My parents now use Linux

Candy · Post by **Candy** » Wed May 02, 2007 11:08 am

Brynet-Inc wrote:
supagu wrote:no, i see it has uses in buisness and R&D, but for the home user extremely useless. what do you do with your computer at home (non programming related) thats constructive?
I do things programming related .. I check out various forums and news sites and I read various books and technical papers.

And when I need a break, I watch some TV or a movie..

I never have the need to "play games"..

Quite exactly R&D then. I enjoy doing R&D about day round 7 days a week. I work at my "work place" doing stuff I don't pick myself (but still somewhat like) on a bunch of nice work stations and then I go home, do stuff I do pick myself on a bunch of different, nicer work stations.

The "work" computers include two Windows XP and one Linux, the home boxes include three Linux and one Windows 2000. Linux at home is Slackware, Linux at work is Fedora (ancient version of it, not connected to anything but my other work boxes and the embedded devices we use).

inflater · Post by **inflater** » Wed May 02, 2007 11:46 am

I never have the need to "play games"

What is Doom or Quake then?

...
No, you absolutely had not the "need to play games", even when you were a 2 year child?...

I see that you should take a one week break from Windoze, Linux, PC's, etc., and let your body deserve what it should.

inflater

Brynet-Inc · Post by **Brynet-Inc** » Wed May 02, 2007 2:12 pm

inflater wrote:
I never have the need to "play games"
What is Doom or Quake then? ...
No, you absolutely had not the "need to play games", even when you were a 2 year child?...

I see that you should take a one week break from Windoze, Linux, PC's, etc., and let your body deserve what it should.

inflater

I said: (I never have the need to "play games")
I didn't say: (I've never had the need to "play games")
Learn to read, I played games as a kid obviously..

I also said I've played Doom & Quake in the past.. They were also Open Source and I was more interested in the engine design not the game itself..

Some developers might find it fun to develop and design games for the programming experience.. game engine physics etc.. but actually playing games for recreation? I don't see that as being fun..

I don't play games... I don't have any reason for it..

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Wed May 02, 2007 2:27 pm

Brynet-Inc wrote:I don't play games... I don't have any reason for it..

Why should you need a reason? It's like:

* "You should play ping pong."
* "I don't play ping pong."
* "You should play ping pong"
* "But I don't like ping...."
* "Why?"
* "Because I don't like ping..."
* "Why?"
* "Because I like baseball..."
* "You should play ping pong."
* etc.

If you don't like something, then you don't like it. It's a matter of taste. Although, often one has a reason for not liking things, such as the belief that "playing video games is a waste of time." Yet, these are, in themselves, an opinion, or a matter of taste.

AndrewAPrice · Post by **AndrewAPrice** » Wed May 02, 2007 11:08 pm

Brynet-Inc wrote:
supagu wrote:what good are computers if not for playing games?
You're joking right? I occupy my time with better things, more productive that's for sure.

This seems oddly familiar with the "Hi. I'm a Mac! And I'm a PC" commercials.

This reminds me of that one:
Mac: Hey PC, wanna see my album?
PC: I have a better idea.. *pulls out calculator* Why don't we calculate how much time we've just waisted?!

Solar · Post by **Solar** » Thu May 03, 2007 5:30 am

Brynet-Inc wrote:Some developers might find it fun to develop and design games for the programming experience.. game engine physics etc.. but actually playing games for recreation? I don't see that as being fun...

Go you.

I'd like to spend every free minute I have doing something productive, too - like, coding on PDCLib - but after 10 hours of gruelling debugging work in the office, there is something immensely relaxing in playing a really brainless game while on the commuter train home.

Currently I'm re-playing "The Bard's Tale"...

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:09 pm

Solar wrote:Currently I'm re-playing "The Bard's Tale"...

For the xbox?

The "Tale of the Nukelavee" is just brilliant.

anon19287473 · Post by **anon19287473** » Thu May 03, 2007 2:05 pm

mystran wrote:Actually, I think there's just one class of users that's holding back the adoption of Linux as the standard operating system in homes: gamers.

I mean, it so happens that so called "gamers" are mostly stuck with Windows, since that's the platform most games run with the smallest amount of pain. And it so happens that so called "gamers" are also the same people that computer illiterate people tend to call when they need their computers fixed. I'm going to claim that this class of users known as "gamers" is at least as important group as all the business users, because the moment "gamers" don't want to touch Windows, most people's personal tech-support is gone.

