6:08 am
yeah WINE is not really the awnser. Its nice to have, and its an okay stop gap, but nothing beats native. and @Shawn what issues are you having with the 280, mines running awesome!

kusuriya

2 Jan 09 at 8:23 am
@DDevine: This is what the Blender Institute did with Yo, Frankie!

> What if a fund could be started to help pay for the porting of a certain high end game(s) to Linux?

Anonymous

2 Jan 09 at 10:23 am
Porting is not a long term winning strategy. Porting is a permanent game of follow the leader.

If you really want to break the gaming PC monopoly what you need is tools… give game developers something on Linux that they can’t get on Windows. Make developing on Linux much easier than developing on Windows.

You are right in that gamers would move very quickly if the games were there.

wzrobin

2 Jan 09 at 12:15 pm
“There is no solution to this problem, the Linux eco-system does not play “nice” with closed source binaries.”

Sure it does. Most of the packaged Linux software distribution today is already in binary form. You just need to add Steam or CD-key style authentication to a game that otherwise runs in demo mode.

Pete Ashdown

2 Jan 09 at 2:40 pm
When it comes for budgeting money/time, throwing money at native ports of big name game titles is not the most efficient use of resources.

These game companies are used to a *LOT* of money being thrown in their direction. Red Hat, Novell and Canonical are never going to come close to what game companies are used to being payed by ATI and Nvidia. And porting the game to GNU/Linux takes more time for a game company than simply adding an intro video claiming the game was optimized for a specific video card. Also, the life span of a game is usually is less than 6 months which mean enough money would need to be set aside to encourage at least 2 ports a years.

The biggest problems is that any money thrown at porting a single game is resources spent towards a single game. Since the results remain closed source, the framework of open source does not improve for future games. On the other hand, resources spent on better 3D drivers or gaming libraries will help future games.

Several projects are available to improve the availability of gaming on Linux. Phoronix details the efforts of the open source community to improve 3D graphic performance. Open Source frameworks have improved enough that award winning games are being written using them including World of Goo. Other projects like dosbox, Wine and monoxna will continue to improve to allow more games to become play-able on Linux.

What I find odd is the claim that if there is a problem with a current version of Wine for running a game then the solution must be a native port of the game. One comment refers to texture problems when playing Warcraft on Wine. It would still take less resources and improve more future games to work on fixing Wine to do textures correctly than to convince Blizzard to do a native port.

Some people still point to Loki as being a “solution” for Linux. If you really believe that Loki was a sound business plan then please read this:
http://www.linux.com/feature/22324

Thanks

Ben

2 Jan 09 at 4:18 pm
You might be interested in learning of a tiny movement I started last november.

http://gedece.blogspot.com/2008/11/call-to-gnulinux-community.html

Gedece

2 Jan 09 at 6:16 pm
Here’s the real irony,

The Blender (and Crystalspace) communities have hundreds of talented people already using an opensource tool with one of the easiest to use game creation kits built into it already. Sure it used to slow down fast at the hint of more than 20k poly’s, but the performance increases from Yo Frankie have been truly impressive.

So if we have so many capable people using opensource tools and a great gamekit, why aren’t we seeing *new* great FOSS games yet? Because if you go to the Blender forums, you’ll see that almost everyone turns up wanting to “be the leader” and create “their” ultimate game, either solo, or by having everyone work for them. With most newbies doing that, of course *no one* ends up wanting to work *for* them for nothing, and almost all projects fizzle out extremely fast.

There are a few notable exceptions, such as the escellent looking Krum and the Adventures of Zark. Notably these were created by rare individuals who were prepared to hunker down and basically do all the work themselves whether anyone helped or not. Obviously though a single person trying to single handedly create next gen games is not reasonable, so it seem to me that what we *really* need is just a better system for getting teams of technically capable gamers together to *co-operate* on projects that aren’t necessarily *their* baby. This is possible though. Everyone wants to help with an exciting project that feels like it’s doing great things. Next gen-games are just a bit unique in that you really can’t just have one visionary do it by themselves and pick up help along the way (ala Linus Torvalds). You need teams right from the start to get the momentum going that makes the project exciting for everyone.

It’s a challenge, yes. But if Open Source is capable of anything, it’s mobilizing large groups of people to collaborate on exciting projects capable of changing the world.

Bugsbane

2 Jan 09 at 6:27 pm
Great article-food for thought !!
Gamers help push computer development
Linux has now great apps for most things-one area still not fully developed is that of games
We should all in our way push for both open and closed source improvement in this field
“Build it and they will come”

Peter Mahon

2 Jan 09 at 9:30 pm
Right On, I think you hit the nail on the head with this article.

GNU/Linux is the universal operating system and would be ideal to base all games in. GNU/Linux is one of the most easily ported Operating Systems to a myriad of different devices ranging from embedded controllers to scientific supercomputers.

I wrote a small article on the idea and I truly think GNU/Linux is well on its way to being in the mainstream of computerized technology.

Here are some articles that speak to the idea of GNU/Linux as a gaming platform:
digg.com/linux_unix/Games_as_an_alternative_Linux_desktop_strategy

healthysystem.blogspot.com/2008/11/best-pc-game-platform-ever.html

Here’s some screenshots of games running on GNU/Linux:
youtube.com/thecoolguy4linux

Here’s a great GNU/Linux machine from Dell to run games:
http://healthysystem.blogspot.com/2008/11/dell-inspiron-530n-nvidia-9400gt-ubuntu.html

Other GNU/Linux gaming resources are:
http://www.linux-gamers.net
system76.com
linux-laptop.com
http://www.linuxgames.com

GO GNU/LINUX!!!

