__/ [Ray Ingles] on Thursday 02 February 2006 13:18 \__
> On 2006-02-01, John Bailo <jabailo@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Well, funny, but you basically described in almost the correct order the
>> top percentage uses of the computer desktop by the home user. And the
>> percentages of "other" activities fall off in very sharp fashion -- that
>> is, the categories of "E-mail, Web browsing, gaming, and music (or
>> other rich media)" account for 90 percent of the usage of a home
>> computer...
>
> Fortunately, Linux does quite well in three out of four of those. Email
> and Web browsing are *at least* as good as Windows, and in most cases
> better from a security perspective. With music, the patent issue's a
> little annoying but it is possible to quickly install the codecs and be
> ready to roll.
Referring to media more broadly, ASF, WMA, WMV and a variety of proprietary
codecs continue to take their toll although there are workarounds, which can
be manually installed. Video, however, is being opened (in its own sick way)
by Google Video while TV, DVD players and the like mean that users are never
deprived from rich media.
> Gaming is the only area where Windows has a lead on Linux, and that's
> no fault of Linux. It's certainly *possible* to produce high-end games for
> Linux - UT*, Doom3, etc. Frankly, it's easier to make games on Linux
> than just about anywhere else - the SDL is *very* good at what it does.
> It's just that many companies aren't making games for Linux.
One issue is the number of distros (needs skills too), but another is
financial interests. Linux is still a small niche, but as it continues to
expand, companies will bend.
> Ironically, Microsoft's helping Linux out in this regard. The more
> popular consoles like the Xbox360 are, the less need people have to play
> games on the PC. Sony's decision to use OpenGL for their console makes
> sure that OpenGL will be relevant and updated for another generation of
> graphics hardware, and Linux will benefit from that, too.
Microsoft will penalise OpenGL in term of performance rather soon <
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/openglvista >. Nothing which contains
the string "Open" can be contained in the Win32 source, I guess.
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: There are five regular polyhedra
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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