Ubuntu No Longer Seen As Viable Gaming Distro (I Blame Snaps) DistroTube
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Date: 2022-03-30
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Comments and reviews: 10
Zlatan
Let me start by saying that I'm not a big fan of mainline Ubuntu but...
Strange thing to blame snaps. I would say it's direction Canonical has decided to take. Snaps just happen to be a part of that direction. Not the reason why Ubuntu might not be a great platform for gaming.
Also, i would have to disagree about stable release Linux distros not being a great option as a gaming platform. As a gamer you want a stable platform. One of the complains early adopters have of new hardware and software is exactly when new shiny things start to break. And contributors and community around any distro, stable or rolling release, might not even be interested in solving issues for gamers. Especially if they are not gamers. They might view other issues as far more important.
Also, another thing I disagree with is that distros like Manjaro, Cinnamon, and Mint are picked because they are better. They are picked because most loud voices tend to be from haters and elitist.
I'm sorry, but i just can't get over the fact you said that stable release is not a great choice for gaming. That doesn't even make sense.
Also, you can have a rolling release with a very slow careful updates for security and stability. I would say having latest updates in many cases would be detrimental to Linux as a gaming platform.
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Let me start by saying that I'm not a big fan of mainline Ubuntu but...
Strange thing to blame snaps. I would say it's direction Canonical has decided to take. Snaps just happen to be a part of that direction. Not the reason why Ubuntu might not be a great platform for gaming.
Also, i would have to disagree about stable release Linux distros not being a great option as a gaming platform. As a gamer you want a stable platform. One of the complains early adopters have of new hardware and software is exactly when new shiny things start to break. And contributors and community around any distro, stable or rolling release, might not even be interested in solving issues for gamers. Especially if they are not gamers. They might view other issues as far more important.
Also, another thing I disagree with is that distros like Manjaro, Cinnamon, and Mint are picked because they are better. They are picked because most loud voices tend to be from haters and elitist.
I'm sorry, but i just can't get over the fact you said that stable release is not a great choice for gaming. That doesn't even make sense.
Also, you can have a rolling release with a very slow careful updates for security and stability. I would say having latest updates in many cases would be detrimental to Linux as a gaming platform.
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Leslie
Hi DT
There is a whole world out there that are Linux users, Window Users. They are not all gamers.
Recently, we read about Germany moving 25,000 terminals to Linux. The distribution has not yet been chosen, but it is likely to be OpenSuse (leap 15.x).
You mentioned a disdain for snaps and flatpacks. The flatpack is a package that is designed to be written once and used everywhere. Snaps are, thus far, an Ubuntu only product.
Were I in business, and I had to deal with operations in the USA, Latin America, France and Asia, and elsewhere, that is 4 languages and possibly 4 different Linux distributions. Would the business want a lock in to Ubuntu, or the ability to go with flatpacks and any Linux distro?
Games built with flatpacks will run identically to those that are specifically tailored to your distribution.
Do you have differing opinions? Have a great day. (A trilingual English-French-Spanish Linux user).
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Hi DT
There is a whole world out there that are Linux users, Window Users. They are not all gamers.
Recently, we read about Germany moving 25,000 terminals to Linux. The distribution has not yet been chosen, but it is likely to be OpenSuse (leap 15.x).
You mentioned a disdain for snaps and flatpacks. The flatpack is a package that is designed to be written once and used everywhere. Snaps are, thus far, an Ubuntu only product.
Were I in business, and I had to deal with operations in the USA, Latin America, France and Asia, and elsewhere, that is 4 languages and possibly 4 different Linux distributions. Would the business want a lock in to Ubuntu, or the ability to go with flatpacks and any Linux distro?
Games built with flatpacks will run identically to those that are specifically tailored to your distribution.