I'm going to predict, that if it ever happens that a large number of "gamers" decides to switch away from Windows to something else, most of the "my internet is broken" users will switch after them.

The sad thing is, I switched to Windows myself a year or two back in part because I got myself addicted to a certain large online game, which happens to run not-nearly-as-well under Linux. After no longer playing, it didn't take too long for me to realize most of the other stuff I do I could do much better under a more user friendly operating system.

Hence back under Linux, this time using Ubuntu.

I have to agree here, except for one part; i find more "gamers" are not as computer literate as they would like to think. Sure, they know more than most, but simply becuase they spend more time on the computer.

This is not meant to bash "gamers" (note the quotes), i play some games myself (prboom! woot!)

Another problems is obvious, gamers will be THE LAST to leave Windows. Games will be written for whatever OS has the most marketshare. Even OSX, with its 4-5% market share doesnt have ports of many popular games.

Brynet-Inc · Post by **Brynet-Inc** » Thu May 03, 2007 3:30 pm

anon19287473 wrote:Even OSX, with its 4-5% market share doesnt have ports of many popular games.

It would probably be easier getting "Gamers" to switch away if more commercial games on the market refrained from using "DirectX", Companies are likely unable to provide MacOSX or Linux ports due to necessary work involved.

More software utilizing 3D graphics should use OpenGL instead...

But hey, I don't even use OpenGL.. So it's not really important too me.

Candy · Post by **Candy** » Thu May 03, 2007 3:45 pm

Brynet-Inc wrote:
anon19287473 wrote:Even OSX, with its 4-5% market share doesnt have ports of many popular games.
It would probably be easier get "Gamers" to switch away if more commercial games on the market refrained from using "DirectX", Companies are likely unable to provide MacOSX or Linux ports due to necessary work involved.

More software utilizing 3D graphics should use OpenGL instead...

But hey, I don't even use OpenGL.. So it's not really important too me.

If you use DirectX you get a cheap port to the XBox and you get to use the newest Microsoft tools. That kind of doesn't help (us that is).

Kevin McGuire · Post by **Kevin McGuire** » Thu May 03, 2007 4:07 pm

I used DirectX and OpenGL. With OpenGL I actually felt much more at ease when programming with it. I have never made anything high performance, or graphically intensive, but there was never any performance difference that I noticed. I really did like how easy I discovered the line primitive which I assume Direct3D has but have never actually looked for it or stumbled upon it.

Code: Select all

gl_Begin(GL_LINE);
....
gl_End();

Quite useful when doing simulations of robotics (which I have done), or anything scientific that does not have to have pretty graphics.

I did some reading and it seems that OpenGL has actually had a better design over the years due to a form of marshaling between a user mode and kernel mode component of each driver. This is actually quite ironic when I do remember reading Microsoft's documentation for Direct3D where they constantly try to remind you to make calls with large batches of operations and data. According to the article (below) the Windows Vista is using this form of splitting the driver into a user and kernel mode component.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... erformance

I guess if anyone is around the stages of a graphics card drivers then this could be a little useful as insight into how you might want to plan to support OpenGL for fun.

AndrewAPrice · Post by **AndrewAPrice** » Thu May 03, 2007 11:17 pm

Brynet-Inc wrote:
anon19287473 wrote:Even OSX, with its 4-5% market share doesnt have ports of many popular games.
It would probably be easier getting "Gamers" to switch away if more commercial games on the market refrained from using "DirectX", Companies are likely unable to provide MacOSX or Linux ports due to necessary work involved.

And when colleges teach it. I think they only use it to teach the concepts of 3D, because later we use Ogre 3D which is cross platform and supports OpenGL too.

AndrewAPrice · Post by **AndrewAPrice** » Thu May 03, 2007 11:33 pm

how about games where you have to program? Robocode?

Brynet-Inc · Post by **Brynet-Inc** » Thu May 03, 2007 11:37 pm

MessiahAndrw wrote:poor you

And what exactly do you mean by that?

os64dev · Post by **os64dev** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:23 am

Brynet-Inc wrote:
MessiahAndrw wrote:poor you

Indeed what do you mean by that? Like i am missing something if i am not playing games? Ever thought about the fact that you need a virtual world with some godlike status to entertain yourself. While there is a real world out there with lots of people who actually need help, are at least are interesting to talk to, have something to teach you, etc...

Well excuse me... i have to get back to Sim 2