> @MasonGamer said:
> Windows 8 was a mistake
The funny thing about 8 is around the time it was first released, I attended an event where Microsoft was attempting to show it off--my first reaction upon seeing it (along with that of most people there) was that it not only felt too much like the interface for a mobile device (sans touch screen back then and with a much bigger screen) and not a computer OS that felt really "functional". During that same event, they also attempted to show off their then-brand new Surface (this was prior to its public release). That was another example of poor thinking when it came to the design/functionality of it. It seemed crazy in a sense that in order to just use what was essentially supposed to be a tablet, an external keyboard would have to be required as there was no built-in touchscreen keyboard on the devices. There were other issues with it as well as I recall that left me wondering if the people behind it even understood the audience of tablet users and how they interact with them--just very poor design and thinking on Microsoft's part (which may help explain part of the reason why they proved to be such a financial disaster for Microsoft, but I digress...). It's one of those operating systems where the company appears to have forgotten the most important facet of design: the user. Regardless, 8 has proven to be such a huge disaster for the company that the executive behind it and its interface was fired (ironically in the same week that Apple axed their executive behind their disastrous mapping app).
Anyway, getting back to a topic very near and dear to me and that's Linux (which I've been using for about twenty years). However, contrary to earlier comments about its userbase, I can safely say there are far more people in the community who are more into the "back end" of things (ie systems/network and/or database administration, IT, or IS) than there actually are programmers or developers--I can say this as someone who hasn't just been a user of the operating system all this time, but also as someone who has been involved in the community in different capacities going beyond its online or work presence. Just as there are a fairly large number of end users or hobbyists in this community as well.
Likewise, there was a Linux user amongst the original developers of the first Sims game--and it was even designed with the idea of porting it over to the operating system back then, natively (instead of the port we ended up with, but that's a different topic...). However, for those unfamiliar with the gaming atmosphere back then, of the games that actually were ported and were not done so by the original publisher they were often outsourced to a company by the name of Loki (which EA/Maxis had previously contracted titles out to in the past--notably SimCity 3000: Unlimited, which a number of Linux users groups back then pre-ordered in droves in as part of a drive, not just due to wanting it for Linux (even when they may already have had it for Windows), but in an effort to support and encourage it in hopes it would lead to more titles being ported over (amongst some other well-known titles that some here might be familiar with that were ported over as well by Loki were the then "current" version of Civilization along with Railroad Tycoon II. Likewise, Loki had garnered considerable support within the community as a whole not just due to putting out titles for Linux that ran natively, but also for things like 48 hour-long "bug/play-fests" where they opened up the sourcecode for that period at Linux events (conventions/conferences) on their systems which programmers and players alike would play specifically to locate and fix bugs before the titles shipped out to the users)). The thinking even by the Maxis developer who was working on the first Sims game was the hopes of doing a similar outsourcing deal with Loki (just as he admitted in write-up he did a number of years ago on one of the Linux gaming sites, he had begun working on some coding efforts of Sims for Linux prior to any deal being struck with them--but admittedly ran into some issues in the process that he was hoping Loki's people would be able to resolve or help him out with). However, what no one knew back then was just how badly mismanaged Loki had been and that they didn't have the money to even properly pay their own staff. When they went bankrupt, it was almost the equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off to the community where Linux gaming was concerned--and one that many users of it have been dealing with the outcome from in one form or another ever since (it's not just the size of our community or technical issues, but also partly an outcome of that situation as to why some game publishers had been wary of porting over games to our platform). Just as the scandal as the details emerged with what was going on at Loki did not help matters--it wasn't just shocking, it was like nothing the community had ever encountered before or since. Regardless, the outcome of that situation not only (obviously) led to no native port of Sims1 for Linux and EA apparently choosing instead to use the Linux sourcecode that one developer had worked on as the apparent base for Sims Online, but countless other publishers to drop plans to port over to Linux for a number of years (not counting Transgaming's Wine-based emulator that was considered controversial within pockets of the community for reasons going beyond the fact it was via emulation/not-native).
However, having said all that, in the past few years I admit to finding it encouraging to see more and more games and publishers embracing Linux as well as delivery systems for us to play games (including Steam) and would personally love to see Sims ported over to it as well. In the Sims2 and Sims3 eras, I remember frequently even posting a request to have those titles ported over--however, the difference between back then versus now is that there seems to be more unity within the Linux community regarding even just distributions and more infrastructure in place for gaming (along with distributions making things easier for the average user in comparison) to where I'm hoping this becomes a very real possibility.
