Article by Jason Phillips
If you’re a real gamer you know just how terrifying Windows 8 can be. With the changes they’ve made there just might not be any sort of viable way for real gamers to get the kind of experience they want.
Expect seriously inconvenient DRM implementations and major difficulties for independent developers because of the proprietary (and profitable) app store built in to Windows 8. Independent developers are going to have no choice but to make the transition, meaning quality free games will disappear, too.
The Big Boys Will Still Be There, Though… Right?
You can expect the Steam client to be present on Windows 8 for a long time to come. There will also be many games and franchises created by your favorite publishers. But with many of the issues we’ve seen even the biggest publishers face with app stores, they might not be willing to work as hard as Microsoft wants them to.
Drew Bliss, one of Valve’s most famous employees, recently gave a presentation at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Denmark. He had a few good points about why Linux is going to become the platform of choice for game developers in the new future. Here are just some of the highlights:
- The Steam client already runs nicely on Ubuntu
- Many developers have approached them regarding publishing their games on the new Steam client for Ubuntu
- Ubuntu has a very large user base, meaning they can get the support of bigger companies like Canonical
- The programming tools are already there – including OpenGL, OpenAL, PulseAudio, and input support for multiple devices.
- Copy protection won’t be forced on game publishers and gamers – it’s all up to the publishers.
Of course, we’re still waiting to see what happens with the Steam client, but many of the attendees of the Ubuntu Developer Summit were given access to a beta version. Users are still prevented from sharing their thoughts with the public since the system is still undergoing heavy bug testing, but indications are generally positive.
What’s wrong with Windows 8?
Besides all of the things we’ve grown used to with Microsoft, the new interface is causing a lot of gamers to lose a lot of sleep. The built in app store is being forced down our throats, and publishers are going to have to adopt the model or sell their games for other platforms.
Of course, Microsoft gets a cut of each sale. That’s not a big deal, though, because that’s how game distribution and console licensing works to begin with. But some of the “fine print” in the contracts makes independent publishers a little uneasy.
Expect a lot of your favorite games to be ported to Ubuntu (or other distributions) in the near future instead of making the transition to Windows 8.
With all of the changes taking place in the gaming world right now it’s no surprise that there is a huge transition away from Windows and to Linux distributions like Ubuntu. Thankfully it’s easy to install and many computers come with it already preinstalled at the time of purchase.
Our Final Thoughts
Even though we think Linux have a chance to win the hearts and minds of the gaming population Windows is still Windows. What does this mean? It means that huge “players”, such as Microsoft, are really hard to beat. No matter how much you love Linux, Windows is here to stay and they won’t surrender without fight. And don’t forget that Windows is installed in almost and every home. Please tell me the truth on your PC there is some Windows operating system ?
Author Bio: Jason Phillips has put down this post. He is having a degree in Animation and is working with an online gaming website company. His task is to develop online games and he newly worked on http://www.sonicgames365.com/ for the sonic games.
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The truth is: Last week I installed the second windows in my lifetime. The first was on a virtualy machine in a Mac 10 years back. The second was last week when I had to repair the laptop of my wifes mother.
I’ve been running only GNU/Linux for the past 8 years, and every Windows or OSX is barely usable compared to KDE – at least for me. It’s what I’m used to.
I dualboot Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Windows 7 Pro. Even though I mostly boot into Ubuntu, and do most of my work in Ubuntu. I still need Windows 7 for my favorite Adobe applications, as well as other photography applications, not avialable on Ubuntu or any Linux distro. Photomatix Pro 4, Adobe Lightroom 3.6, Photoshop Elements 9, and various professional photography plugins. Don’t care to use Wine at all, for updating reasons, and too much that still does not work as well as a native ported applications.
hey, I use linux, but these whole article needs a huge [citation needed]
“Expect a lot of your favorite games to be ported to Ubuntu”
yeah.. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
“there is a huge transition away from Windows and to Linux distributions like Ubuntu”
really??! Where can I find evidence of this?
This is an opinion by Philip based on other articles and facts such as:
Kickstarter and Game Development: Highlighting Games Coming to Linux Part 1:
Assassins, Orcs, & Zombies, oh my! Valve brings Steam games to Ubuntu Linux
Valve: “Windows 8 a Catastrophe for Everyone”
Best Regards
It really is happening.
The biggest example is steam for Linux beta in the last few months. At time of writing it is still in beta stage but already has 25 commercial quality working games for Linux:
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_4_4__12&term=Linux#os=linux&advanced=0&sort_order=ASC&page=1
with a lot more planned.
Other signs are that nVidia just released some siginficant gaming performance improvements in their Linux drivers.
As i said, it finally appears its really happening.
I think Microsoft made a massive tactical error with Windoze 8 dropping PC gamers in the dirt. They’ll find out too late that they’ve massively underestimated our market impact and value.
yeah I know that, but I’m not as optimistic that this will amount to much in the end. Prediction: Steam for linux will come out, support a few Valve and indie games and most others will continue to ignore it. People who don’t like Win 8 will stay on win 7. Linux gains might be 1%.
I’d love for all the optimists to be right, but that doesn’t prevent me from facing reality.
I’m actually expecting the next thing will be Valve or maybe Canonical releasing a Ubuntu-powered distro and/or actual console built around Steam.
The truth is I’m running 3 Linux desktops, one linux laptop, and two windows laptops at home. In addition to that, 3 android smartphones, one android tablet and one iOs tablet. That’s 2 of 11 devices running windows.
