Linux is not a multimedia ready or game ready OS compared to other tools that are available. It's pointless to try to bend it into the game market.
Actually the potential of linux makes it a very nice platform for gaming and other multimedia activities. There's no bending involved - all we really need is more driver support
With a few tweaks the 2.4 kernel does pretty well latency-wise, and the 2.5 kernel is very very nice in that regard -
Linus himself has declared that the priority for Linux is a server level
operating system.
Actually Linus has declared that the desktop is crucial to linux long-term viability because if we concede the desktop to some crappy monopolist, the monopolist will then be able to dictate what's in the server room as well.
Anything that compromises server performance is tossed
out of the kernel.
Actually what he said is anything that improves high-end performance at the expense of the common case is rejected - he's been quite clear on that. IBM for instance has submitted numerous modifications to increase performance on monster 16-way servers, but linus refused to take them unless and until the modifications were reworked so as not to penalize performance for the average desktop or laptop system.
This includes some of the optimizations that are required to make an OS that runs games or other "near real time" processes efficiently and effectively.
Hard realtime is one thing, but low latency and smooth multimedia performance has been a main goal of the 2.5 series - there is absolutely no reason whatever why linux can't do games or other desktop applications as well as anybody - and from what I've seen of 2.5, it'll do very well indeed, if given half a chance.
Best Regards,
Joe
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