Hello, I'm starting this thread to discusses the difference between OpenGL DirectX as well as Linux and Windows.

This all started when a thread about extracting data from an exe went off topic and we all started talking about operating systems.

Let me start by stating that I like Linux, but I feel it's been over sold by it's fans and I don't think it has a future in the gaming industry in it's current state. The key word being state. It's only my opinion, but I don't think neither industry or the end user base will see Linux as an attractive platform due to what I can only describe as a mish mash of small problems that add up to one big problem with Linux. If I had to biol it down though I'd say the lack of centralisation. There's a lot of distors out there that all have their own repositories which are needed for your drivers and programs to work. Not only that but apps require dependences and those dependences may also require other dependences and again this varies depending no your distro. So going to a website and downloading your favorate app or driver to install on your favourite Linux distro is not as simply as simply clicking on a little picture and having it happen.

If there's one thing I'll say about the mass PC user base that is all they want to do is click on little pictures and have things work with as little getting in the way as possible. Not only is nothing in Linux quite that simple I found that in my experience with Linux fans is that they tend to resent that very idea/ Almost as if ease of use and simplicity is some kind of sin. They seem to prefer doing things the hard way, even when using Windows where an easier way is available the common Linux user will try and take a more unorthodox way of solving it. Case and point. Trying to manually extract game data from the most idiot proof installer I have ever seen.

As a reminder is all my opinion and I would like to post this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnsXRdU98uw This Youtube video is made by someone who also likes Linux but makes what I think is a very good point.

On the topic of OpenGL. It's now in transition mode, with major revision and from the ground up rewrite of the API coming as the next step. So if you think it's not on par now, you should revisit this topic when OpenGL-next will be out.

Gaming wise, there is a serious change that happened in the recent years with more and more Linux games coming out. One really has not to pay attention in order not to notice. I don't expect Linux to very rapidly increase gaming presence though until OpenGL-next will be out, but it still can get a boost with release of Steam Machines (see GDC2015 in March for that).

Nor in the future. The big distros have clearly stopped caring about the PC to go mobile and touch, and the smaller ones are following suit. Even getting video drivers to work on my last Nvidia proved almost impossible except with SteamOS. Just ridiculous. It's too bad, considering the interest that devs have shown Linux in recent years, but "Linux" doesn't care anymore. Five years ago, it was growing and had a nice future, but trying to get back into it last year proved disheartening. Wine, POL and a few oddities are nice, but I guess Windows will remain uncontested.

A few interesting sources:

* Alienware say Steam Machine will increase Linux gamers by “20, 30 fold. Overnight”
* The Linux Game Industry
* [url=Opening up Linux: Is the OS becoming ripe for game development?http://www.develop-online.net/tools-and-tech/opening-up-linux-is-the-os-becoming-ripe-for-game-dev elopment/0190717]Opening up Linux: Is the OS becoming ripe for game development?[/url]
_______________________ It's indeed ridiculous - I practically never have such problems with Debian testing. What distro did you have such problems with? Most distros handle Nvidia drivers just fine.

I have no faith in the Steam OS or the Steam box. Because I have no faith in Vavle. They seem to start these ambitious projects and get board before they go any ware. That aside, it's not so much the quality of OpenGL that I doubt I just don't think it's attractive to the industry because it's open. As a user in the last thread pointed out that there's nothing wrong with open but I don't think companies like to rely on open source tech.

I'd also like to remind you that Quake 3's engine used OpenGL and it was one of the most influential game engines for it's time. So then if so many games were powered by Q3 and Q3 used OpenGL why is the whole industry using Direct X? I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on all this, but I suspect that there's more to it other then "that's just because what everyone is used to."

Completely the opposite. The industry hates DirectX because it's closed and MS only. Try using it anywhere outside MS systems? Good luck with that. So OpenGL is the only option precisely because it's an open standard. Except that on MS platforms you have no choice (Xbox for instance).

Closed APIs like that should be on their way to the history garbage dump however. The only reason they survive is because MS fights tooth and nail against open standards. Recently they changed their tune a bit, but not much really. For example MS lost browser wars, and while they first tried to sabotage WebGL as well, they later changed their mind and started supporting it (otherwise their IE would become even more irrelevant). Same thing will happen with OpenGL. Now there are a lot of participants who want to take it out of stagnation, and once it will start rolling faster, MS will be forced to support it on all their platforms if they'll want to attract any next generation developers. Because no one attempted to push OpenGL forward seriously until like last year. I mean rewriting the API from the ground up. And also because MS always push for their poisonous lock-in when they can.

It was the new Maxwell stuff. Just a nightmare, must have tried 7 distros.

Recent Nvidia drivers support it, so I'm not sure what kind of problems you had. See http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/80145/en-us

Getting the drivers installed was the problem.

Why so? I usually use Nvidia way with Debian testing (using sgfxi for managing the driver) if I need a driver which is newer than the one from the distro (Debian way) and it works very well, never really had a problem with it.

I believe SteamOS is made with Debian, so perhaps that explains the higher friendliness to drivers.

I doubt other distros like openSUSE for instance manage it much worse, but I use Debian since I find it flexible enough and having a good community of users.

Windows is better than Linux. To me.

DirectX is better than OpenGl.

I know Linux is open source. I still prefer to install and use Windows on my PC.

I know OpenGL is open source, I know you can customize it's shaders, etc, but DirectX will still be better and DirectX 12 releasing in the holidays of this year and OpenGL-Next releasing who knows when, DirectX 12 will be ahead of OpenGL again.

When VALVe announces the Steam Machines at GDC 2015 I doubt it will increase Linux gamers by 20 to 30 fold.

I mean PC gamers said they hate Windows 8 and now Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 8 64-bit, and Windows 8.1 64-bit combined are at 31% or 32%.

For December 2014 on the Steam hardware survey you can see Windows 8.1 64-bit increased by 2%.

Why need a expensive Steam Machine when you can build your own PC for cheaper from scratch from the ground up and set it up in the living room and play PC versions of video games from your PC on your TV?

Sure no need to. And you can install Linux on that machine all the same. However I suspect that the vast majority of users never built anything and only buy prebuilt hardware. Same as the vast majority would never even install an operating system on their own, be it Linux or Windows.

So Valve have a chance to increase the number of PCs (Steam Machines) sold with Linux preinstalled. That's a major step to reduce Windows dominance.

My brother had the same issue when we first installed the then-new Ubuntu 12.04 on his brand new machine with a GeForce 760 back in mid-2012.

Distros like Ubuntu want to do their own quality control "stuff" on driver packages (and they generally semi-freeze the "stable" driver package at each twice-yearly release to limit the risk of breaking cards that already work) and that adds lag-time. The solution was to explicitly select an unstable/experimental driver rather than the default nvidia driver package.