Why bother?

This is the initial reaction when gamers are confronted with the question whether they should be playing their games on Linux instead of that unstable, poorly performing and poorly networking operating system that most of the games these days are running on.

Yeah, why bother?

Because, quite simply, you could have better, faster and more stable.

The forces of the market so far favoured the traditional, with some help from the dirty tricks department. Nobody can deny, though, that a free operating system that will smoothly follow the needs of its users, with the features its user desires - and only those he desires - has a valid point to make, especially if it has the edge over the competition, not only price-wise.

But between the enjoyment of these benefits, the computer gods put the inertia of companies who'd rather trot down a path that has been beaten to fry with the other tourists at the overcrowded beach instead of taking that turn to the right where this pristine beach waits with just a few guys in the know having a good time on their surfboards.

Well, don't want to spoil your fun, beach boys, but I think it is time that we show this beach to more people, set up a couple refreshment huts, hire a band, invite Playboy over for a photo shooting and have an even better time yet.

You

You, Sir, are a nerd? A gamer? A marketing person who strolled in through the door and discovered we removed the doorknob on the inside? A game producer? A coder? One of the ladies from Playboy?

We need your help.

Linux is the manifestation of a cooperative effort, so we already got the right spirit in place. Bathe in it, take prolonged showers in it, rub it in. Ok. Now help making it even better and let's tackle the issues that give the home user the worst heartburn about Linux:

We want games!

No platform will thrive on work alone. Servers are cool, workstations are fun but only the game machine is really touching the hearts of the people. And their wallets.

Face it, computers equal money. For those who sell them. With reversed signs for those who buy them. Motivation to buy a new, fast machine?

Games

Face it, part two. Only 1% of all users who already own a computer will need to stay in touch with the cutting edge of computer technology if it wasn't for games. Going online doesn't need a Pentium III, a 486 will do fine with room to rent out. No surfer has need for accelerated 3D graphics. A great many people can do without being honked at from websites by their soundcard.

No matter how good the product or marketing, without games we wouldn't even have a computer revolution. Linux, on the other hand, manages to carve our a bigger and bigger ecological niche on those computers, even without games.

Face it, part three: Can you afford missing that train?

As a gamer, can you miss out on the ultimate platform for multiplayer network gaming? Can you afford wasting a quarter of your system's performance on an inept operating system when it should be entertaining you instead for all the money you paid?

As a hardware producer, how will you tell your shareholders that you are ignoring the fastest growing operating system market in the computer business? How cool is it to make stuff for the mom and pop market?

As a game author, would you prefer working with a 32 bit operating system that is used to develop some of the most complex software projects in the world on, or would you rather waste your time identifying which of the bugs are yours and which rightfully belong to Mr. 100 Billion?

Finally, remember the revolution in graphics that Quake led? Now Quake 3 Arena Test is available on Linux before a version for Windows is out. Do you think that happened for no good reason? Where would you be now if you had not followed in the wake of Quake? Will you fail to follow Quake 3?

We

Linux3D.net is an effort for the community of gamers first, these are the people we, the initiators from Full On 3D, have in mind first and foremost. We recognize and love Linux as an operating system that has a rebel image and brings sophistication to the desktop, without marketing fanfare or a vicious price tag.

We want to bring together gamers to convince them of Linux as a platform and game writers to meet their audience and the new bride of their development computer systems.

We want to help hardware makers understand that a new, almost pristine, highly sophisticated market for their newest products is waiting for them to embrace.

We want to help marketing people - yes, even they deserve help and not of the psychatric kind, smartmouth - we want to help them understand how to reach the highly critical Linux community and maybe in the process raise their sensibility above the happytalk standards they are often used to.

Now each of you, take a look at this:

10 Reasons why you should play games on Linux

1. Stability
   
2. The operating system is free, leaving you money to buy more games or hotter hardware
   
3. Networking capabilities and performance are key for multiplayer success
   
4. Free, comprehensive and competent OS support on the net
   
5. Want to run a multiplayer server for your friends?
   
6. Complete, fast 32 bit performance, no old 16 bit junk dragging along
   
7. Keep your system as lean and fast running as you want, not as bloated and slow as the guy who forced you to buy Windoze
   
8. Think about multiprocessor support out of the box, how do two cheap CPUs with 75% of the performance of one high-price chip sound, for the same money?
   
9. How much did you say you liked Microsoft?
   
10. How cool is it to play games on Mom's and Pop's OS?

10 Reasons why you should write games for Linux

1. A stable platform for development helps you to wipe out the bugs in your product and keeps your release date from being missed over and over again
   
2. Solid multitasking and multithreading allow you to scale your engine to the needs of gameplay and the abilities of the machine it runs on
   
3. We are talking about the only affordable multiplayer server platform
   
4. A free operating system cuts your costs and those of the people who will have more money left to buy your games
   
5. Lower hardware requirements for same game performance additionally increases your target market
   
6. Imagine to use the extra performance a well-written, fully 32 bit OS unlocks
   
7. Using the power of OpenGL your engine stays lean, easier maintained and less prone to bugs, hence cheaper and faster to write, allowing you to work on the part that matters to gamers: gameplay
   
8. Big names are those that came early and marked their claim, do you want to remain unknown?
   
9. Imagine what you can do with cheap multiprocessor gaming machines, supported by the OS out of the box compared to expensive single CPU versions
   
10. Imagine to have your game running on all kinds of PC and workstation CPU platforms with minimal porting work involved

5 Reasons why you should put out the sources of existing games to faciliate porting to Linux

1. Explore a whole new market with a minimal investment
   
2. Pave the way for new, cross-platform, Linux-targeted game projects with the skills you and the contributors acquire
   
3. Get in while the market is still new and enjoy impressive name recognition while the competition stagnates in overcrowded markets
   
4. Enjoy the support of the most active and critical community on the Internet
   
5. Get a shot at recruiting from the most talented people in IT after seeing them deliver work samples based on your material

10 Reasons why you should get out Linux drivers for your hardware right out of the box

1. You are facing the fastest growing operating system market, are you in it or on the sidelines, gawking?
   
2. You are facing the fastest growing market for computer games, is your logo on the game package?
   
3. Hardware without drivers is of no worth, no matter how great the silicon is, guess what the community is running?
   
4. You know you are losing this market without a fight to the guys you have to struggle so hard against on the Windows platform?
   
5. What's your excuse for your shareholders?
   
6. Do you want for your competition to dry up the market for driver coders while you're sleeping?
   
7. Quake 3 is there, where are you?
   
8. Be backed by the most energetic marketing force in the world - Linux users
   
9. How cutting edge is your product if you draw a blank for the cutting edge of OS technology?
   
10. You really must like Glide, huh?

Food for thought, isn't it? I hope to hear from you soon.

Armin Lenz
Editor-in-Chief
The Linux 3D gaming initiative