So official support of Windows XP will be ending on April 8th, 2014. That means no more security updates or anything. I know that a linux editor has been something highly requested, even though its not really worth their time to develop. I really hope they have one out by then, as I don’t really want to have to “upgrade”. What do you guys think?
the thing is i dont want to pay for a new version of windows. i do have a new laptop that runs 8, but for my older computers i don’t want to put 7 or 8 on them really, they just barely run xp. maybe one day i’ll stop being so cheap…
Since your biggest market is on Mobile platforms and Desktops (Windows/OSX), and Linux being last…
I suggest you upgrade to a newer Windows version (e.g. windows 7 or 8, heck maybe 9 by then?) or buy a (second hand) macbook pro /imac /mac pro with OS X (Mountain Lion or newer when available and compatible), that way you can test/support your games on the platforms most of your customers will have.
EDIT: just saw your reply above my post. You have very old hardware, barely running windows XP. Ok, how do you think a modern distro runs on those machines with Unity ontop? I think not much better compared to XP, if worse.
I wouldn’t hold my breath on a Linux version of the Unity Development Environment (UDE get it?), if it comes it might be for version 5.x at the earliest.
well i shouldn’t say it barely runs xp, but my main computers right now are circa 2006-2007. i can’t really justify paying for a windows upgrade, it just doesnt make sense to pay for windows. i do have one 7 home premium license from a laptop my sister broke, i might have to cave and install that i guess. it would just be nice to not have to use windows at all anymore.
If you think porting is that easy then you’ve never ported any complicated software. Also, SteamOS isn’t magically going to make Linux a viable platform.
Windows XP and Unity3d run decent inside of a Linux VMWare virtual machine (forget using Oracle Virtualbox, slow and buggy for anything Windows). Move everything to an SSD and you’re good to go.
But people only remember the overnight success part around the release of HL2, where they conveniently forget how much we disliked it at the time. We didn’t really like it until much later, when they got other people’s games on board and started selling them cheap.
But… while Steam boxes may be quite viable, it doesn’t mean it’ll make Linux as a whole a viable gaming platform. After all, Android is Linux too…
honestly i dont think there its going to be a unity editor for linux, linux has always been that obscure niche platform that just a few really actually use outside of looking cool and feeling hardcore nerdy
SteamOS and all that linux is the future is just a massive tantrum valve is making with windows, and steam boxes are a waste of time unless they plan to distribute them all over the world not just in a small us only niche market, i want to be able to go to a super market and buy the damn thing like i can with an xbox or a playstation, because valve was successful because it ran on windows and windows is available everywhere, you dont need too much effort to buy a windows computer, and digital distribution deals with breaking the physical barriers of distribution and you can get the stuff no matter where you are, but if you are rolling your own OS and your own hardware, you have to do 2 important things, make it available to everybody and make it consumer friendly, and linux has been everything but consumer friendly since its appearance.
its like the OUYA, good intentions, but to actually get one outside of the US is a really a treasure hunting task and its not realistic to think to pay international shipping and probable import taxes on something that costs $100
once you introduce physical goods of any sort, proper distribution will be your worst problem.
as an example, in my city i have around 30 places where i can buy an iPad, but almost impossible to find a galaxy tablet, guess which is going to get more sales
Consumer friendliness isn’t a problem for the many people with Linux distros on their phones. The issue isn’t with the software so much as it is with the presentation and the wild plethora of options and the ridiculous rate of change. OS X is also really similar (also being a Unix derivative) and nobody seems to have problems with that, either. If SteamOS is has a similarly streamlined experience to any of the above then it’ll have similar potential.
On top of that, what makes you think it won’t be available all over the world? Being an open standard there’s no reason that enthusiasts (a core part of the existing market) can’t build their own, and there’s no reason that any manufacturer with an interest can’t make them (and put them in supermarkets) just like is done with Android.
I think porting the Unity Editor is quite a lot more work than porting the runtime - from what I’ve understood of Unity and the Unity runtime they’ve for a very very long time had as one of their main goals the ability to publish Unity games on a lot different platforms. This tells me that they’ve probably created a code base that is easily portable. I think the Editor is a whole (well, perhaps not whole but at least very different) another beast.
get it?), if it comes it might be for version 5.x at the earliest.