Shannon VanWagner
digg.com/users/bicep

Shannon VanWagner

2 Jan 09 at 11:03 pm
Not sure where everyone has been…

http://happypenguin.org

PeterW

2 Jan 09 at 11:46 pm
Why wouldn’t someone assembling their own computer buy OEM Windows for half the price?

J. Williams

3 Jan 09 at 12:50 am
The biggest problem with FOSS games is that design by committee does not work with games, for a successful game you need a clear and concise design and the managerial tact to get others to follow through on that design. No committee will ever be able to provide that.

The most popular FOSS games are clones of proprietary games that already had clear and concise goals.

Bob

3 Jan 09 at 2:55 pm
I’m not sure how much formal support Canonical is providing, but these guys are making an effort as you suggest, with the first couple games mentioned available from:

http://www.playdeb.net/available_games.html

Happy Penguin

3 Jan 09 at 8:33 pm
In all honesty, the market for games is a glut right now. There’s currently three major consoles competing for developer (and consumer attention), two major portables (DS and PSP), a phalanx of cell phone games, and of course traditional PC development, and if you’re lucky, a port to Mac’s. The reality is that “Linux gaming”, outside of small independent games and open-source clones, will probably never garner much attention as a gaming platform. it’s simply unrealistic to expect as more and more developers are being selective about where they put resources. Moreover, the lack of linux versions of many popular engines that are licensed for game use, means that porting will always be something of a distant fantasy.

Sean S.

4 Jan 09 at 1:38 am
What about amazing FPS games like Nexuiz!?

http://www.nexuiz.com

Sparky

4 Jan 09 at 11:31 am
Yes, games for Linux are really a problem. Why do developers force me to use Windows to play their games? I don’t want that crap on my system, just release your games multiplatform, so I can buy the game for the operating system I want to use.

Robbert

4 Jan 09 at 3:25 pm
Hi All!

How about a Linux wifi game controller?

I have all the Linux games there are, and I’d like to have a good game pad.

Regards,

jjmacey@jjmacey.net

JJMacey

4 Jan 09 at 6:44 pm
There are two things that cold improve the situation.

1) Really separate the game from the implementation.
That is reduce the art, characters and story to being classified as art and the actual stuff that makes it work as programming.
With this in mind like Lenovo, Dell and IBM agreeing that even if their computers are different they all run (roughly) the same Linux game companies have agreed on open source standards even if the actual game data is only available from them.

2) Some how we stop gamers from looking like gang-banger wanna bees with PC’s and make them look
like the next generation of courteous technicians, sys-admins and programmers.

Ryan McCoskrie

5 Jan 09 at 8:09 am
- I would of recommended getting
two 250 gig drives or a 250 gig drive for OS/APPS
and a 500/650/1TB for games/downloaded data
- I would of recommended getting an 9800 GT instead of an 9800 plain
and an 3.00 GHZ cpu instead of 2.53.
- I would of recommended getting a 22″ instead of 20″

“The problem: current adoption methods”
I personally find the problem with Linux Adoption is

- no real standard with Linux with installing new software (RPM/Deb/Gentoo/source)
Users want to download , click on the file and able to install it without Linux needing to download wads of extra system data files (apt dep/rpm hell)
- too different kinds of linux confuse users (too many distros) which ones do users choose ?

- freeware gets labeled as non free when its FREE
(Cost, a lot of users dont care it hasnt got source code) Lots of drivers and Games released as freeware would benefit users.

- Linux in 2008 and 2009 has become as bloated or MORE bloated, as Windows XP/Vista/Windows7(aka Vista-se). some distros are installing 4 to 10 gig for an OS and often multiple of the same program (eg multi broswers , image viewers, etc).
Some Windows Users are using Nlited Windows XP and Nlited Windows 2003 Operating systems and enjoying the benfit of non bloated microsoft os’s.

- Not enough Commerical Windows games and Commerical
games devs/companys support Opengl/openCL (easier porting to Mac/Linux)

- Too many free open source projects are the same

- Linux does not support Portable apps , but Windows works well with
Portable apps http://www.portableapps.com/ and
MacOSX supports Portable apps now also http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps

- No retail box’ed Linux software (Apps/Utils/Games)
its a shame people can’t goto EB Games (USA/AU) or your local Computer store and theirs a copy of box’ed retail Linux software for sale.

Charliebrownau

5 Jan 09 at 8:32 pm
I agree, if Linux really wants to become a full alternative to Windows it needs more games (with no Windows version) that will bring gamers in. Everything from B-class games to AAA games are needed, and one thing that’s really needed is that they don’t have a Windows port (at least on par with the Linux original) or it might backfire (why I should install linux since I can have the same game in Windows?).

Another thing that will help is to have easy to use tools to make games, something like AMOS on the Amiga or Fenix/Div ( even though fenix/div is less powerful than AMOS) that might empower many people to make their own free games.

Vicente Werner

6 Jan 09 at 11:31 am
Most of the people I am dealing with for using Linux have no interest in games at all.

They are pure desktop users and if they play games it is on a console.

oiaohm

20 Jan 09 at 7:36 am