Should the fight for the Linux desktop really matter?

Linux has no games

A company rises from the ashes to support games on Linux

Linux users refuse to buy games (because Linux was meant to be "free")

Said company cannot support themselves on "free" and goes under

There are no more games for Linux

I've seldom seen the "Linux was meant to be free" ( used here in context would imply gratis ) excuse for games. Personally, I see it more as a chicken and the egg situation... No one wants to use Linux because we have no programs / games, but we have no programs / games because no one wants to use Linux... So the cycle, has to be broken. And it has to be done right.

Nothing says you can't sell applications for Linux. Even if using GPL code, though if you are using GPL code you usually have to provide the source with the sale or when asked for it if not with the sale. If, for instance though, you aren't using someone elses code under any license then you are perfectly free to choose whether you distribute your code or not. There is nothing in the Linux world, that says Linux is meant to be free ( gratis ).

Even the FSF touch on this issue in several areas of their site;

“Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer”. We sometimes call it “libre software” to show we do not mean it is gratis.

Sure there are a few users who only came to Linux because it was gratis, or alternatively a "free" Windows. But they are far from the rule and more the exception.

One could argue though, that Linux is meant to be free ( as in open ). In which case, most games ( despite Steam or any other DRM ) would still fail as. But, again I say those that are the die hard "freedom" users are again an exception rather than the rule.

In both cases, it'd be a case of the vocal minority fighting against pay for and/or closed software. More so if you can get more "average" users over to Linux using it because their games can work on it.

The numbers released from the latest Steam usage report are telling...Linux use on Steam currently stands at a whopping 1%. Before everyone calls out false positives, I know these statistics depend upon user surveys (many of which aren't actually filled out and submitted)...so we can't proclaim those numbers spot on. However, the margin of error cannot be all that great. That being said...

Funny, I have been using Steam on Linux since the day it was released... have yet to get one survey. Prior to that, I had been using it under Wine which detects Windows XP... was getting surveys left and right, almost every time I logged in. I honestly think their whole survey thing on Linux is broken, as it seems most people that I talk to tend to have had similar situations.

The numbers don't lie...users have made their choice and said choice has nothing to do with the desktop. Consumers have turned their backs on tradition methods of consuming data and, with that in mind, only two platforms even remotely matter: Android and iOS.

I think this is the biggest challenge for any operating system right now. The "average user" is less and less on a desktop or laptop and more and more on tablets and phones.

Personally, I think Linuxs fight is not so much about being dominate... but to promote open standards. Much like with documents, you should be able to take any document and open it in any office suite ( ms, libre, open, google, etc ) and it be rendered exactly the same. As it stands now, at least with MS office... that isn't happening. And unfortunately for us the people, that locks many of us into paying for Microsoft due to a complete monopoly they have had for so long. For no other reason than their negligence to follow a standard file format. The same can be said for many other types of software as well.

/r/linux Thread Link - techrepublic.com