Windows 10 ousts Windows 7 as most popular with Steam gamers

[Corky34]

Does Windows 10 do that? Because I really really hate it when Windows 7 does that. That could actually nudge me towards Windows 10 if it is finally fixed.

Just guessing as IDK for sure but i would assume so as it normally only happened when Aero was enabled and as Windows 10 doesn't come with that I'm guessing it's not a problem anymore.

Another example that i just thought of, although it's not exactly fixing something, but since Windows XP Microsoft have hard-coded some DNS look-ups in dnsapi.dll so if you wanted to bypass that you'd need a third-party solution, if something like that happened with a Linux distro you could just edit out the 14-15 offending domain names and recompile it.

[DanceswithUnix]

Another example that i just thought of, although it's not exactly fixing something, but since Windows XP Microsoft have hard-coded some DNS look-ups in dnsapi.dll so if you wanted to bypass that you'd need a third-party solution, if something like that happened with a Linux distro you could just edit out the 14-15 offending domain names and recompile it.

With Linux that would be less likely to happen in the first place, as hard coded DNS is technically wrong and patches to do it would take a lot of explaining to get included.

[crossy]

Yep peterb, I've had that message too. Not had it (yet?) from 10.

Meanwhile I had a horrible mess up with Ubuntu in that Unity managed to get corrupted. Of course because it was Linux I was just able to apt install another window manager (from the cli) and keep going.

Which leads me to wonder if we'll ever see that uptick in Linux gaming that it deserves. After all, in an ideal world it'd be an easy sell to gamers - more stable and far easier to strip out unnecessary "cruft" than Windows. And that's ignoring the various privacy 'concerns' that 10 bought as baggage. And does anyone but me think that'll get worse?

[Corky34]

...And does anyone but me think that'll get worse?

Can it get any worse? I thought Microsoft had already given themselves cache blanche to collect anything they want, they certainly have the capability so the question is more about whether the end-use trusts Microsoft not to abuse that privilege (IMO).

[ysluxus]

I'm using Winodws 10 on most of my PCs now, some of which are setup on dual boot mode of Windows 10 and Windows 7.

[wazzickle]

Some of you seem to be having a nice reasoned discussion while others resemble PS3 vs Xbox360!

[peterb]

Yep peterb, I've had that message too. Not had it (yet?) from 10.

Meanwhile I had a horrible mess up with Ubuntu in that Unity managed to get corrupted. Of course because it was Linux I was just able to apt install another window manager (from the cli) and keep going.

Which leads me to wonder if we'll ever see that uptick in Linux gaming that it deserves. After all, in an ideal world it'd be an easy sell to gamers - more stable and far easier to strip out unnecessary "cruft" than Windows. And that's ignoring the various privacy 'concerns' that 10 bought as baggage. And does anyone but me think that'll get worse?

Yes, if the GUI starts being problematic, it can ruin your day, and it does take a bit of detective work to diagnose, and sometimes it is more time effective just to re-install that portion of the OS, or as you did, install and run a second one to help diagnose the first.

My 'worst' experience, and one that taught me a lot, was when a raided LVM system shut down. I couldn't boot the system and I had a lot of data that was not backed up (another lesson re-learned).

The most important single thing I did was shut down the system and walk away from it for 24 hours while I bought two replacement disks. I then imaged both disks so at least I had a copy to work on. But even the HEXUS collective was stumped.

It turned out that the LVM had disabled the disks as a protective measure because of read errors, and those read errors were traced to a single faulty SATA connector. Change the cable, boot to rescue mode (CLI) and switch the LVM back on and the system booted, data intact.

It one reason why I bang on about backups and quality connectors, and lead me to start using Ultrium tape systems for backing up critical data.

Some of you seem to be having a nice reasoned discussion while others resemble PS3 vs Xbox360!

Well yes, I hope so. But some topics are pursued with (an irrational) passion. It might be make of disk drive, AMD/Intel, and of course that old favourite, Apple/Microsoft. But of course few things are black or white, and that goes for technology as much as anything else. But you'll find the majority of longer standing members do have fairly opened minds and can weigh up pros and cons accordingly.

It's a bit like the answer to the "What's the best.....?" Because the answer depends on the questioner's requirement. If there truly was a 'Best' item, it would be the only one available because no one would buy anything else. So those "What is the best....?" Need to be qualified with something like best performance of money is no object, or best value for money for playing xyz game or used for such and such application.

[DanceswithUnix]

It's certainly not definitive (as the Hexus review says) but this: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/system...achine/?page=3 doesn't paint a pretty picture. Identical hardware, the only difference being SteamOS v Windows.

The problem for Linux is that decades ago Microsoft managed to convince games devs to use Direct X, so that is now how most games are written. It isn't the drivers, because if you use an Nvidia card you get the same drivers as you would get under Windows except you only get to use OpenGL. It isn't the operating system, Linux is ideal for gaming in terms of latency etc. But, if a game is optimised for DirectX then that is where it will be fastest. Having only a limited budget for conversion because the Linux market is seen as small probably doesn't help.

So you get a chicken/egg situation, which hopefully Vulkan will help break. Even if someone writes a game for DX12, it should be easier to convert that to Vulkan than DX11 is to convert to OpenGL.

So I think that basically means that if you want to game under Linux, then to compensate for the 30% drop in performance you can expect to see you need to buy a video card that is >30% faster than you usually would. It would be nice if you could divert the £70 it costs to buy a Windows licence onto the graphics card and maybe come out cost neutral, but as a lot of games will likely never be released for Linux you will need to dual boot and spend that money.

Sorry, gaming in Linux hurts you in the wallet a bit. I do it anyway, just to avoid the occasional reboot into Windows.