Hello, I'm considering two platforms for porting future game projects, either Linux or Mac OS X. Of course those come after my first platform of choice Windows. I'm pretty confused about which one is to go, both are linux-like based kernel. But what about developement tools and hardware support, performance, and community? Thanks!

Quote: Original post by eSam
I'm pretty confused about which one is to go, both are linux-like based kernel. But what about developement tools and hardware support, performance, and community?

Mac OS X isn't Linux-based. I think its kernel is XNU, which is based on Mach 3.0, IIRC. Linux is just a kernel, so obviously it is Linux-based. :)

That being said:

• development tools: depends mostly on the language(s) and technologies you'll be using;


• hardware support: Macs come with a given set of hardware, and usually a Mac only has certified hardware, so you're pretty much guaranteed than it'll work. With non-certified hardware, anything can happen. Linux supports a much larger set of hardware, but its support for 3D cards isn't top-notch, with the exception of nVIDIA's (*) on x86 and AMD64 (and maybe PPC?);


• performances: doing what? For 3D it doesn't matter since that'll be offloaded to the GPU, so the question isn't "which OS is more performant", but rather "which (supported) GPU is going to perform better with a given set of data under given conditions?" For anything else, you'll need to be a little more precise;


• community: if you are speaking of the development community, then my guess is that the GNU/Linux one is larger.

Hope this helps.

(*) 3D acceleration with nVIDIA cards require a proprietary module that a lot of GNU/Linux users don't like (although most gamers don't seem to care).

Both. They're both marginal markets, so expend the energy and cultivate them both.

Writing cross-platform code will also be good practice. [smile]