Do you have differing opinions? Have a great day. (A trilingual English-French-Spanish Linux user).
reply
drassx615
I wonder if this has anything to do with a recent article about streamlining the linux kernel. I haven't had a chance to fully research it, but from the brief overview I read, the linux kernel has over the years developed quite a bit of excessive bloat that makes it hard for devs, open source or otherwise to provide us with reliable stable software. One commenter on the story even suggested that this could potentially incentivize the Microsofts and the Adobes of the world to reinvigorate their stagnating love affair with linux. While I'm not holding my breath for that to happen, your video coupled with that story makes me wonder if Canonical has envisioned either a path to monetization or some sort of massive sea change in near to medium term.
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I wonder if this has anything to do with a recent article about streamlining the linux kernel. I haven't had a chance to fully research it, but from the brief overview I read, the linux kernel has over the years developed quite a bit of excessive bloat that makes it hard for devs, open source or otherwise to provide us with reliable stable software. One commenter on the story even suggested that this could potentially incentivize the Microsofts and the Adobes of the world to reinvigorate their stagnating love affair with linux. While I'm not holding my breath for that to happen, your video coupled with that story makes me wonder if Canonical has envisioned either a path to monetization or some sort of massive sea change in near to medium term.
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Psychx
Ubuntu is just really, really slow, compared to other distros, needs manual user intervention in order to get the latest drivers and the use of Gnome as the default DE isn't ideal either, since Mutter still doesn't support Adaptive Sync, despite the issue being tracked on their Gitlab for over one and a half years now. What I also don't like about Ubuntu and Debian is their -distroisms-. I.e. the use of non-standard paths for configuration files, abstracting away some of the system configuration with dpkg-reconfigure and still not having fully transitioned away from SysVinit-style runlevel and service definitions. The paradigms and philosophies implemented by Ubunto by far aren't state of the art anymore and actually work against the user.
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Ubuntu is just really, really slow, compared to other distros, needs manual user intervention in order to get the latest drivers and the use of Gnome as the default DE isn't ideal either, since Mutter still doesn't support Adaptive Sync, despite the issue being tracked on their Gitlab for over one and a half years now. What I also don't like about Ubuntu and Debian is their -distroisms-. I.e. the use of non-standard paths for configuration files, abstracting away some of the system configuration with dpkg-reconfigure and still not having fully transitioned away from SysVinit-style runlevel and service definitions. The paradigms and philosophies implemented by Ubunto by far aren't state of the art anymore and actually work against the user.
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Penguin
I kind of disagree with you on this point. It only takes a couple of adjustments to Ubuntu to make it a great gaming experience. You don't need the latest kernel, you just need the latest graphics drivers. Ubuntu maintains 2 PPAs that have the latest graphics drivers (AMD/Intel on one and NVIDIA has it's own). It's really not that hard. Pop OS includes those PPAs by default (or at least the latest drivers in their own repo.
But if you want the latest kernels on Ubuntu (or anything Ubuntu based such as Pop OS or Mint), there are multiple ways to do it. The easiest is the Liquorix Kernel, it's a fork of the Zen Kernel. All you need to do is add their PPA and install it to your system.
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I kind of disagree with you on this point. It only takes a couple of adjustments to Ubuntu to make it a great gaming experience. You don't need the latest kernel, you just need the latest graphics drivers. Ubuntu maintains 2 PPAs that have the latest graphics drivers (AMD/Intel on one and NVIDIA has it's own). It's really not that hard. Pop OS includes those PPAs by default (or at least the latest drivers in their own repo.
But if you want the latest kernels on Ubuntu (or anything Ubuntu based such as Pop OS or Mint), there are multiple ways to do it. The easiest is the Liquorix Kernel, it's a fork of the Zen Kernel. All you need to do is add their PPA and install it to your system.
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larioxem
While I'm against companies aiming to be like Microsoft, I also know those kind of companies generate traction which is needed on Linux desktop in order to be relevant as a gaming platform.
The analogy may be a bad one but I think it could apply : third world countries before a dictatorship government were lacking resources and international investment for improving their infrastructure , while the regime lasted kinda focused on that at the expense of freedom, here could happen the same Canonical would improve Linux chance as a gaming platform at the expense of losing their freedom to choose which way to achieve it. It'll depend solely on their part as we already saw on snaps .
