Scientists get a million Linux kernels to run at once

[msbae]

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/43480/108/

That's impressive... Now when are they going to get Linux to...

• edit video
• play a large number of mainstream games
• Have a start button/standard GUI that doesn't look like M$ or Apple OS's
• Be easy enough for any idiot to understand (Ubuntu being a possible exception)?

 

[Lindley]

This sort of research is really more what Linux is suited for than those tasks. Right tool for the right job. If every tool could do every job equally well, why would there be more than one tool?

 

[Arrqh]

That's impressive... Now when are they going to get Linux to...

• edit video
• play a large number of mainstream games
• Have a start button/standard GUI that doesn't look like M$ or Apple OS's
• Be easy enough for any idiot to understand (Ubuntu being a possible exception)?

Aside from the first one, which it already can, there's no reason to do anything on that list. Not to mention how you're not going to get games to run consistently if games aren't made for Linux in the first place. WINE will only ever take you so far.

 

[Geckothan]

That's impressive... Now when are they going to get Linux to...

• edit video
• play a large number of mainstream games
• Have a start button/standard GUI that doesn't look like M$ or Apple OS's
• Be easy enough for any idiot to understand (Ubuntu being a possible exception)?

1. Already possible if you don't rely on commercial tools and you aren't stupid, though it's limited if you are stupid
2. Already possible if you're smart enough to buy nVidia and you're not too stupid to tweak a few settings to get Windows games working with Wine
3. There's plenty of panels that will do that, just add your window manager of choice and you're good to go. You don't have to stick to the more "mainstream" complete environments like GNOME, Xfce or KDE.
4. Idiots don't deserve to have things handed to them, stupid people hold the human race back and the sooner we rid the world of them, the sooner we will advance as a species. Translation: they should just stick to OS X or Windows.

There's also the fact that GNU/Linux isn't a big, integrated monolithic operating system (I know the Linux kernel is monolithic but that's not what I mean by monolithic) where everything is developed by one entity. It's just a big collection of free, usually open source projects, often developed by communities of amateurs, or by professionals in their free time. They are usually developed for the developers, not with the users in mind. Most of these aren't even designed with GNU/Linux in mind, but any *nix. Whining about things not being standardised, streamlined and "accessible" to stupid people is silly.

 

[msbae]

This sort of research is really more what Linux is suited for than those tasks. Right tool for the right job. If every tool could do every job equally well, why would there be more than one tool?

For the sake of competition in the marketplace, I would guess.

That's impressive... Now when are they going to get Linux to...

• edit video
• play a large number of mainstream games
• Have a start button/standard GUI that doesn't look like M$ or Apple OS's
• Be easy enough for any idiot to understand (Ubuntu being a possible exception)?

Aside from the first one, which it already can, there's no reason to do anything on that list. Not to mention how you're not going to get games to run consistently if games aren't made for Linux in the first place. WINE will only ever take you so far.

If Epic Games will make a Linux version for UT2004, why don't more companies port it over? Linux nerds like shooters too. Having to use an emulator just gets in the way of my fun, dammit!

Idiots don't deserve to have things handed to them, stupid people hold the human race back and the sooner we rid the world of them, the sooner we will advance as a species.

...

There's also the fact that GNU/Linux isn't a big, integrated monolithic operating system (I know the Linux kernel is monolithic but that's not what I mean by monolithic) where everything is developed by one entity. It's just a big collection of free, usually open source projects, often developed by communities of amateurs, or by professionals in their free time. They are usually developed for the developers, not with the users in mind. Most of these aren't even designed with GNU/Linux in mind, but any *nix. Whining about things not being standardised, streamlined and "accessible" to stupid people is silly.

Developing software without users in mind should be anathema, regardless of whether it will ever see the light of day. Creating an easy UI also makes the users who will use that program much more efficient in their tasks.

 

[Arrqh]

If Epic Games will make a Linux version for UT2004, why don't more companies port it over? Linux nerds like shooters too. Having to use an emulator just gets in the way of my fun, dammit!

Wine isn't actually an emulator, but it's the same reason why many games don't get ported to OSX... it costs money to make a port and if a company doesn't think it's going to be profitable, they won't make it. Desktop penetration of Linux simply isn't enough to justify most ports from the perspective of most publishers. Even Epic, for instance, didn't port UT3.

 

[msbae]

If Epic Games will make a Linux version for UT2004, why don't more companies port it over? Linux nerds like shooters too. Having to use an emulator just gets in the way of my fun, dammit!

Wine isn't actually an emulator, but it's the same reason why many games don't get ported to OSX... it costs money to make a port and if a company doesn't think it's going to be profitable, they won't make it. Desktop penetration of Linux simply isn't enough to justify most ports from the perspective of most publishers. Even Epic, for instance, didn't port UT3.

