@aeva @puppygirlhornypost2 @glyph

the linux model was built on, well, the distribution distributes, developers give source and a packager has the job of building it and providing all auxiliary files (i.e. init system definitions)

that gets lost with proprietary apps or people that want to "port" to linux as a whole

you mostly can make a game for "linux" though, the syscall interface is stable (honestly, one of the few things that truly is), so a statically linked binary will run everywhere, but that requires your engine to work like that and i don't think many do

@navi @puppygirlhornypost2 @aeva “porting to linux” is not a nightmare at all. it’s actually very easy. what is not so easy is targeting linux systems with proprietary software.

there’s no longer just x86 to worry about either. sure, there’s FEX to emulate it on aarch64, but come on… you’re installing a compatibility OS root for a different arch, then run steam, which you realize doesn’t work reliably on modern file systems without hacks because valve forgot to compile half their stuff with the right glibc options, and which itself uses another distro’s packaged user space, and THEN you run proton which implements windows user space?

how many more layers are we going to stack just to avoid publishing the source code? all this is making preservation unreasonably difficult as well. even if we’re completely ignoring linux, none of this will keep working on future operating systems.

@tknarr @puppygirlhornypost2 @navi @aeva well, yeah. but for a while x86 was the only mainstream desktop linux architecture that you’d have to care about as a game publisher. aside from small niche archs like POWER (which is sometimes less of a “just recompile” issue and might actually need code changes) there’s a growing number of aarch64 macs running linux now (unsurprising with how terrible the laptop market is, and with a small number of macOS users switching to linux as well) so that might be changing

@mia @puppygirlhornypost2 @navi @aeva Only for a very short window, thankfully. But it was mostly illusory, helped by the fact most Linux distributions during that time tracked latest stable on their software and users were knowledgeable enough to install multiple versions of libraries as needed or games were staticly linked to avoid DLL Hell. Then static linking became unpopular, LTS versions exacerbated DLL version issues and users forgot how to deal with multiple library versions.

@tknarr @puppygirlhornypost2 @navi @aeva the last time i ran into a library problem of sorts with a closed-source game (corpse party) it was because the game used steam’s API for achievement tracking (no DRM) but crashed immediately when steam wasn’t available. of course that was reported but never fixed because everyone who worked on that title has left or got laid off

steam also subtly changed api behavior in the meantime, so that release is broken for steam users as well, and the same problem may have happened on windows as well

in this case all it took was a replacement .so with stub functions, but with less luck it could’ve been a month of staring at ghidra just to get it to run

@puppygirlhornypost2 @navi @aeva @tknarr so yeah i would very much like for gamedevs to get a clue and start working with the system instead of working against it and then complaining that everything is too hard

@mia @puppygirlhornypost2 @navi @tknarr rude

@aeva @puppygirlhornypost2 @navi @tknarr well, hearing the same “doctor it hurts if i do this” type complaints does get old after 20+ years

pretty sure past me would’ve been dropping slurs at this point so if anything i’m showing tremendous restraint ​​

@mia @puppygirlhornypost2 @navi @tknarr charming