quote: My point is just that just because the OS isn't the most popular doesn't mean it should automatically be assumed useless.

I agree with you. I don't believe that Linux is useless, I just believe it has its place at the CURRENT time. That place being for networking and business use.

It is an AWESOME operating system when it comes to networking and business. Heck, it's also an AWESOME operating system when it comes to gaming, as it always seems to achieve better benchmarks.

But, unfortunately those facts don't cause me to deter from my point. Right now it is just NOT a user-friendly operating system for gaming. The average gamer is not going to be able to install Linux and get right to gaming.

I know when I installed Linux (A FEW YEARS AGO) it took me about three days to even get X-Windows up and running, and a few more days to work out all the tweaks and bugs (mostly hardware issues with the monitor resolution and with my modem.)

I would love to see Linux throw Microsoft off of it's arrogant thrown, but I don't see that happening at the present time.

Thus, I program my games for Windows, as currently, Linux does not payoff FOR ME in the long run.


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[edited by - aNonamuss on May 3, 2002 11:52:01 PM]

quote: Original post by aNonamuss
I agree with you. I don''t believe that Linux is useless, I just believe it has its place at the CURRENT time. That place being for networking and business use.

Embedded systems. You forgot embedded systems.

quote:
But, unfortunately those facts don''t cause me to deter from my point. Right now it is just NOT a user-friendly operating system for gaming. The average gamer is not going to be able to install Linux and get right to gaming.

Depends on the distro. There are distros that target the average desktop user and probe/preconfigure defaults for virtually everything. When I first took a dive into Linux (though I wasn''t an average Windows user), Mandrake setup everything out of the box. Mdk7.1 even set up hardware acceleration!

Blanket statements are never always true, except this one.

In any case, please focus on the OP''s questions.

slevesque: The forum FAQ contains many resources; take a look at them. Linux isn''t simple, but it isn''t hard. It''s "challenging." There are tons of resources out there to make it easier for you, however.

Welcome, and good luck!

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quote: Original post by aNonamuss
Hey Null and Void, I''m talking about a few years ago.

I know; I was just updating you and anyone else who may read this thread looking for information.

quote: Original post by aNonamuss
If you want your game to run for the majority of the gaming population in this world, those of which use Windows, your going to have to port your code to a WIN32 compiler (e.g. FAT32 file system). (Wait, let me guess, they have software that does that for you?)

The filesystem has nothing to do with anything . I don''t know exactly what you meant there...

quote: Original post by aNonamuss
Thus, I program my games for Windows, as currently, Linux does not payoff FOR ME in the long run.

What most people have said is that you can support both with no added effort. I do, which allows to develop and play something in Linux with the exact some codebase that I would use to produce the Windows version.

right now, i run linux exclusively at home. the games that i play all run faster than their windows counterparts (ut, q3, rtcw). its also a great environment for programming just about anything, from what i know, quake was even developed on unix

right now, i run linux exclusively at home. the games that i play all run faster than their windows counterparts (ut, q3, rtcw). its also a great environment for programming just about anything, from what i know, quake was even developed on unix

Well I''m sorry, I guess I am wrong about Linux. I guess since I last used Linux, things have definately made a change for the better by making the operating system more user-friendly.

I guess it is only a matter of days before Linux is the operating system of choice and will thus overthrow Windows . (sarcasm)


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quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original post by aNonamuss
If you want your game to run for the majority of the gaming population in this world, those of which use Windows, your going to have to port your code to a WIN32 compiler (e.g. FAT32 file system). (Wait, let me guess, they have software that does that for you?)
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quote:
Original post by Null and Void

The filesystem has nothing to do with anything . I don't know exactly what you meant there...

I meant the filesystem (platform) that you are compiling for. E.g. If you compile for a Linux platform it's only going to run on Linux and Unix (most of the time [add this to avoid blanket statements]) because they use the same filesystem. If you compile for a FAT16 filesystem it's only going to run on a FAT16 FAT32 NTFS(if your lucky) filesystem.

That's what I meant. Sorry for the confusion.


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[edited by - aNonamuss on May 4, 2002 1:02:06 AM]

quote: Original post by aNonamuss
I meant the filesystem (platform) that you are compiling for. E.g. If you compile for a Linux platform it's only going to run on Linux and Unix (most of the time [add this to avoid blanket statements]) because they use the same filesystem. If you compile for a FAT16 filesystem it's only going to run on a FAT16 FAT32 NTFS(if your lucky) filesystem.

The filesystem has nothing to do with whether or not the program can be made to run or not . The executable's format does matter. Linux uses ELF formatted executables (for the most part), while Windows uses PE formatted executables. I can run my ELF executable in Linux if I'm using ext2, ext3, xfs, vfat (the 'linux label' of the filesystem that Windows uses), or whatever.



[edited by - Null and Void on May 4, 2002 1:43:13 AM]

I agree with Cyberdrek, just jump in both feet first and be prepared to be patient. You''ll be lost, but you''ll discover you learn VERY fast this way. My struggles trying to get Gentoo installed (which is an advanced distribution) made me learn more about Linux in 2 weeks than playing with Mandrke and Suse for several months. Lean how to use man and info. Learn to use --help, or --options with commands. And remember, the shell or terminal is you best friend

When a distro holds your hand through things like Yast2, Drakconf, or linuxconf, it hides what''s REALLY going on in your system. Just explore. Look at your etc/fstab file to see what file systems are enabled and what you can mount to (and what''s auto-mounted or not). Check etc/hosts for IP info, and get familiar with modprobe and ifconfig. Even play around with xconfigurator. And I highly recommend learning how to compile your own kernel and modules.

When you do this, you have a better knowledge base in case something happens to your system. I''m still a noob, and when I get the mailing list from gentoo, I''m dumbfounded by what the guys are talking about. Like anything in life, you have to actually do it to learn it. What you can do is take an "easy" distro like Mandrake or Suse and when installing, set it up so that the X server does not automatically start up. Then you can configure it so you can manually set up the different run levels. It does require a lot of patience to learn like this, but I think it''s better off in the long run if you are patient enough.

quote: Original post by Null and Void

Original post by aNonamuss
I meant the filesystem (platform) that you are compiling for. E.g. If you compile for a Linux platform it''s only going to run on Linux and Unix (most of the time [add this to avoid blanket statements]) because they use the same filesystem. If you compile for a FAT16 filesystem it''s only going to run on a FAT16 FAT32 NTFS(if your lucky) filesystem.

The filesystem has nothing to do with whether or not the program can be made to run or not . The executable''s format does matter. Linux uses ELF formatted executables (for the most part), while Windows uses PE formatted executables. I can run my ELF executable in Linux if I''m using ext2, ext3, xfs, vfat (the ''linux label'' of the filesystem that Windows uses), or whatever.

<CENTER><IMG SRC="http://libhfs.sourceforge.net/img/thingy.png"></center>

<SPAN CLASS=editedby>[edited by - Null and Void on May 4, 2002 1:43:13 AM]</SPAN>

Unless you''re developing a disk defragmenter or something, the file system should be transparent and should stay that way. There''s no real reason to go poking around in there.

Lots of fun games are developed on linux and ported to windows later. It''s a superb development environment.