UT3 has enough troubles running on a Windows box. I'm not surprised that hasn't been ported yet.

 

[Arrqh]

If Epic Games will make a Linux version for UT2004, why don't more companies port it over? Linux nerds like shooters too. Having to use an emulator just gets in the way of my fun, dammit!

Wine isn't actually an emulator, but it's the same reason why many games don't get ported to OSX... it costs money to make a port and if a company doesn't think it's going to be profitable, they won't make it. Desktop penetration of Linux simply isn't enough to justify most ports from the perspective of most publishers. Even Epic, for instance, didn't port UT3.

UT3 has enough troubles running on a Windows box. I'm not surprised that hasn't been ported yet.

It probably won't ever be, quality issues aside. Linux ports are very rare these days for the reasons that have already been mentioned.

 

[msbae]

Wine isn't actually an emulator, but it's the same reason why many games don't get ported to OSX... it costs money to make a port and if a company doesn't think it's going to be profitable, they won't make it. Desktop penetration of Linux simply isn't enough to justify most ports from the perspective of most publishers. Even Epic, for instance, didn't port UT3.

UT3 has enough troubles running on a Windows box. I'm not surprised that hasn't been ported yet.

It probably won't ever be, quality issues aside. Linux ports are very rare these days for the reasons that have already been mentioned.

Not to mention the countless different Linux distros around...

 

[Geckothan]

Game developers willing to write ports should just give users a binary, tell them that they should figure it out themselves and leave them to it. I'd be cool with that.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

UT3 has enough troubles running on a Windows box. I'm not surprised that hasn't been ported yet.

It probably won't ever be, quality issues aside. Linux ports are very rare these days for the reasons that have already been mentioned.

Not to mention the countless different Linux distros around...

Which has nothing to do with anything, since libraries like SDL and OpenGL are standardized and work the same from one distro to the next.

We get it, you hate you anything that's not Windows. Thanks for letting us know!

 

[Lindley]

Linux source code tends to work fairly identically between distros. It just needs to be recompiled for each. That's why many Linux packages are distributed as source.

With only a few tweaks, most Linux code will also build on OSX. It would need some adaptation (or a good abstraction layer) to leverage OSX-specific modules like Core Image and Cocoa, but you can get something running without those.

Most cross-platform frameworks thus support Linux, OSX, and Windows fairly interchangeably, although there's always a couple of things that don't quite work right on one platform or another. For instance, the GTK+ GUI framework has a somewhat broken threading model in Windows, requiring some design care to keep things from blowing up there.

 

[CuttingEdge100]

This seems to be a means to track malicious bots on the internet...

 

[msbae]

Game developers willing to write ports should just give users a binary, tell them that they should figure it out themselves and leave them to it. I'd be cool with that.

That would be a step in the right direction.

We get it, you hate you anything that's not Windows. Thanks for letting us know!

I never said that I disliked non-Windows platforms.

 

[Arrqh]

Game developers willing to write ports should just give users a binary, tell them that they should figure it out themselves and leave them to it. I'd be cool with that.

That would be a step in the right direction.

Which, again, they won't do for the business reasons already discussed. It costs money to make a port and if no one thinks the sales from said port will make a profit, it won't happen. It really is that simple.

 

[msbae]

Game developers willing to write ports should just give users a binary, tell them that they should figure it out themselves and leave them to it. I'd be cool with that.

That would be a step in the right direction.

Which, again, they won't do for the business reasons already discussed. It costs money to make a port and if no one thinks the sales from said port will make a profit, it won't happen. It really is that simple.

I know. I have a degree in Game Design. I still see an untapped market in Linux, though. There has to be some kind of way to make money on that platform...

 

[Drogo]

I know. I have a degree in Game Design. I still see an untapped market in Linux, though. There has to be some kind of way to make money on that platform...

Designing and createing a good 3-D video card and drivers just for Linux, would be a good start.

 

[TEH BABA]

Linux, dos and windows was created to test the faithful and create good computer techs.

 

[Lindley]

I know. I have a degree in Game Design. I still see an untapped market in Linux, though. There has to be some kind of way to make money on that platform...

Designing and createing a good 3-D video card and drivers just for Linux, would be a good start.

NVIDIA has Linux drivers which are pretty stable. Not quite as good as the Windows drivers, but no major issues.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I never said that I disliked non-Windows platforms.

But you're always complaining about them! You complain about Apple fans like they're some kind of elitist cult and it's too expensive, and you complain about Linux because it's not easy enough to use.

Well, those things aren't going to change just because you don't like them. Use what OS and hardware you prefer. Holy wars are just tired.

Hell, I use Windows, Mac, and Linux (and even VMS!) on a regular basis. They all have their strengths and flaws.