Linux isn't a popular gaming platform because it lacks capability or features to support great gaming. It's not a popular gaming platform because game developers can't economically support the myriad of Linux distros in a way the consumer expects to be supported. Supporting even the "most popular" or "most common" Linux (however you want to define it) is a developer death by a 100 paper cuts spending time, effort and money fixing all the little edge cases.

Mainstream consumers want to "get Linux", then "play games" that "just works" not fiddle around recompiling source code or waiting for a package maintainer to get around to creating the package for their particular strain of Linux only to have it stop working 6 months later when the next 0.0.0.1 release comes out of Linux Distro XYZ. Imagine waiting two weeks for a yum update of you favorite MMO game client while everyone on Windows simply clicked an icon the moment the game update was released from the developer, the game updated itself auto-magically and connected and you were playing that evening.

It stands to be seen how well Windows 8 actually turns out as a gaming platform, but, from a veteran MMO developer's perspective, Windows has been a dream to develop, distribute and support games for compared to Linux. Windows prior to Win8 may not have been open source but it was open in the way consumers and developers care: you could build and distribute anything you wanted without approval from anyone.

I can imagine one future path for game consoles is to be hardware integrated into TVs just like cameras are now integrated into cellphones. It's rare nowadays to buy a dedicated camera unless you're an enthusiast. I can totally imagine 5-10 years from now having PS/Wii/XBox enabled TVs being a standard feature set while gaming enthusiasts will continue to purchase cutting edge PC hardware just like photography enthusiasts buy SLRs and the rest of us just use the camera built into our cellphone.

I appreciate your thoughts. There are many aspects of Linux I like from a power user's perspective and even a developer's perspective. If I, as a developer, were maintaining an application such as Gimp, OpenOffice, MySQL or other tool-centric applications, I love the idea of just focusing on source code development and letting package maintainers handle the distribution and sort out the various distro differences.

Where this breaks down is when I'm developing and supporting an application that can change frequently and at any time and is required to be up to date in order for the user to use. I am an MMO developer. The game client isn't an application my users can update when they feel like nor do I want to have to be beholden to package maintainers and their schedule with distributing new changes to the game client while my players are stuck wondering why they can't connect to the game server. When I release a change to the MMO ecosystem, my players expect to be able to click on the little icon and have the game "just work". That means, as a developer, I LOVE the Windows platform because, while it's true I have to do all the work, I am guaranteed that it will work from end to end without a random, significant portion of my playerebase suddenly left stranded for an undetermined amount of time. Furthermore, I don't have to spend my development time chasing down a hundred little special edge cases that all end up being meaningless, yet, time and resource consuming situations to deal with. With Windows, I develop, test and deploy to my users and it "just works".

Linux Desktop will become as powerful and ubiquitous as Linux Server when the Desktop embraces a more user and 3rd party-friendly support and distribution model.

For years we've been talking about "The Year for Linux on the Desktop". As veteran game developer, it's always boggled me how Linux, despite it's power, is so shortsighted when it comes to 3rd party support and distribution. 3rd part support and easy distribution along with backwards and forwards compatibility is what made Windows so dominate over the past 20 years. The typical solution bandied about by Linux users is "you can always distribute the source and recompile". Yes, that's what the average computer wants to do; fiddle around recompiling source code on their personal micro-flavor of Linux out of a sea of 100s of distros only to have it break again with the next 0.0.0.1 release of the underlying OS.

What's telling to me is that now when you ask "What's the most popular Linux distro", you can arguably say "Android" and the reason Android has become so popular is because it easily supports 3rd party apps like a reasonable OS is expected. No fuss no muss. Just like Windows.

Congratulations, Google, for finally taking Linux in the right direction.

I was always amazed with AMD's ability to create a cheaper yet better performing chip during the Athlon days. At that time it seemed silly for anyone to even consider Intel.

This book kicked off my game development career 18 years ago.

Tricks of the Game-Programming Gurus

http://www.amazon.com/Tricks-Game-Programming-Gurus-Andre-Lamothe/dp/0672305070/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350093954&sr=8-2&keywords=tips+tricks+of+the+game+programming+gurus

I think you mean Pro Tip but yea I was only discussing the visible parts.

Haha! Sounds like what I would expect from Sheldon!

I hear you on the wrinkle issue, PC! Unfortunately, I have an affinity for button shirts that have nice stitched embroidery designs which means many of my shirts are wrinkle prone cotton. I do LOVE my wrinkle-free/iron-free shirts. To handle my cotton shirts my girlfriend and I bought a nice dryer with a steam function that suffices to handle the wrinkles pretty well. I envy her... all her dresses are made out of material that literally DOES NOT wrinkle even if she balls her dress up into a tiny ball in the suitcase. She pulls it out, flip flip, smooth as silk.

Thanks RB

I like what you're saying. My personal experience is that the only real variation people notice in practice is your shirt and sometimes whether your pants are lighter or darker than normal. That's why I optimized my system to simply focus on creating variety where I feel it has the most impact (the shirt). It's not uncommon for me to wear the same looking jeans over and over yet I look different every day.

The real key to this is being disciplined. It's tempting to want to buy new black socks that don't quite match your existing black socks but keep your old black socks. I mean why not, they are still good... except now you've created an unneeded variation you have to deal with each and every day you want to pick a pair of socks.

Same goes with shirts... all my shirts go well with any pair of blue-ish jeans (except black or really white faded jeans). So when it comes to buying jeans, I don't get white or black, just lighter and darker versions of blue jeans even if I find a killer pair of jeans I really really want.

Finally, the black shoes are key to the whole efficiency because, well, black goes with everything.

Ultimately, I put my effort into the once-a-month / once-a-year shopping effort and make the daily choosing and wearing effort a no brainer.

For my current batch of black socks, I went to Target where they have the black dress socks hanging on individual hooks (usually, as you say, in batches of 1-3), found a pattern I liked AND that had about two dozen identical in stock to buy then and there. I'm down to about 8 pair now (they get holes over time and then I toss them) and I'll go through this routine again when I'm down to about 5 pairs (and throw out whatever remaining existing socks I have since they probably won't match the new batch). Not going to lie, sometimes you have to drive to a variety of places to find a store with a style you like and have enough quantity in stock.

I like the sentiment expressed. Why waste mental resources on mundane decisions that don't amount to anything worthwhile. I created a similar routine with my clothes, however, I do not by wearing THE EXACT same thing every day (and bragging about it), but, by creating a routine system that still requires no decision making yet produces a diverse look.

I have one pair of stylish black shoes (slip on even) that look great with jeans, pants or a suit.

I have two dozen pair of black socks that are all identical. This means I merely need to grab two socks and I know they match. I don't allow variations (which means you end up having to inspect each sock to find it's right mate) and who cares about socks.

Finally, and this is the key, I have a limited set of jeans and button shirts that all mix and match without exception.

At the beginning of the day, I merely pick a pair of jeans, grab a shirt, two socks and slip on my one pair of shoes and voila I've spent no effort thinking about it yet I look great.

As a hiring manager, when I see a candidate with a CS degree from MIT, Stanford or Carnegie Mellon, I take notice. I also take notice of any candidate that can show me working code they've done on their own time regardless of degree.