Comment by Draiken
7 hours ago
Come on... it's always the same reason: money.
Companies don't support Linux because it's not widespread enough so it can't outweigh the costs. They don't give a rat's ass for the market's resentfulness or lack thereof. The Linux market was basically not a real market before because their market share was simply too small.
There are plenty of products made for resentful markets and as long as they keep being profitable they don't care.
> Companies don't support Linux because it's not widespread enough so it can't outweigh the costs.
I'm pretty sure they made the calculation assuming the GabeBox from Valve is a success and didn't want to miss out.
there are two scenarios today where companies support linux because it does outweigh the costs:
- mobile game companies send free android tablets to whales to avoid paying IAP royalties
- Valve makes exotic Linux consoles to diminish the value of the piracy (PC) ecosystem, and to source players for DOTA2 and Counter-Strike which they are not allowed to do in the Sony and Nintendo ecosystems
these trends are increasing. neither audiences in those two scenarios are resentful, and of course, they care a lot, in both scenarios, if the market for those two linux deployment scenarios is resentful.
if you only mean linux in the sense of, whatever Draiken thinks, yeah, there will not be any interesting insights there. If your instinct is to say, Android isn't Linux, or to get into the weeds of distributions, you are lacking imagination. just focus on what I am actually saying that is new information to you, and think about how focusing on money can be a good thing.