One of the windows laptops still runs windows only because of games, which it turns out, my 14 year old isn’t even using. Eventhough he has a winows machine now, he still uses the linux machines to play humble indie bundle and web based games. With Steam coming to linux, the next time his laptop gets infected with a virus (which won’t be long now) there’s a good chance my he’ll request linux on that too. Then we’ll be down to 1 of 11 devices running windows.
Perhaps more significantly, all the software that’s running on the windows machines can also run on the linux machines, so switching from windows to linux and back is a non-issue. They are all running libreoffice, all connected to the same cloud storage, all running firefox and chrome, all running the same web based applications.
The last remaining windows laptop will probably stay that way for a while because my wife speaks for a living around the country, and needs to plug her laptop into other peoples projectors. When they run into problems, with the setup, and see that she’s running windows 7, they put effort into fixing the problem. She used to have a linux laptop, which worked perfectly well, but when IT staff ran into problems with their setup and saw linux running on her laptop, they would just thorw up their hands and say “we don’t support linux”, and then stop trying to fix their problem. Once they had a bad video cable, but because she was running linux on her laptop, they just couldn’t see it. Funny. So when that laptop finally physically gave out, we replaced it with a new windows 7 laptop. We still have projector problems, but at least she doesn’t stress out our customers IT staff.
In 14 years of running linux, I’ve NEVER had to deal with a virus. I know they exist, but I’ve just never seen it. In the same years, EVERY windows machine I have ever owned has ultimately been rendered useless because of viruses, and they have, one by one, been turned into linux boxes. That’s the truth.
I’m running Windows 7 right now. I have a dual boot set up with Peppermint OS, but I won’t go totally to Linux until that fairy tale of my favorite games being ported to Linux becomes a reality. I’m not exactly leaping for joy, though, because I’ve seen the list of game that (so far) run on Steam for Linux and I only play one or two on the list, none are my favorite. More developers need to get their butts in gear before I start having hope that the shift to Linux will happen. And most will likely “test the water” in Win8 before committing to a change.
Well, if you had asked me a month and a half ago, I would have said I had no Windows installations at home. At the moment, though, I have one Windows 8 Release Preview installation for my brother to play World of Warcraft with. If that computer had an NVidia card, or the AMD Catalyst drivers worked better with Wine DirectX support, or if it weren’t for the bugs in the 64 bit OpenGL version of WoW, then it probably wouldn’t be there (it’s still dual booting – I just added a hard drive and put Windows 8 on it). Sometimes I pull a Windows XP virtual machine out of mothballs to update my GPS maps, but that’s pretty much the only thing I use it for.
At work, I have a Windows XP virtual machine (though I may trade that to a Windows 7 one for most things) for certain software that I need. I also have a Windows 8 Release Preview just for experimental purposes. It’s possible that I will eventually transition to a Windows 8 virtual machine to run the Windows software I need in preparation for its deployment to others in the company. Since I primarily deal with Linux web servers, though, I use Linux on the desktop most of the time at work as well.
Quote”Please tell me the truth on your PC there is some Windows operating system ?”
From about 1998 to 2006 I dual or triple booted but since then I have been running PCLinuxOS and Fedora.
I have not really been a big time gaming fan so haven’t missed Windows at all.
It is interesting to hear that some of the games are running better under Linux than Windows.
This could also be the first/next step in MS convergance strategy. Next xBox will run stripped down Win8 (boots to app store and play screen, no desktop) which could allow publishers to write once and publish on all platforms (except smartphone tiny screen perhaps)….
Ubuntu could take control and also create stripped down Ubuntu that boots to same kinda’ sceen for either PC(s) or some kind of cube looking dealie that does same thing…
I would not change Microsoft Windows 8 to Linux, I think Microsoft Windows 8 is better than Linux
You can still acquire and install games on Windows 8 via traditional methods. You are not forced to use the App Store, but game developers will have to compete with it.
The app store is completely voluntary to develop for on Windows 8 and 100% of the support and possibility of developing for the desktop of Windows 7 is still there. This article seems to overlook that entirely. You really think indie devs who don’t want to lose 30% of their profits to Microsoft will look to Linux FIRST? No, if they’re currently developing on Windows anyway then they will just continue to develop for the Windows 8 desktop. I cannot stress enough that the possibility to develop there is 100% the same as all previous versions of Windows.
Publishers aren’t going to have to adapt, developers aren’t going to have to adapt, gamers aren’t going to have to adapt. The app store and Metro interface for games and applications is an extra marketplace bolted onto the side of the pre-existing and thriving desktop. If anything, Windows 8 has just given developers something new to target and make money off of, it hasn’t taken away anything.
I’m running Windows 8 at home on a new gaming rig and I haven’t met a single problem. It’s as if I’m using Windows 7, everything just works.
Yes there is windows in my desktop… for little emergencies which I can’t perform in Linux….. Haven’t touched it for over an year now 🙂
I think if i booted in windows it would probably take me a day to update it !
I dualboot Mint Linux and Windows 7 pro on my desktop and a laptop. My third computer, an i7 laptop, is linux only. I dualboot mainly for gaming.
No Micro$oft Winblows here, not for many years. I have 3 harddrives. One with Linux Mint, one with UE 3.5 and one with Arch.
I don’t need Winblows.
Need to run a Winblows game/app? Hi, Wine & PlayOnLinux!
There’s nothing I can do on Winblows that I can’t on Linux. Infact, I can do MORE on Linux.
Well done to Valve for making the jump.