Re: Latest UTB Newsletter

[David Krider <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike A. Harris wrote:

> Anyhow... enough of my rambling..

Hey, a ramble from you is worth 10 discourses from the producers of that 
"Other OS." ;-)

> With Linux being a free OS download, I don't see how any Linux OS 
> vendor can realize any profit from trying to "sell" Linux for 
> video game usage.  In the Red Hat case for example...  if a 
> large number of games were available for Linux like they are for 
> Windows..  would gamer people purchase a boxed set of 
> "Red Hat Gamer Linux GS" at Walmart, and then purchase a 
> subscription to "Red Hat Gamer Network"?  <grin>
>
> Those are fabricated names of course, with a bit of humor 
> intended, but in seriousness, where would the OS vendor make 
> money from persuing a gaming market?  I just don't see the 
> business model that would support that.

I don't see this as being so exaggerated. The trick is the price-point. 
At $300, the average person who wants to game is going to buy a console. 
That's a lost sale. However, whatever about the person who has a nice 
computer already sitting on his desk, and his *kid* comes along, and 
wants to play games on it?... See, it's really hard to buy a crappy 
computer from the likes of Dell or Gateway these days. Most of them will 
play a lot of computer games really well.

Here's a chance for a vendor to package up a distro for $50 - $100 that 
already has all the games *configured*. Then, a simple button pick could 
launch a "purchase this game now" thing to allow them to feed it a 
credit card number, load it off one of the 30 distro disks, and start 
playing. The config could already be done. Sure, there would be a 
limited set of hardware that was supported. But the trick on PC's is the 
configuration. Even if you're running Windows, it can be difficult to 
get all the drivers aligned and working right. (And *then* you can have 
the stupid box just STOP WORKING like my Win2K did with Half-Life just 
last week! One day, I can play; the next, it dumps every time I try.)

Shoot, look at Microsoft with their media center PC OS. This is exactly 
analogous. Setting up a PC to play any and all types of media files is a 
tortuous process in Windows OR Linux, and Microsoft is addressing this 
problem in much the same way as I'm suggesting. (I'm really hoping that 
some of these companies I've read about will succeed at making 
stereo-component-type boxes that run Linux, because at that level, no 
one cares.) Again, the main point being the promotion of a 
vertically-integrated distribution of an OS.

Maybe I should try it. Maybe I should wrap up RedHat Linux, call it 
"Pink Tutu," and create a configuration for every game that will run on 
Linux for it. Then I'll need to setup a backend web site where I can 
clear the game purchases, and go into a sales relationship with the 
vendors to get preferental pricing. Then I need a download site with 
enormous bandwidth (for iso's and updates), and advertising, and boxed 
copies for those famous Wal-Mart shelves. And support. No, wait. I won't 
need support because I won't allow people to run as root, and nothing 
will ever break on its own. Yeah, that's the ticket! (I'm just 
*kidding*, aiight?)

Regards,
dk




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