I think the handwriting is on the wall with Windows 8 moving toward the look and feel of Windows Phone 7, and the Mac OS moving toward the look and feel of iOS, and no PC version of Android available, that Linux will be left as the last power-user operating system standing as Windows and the Mac OS transition to very commoditized user experiences.
I'm of the same opinion. The Windows 8 UI transition may be coming as a shock and it is possible we may be seeing too much into it, but it sure as hell looks like Microsoft has been alienating a segment of its market since Windows Vista. I know I feel alienated and the desire to stop using Windows is as strong today as it could possibly ever be.
With OpenGL as the dominant force in 3D graphics on the Linux platform, I expect this will encourage SGI to make OpenGL more of a community effort than it already was.
I hope not, Rory.
If we want for OpenGL to become a real force of the game development industry -- as it concerns triple-A studios, especially -- I suspect OpenGL needs to become as tight as it can possibly be. A small Standards committee and the community standing on the side only contributing with code and ideas that may or may not be included in the next version, depending on the committee decisions.
This will mark the shift to a fundamentally different way for game developers to do business, as development of a proprietary version of OpenGL for each gaming studio's product wouldn't be a very successful model
It has been an immensely successful model so far in the DirectX world, with the gaming industry toping even the movie industry on occasion. Why would they want to change that? We are talking about games that go on to make hundreds of millions of dollars. If there's any hope for OpenGL to take on DirectX, we need something more than blanket statements.
Tell you one thing that needs to change. OpenGL standardization method needs to emulate closed source products. I don't mean making it closed source. But I mean OpenGL needs to stop being an API that waits for NVIDIA or AMD to come up with extensions in order to implement them on its standard. Like with DirectX, OpenGL needs to surround itself with a community of developers and impose its API on hardware vendors. NVIDIA and AMD will then implement the latest version of the standard on their chips.
This is what will ensure gaming studios the stability of their OpenGL games. Note that "insurance" is the operative word, here. Not just something we can treat with a passing motion of our hand, like the FOSS community usually does. There's a real need for OpenGL to be something more than a bunch of good intentions and non binding promises if anyone wants for it to become a
de facto standard in the multi-billion dollar gaming industry.
Gaming on Linux is faced with several chicken-or-egg questions, but this move by Valve seems well-contemplated since they need to create demand first for improved OpenGL functionality and video card drivers before the community of developers and hardware makers will respond.
Indeed!
A key development in this area would be a fast method in software of translating DirectX calls to equivalent OpenGL calls in real-time, because while it wouldn't allow the same speed or image quality in OpenGL as in DirectX, it would make it possible for game developers to release Linux versions of their legacy projects quickly rather than investing large sums into porting products that have already had a good run on Windows.
Not going to happen. For that Microsoft would have to open up their API to the world and let go of some of its patents. And we know how it doesn't. Even projects that could mean a direct benefit to Microsoft (like the
Mono project) face the fact they can't fully implement Linux ports of Microsoft technology, since the company won't let go of some of its secrets and trademark capital.
Wine faces the same problem. Essentially, for real-time back-to-back translation of API calls, Microsoft would have to be deeply involved. And I suspect as Linux started to become a more credible 3D and gaming platform, the more protective Microsoft will become of DirectX.
I've been thinking (ever since my Techgage days) that a subscription model for gaming software would be the method of choice for profitably bringing gaming to Linux, and it's now unfolding before our eyes, since it provides a way for developers to circumvent key provisions of the GPL that would otherwise force them to give away their intellectual property.
The thought crossed my mind too over the years. But it goes to say how much the Linux community itself isn't prepared for Valve.
Over the last two decades, the Linux community has decided to shroud itself around a political operating system. Even within the community there are different factions, each with their own doctrine. The matter of fact is that Linux never needed Valve to come in order for its user base to benefit from a global digital distribution gaming service. But that service never existed. It was never developed. It apparently needed a closed source commercial company to get people to talk about it.
What does this mean to certain hard sectors of the Linux community? Well, that for the first time in Linux history a closed source company provided to a segment of Linux user base that didn't have a solution designed for them so far. And, by the looks of it, a segment of the user base that may grow exponentially in the next few years. Meanwhile we aren't just talking about close source here. We are talking about DRM and a pure commercial endeavor right in the heart of Linux itself. If some people may be ok with this, make no mistake there will be some friction between softcore and hardcore sectors of the community.
You won't be seeing much of it happening right now. But wait until people start asking why isn't Valve a part of the main repository, or why is their favorite Linux distribution having problems installing or running Valve. Or why is that Valve doesn't support Steam on distribution X and distribution X doesn't provide Steam support. Not to mention that almost inevitable
politicization of Steam by certain sectors of the Linux community, always so eager to fight the "evil closed source that will ruin the world".
