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Re: [News] Windows Faces Problematic Crossroad, Microsodt Needs "Radical Rethinking"


"Kier" <vallon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:pan.2006.09.05.20.12.13.56306@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 19:51:20 +0000, Oliver Wong wrote:

"Mark Kent" <mark.kent@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:28m0t3-2o.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It's quite true that their marketing expertise and muscle, and their contacts deep into governments, will help them through all kinds of problems, but in the end, I still can't see how they will compete with free.

The two big factors I see are:

(*) Games.

True. The games problem is a bit chciken-and-egg - which do we get first, more Linux users who want games for Linux, or more games that run on Linux to attract gamers *to* Linux.

Hopefully Vista will cause some of the former, and hobbyist developers will be willing to take the risk with the latter.


There isn't any game that makes me think "Gee, I sure wish I had a Linux machine". Should there be? If you make a cross platform game for both Linux and Windows, are Windows users gonna try it out, think to themselves that Linux has some pretty nifty games, and consider switching? Or are they just gonna play the game, and not really care or even notice that it's available for Linux as well? I wasn't aware until sometime early today that CounterStrike: Source was available for Linux, for example.

If you make a hit Linux-only game, how good would it have to be to generate enough buzz to get people to consider switching over to Linux just to play it? Would it be open source? If it is open source, then what's the chance of some team porting it over to Windows? Should it be closed source then?

I haven't fully figured out the latter strategy, more Linux games to attract users to Linux, yet.

- Oliver


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