[mdlug] Interesting information about Windows "7"

[Jeff Hanson]

On Jan 24, 2008 12:18 AM, Aaron Kulkis <akulkis3 at hotpop.com> wrote:
> It has to do with MARKETS.
>
> Windows games are written for Windows, not the
> hardware it's running on.

Not entirely correct.  The developers must take into account the
end-user's hardware else it won't run.  The PC world is full of
millions of combinations of video cards, bioses, and drivers, which
makes it a lot more difficult to troubleshoot.  Consoles are very
predictable and very easy for the end user to determine if a game they
are planning on purchasing will operate or not.  Closed source
developers are entirely on their own for dealing with hardware
variations on any particular OS unless they outsource to porting
firms.  If the market size on those platforms is not large enough for
them to bother with then they don't.

> Linux games are written for Linux, not the hardware
> it's sitting on top of, and games port very easily
> from one hardware collection to another.

Mostly, but it depends on if it's open source or not.  Open source
apps can be ported to any platform that someone wants to port it to.
Closed source apps again rely on the original developer.  PPC versions
of Linux apps are often not available or buggy because the differences
in the architecture require more work and the required hardware
(cross-compiling is not enough IIRC).