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Wed Mar 11 18:56:50 EDT 2009


>> I don't know about halo 1 but every single one of the others have nix
>> servers available, there is a reason for that, it's not coincidence.

The reason most of those games have Linux support is because most of 
them are based on the Quake engine in some respect, which had Linux 
support from way back when (because id are one of the few developers 
that realised even back then that it was good to have solid dedicated 
server support). Of those 16 games, 7 are Q3 engine based, so Linux 
support was assumedly fairly painless to integrate. Halo, afaik, does 
not have Linux support. America's Army has Linux support, but as of the 
latest version, the Linux version is lagging behind the Windows one - it 
has been 1.5 months and still no sign of it.

>> We owe them nothing, they owe us... we create the userbase... we
>> *are* the userbase.

I think its safe to say that EA care more about Joe Gamer than they do 
about Joe ServerAdmin, because they know Joe Gamer does NOT discriminate 
between software that provides solid dedicated server software on a 
variety of platforms - hell, Joe Gamer has proven over and over again 
that he doesn't even care about quality. He'll still buy the game.

Don't get me wrong, I think its sad that companies don't release Linux 
versions. But I think its sadder that companies don't even released 
win32 versions, or release win32 versions that are stone age compared to 
even the original Quake - these games _never have a chance_.

I'd much rather run stuff on Linux than Windows, by a country mile. Not 
for security or any of that stuff (not to get in an OS war, but I find 
both OSes comparable), but because its a hell of a lot easier to ssh 
into a box and do stuff there than it is to use VNC or remote desktop. 
But I'm not in a position to summarily decide to discard games on the 
basis that they don't have Linux support.

The point of my original email wasn't to say you guys suck for running 
Linux or that devs should be excused completely from not making Linux 
versions - the vehemence of your reply seems to indicate that's what you 
thought I was saying. The point of my original email was basically to 
say, Give Andreas (and the other Dice guys on the list) A Break and 
start taking it up with the publishers, because they're the people that 
you need to put pressure on to get things changed.

I _constantly_ whine at Australian publishers about dedicated servers 
with EVERY game to the point where they kick requests for them upstream, 
and I hope they're getting noticed. I strongly recommend you do the 
same, because the more noise you make _in the right places_, the better 
chances we all have about getting better support for what a lot of us do 
for FUN, which ultimately is something that makes them more money :)

-- dave






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