The rise of Linux

The Downfall of Windows (xP)

So I just read (or re-read) some news about ISS laptops being changed to Linux last year (2013) as Windows XP nears its EOL in April this year with no more security or technical updates. With Windows 8 being hard to use and the UI being unfamiliar, that's prompted me to write this post instead of sneaking it in a section within another post like I normally do =P
By the way, all those Windows XP users, it's a great time to switch to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, since Win 8 users will have to familiarise themselves with a new UI anyway. WinXP/7 users would probably want to use Kubuntu/Xubuntu to have a familiar desktop environment (you can set the UI up to be almost exactly like Win XP/7). You want LTS versions because they're supported for 5 years, although you're free to upgrade to different versions anytime when they're out. (LTS versions happen every 2 years, and non-LTS versions are supported for 9 months now, instead of 18 months previously.)

The adoption of Linux in the world

So why use Linux anyway?

• It's free - as in financially and in the sense of free speech. You can freely modify and customise it to suit your needs and use it however you like!
• It's stable and reliable - updates and patches happen quickly as it's open sourced, and won't fall into the traps of things like the Mac OS/iOS SSL bug. Security by obscurity is wrong in an OS context.
• It's efficient - My Linux (Kubuntu 12.04) is pretty fast and does things faster than my Windows 7 HP 64bit, even with KDE, which is a relatively intense DE compared with things like XFCE and GNOME/forks.

In Science:

Used by people and places like:
CERN
Experiment Platforms
NASA
-MSL (Curiosity Rover)
-ISS (probably almost everything since the move to Linux on desktop laptops).

Linux in Space

United Space Alliance, a NASA contractor that supports the laptops on the ISS used the Linux Foundation to train their devs to migrate and port apps over to Linux.
Apparently they have over 140 laptops with 80 online at any time; they chose Debian 6, it being Google's choice of distribution too. They also have Scientific Linux and RHEL/CentOS on some computers already on the ISS. Robonaut R2 uses it and the ISS has used it since Linux started, but rarely on the desktop PCs.

We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable — one that would give us in-house control. So if we needed to patch, adjust, or adapt, we could.

ZING! Apparently they have faced a few random crashes (probably BSODs lol) and in 2008 had some virus infect the ISS LAN.

Consumer Devices:

Android (kernels are being merged, and hopefully completely in a few years)
Tesla Model S

So why is adoption important at all? I think it's especially important in gaming where the catch 22 can clearly be seen - 'everyone' uses Windows to game, so game devs only build for Windows and so 'everyone' has to use Windows to game. So when devs have this alternate option instead of being locked into Windows (and perhaps DirectX), they can build for it and the Linux gaming community can back them and get rid of this catch 22 problem. Things like the humble bundle clearly show the Linux community is ready to throw money at devs who make games for Linux.

In Gaming:

Wow, GDC 2014 just prompted announcements of Linux support everywhere!
And look, someone else did a great article about the rise of Linux gaming! =)
While Phoronix downplays (or is disappointed by) the interest in Linux at GDC, it's a great improvement, from having 0 Linux announcements at GDC to having a Linux presence with SteamOS, CRYENGINE, AMD, etc. Valve's SteamOS and Steam for Linux official release announcements were only last year, so AAA devs haven't had time to announce and demo Linux games at GDC yet - but we've already seen heaps of indies get onboard. Like a Phoronix forum user said:

We have gone from "it would be cool to have a game on Linux" to "omg the next-gen CryEngine with its OpenGL 4.3 renderer might not be perfectly ported".

Game Engines: Unity,
Unreal (announced 19/3!),
CRYENGINE (dev tools, CrySDK coming to Linux),
Source & Source 2,
Leadwerks (and the editor/IDE is on Linux thru Kickstarter too!)

Game Publishers: Steam On Linux (on a sidenote, Valve wants to move from Greenlight to a more easy self-publishing system where any dev can post something),
Desura,
 GOG.com (announced 18/3) 

Consoles/Hardware:
SteamOS, Ouya/Android, Oculus Rift

Games & Devs: Steam Library Catalogue, Upcoming games on Steam,
Devs liking OpenGL and freedom of Linux and hating Windows restrictions.
Recent announcements of games on the PC usually announce on Linux in addition to Windows.
GabeN also said devs like Linux! =)

Valve: check out these awesome vids at Steam Dev Days 2014 (where there are a whole lot more Linux and VR related stuff including):
Getting started on Linux (incl Myth-busting),
Valve seriously supporting and working on moving to OpenGL exclusively,
Modern OpenGL reducing Driver Overhead (by nVidia which looks like their portion of the GDC talk below).

Vendors: nVidia, AMD, Intel @ GDC "Approaching Zero Driver Overhead", nVidia sponsored video posted in the future. There'll probably be more news from them with the GPU tech conference in the next few days as well.
AMD plans to open-source kernel space driver support, while keeping user-space binaries for their Catalyst driver (so they can keep their "secret-sauce" optimisations away from prying eyes of nVidia). AMD roadmap/info summary from GDC here; I'm not feeling as much love as I was hoping, but tbh I mostly just care about GFX performance and that means high performing nVidia drivers, even if they're binary blobs. 


