Feature:Linux, The GameOS?

Several people have written in with an idea that has merit. And Jason Skomorowski has written a fine article explaining some of the ideas behind using Linux as a video game OS. The thought is that Linux is provided with new games, and you could boot Linux from the CD to play games. Sound brilliant? Lame? Read on and see what you think.

The following is a feature by Slashdot Reader Jason Skomorowski

Linux: GamesOS?

I've seen much talk of petitioning game developers to port various things to Linux. However, it would appear that the game developers only want to appeal to the masses and most of them seem not to pay attention to our little niche.

What Quake 2 has demonstrated (at least on my system) is that games run a whole lot faster under Linux. Thus, if a group of companies (possibly lead by Id) were to develop a Linux distribution targeted at gamers, they could possibly be able to convince a large number of people to use Linux in order to increase the speed of their games without spending money on upgrading their "$2000 games consoles".

This distribution would have to install in a fashion that would be easily understood by the Windows '95 using majority of people who do not wish to do things like read manuals. Thus, you would need a checkbox in a '95 install program to select "Normal Win '95 version" or "Linux accelerated" and that would be the extent of user interaction. Of course, a Linux install program would also exist for those of us who happen to already have Linux on our systems.

I have been informed that there is a way to start Linux from Dos on a FAT partition. This could make the transition to Linux transparent, it would exit '95 upon being clicked on and then proceed to boot Linux and the game. However this may be too transparent to sufficiently convey the fact that they are in fact running a different operating system. Thus, a partition splitting/resizing thingy like Partition Magic may need to be coded into the install to enable '95 users to install Linux on a separate partition to distinguish it from the Microsoft stuff and also provide them with a nicer file system. In either case, a boot logo may help identify Linux as a separate (and better) operating system.

Another possibility would be for each developer to have their games boot directly from the CD into their own, customized, Linux. Then the computer really would be a glorified console system, insert CD and hit the reset, just like a Playstation. However, if Linux is being used because a machine would otherwise be unable to run a game at a playable speed, that machine may be too old to have BIOS support for booting from CD-ROM. In that case, the first little bit of the boot may need to be done from a floppy which would transfer control over to the CD. This again is likely too transparent a process without a boot logo. However, it would make it easier for developers if they only had to develop a Linux version and not bother porting it to Win32. Also, if people are informed that they could use Linux as their main OS and not have to reboot every time they wanted to play a game, they may well do just that.

Assuming some developers adopt this, they could advertise that their product runs 50% faster than others in its genre. A lot of people with low end Pentium/Cyrix type things are starting to get left behind by stuff like Unreal and would create quite a market for Linux ports. This would give those developers with an interest in Linux a chance to make some money off of it since most game companies are commercial enterprises require the potential of profit before they do things like port games to Linux.

This would be even better for Linux. The game companies would support their own users, so we wouldn't need to provide them with tech support for silly questions like "Where's the Start button?" and such. OpenGL would be used more often, giving it a chance against DirectX. It would encourage some much needed hardware support under Linux, then we could all buy things like Matrox G200s and such and be able to use them. If the game companies have this vested interest in Linux, they may pay their programmers to develop the system further, which would benefit us all via the GPL.

An area that would need some attention if such a thing were ever to happen is licensing. We would need to be sure that the version of Linux used by game companies would be compatible with the standard, otherwise we may end up with game that only run under some odd, proprietary system. Also, we need to ensure that the game companies make it clear to their users that Linux is a full fledged OS that can be used for anything, not just games. There may need to be some special contract between the Linux community and the game developers ensuring that the interests of all parties are met. I don't know much about the way these things are done, maybe the GPL already covers all of this?

Would any of this be possible, even slightly? Could Linux actually become a dominant gaming platform? Would that be A Good Thing?