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While I'm against companies aiming to be like Microsoft, I also know those kind of companies generate traction which is needed on Linux desktop in order to be relevant as a gaming platform.
The analogy may be a bad one but I think it could apply : third world countries before a dictatorship government were lacking resources and international investment for improving their infrastructure , while the regime lasted kinda focused on that at the expense of freedom, here could happen the same Canonical would improve Linux chance as a gaming platform at the expense of losing their freedom to choose which way to achieve it. It'll depend solely on their part as we already saw on snaps .
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Mike
This gaming cult is what keeps people using proprietary systems. You can have fun playing the simplest of games if you let yourself. Why should Ubuntu make itself less stable in package versions it uses to just suit the gaming demographic? I honestly hate what gamers are trying to demand of each distro. Ubuntu sucks for its own reasons. Snaps are terrible because 1) who wants to decompress every time they launch an application?, 2) who wants the same dependencies included in multiple programs you run? that's a simple waste that ignores the type of system they are even being used on. 3) Canonical has effectively locked it down where they are the only ones who can host snaps.
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This gaming cult is what keeps people using proprietary systems. You can have fun playing the simplest of games if you let yourself. Why should Ubuntu make itself less stable in package versions it uses to just suit the gaming demographic? I honestly hate what gamers are trying to demand of each distro. Ubuntu sucks for its own reasons. Snaps are terrible because 1) who wants to decompress every time they launch an application?, 2) who wants the same dependencies included in multiple programs you run? that's a simple waste that ignores the type of system they are even being used on. 3) Canonical has effectively locked it down where they are the only ones who can host snaps.
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MrXenoOfficial
I still finding it funny that as a linux user and windows user that when it comes to gaming I still stick to windows because of newer software. Even micorosoft that doesn't do rolling releases can give you a -feature- update every 6-12 months but ubuntu can't give it. you need to -wait- for a new LTS if you want the newer features. Sure its great for office work but then again. even windows is used for office work and can still give you feature updates as they come and ask the IT staff. Do you want to install this feature pack on your users pc's or not
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I still finding it funny that as a linux user and windows user that when it comes to gaming I still stick to windows because of newer software. Even micorosoft that doesn't do rolling releases can give you a -feature- update every 6-12 months but ubuntu can't give it. you need to -wait- for a new LTS if you want the newer features. Sure its great for office work but then again. even windows is used for office work and can still give you feature updates as they come and ask the IT staff. Do you want to install this feature pack on your users pc's or not
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EternityForest
I'm still trying to decide what my next distro should be, if Ubuntu ever goes down the toilet. Canonical giving up up is a big issue, because Ubuntu was essentially the -Standard distro-, if they go become crap with those awful snaps we don't really have a standard, consistent, non-DIY focused stable platform.
I have hope for the Ubuntu derivatives, Deepin, and Mint, eventually Linux gaming should reach a good enough point and be doable on a stable OS.
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I'm still trying to decide what my next distro should be, if Ubuntu ever goes down the toilet. Canonical giving up up is a big issue, because Ubuntu was essentially the -Standard distro-, if they go become crap with those awful snaps we don't really have a standard, consistent, non-DIY focused stable platform.
I have hope for the Ubuntu derivatives, Deepin, and Mint, eventually Linux gaming should reach a good enough point and be doable on a stable OS.
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let's
He keeps talking about how ubuntu isn't used for gaming because it's kernel and packages are out of date, but cites pop os as one of the new distros gamers use. Doesn't pop os use the same package repository and kernel version as ubuntu? Also the new -cutting edge features- for gaming like proton are installed by steam, not by a package manager. Is there even any evidence to suggest that ubuntu has failed as a gaming distro?
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He keeps talking about how ubuntu isn't used for gaming because it's kernel and packages are out of date, but cites pop os as one of the new distros gamers use. Doesn't pop os use the same package repository and kernel version as ubuntu? Also the new -cutting edge features- for gaming like proton are installed by steam, not by a package manager. Is there even any evidence to suggest that ubuntu has failed as a gaming distro?
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