On a related note, check out all the awesome vids from Steam Dev Days (click for PDFs, etc.)! They have at least 4 talks related to Linux and OpenGL (including debugging hehe)!

Updated: 24/3 to include links to latest Phoronix wrap-up articles. 

AMD Mantle

Having announced all their new value/bang for buck Volcanic Island cards - with one being reviewed by Phoronix here - AMD/ATI have now announced their new Graphics API Mantle.

It pretty much replaces OpenGL and DirectX, giving developers a closer, lower level access to the graphics card chips and such. This being similar to NVAPI and Glide from 3dfx. Firstly heard it from Star Citizen, which will be supporting it, characteristic of it supporting all cool advancement in PC technologies like the Oculus Rift. What this means is considerable improvement in GPU utilisation, and hopefully a Linux client via Mantle. There could also be a PS4 version if Sony lets CIG do their stuff on it, how they like. Here's some more info:


However, John Carmack (now at Oculus VR) says OpenGL can reach that (9x faster draw calls) performance, when utilising extensions from nVidia. Speaking of Oculus, a post about that should come somewhat later. =)

There should be a lot more info released during the AMD Conference on the 11th-13th this month.

Valve and AMD reveals

So Valve has revealed their SteamOS a couple of days ago which is based on Linux, so it's pretty much a Linux distro. It will be a living room entertainment OS, so think console+xbmc combined. It is also free and open source!
Today, they also revealed SteamBox, and are offering 300 beta units for testers to be randomly selected, as long as you earn the Steam Hardware badge level 2.Unfortunately, actual specs are not disclosed, although they are saying the system is open, and you can upgrade individual components (like a PC!), as well as being free to install any OS on it or turn it into a robot! Gotta love Valve and their open/hacker/community culture. First open console since the PC =P. They are also claiming to have different boxes available in 2014 from different vendors, so PC and linux gaming seems to be ever on fire and advancing, thanks in no small part to Valve! [S2] (companion cube). It's great to see games like Dota 2, L4D2, Kerbal Space Program, X3: Albion Prelude and Guns of Icarus Online (and hopefully the Crytek 3 Engine soon) on Linux!
In a couple of days, Valve will reveal something else. Using symbols 'O' as the SteamOS reveal, and '[O ]' as the SteamBox reveal, they are revealing something along the lines of 'O+O'. They've already suggested streaming video from your gaming PC to the steambox via LAN, and family sharing for games, but it could be something different. Check the reveal here below in 33 hours:



AMD has revealed their newest line of GPUs at every price point, and personally I'm rooting for them as they are actually supporting open source linux driver development. Unlike a certain competitor which only releases binary blobs, although they run alright. In the livestream other game devs were also featured as were a lot of audio technology.
Check out Star Citizen's Chris Roberts at 1hr 44minutes of the livestream and some new hangar module features! (And an Aurora take off sequence in the new trailer demo!). It's also set to break 20 million in crowdfunding within 24 hours. See you in the 'verse!

Watch live streaming video from amdlivestream at livestream.com

Ubuntu Edge ... Final Hours

While I posted about Ubuntu Edge before, It's at the final hours (17) of the campaign and with only 12.25mil and just under 20mil to go, it doesn't look very likely this crowd-funding campaign will reach its goal.

At the discounted price of $695/phone, that is now 46k units instead of 40k units, which is a decent manufacturing run, although I'm not sure on the exact numbers in the economical analysis of these things.

Spec-wise, and functionality-wise it trumps anything in that price-range, Xperia Z or HTC One. Unfortunately, probably due to inadequate advertisement/social media-ring and just not enough people ready to upgrade/commit (a lot of the early adopters may have already bought something this year like the previously mentioned phones), the campaign won't be breaking crowd-funding records like Star Citizen's record breaking crowd-funding dollars.

Still, 12mil is pretty respectable, it was 11mil yesterday and comes close to the 14.6 mil that Star Citizen had when I posted about Ubuntu Edge before (see previous blog post link). Right now Star Citizen has a whopping 15.7mil and growing everyday. Hangar module comes out 24th August at GamesCon, so can't wait to see the news and test it.
I hope they release something like an OpenGL version soon because apparently it'll be DirectX11 and my GT330m doesn't have that support T_T. Also, recent look at ATI's open source driver support leans me towards getting an ATI graphics next time. These nvidia binary blobs sometimes screw up and took me an hour to get my 319 driver working with Linux 3.8 and jockey -_-.



P.S. So for Systems Engineering Analysis (ENGN2226) I get to look at nanosats woot.

CryEngine 3 on Linux?

So I'd be super hyped if CryEngine 3 did come on Linux - mainly because of Star Citizen.
And there's quite a bit (21% of voters) of support for it over at RSI's Star Citizen

Now, since DirectX is a MS product, and trawling through a few forums seem to suggest that non-MS consoles (ie PS3/4 and Wii/Wii U) must therefore use OpenGL. (I still don't have a concrete answer on this, there is lots of talk about Wii U having DirectX 11 capabilities, but no concrete answer from a reputable source - general forum-poster consensus is that it uses OpenGL)

If that is the case, then this: Cry Engine 3 fully supports Wii U should mean something. Possibly something very shiny.