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posted by CoolHand on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the keeping-playtime-alive-for-tux dept.

Engadget posted a look at the state of Linux gaming in 2019, and it's not that positive. The writer posits that Valve's Steam is solely keeping Linux gaming alive.

Fast-forward nearly six years. Steam Machines puttered out as an idea, though Valve hasn't dropped its support for Linux. It maintains a Linux Steam client with 5,800 native games, and just last August, Valve unveiled Proton, a compatibility layer designed to make every Steam title run open-source-style. With Proton currently in beta, the number of Steam titles playable on Linux has jumped to 9,500. There are an estimated 30,000 games on Steam overall, so that's roughly one-in-three, and Valve is just getting started.

However, the percentage of PC players that actually use Linux has remained roughly the same since 2013, and it's a tiny fraction of the gaming market -- just about 2 percent. Linux is no closer to claiming the gaming world's crown than it was six years ago, when Newell predicted the open-source, user-generated-content revolution.

[...] The industry's lack of Linux love is just one reason Epic Games felt free to launch its new digital store -- the first true competition to Steam in about a decade -- without support for open-source operating systems. When the company unveiled the Epic Games Store in December, Linux fans immediately had questions: Would the marketplace work on their distros? If not, were there plans to support Linux down the line?

The most concrete answer came from Epic Games director of publishing strategy (and a creator of Steam Spy) Sergey Galyonkin on Twitter in late December: "It really isn't on the roadmap right now. Doesn't mean this won't change in the future, it's just we have so many features to implement." Epic Games didn't provide an update on its plans for this story.

[more...]

[...] "The pro of supporting Linux is the community," Super Meat Boy Forever creator Tommy Refenes said. "In my experience, Linux gamers tend to be the most appreciative gamers out there. If you support Linux at all, the chances are they will come out of the woodwork to thank you, offer to help with bugs, talk about your game, and just in general be pretty cool people. The con here unfortunately is the Linux gaming community is a very, very small portion of the PC gaming market."

Refenes breaks it down as follows: "If I were to list how Super Meat Boy has made money since the Linux version dropped, starting with the highest earner, the list would be: Windows, Xbox, Playstation 4, Switch, various licensing agreements, Mac, Playstation Vita, WiiU, merchandise sales, NVidia Shield, interest from bank accounts, Linux."

[...] "My hope is Steam's Proton project really takes off and Linux support is invisible to me," he said. "In an age of three consoles, PCs with millions of different configurations, and a market that is getting increasingly crowded by the day, the last thing I want to do is take time and money to support Linux when historically this has offered no marketing or financial advantage. But if Steam does the heavy lifting, then that's a win for everyone."

I've seen several video game developers outright cancel native Linux ports of their video games since the announcement of Steam's Proton over the past few months. Does this mean that there will be even fewer new native Linux video games in the near future?


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Bot on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:32PM (28 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:32PM (#810749) Journal

    It does not matter how many players are there, both steam and the game devs have a spare platform against unreasonable demand from the OS guy. As it happened before, by adopting Linux you make life harder for yourself in the short run, better for everybody eventually.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by ikanreed on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:52PM (14 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:52PM (#810754) Journal

    Yes, but it's basically a prisoner's dilemma.

    You and I both switch to linux, we both gain.
    I switch and you don't, I lose and you don't.
    Neither of us switch, and we both lose nothing.

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday March 06 2019, @05:22PM (13 children)

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 06 2019, @05:22PM (#810771) Journal

      In essence, yes, it's like a prisoner's dilemma. But I think you have the costs figured wrong, especially for the case where neither party switches.

      OTOH, given the last EULA I read (none of the GPL, the MIT, nor the BSD license count as an EULA), the costs for not switching are also a lot higher than your estimate.

      FWIW, I generally find Linux a lot easier to use than MSWind, and lately even than Apple. Admittedly I avoid Gnome3 window managers, but mate, KDE, LXDE, and xfce are all good choices. Currently I'm using mate, because I want a particular screen saver that KDE won't support. But I'm using a lot of KDE applications, e.g. I prefer the Dolphin window manager. In my experience (admittedly a bit dated) you *can't* get that kind of flexibility on either MSWindows or Apple.

