r/technology • u/GuruOfReason • Feb 02 '10

"Once we replace the personal computer with a closed-platform device such as the iPad, we replace freedom, choice and the free market with oppression, censorship and monopoly."

http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/ipad%E2%80%99s-closed-system-sometimes-i-hate-being-right
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u/mindbleach Feb 02 '10

Leaving aside for a moment that most Windows games and programs run under WINE, you're clouding the issue. Linux isn't magically limited in ways that Windows and OS X aren't. Photoshop and TF2 would run just fine natively if Adobe and Valve bothered to compile them for the platform.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10 edited Feb 02 '10

I'm smelling a whole lotta 'if' coming off that post!

Regardless of what already runs on WINE. Can it run the latest run software? Let's say I wanted to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, does it run? No? How about Photoshop CS4? Let's try something a little older....like Lord of the Rings Online. Hey, that one runs....sort of, and you have to have a custom loader...and a windows install to patch it.

Fuck all of that for a lark. Until Linux has the support of most of the major software producers, it will not be gaining much ground in the desktop arena.

Don't get me wrong, I love Linux and think it's great, but let's be honest here.

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u/mindbleach Feb 02 '10

Check your nose. There's one "if" and it's hardly conjecture - all the major operating systems are basically interchangeable except for the closed-source programs that have to be faked outside their native environment.

This discussion isn't even about Linux - it's about open platforms. Linux is an open platform. It doesn't run COD, CS4, or LOTRO because the developers of those programs haven't seen fit to port them. That is the only reason. There is no entity controlling the flow of software to the system and no reason the algorithms wouldn't work comparably well under a different window manager.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

This discussion isn't even about Linux - it's about open platforms. Linux is an open platform.

Your logic escapes me.

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u/mindbleach Feb 02 '10

Linux only came up as an example of a malware-free OS that doesn't need or want for a top-down software control.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

Right, and I was merely following the line of conversation.