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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2023

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  • I meant it quite literally. Another multi-billion dollar company needs to be willing and able to spend the same level of resources and time. Wal-Mart or Costco itself would have to be willing to produce their own hardware.

    Yeah, I fully realize it’s never going to happen. It’s a hypothetical to illustrate just how high of a hurdle it is. It won’t happen organically, there needs to be a strong driving force with the financial backing that rivals that of the competition.


  • “Nobody cares” is how Linux will eventually win on the desktop. It becomes viable for most people when they no longer “need” whatever they were using before. As Linux is free, it will win when it becomes “good enough”.

    The largest barrier is the fact that the end user is expected to install the OS themselves. Having an OS work 100% of the time right out of the box with a default install is impossible. Windows and OSX have a huge advantage by being installed on the factory floor. The manufacturer guarantees that the drivers work for the hardware they decide to install and that the default applications on the OS work as they should.

    Linux needs an equivalent to Microsoft or Apple that can put Linux on shelves at WalMart for average people that buy $600 desktops.










  • Have you seen the Reddit Linux communities? People don’t care how many tools or useful information you present them. They will ask the SAME “which distro” questions day after day after day.

    There are 3 reasons you see repeat posts.

    1. They are extremely lazy and can’t be bothered to find their way through a maze of information.
    2. The maze of information is legitimately confusing and they need help. But they are bad at formulating good questions so it looks like point #1. I very rarely see people take the time to explain what they’ve tried and why they failed.
    3. They want a conversation and getting their question answered is only one half of it.

    Also one other thing I noticed is that if you do form a good question and create a wall of text, it can also scare people away. So people deliberately ask very vague questions and then slowly reveal more as they get asked for specifics. At that point you’ve hooked some people, they are a little more invested in helping and you can info dump on them.







  • Mind, I am not blaming young people who want to create games. They lack the experience to know they are getting exploited. It’s all the cynicism of managers who know no loyalty and only want profits.

    I blame them at least a little. CS professors give students ample warnings and the industry’s bad reputation isn’t a secret. There a variety of outcomes…

    • listen and steer clear entirely
    • listen but decide to do it anyway. They do research on potential employers, their work culture etc. and they have standards.
    • Ignore the warnings or be willing to do game dev no matter the cost

    The second group will be fine and knows when/if they need to call it quits or look elsewhere. The real problem is the third group.