      Now as for games...I won't pay money for games I can't buy. If the game requires access to some server out on the internet, then the group operating that server is the one that owns "your" game. So steam hasn't seemed that attractive to me. (Actually, I'm still playing Loki games on a virtual machine that runs on a very old version of Linux.) I don't want to get attached to a game that just suddenly stops working because someone else decided it was time.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
      • (Score: 4, Informative) by urza9814 on Wednesday March 06 2019, @05:50PM (3 children)

        by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @05:50PM (#810780) Journal

        Now as for games...I won't pay money for games I can't buy. If the game requires access to some server out on the internet, then the group operating that server is the one that owns "your" game. So steam hasn't seemed that attractive to me. (Actually, I'm still playing Loki games on a virtual machine that runs on a very old version of Linux.) I don't want to get attached to a game that just suddenly stops working because someone else decided it was time.

        Just in case you didn't know, that's not *always* the case with Steam. One of my personal favorites (Factorio) I always play through Steam largely for the Steam controller support (that thing is AWESOME) -- but they integrate Steam purchases with the store on their own website, so I can go download a standalone, offline, DRM-free installer any time I want directly from the game's publisher. I could ditch Steam tonight and have no problem continuing to play that game, without losing anything except the gamepad support.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:45PM (2 children)

          by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:45PM (#810838) Journal

          Factorio's real good too. The devs obviously work so much harder on improving their product, and informing their users about their work than I ever have as a dev.

          • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday March 06 2019, @09:11PM (1 child)

            by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @09:11PM (#810870)

            Factorio?

            Great, thanks you guys. That's my weekend messed up.

            I had things to do too. Mrs Zombie will not be pleased.

            • (Score: 2) by Webweasel on Thursday March 07 2019, @09:59AM

              by Webweasel (567) on Thursday March 07 2019, @09:59AM (#811095) Homepage Journal

              You know Factorio got a major update just a few days ago? Up to 0.17 now, lots of changes.

              --
              Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:20PM

        by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:20PM (#810829)

        I tend to feel similarly about "renting" games, what swung me (partially) around was the convenience that Steam provides, and the fact that, if you're interested in older games, you can often "buy" the cream of the crop from a few years ago for pennies on the dollar, and a couple bucks to "rent" a game for the indefinite future is actually a good deal.

        Besides, good luck finding *any* mainstream game these days that doesn't rely on an online server for copy protection. If the big studios are only going to make their games available to rent, then that's their choice - but I'm not going to pay for them until the price falls to something reasonable for a rental.

        I figure I go to concerts, the theater, and rent movies for home viewing (not to mention occasional heavy/specialty equipment). Not really much difference to renting a game. I don't have to own everything, provided the rental fee is fair.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Snow on Wednesday March 06 2019, @08:36PM (4 children)

        by Snow (1601) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @08:36PM (#810856) Journal

        What screensaver?

        I'm curious what's so awesome that you would spend a considerable amount of time to have on display.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @01:44AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @01:44AM (#810966)

          Its (tastefully) lewd.

        • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday March 07 2019, @04:58AM (1 child)

          by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 07 2019, @04:58AM (#811024) Journal

          The one that displays images from a selected folder. I think it was originally from BSD, I know the earlier versions of Gnome and KDE supported it, but they dropped support from screen-savers that aren't specifically written for their more recent systems. (I think "from" is better than "for" in this case, because they killed screen savers that had been working.)

          FWIW, I display pictures of my deceased wife. That's worth more to me than any improvements that KDE offers, and Gnome3 is, in my experience, sufficiently worse that I'd avoid it anyway.

