Posted on Wednesday 20th of December 2006 at 07:03 in Software

XP over Ubuntu over Vista

That's exactly how my options look over the coming months and I can't say i'm alone. I've said time and time again that the battle of the operating systems is looming and as we draw closer to the new year it's becoming increasingly apparent it's not going to be a battle at all.

I'm a native Windows user, having had it as my O/S since 3.1 I'm accustomed to the way it works, the way you do things and what can be done. This obviously made my steps into the Linux world a lot more daunting, but, clearly, I survived. There are problems with me making the full switch to Linux (along with some of my peers) in that - and yes this is correct - games don't support Linux - not the other way around. Therein lies my major problem. I enjoy gaming as much as the next person, it's my escapism and I really need to have the option to play (even if I actually game quite rarely). The rest of my needs are met reasonably well on Linux and Windows emulation is decent enough to allow my essential applications to make the leap with me. Games and their developers are the unchanging problem with the entire situation - it's almost as if they've been given a kickback from MS for ensuring that development for Windows is exclusive, with Mac editions being released late and Linux support be minimal.

XP Over Ubuntu
So XP comes over Ubuntu (or equivalent) for now because I'm utterly dependant on the gaming option. It's really not a case of not being able to do things in Linux because not only does it have an incredibly useful community it's also become a lot more point-and-click (Synaptic for example) it's really a case of developers not recognising it as an alternative platform and by extension not developing for it.

Although I must say I find it awfully ironic that I find it surprising game developers are reluctant to support a minority of people who believe in free software (and use it). What's the matter guys? Worried that we won't buy your games? You're probably right but whatever, it's the principle of the matter.

Over Vista
So that establishes why XP comes over Ubuntu, but Vista? Those who know me understand my apathy towards it, yet I've been realising that it will be unavoidable. Companies such as Dell will be delivering machines with Vista Home Basic, laptops will be delivered with it on, wherever I'm working will eventually be on Vista... The Microsoft monopoly looks to continue out of habit if nothing else and I see no way that things will change this way round.

Vista
Vista is my personal disappointment of the year (based off RC1 and feature lists) because I was looking to the horizon with a glimmer of hope in my eye, that this long awaited O/S would come along and solve all of my worldly problems. However, the result was a bloated resource whore who implemented visual effects because it could rather than should (much like the Matrix Reloaded movie). My conclusion was that it did nothing that XP couldn't do without 3rd party additions or minor tweaking.

My modest (cough tiny) bank balance and expired MSDN membership mean I'm unable to actually afford Vista (apart from Home Basic).

Home Basic is an interesting notion - a way of hiking prices by making an entry level package so basic that no one will want to buy it, safe in the knowledge that penny pinchers can't argue because they're opting to buy above the cheapest version. Naughty Microsoft.

Conclusion
Everywhere you look the most common reason for people not moving to Linux is gaming. However impressive the UI is becoming or how intuitive the experience if we can't do what we want we're not going to move. So this isn't a plea to the developers behind GNU/Linux, it's a plea to game developers to consider it as a platform worth developing for.

 

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