Win 8 a 'walled garden' for digital games distribution?

[Huw the Poo]

Heh, well, it's personal preference really.  I used Ubuntu for years myself, but I found myself getting more and more put off by their philosophy and practices.  Canonical are fast becoming the Apple of the Linux world.  I'll go into detail if you like, but for now I'll just say that I don't agree with Canonical on pretty much anything any more.  Oh, and the Unity interface is absolutely horrid.

As for distros I'd recommend to newcomers...probably Mint, Mageia or OpenSUSE.  Personally I use SolusOS because I like it and it's Debian-based.

Edit: Linux has come a long way.  Unless you're using a particularly geeky distro like Arch or Gentoo, you don't need to use the console for anything any more.  It's easier to use the console if you know what you're doing, and bash (the shell that 99% of Linux consoles use) is incredibly powerful.  But there ought to be graphical tools for every one of a typical user's needs in most distros these days.

[Staggerwing]

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll check those others out.

Actually, knowing so little about Linux, I would be interested in knowing more about what Canonical is up to that is at odds with where you feel Ubuntu should have been headed. Or, if you can, point me to a source that shares your viewpoint.

[sandman2575]

Thanks Huw -- you've piqued my curiosity as well.  I havent thought too seriously about Linux (I always just assumed I didn't have the technical know-how to get by with it), but these different options are very intriguing.

[junk2drive]

Linux versions are called distributions and shortened to distros. Most of them have a "live CD" that allows you to trial the system on your PC without installing it. IF your bios allow for booting from a USB you can make a stick with the bootable file on it or you will have to burn a CD or DVD depending on the size of the file.

Users tend to be very opinionated on what is the best and what is the worst, just like browsers and cars and other things.

[Huw the Poo]

You're welcome chaps!  I'm happy to answer as many questions as you'd care to throw at me.  I'm no expert but I've been using it as my main OS for about 6/7 years now.

Staggerwing, there have been various things Canonical have done throughout the years.  I'll give you two examples:

The first thing to piss me off was when they literally copied Apple and started doing things like moving the window buttons to the left, despite absolutely nobody asking for it and annoying vast swathes of the userbase.  Then there was the first thing that absolutely enraged me, the Banshee controversy.  In a nutshell, Canonical altered Ubuntu's version of the Banshee music player.  See, normally purchases made within it from certain Linux-friendly webstores would generate revenue for the Banshee team to fund ongoing development.  Canonical instead altered the package so that revenue went to them.  I think that was the point at which I ditched Ubuntu.

I don't like Mark Shuttleworth any more, I don't like the Canonical leadership, I don't like the way they fostered the ghastly Unity interface on everyone.  The latest genius idea they've had is to send your dash search results to Amazon!  You couldn't make it up.  A major distribution of Linux - one of the last bastions of freedom in the tech world - thinks it's fine to send your desktop search results (not web, but desktop!) to a third party in the hope of generating more cash!  No thanks.

So anyway.  As good as Ubuntu used to be, it's now (in my opinion) completely unrecognisable as the distro "for Human beings", the distro that used to mail free copies to anyone who asked for it, the distro whose leader was once absolutely passionate about freedom of choice and free software.  Screw 'em.

By the way, with regard to the previous question about distros, if I had to pick one of them that would be absolutely fool-proof for a beginner, it'd be Mint.  It already comes with great software pre-installed as well as all the popular codecs so that watching videos etc doesn't require the slightest effort.  At least, that's how it was the last time I tried it.

One of the many great things about Linux is that virtually all distros can be booted directly from optical media or even USB, so you don't have to touch your hard drive in order to test them out.  Just boot from the disc and have a play! 8)

[Staggerwing]

Thanks for all the info, Huw. I'll have to try Mint on one of my older rigs and see if Steam for Linux functions acceptably. I also want to be able to use my DYI Steambox for watching Hulu (the computer-only licensed content, that is).

[Huw the Poo]

At the moment Steam is only officially supported by Ubuntu (apparently Valve still think Ubuntu is the most-used distro).  If you're going to install it on any other distro you might have to look up a tutorial first.  Of course, Desura is perfectly distro-agnostic. ;)

I plan to try installing Steam on SolusOS at some point.  I'll let you know how it goes.

[junk2drive]

I'm a fan of Desura as well. They have a few free games and demos if you want to try it out without buying anything.

I couldn't vote to greenlight a game on Steam without buying something first. Not impressed with Steam.

[Nefaro]

Most everyone I hear from sing the praises of Ubuntu Linux, too.  Is Huw the odd man out?

[Staggerwing]

It's actually pretty user friendly right now. I see his point about the direction it is taking though. His concern is that it is following the Chrome model with it's built in data mining. The bit about stealing redirecting the click-through revenue generated by the music app sounds a bit ominous as well.

[junk2drive]

Some people love the Unity popout menu and some people hate it. Some haters stick with it for a while and change their minds. I didn't mind using it but you will have to use the keyboard or spend too much time with the mouse.

There was an outcry over the amazon issue and then there was an update with an opt out choice.

Ubuntu is the easiest for new users to install and add new software IMO. Very Mac/Windows like.

[Huw the Poo]

Most everyone I hear from sing the praises of Ubuntu Linux, too.  Is Huw the odd man out?

People left Ubuntu in droves when the Amazon thing happened.  It's still very popular, I can't deny that, but that its userbase significantly dwindled lately is absolutely beyond doubt.  In fact, Ubuntu is no longer top of the Distro Watch chart which it so confidently straddled for a long time.

[Zulu1966]

Interesting article on windows 8.

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Windows8ProductivityWhoMovedMyCheeseOhThereItIs.aspx

[ArizonaTank]

I haven't found a single one of my games that doesn't run perfectly fine on Win8. I think this whole thing of MS creating a walled garden got started when they announced they were not going to allow M rated games on the MS App Store, and since then has been blown way out of proportion. I just don't see MS cutting their own throat my locking down any version of Windows and prevent any 3rd party software from being installed. They may continue to block games/software on the the MS app store, but who uses that anyway?

I am wondering if the gamers who stated they are having no problems with Win 8 are playing only games that have been published recently an not the  older games. I also think that wargamers dont have a proper perspective on their value to Microsoft and the computor industry. Wargaming software is only a very very small part of the computor industry. The vast majority of people use their computors for business, web surfing, e-mailing ,photos, and watching vidios on line.

I have Win8 running on a laptop that I bought about three months ago.  Not all my games run on it...and quite a few need some fiddling to get them to work.  To be fair, the laptop uses AMD Vision for graphics, so that may the problem for some games...but for any given game, I can't tell if the problem is Win8 or AMD Vision.  I bought a desktop two months ago, and went back to Win7 for the desktop because of all the trouble I have had with 8.  Win7 is such a relief.