          --
          Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
          • (Score: 1, Troll) by Snow on Friday March 08 2019, @03:50PM

            by Snow (1601) on Friday March 08 2019, @03:50PM (#811561) Journal

            Awwe, that's sweet. I'm sorry to hear about your late wife. She must have been a great gal.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:47AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:47AM (#811037)
      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday March 07 2019, @12:09AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Thursday March 07 2019, @12:09AM (#810933) Journal

        I've got games my computer (laptop) that won't run unless I go 'down' to i3, due to low memory.
        THAT is one of the things I appreciate about Linux: flexibility.

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Thursday March 07 2019, @12:10AM

        by Magic Oddball (3847) on Thursday March 07 2019, @12:10AM (#810934) Journal

        Now as for games...I won't pay money for games I can't buy. If the game requires access to some server out on the internet, then the group operating that server is the one that owns "your" game. So steam hasn't seemed that attractive to me.

        I don't mind online verification when it comes to PC games, simply because somebody will invariably come out with a patch to defeat it. On any platform that's not easily patched, though, I agree.

        I also refuse to buy download-only copies of games for similar reasons... If the original is deleted from disk, the buyer is dependent on the publisher continuing to offer it for download, and even then it might turn out to be an altered version. A post I saw over on Reddit [reddit.com] made the point nicely: the Make-a-Wish Foundation is struggling to find a Playstation 3 that has the formerly-downloadable "Marvel vs. Capcom 2" installed on its hard drive, because apparently the game was removed from the service: even people who'd paid for it in the past can't re-download it. Similarly, when I went to look up a quirky song last night that had been featured in a game I enjoyed, I discovered that the song was recently deleted from the hard drives of everyone who had legally downloaded the game, so only those of us playing off the disc can hear it in-game.

      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 07 2019, @06:57PM

        by Freeman (732) on Thursday March 07 2019, @06:57PM (#811284) Journal

        I highly recommend GOG.com. They do have a program called Galaxy that is similar to Steam, but you can just as easily download the standalone installer from their website. The games offered are 99.9% DRM-Free with a few instances of 3rd party EULAs for multiplayer. Otherwise, they're what I would call the "perfect" game store. Sure, it can always be better, but they are really, really good. They've worked with publishers/game owners to bring back multiplayer for games that lost it due to GameSpy's demise. They include cool things with the games like original artwork, walkthroughs, wallpapers, etc. Some of those things were even created by/for GOG. As far as gaming platforms go, you really can't get better than GOG. Reasonable pricing, easy Steam like access, DRM-Free, and the ability to backup your collection on physical media. Sure, you're losing out on the resale option, but most people are happy enough to trade that for the ease of use. Otherwise, you're very nearly stuck with only Consoles for modern games. Since, most store bought PC games just give you a steam key.

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Wednesday March 06 2019, @05:10PM (12 children)

    by Nerdfest (80) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @05:10PM (#810760)

    I've been running Linux for about 15 years, and I very much disagree about it being harder in the short term. Maybe in the *very* short term, like a couple of weeks, but the benefits hit you right away; the stability, the speed, the updates ... OMG the updates. How people put up with Windows amazes me.

    • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday March 06 2019, @06:00PM

      by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @06:00PM (#810784) Journal

      I've been running Linux for about 15 years, and I very much disagree about it being harder in the short term. Maybe in the *very* short term, like a couple of weeks, but the benefits hit you right away; the stability, the speed, the updates ... OMG the updates. How people put up with Windows amazes me.

      Ehh, the updates can be a recurring pain as well. I had an issue just last week trying to get the OBS v4l2sink plugin working with v4l2loopback. There was even an issue raised on the git page for that plugin, the original dev had tried to get enough information to provide a fix but couldn't resolve it either. Turns out there's a bug in the version of v4l2loopback that's packaged in the AUR repository. Of course, there's another newer, unstable version in the repo which fixed the issue, but it took two days to figure out what the problem was and get that thing updated. I did post that solution to that git thread though, so hopefully I've improved the situation just a tiny bit -- the issue has been sitting there unresolved since last October...

