this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
318 points (96.8% liked)

Linux Gaming

15802 readers
31 users here now

Gaming on the GNU/Linux operating system.

Recommended news sources:

Related chat:

Related Communities:

Please be nice to other members. Anyone not being nice will be banned. Keep it fun, respectful and just be awesome to each other.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most of the linux world is not for "consumers", it's for "participants" also refered to as "the linux community". Android and SteamOS are consumer oriented indeed, you buy your device that ships with a Linux-based OS. But on the PC side of things, you just get, install and use linux for free with no strings attached. Just by doing so you become a participant of the linux community, and you contribute to shape the future of Linux as an OS by choosing a distro over another, by choosing a DE, by reporting bugs, etc.

Any company that has influence on the development of Linux, can only have it by contributing to the whole project. This is what Valve is doing, as well as Intel, Canonical, Redhat and even Microsoft.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you count Android users as "participants"?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's going to depend. Are you using the Android version that can shipped with your device, or a custom ROM? are you using F-droid? have you ever reported a bug to an app developer ? I assume a big majority of Android users are consumers and not participants, but at least with Android you have options to participate. Nothing wrong with being a consumer BTW.

However, Android is quite a bit different from what is broadly understood as Linux. Yes, Android uses the Linux kernel, but appart from that it's not a very open eco-system and Google absolutely controls the AOSP.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

However, Android is quite a bit different from what is broadly understood as Linux.

I would argue that the difference has a lot to do with whether the user is typically a consumer or participant. Valve seems to be making a a form of Linux for consumers, even if participants can use the system.

After all, why buy the Steam Deck to delete Steam from it?