cue the "one of our devs slipped and fell on a keyboard, completely coincidentally hitting all the right keys in the right order to code this. Completely coincidentally! "
Almost all commercial software are advertising their manufacturers other stuff. Ever installed a graphics card driver? How many ads does that show for games and software that can run on the card? Steam also pushes sales by pop-up advertisements.
Google has been fined multiple times because they went much further than just advertising their own stuff.
Can you disable ads on an ad platform with a single setting? Didn’t think so.
So no, Windows 11 is not an ad platform, not even close.
I don’t see an ad in my graphics driver. Even update notifications are optional.
When I open steam, it is because I’m thinking of gaming and most often, I’m hoping for a game deal popup.
Though, I’d love to not require opening Steam when I just want to play a game.
And that’s why I’m willing to forego regional pricing and pay almost 4x for GoG games, at least for games I feel like I will be playing for a long time.
I am someone that is a Microsoft professional by trade and have been for about 20 years. I have absorbed everything that Microsoft has ever done in the Windows, Server and Cloud ecosystems, but Windows 11 was what really broke this lovely glass dream.
Under Windows 10, I was ale to create a custom image and use advanced policies to block the crap, Windows 11 on the other hand you can still do the same but with every update, it reverts settings back to their “default” without notification or even recorded information.
I would say to anyone that has the “but Windows is better for gaming…” you are living in the 00s to early 10s! With the Wine program and Valves Proton program, I am able to run all games that I own (1000+ games… I am a Valve sales bundle addict alright?!?). I am able to play games such as Star Citizen, Planetside 2, PalWorld, Helldivers 2 with a few clicks of a button, and only a couple of clicks if the game is Proton gold or above.
From my testing on several distros I would say start with something friendly such as Mint Cinnamon or PopOS (linux die hards, remember not everyone wants to spend time figuring things out on a daily basis and these OS from my experience are the most Windows-esque - i mean I started with Garuda and I am stubborn to learn it instead of jumping to another distro). Then spend a bit of time just getting the basics of a Linux system of your choice, such as the file system and how to install packages (apps). Don’t forget you also have platforms such as YouTube that people will show you click for click on what to do!
But… yes there is a but… if you have an nVidia GPU your experience might not be as smooth. If you want to take a leap and have the best experience, have at least an AMD GPU and even better an AMD system. Unfortunately this is purely on nVidia still having their finger up their ass on open source drivers.
It definitely has gotten a lot better in the nVidia driver side but it’s not on AMD levels yet. But this is my experience with a 960 and 3080Ti. My 6800XT and 5700XT have been smooth sailing.
How long before the majority of game development is defaulting to Linux/Unix instead of windows? Getting native Linux games to run on windows is only becoming easier and easier with WSL? To me it seems like less of a hastle than trying to go the other way like we do today with proton and wine. Can someone enlighten me?
I’m naive enough to think it would happen faster if there were more market demand, but that’s likely my 1990s programming failing to adjust to the 21st century.
In my naive mind the steam deck is a huge motivating factor for developers to go directly to native Linux games. In reality it’s probably given only little a consideration.
According to Steam’s own survey, Linux is still less than 2% of the user base and it doesn’t look like it’s changing much. I don’t know how it has looked historically though but probably not too much different.
Realistically speaking, it’s only a small percentage of people who bought the Steam Deck, and they probably already had a gaming PC, which means they probably had a Windows PC.
So unfortunately, I don’t think Linux gaming is anywhere close.
some are talking about this like it’s going to be the straw that breaks the camels back and suddenly everyone will flock to a Linux distro, but, realistically, most market share is based on what companies use for work stations, and companies ain’t gonna change unless it starts to seriously impact productivity or it cost them more.
For personal/freelance-work computers, some people will just suck it up because of inertia. Of those who just can’t stand it… most will probably buy a mac next time they get a computer. There will probably be an increase in Linux usership, but it’s probably gonna be a 5-1% change in market share, depending on how fucked 11 ends up being as time goes on.
Probably the biggest increase in market share will be from schools adopting chrome books or the like.
I’m anticipating that an ad-free version will be made available on educational or commercial licenses–or to home users for a nominal monthly fee. This mirrors the model used by Hulu, Prime, et al so there’s a roadmap in place for it.
I’m with you re: FOSS OS migration. Some folks will but the majority will stick with Windows because that’s what they do. It amazes me how many people think that Windows and MacOS are the only possible choices.
Now I’m wondering if the point of the ads is not to make revenue, but to get people used to paying a subscription fee for their OS by way of a “removing ads” fee, maybe they start bundling other things into the subscription version like game pass or office to sweeten the deal, then slowly transition to a purely subscription model.
Add comment