      With other OSes you tend to get one big monolithic package with everything packaged together. You aren't trying to run stuff with whatever random version of the dependencies which may or may not be the same as whatever the developer was using at the time. The downside is that it means the dependencies often never get updated and never get patched...the upside is that the dependencies never get updated and never get patched :)

      There's a reason so many people are so excited about appimages and such...and one of the main benefits seems to be avoiding updates...

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 06 2019, @06:22PM (8 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 06 2019, @06:22PM (#810796) Journal

      I dunno about "short term".

      I don't work as an IT guy. Computers aren't my job, so I don't "have" to learn much of anything. So, despite the fact that I adopted Linux more than a decade ago, there are STILL things I don't know. You may or may not have seen that I'm finally fed up with systemd. It's been talked to death, and I've grown more and more opposed to systemd. At long last, I've downloaded an image from which to install Void Linux. The installation has stymied me. I'm trying to figure out why on earth - the installation routine can't mount the drive onto which it is going to install, so it fails.

      So, after a decade plus, I can be balked by a simple installation.

      I will track the problem down, but things are going on in real life right now, and I don't have time to devote to my hobby/avocation.

      Things have improved in the Linux world since I took the plunge - but I can still empathize with those who say the learning curve is steep. Unless you actually work with computers, it's closer to a couple years, than to a couple weeks.

      I sorta envy people younger than myself. People just 15 to 20 years younger than myself had PC's as children. It is unfortunate that those children were sucked into the Microsoft swamp, but still, they had relatively modern PC's as children. They grew up thinking in computer terms. The brighter children had education opportunities that few people my age had. Younger people should find it easier to learn Linux than I have found it to be. But, there is still a learning curve to climb, overcoming all the limitations imposed and taught by Microsoft.

      Ehh, I guess I'm rambling.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 06 2019, @06:46PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 06 2019, @06:46PM (#810813)

        I don't work as an IT guy.

        How 'bout plumbing? I could use a good plumber

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:06PM (1 child)

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:06PM (#810822) Journal

          Gender? I'm prejudiced, and I refuse to plumb males, confused individuals, Apache helicopters, and various other strange genders. Pics required before we can even think about negotiating.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @02:04AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @02:04AM (#810972)

            I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I just need you to plumb pipes.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:22PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:22PM (#810830)

        Yeah, the void install image sucks. They do provide rootfs tarballs though, which makes install easy from a good liveusb (I really like gentoo's liveDVD image - it has drivers for everything and works well). Best installer is hands down OpenBSD though.

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:47PM (1 child)

        by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @07:47PM (#810839)

        >So, despite the fact that I adopted Linux more than a decade ago, there are STILL things I don't know.

        As someone who does do IT work, I'm willing to bet that even if you had stuck with Windows, the list of things you don't know about Windows would be at least as long. At least with regards to a "typical" Linux install - the broader Linux ecosystem is far vaster than Windows.

        That breadth of ecosystem is both it's strength and it's weakness. It's basically impossible to write software "for Linux" - you have to write it for a specific distro and the system libraries it includes. You can try to support at least a few of the major distros, but the differences can quite rapidly become almost as bad as those between Linux and Windows.

        If you want Linux to be simple to use, then you have to stick with a mainstream distro that's designed to be simple to use, well-tested, and broadly supported by developers. Which for cross-platform, non-OSS software, particularly sophisticated games, seems to pretty much mean Ubuntu. The further you get from a vanilla Ubuntu distribution, the more compatibility problems you are likely to encounter. You probably weren't stymied by "a simple installation", you were stymied by a installer that was either NOT simple, or was inadequately tested before release so that it was broken on your computer.

