Comment by chias
5 years ago
I think the difference is:
With a game that supports Linux, you get people who have chosen to run Linux instead of Windows because they prefer it. They have also worked enough with their system to get their Linux system capable of running games well, which may not be trivial for the given distro.
With a Wordpress plugin or whatever, you get people who are running Linux because they "have" to. Trying not to sound "true Scottsman"y here, but most of the time these are not actually Linux users, these are Windows users who are further confounded by having to use an unfamiliar platform.
There are even a few php users trying to run windows server...
Yes, you get users who have linux as their 'daily driver', as opposed to those to dabble in it a bit on the side :)
For similar reason, I think the level of experience is probably different. Meaning those could be the same person and time is the important variable. After they’re used to developing, they better understand what useful feedback looks like.
This is actually how I got started with development. I learned how to use Linux just enough to set up WordPress (and SMB) on an old computer. This got me into PHP development (I'm recovered now) which turned out to be unbearable on Windows. I started running Linux in a VM for development, but my pathetic hardware couldn't really handle it, so I tried it on bare metal. I'm now running some flavor of Linux on my workstation, laptop and multiple servers and am exactly the sort of crazy person who will spend hours of their unpaid time compiling a detailed bug report with stack traces and all for even fully proprietary software.