On Fri, 14 Mar 2003, joe wrote: >Jef, substitute "database" for "game", rewind to 1998 and >re-read your statements. > >Sounds really lame huh? the only difference is the 20-20 >hindsight we now have about the db market - in 1998, all the >pundits made dire and negative predictions for linux as a >database platform, just as you're now doing for linux as a >gaming platform.
No, it doesn't sound lame at all. It is quite realistic actually. Right here, right now, there is no market for this stuff, and so there isn't a herd of people developing stuff to chase the nonexistant market. When there was no market for databases, the situation was the same. You say rewind to 1998 and re-read his statements. That is *exactly* what we're saying right now. This is 2003, exactly 5 years after 1998. 5 years from now, in 2008, there is likely to be a viable gaming market on the Linux OS platform. Likely before that. But it is not here right now, no matter how much people fantasize about it. It will happen eventually if and when it happens, and it will be driven by the proper forces. That means the people who stand to make the most money from lighting the torch and holding it to the firepit are the ones who will be the catalysts to start the fire. That fire will spread until eventually it hits all necessary players that are required in order to make it happen. It wont just start because random handfuls of people pop up on email lists thinking it's going to happen, or that "company foo should do bar if they want to be profitable with blah". That is exactly right - company foo *will* do bar if and when they determine it might be in their best financial interest to develop something for Linux, and games are no exception. That's really what Jef is saying, and what I've been saying too. I like Jef's humorous and colorful way of saying it better than my own though. Mine sounds too business-people like for my tastes. Makes me feel like I'm wearing a tie or something. Eww gross! /me goes to play RTCW on Linux, just because. -- Mike A. Harris ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat -- Phoebe-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/phoebe-list