        Stick within walled garden that's almost as confining as in Windows, and you can get a similarly simple experience. The difference with Linux is that the garden is easy to leave - but it's a fool who blames the surrounding forest for not being as well-tended as the garden.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:05PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:05PM (#811206)

          I have used linux since before the kernel had loadmodule support, I learned POSIX and operating systems from professors who had developed SysV unix for bell labs. I've read most of the classics on the subject except for maybe tannenbaum. I've used windows for longer than that, when I was a boy I had taken deep dives, I was picking apart the kernel api and I could even tell you how to save tons of memory on a fresh windows install down to which fonts you could remove.
          I still learn new things about linux but linux has changed very little since windows XP
          Windows 10 is a massive butthole and I fucking hate it. I have used it on my gaming machine for 2 years and it's still a massive amorphous blob of ever shapeshifting beer-shits. I used to curse that linux had mutated into thing where perfectly acceptable unix habits of the day could send the system into a shitstate (#1 example editing a config file by hand because you don't even know there is a new gizmo that's supposed to do it for you)

          My windows 10 gaming machine is by some measures the fastest machine I have. I like to keep some dev tools and other shit on there because it's nice.
          Fuck that. Any hack, tweak, enhancement, or even fucking new feature delivered by wsus can make the whole shitpile turn into a slowly decaying mess of bugs and crashes.

          Now days I don't install anything on the fucker but steam, basic drivers (no shit GUI crap), vpn(not even tor!), cheat engine (no kernel module, I usually install gdb and dll snoop, resource editor, and wireshark for cheating but nope fuck that!), some emulators, Xming, an ebook reader(i forget the name but it's paid for), vlc (I want kodi but it has smells so I won't risk it!) vnc, notepad++ (not my first pick but probably the most stable-least integrated native text editor that knows what \n means) and putty. This time I decided not to install NFS drivers, and instead turn on CIFS/smb on my servers and no extra MMC snap ins. It's game related or it's a client to get to a linux machine.

          I know all of this off the top of my head because I'm working to automate the set up so that when things go to shit. I can dependably hit a system restore point and have steam import all it's games off local backup but I'm running into headaches where everything is going to expect to draw a million updates. So this weekend I'm going to have to start over and get everything else installed, updated, stable, and then install steam on top of it with, image the entire drive, import the games backup, get all the updates and then back them up to storage. Revert the drive image, install steam fresh, configure steam to import all my games off storage next boot. Take the system restore point, and then reboot the machine and let it complete set up on it's own.
          Theoretically this should get my system in a state where everything works and I don't have to redownload 80gb of doom4 and who knows how much for "windows creators update for people" whatever the fuck that is.

          It makes me rage angry to have to install motherfucking windows telemetry updates and use IE but I guess I'll have to experiment with blocking them at the network level. I can just use xming and docker and my linux k8s cluster for my actual web browsing, document writing, coding.

          I just want to play a game microsoft. I remember why I liked playstation now.

      • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Thursday March 07 2019, @03:14AM

        by Magic Oddball (3847) on Thursday March 07 2019, @03:14AM (#810995) Journal

        At long last, I've downloaded an image from which to install Void Linux. The installation has stymied me. I'm trying to figure out why on earth - the installation routine can't mount the drive onto which it is going to install, so it fails.

        At least you got all the way up to the installation phase... When I tried to run live images of Void a year or so ago, regardless of whether it was from a USB or DVD, new or old release, it invariably would get to a certain point in booting up, then halt because it couldn't mount something crucial from the live image. That's the main reason why I'm still hanging with PCLinuxOS: it doesn't have systemd and will run stably on my laptop, which also happens to refuse to run any systemd-based distros. (TBH, between systemd's effects and DEs like Gnome 3, I'd argue that using Linux is more difficult today than it was when I started 11 years ago.)

      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 07 2019, @07:18PM

        by Freeman (732) on Thursday March 07 2019, @07:18PM (#811294) Journal

        I would say give MXLinux a try. It's debian based and uses SysV as the init, instead of systemd. https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mx [distrowatch.com] I've not really played around with a lot of linux distros recently, but I'm tempted to build a new Linux computer. I've been eyeing the new AMD Ryzen APUs, but will likely hold off until the new hotness comes out this year sometime. The Ryzen5 2200g or 2400g might make for a nice semi-casual gaming computer. Which is all my wife needs, though I could probably get away with a lot less for her. Currently she's stuck on an older AMD AM3 Quad-Core (Probably a Phenom II x4 variant), 4GB RAM, with a 1GB GPU, but I did upgrade her to an SSD.

        Currently have an older version of Lubuntu on a dual-core laptop and it's been working pretty well. Even got it playing Netflix just fine. A portable screen is what you need sometimes.

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday March 07 2019, @12:29AM (1 child)

      by isostatic (365) on Thursday March 07 2019, @12:29AM (#810940) Journal

      I've been linux since 2000, having first started in 98/99. The first few months, or even year or so was difficult -- X didn't have a driver for my SIS6326 or something -- all I had was 640x480 and a wierd cursor. I couldn't get internet access either as all the information about using minicom and pppd was via webpages that were only accessible via rebooting into windows. And that's with a hardware modem, not a "winmodem".

      So yes, Linux was clearly harder in the short term. However my experience 20 years later can't compare - I have no real idea how hard linux is, because it simply isn't hard - at least for me. It just works.

      Windows on the other hand, on the rare occasions I touch it, is terrible.

      But my experience isn't "normal".

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:50PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:50PM (#811245)

        Hahhaa jesus I did it in 94 aside from getting sound working this shit is exactly the order of problems... and solutions, lord hhahah pppd and minicom.
        No shit it took me like 8 months to get pppd working. Lucky for me I had a dialup shell account and a kludge to use it as a http proxy.
        By the time I had ppp working I'd recompiled the entire kernel and whittled it down to a fraction of whatever was stock of the day. I learned with glibc was and recompiled that, I did the same thing to the xfree86 s3 driver.
        I know that gentoo provides modest speed improvements in modern day but I'll tell you linux ran a lot faster moving from generic i386 builds to optimized pentium builds.

        That would make me a modern linux guru but fucking pppd was the great satan. I had to read tcp/ip illustrated, man pages, howtos, check the source code and get help on irc (along with ridicule for being a pleb with no network stack)

        No shit I went in the military after I became an adult and ended up screwed in a life of hard labor and combat. I hardly touched a computer I was so busy. I even saved up and bought the sharp zaurus so I could have just a little access to a coding platform in my pocket.

        When I got out that knowledge carried me for years. As a civilian I landed an IT job in a few months after not touching a real computer for 4 years. I didn't know it but this wasn't the sort of place where people learn new things but that time with the shitty years of linux taught me enough about computers and networks that I was able to coast on that learning, at a windows shop, for like 5 years until I finally realized the place was a career dead end that would rather drop 100k on a one time consulting fee or support contract than trust their guys to do anything new. Except for the boss he spent all day working on pet projects with high visibility and unusually transferable job skills compared to everyone else.

        Fuck that guy was a prick. I'm happy to have since learned that he can develop web apps all day and nobody will give him more than he makes right now as a nobody manager for it because his basics are lacking shit he doesn't even know he doesn't know. I can so tell it was his goal to launch a new career or get into real management after his kids were in school.

        Moving up higher in management isn't going to happen for him. He has a hard on for 'customer service' which of course pleases the people who depend on his department but it was a manly industrial sector employer and like a whore that sucks the cheese from between their toes the upper management liked and praised his "you're always right" attitude but didn't respect him for it. He also had zero push back against bad ideas from non-technical executives, the place had 20 years of tech debt from it's old mainframe ERP solution. Now they probably have 30 years of ERP tech debt and another 10 years on the windows side.

        All the other tech management will be well prepared to jump ship or retire when the mess topples over. But not that guy he started on the helpdesk and went well out of his way to kiss the Chairman's ass. It got him a position that would keep him around for setting up tvs and speakers and wifi at the guy's house when he needed it but nobody was going to put him in charge of something more important without a college degree or extensive knowledge of their industry and warehouse operations.

        His one trick pony of kissing the chairman's ass stopped working before I even worked there but word is he's still humping it to this day even as the guy's health is deteriorating.