xu4 OS X Snapshot Updated
I just noticed, whilst browsing through a handful of Ultima project sites this morning, that a new snapshot of xu4 for Apple’s OS X had been posted as of…yesterday, in fact.
I have of course taken the liberty of updating the project entry.
Praise the heavens if you use closed source operating systems. They had mercy on ye and compiled it for your system.
Well, really, if you compile for Windows and Mac, you capture the vast majority of your audience; most of the open source OS users know how to compile stuff for themselves (or at least one can reasonably expect this to be the case).
I mean, consider: this site attracts fairly computer savvy visitors. If you look at browser stats, Firefox is used by over 50% of the site visitors; Internet Explorer comes in at third with around 14%. But if you look at OS stats, Windows comprises 78% of the traffic, OS X comprises 14%, and Linux is roughly tied with mobile browsers at just under 4%.
You can argue with taste, but you can’t argue with math. Not that I’d mind seeing more Linux compilations released, of course. I can understand the reasoning why this isn’t usually the case, though.
I suppose it all has to do with the largest audience, then. What the polls say. A precompiled binary for popular Linux distros is not unwarranted, despite the user base. It’s about attracting new fans, after all. No need to compile for some crazy FOURTH OS, just the existing three (Windows, Apple, Linux).
Fortunately xu4 is easy to compile in Linux.
Praise the heavens if you use closed source operating systems. They had mercy on ye and compiled it for your system
whine whine whine
You know why there are are snapshots for Windows and OS X? Because there are people dedicated to compile a new snapshot each time there is a code change. So far no *nix user has come forward and offered snapshots. For Exult we had one or two doing it over the years, lasting about a month each. Go figure…
That said, the xu4 snapshot for OS X doesn’t have any new features, since I have an automatic built process set up that gets triggered by commit emails from SF, the snapshot got compiled and uploaded on its own. The trigger was a change to the iOS backend only.
Right now you will probably see a new snapshot because Kirben made a new installer script for Windows.
Glad you’re using OS X, but what you’re saying is too fucking bad for users of OS’s for which no dedicated personnel exist to compile binaries. Grand spirit there.
I’m going to stop whining before someone compiles a Linux binary. Never mind the actual code changes and platforms available for.
The mainstream marketing of bullshit continues, with every logical justification subtly augmenting it. Whip the horse, Dominus. It will run faster, and lesser horses will flee.
So what is your fucking point? If no user of any of the many lunix distros cares enough to dedicate himself to making snapshots what are the developers supposed to do? Satisfy whiny cry babies and set up a dedicated system for making snapsots for each of the distros?
I don’t see you setting up your system for offering precompiled snapshots for xu4, or exult, or pentagram (that’s the ones I do for OS X), or nuvie, or scummvm (Kirben does these as well for Windows).
Cmon, don’t be that guy that only whines, do something, share, help opensource, help those poor people that have no one dedicating time to build a snapshot.
So lets hear the excuses why you can’t, won’t…
The mainstream marketing of bullshit continues, with every logical justification subtly augmenting it are you on drugs?
So, when people like Kirben dedicates more than ten years and makes snapsots for several OpenSource projects (exult, pentagra, xu4, nuvie, scummvm) it’s not helping out the opensource community but it’s just marketing bullshit?
I feel trolled, didn’t expect that from Sanctimonia.
I am on drugs. My apologies for potentially trolling you.
My point is that I’m tired of Windows and Apple binaries playing first fiddle to Linux binaries. If you want to talk about how your supposition that the average Linux user should compile his own software while Windows and Mac users should just double-click, then let’s talk about it.
Do you think that because less people use a given OS that they should have to install the necessary development environment and compile the source code? Or I guess it’s crazy for Windows or Mac users to do so, but expected and normal for Linux users to do so.
I have had an IRC channel open for some time now, hosted on my own petard, as they say. I have also offered hosting of the GAMBAS documentation wiki and Aiera itself in times of need. I have offered what little people may find valuable that I own, which is all I can do.
I’m also developing a game engine with sufficient data files under an open source license. What more would you wish of me, other than to stop whining? Donate all my bandwidth to Sourceforge when they open their cloud contributor program?
The distributors of applications should make them available in source and binary form, if they really want people to use them.
My point is that I’m tired of Windows and Apple binaries playing first fiddle to Linux binaries. If you want to talk about how your supposition that the average Linux user should compile his own software while Windows and Mac users should just double-click, then let’s talk about it
it’s not me saying Linux users should have to be able to compile stuff on their own, it’s the lack of Linux users willing to dedicate themselves to make snapshots availlable for their fellow distro user.
As long as no one steps forward no snapshots will be available. As soon as one does you will have them. I wonder myself why there is no such thing. I also wonder about the various distros and how that fragmentation is handled/can be handled. I have no clue about the packaging for linux and how portable a package is for different linux. In my view from the outside in the last ten years it *seems* to me that the varios distros make it harder to provide binaries for linux. Or that everything is centered on ubuntu but what about the other distros? Left in the rain?
In the case of OS X binaries, these exist because I decided to set my system up for sharing (in the case of nuvie it’s because Eric develops nuvie on OS X). That gave Exult users snapshots for OSX for the first time and for XU4 it meant the continuation of snapshosts after a long hiatus, since the original OS X snapshotter didn’t do them anymore. It’s a user driven effort, not a marketing decision.
I’m also developing a game engine with sufficient data files under an open source license. What more would you wish of me, other than to stop whining?
You want snapshots for xu4 for your distro then make and offer them. Isn’t that one of the open source rules? If you want something done, do it!
It’s not that hard, it can all be scripted. In my case a SVN comitt mail triggers the whole process, I’m sure you can set that up in a short time.
The point is, for a project to provide snapshot for particular platform it needs dedicated user or developer of that particular platform to voluntarily build and provide them. If project has no such person, there won’t be snapshot for that platform until such person shows up, period. This applies to all platforms, not just Linux.
You can’t expect any developer to provide snapshots for platform they don’t use.
Given that Linux plays a rather tiny second fiddle to both operating systems in general, why is it surprising — or even wearing — that the same holds true in this context? Dominus and Petrell are correct in noting that the issue is not so much a conscious effort to exclude a platform on the part of the developers as it is a case of people not being willing to step up and take responsibility for turning code commits into compiled RPM or DEB packages.
Which in turn is partly a function of market share as well, if the number of Linux users visiting the SVN repositories for these various projects is anything like the number of Linux users I see at the site here. There’s not a lot of them in the first place, and from among those none has yet come forward to take over the task of ensuring that compiled binaries of all these projects are available. Linux just isn’t…there’s not much “there” there.
None of this is to say that others, including Sanctimonia, don’t contribute mightily to the Ultima community, and it’s not to say that their contributions aren’t valuable. If anything is being said, it’s that for as many good, talented, and nigh-tireless volunteers as the community has keeping it humming along, more are always needed.
I agree with all comments, including the spirit my initial ones, with the exception of WtF’s comment sans the last paragraph. WtF, you can talk about browser OS statistics all day long but it doesn’t change the fact that Linux and GNU-based OS’s are creeping like an unclassified cancer upon the face of modern hardware. Whether for philosophical or practical reasons, it is happening and should be anticipated.
Saying things like, “Linux just isn’t…there’s not much ‘there’ there” is disturbingly offensive to a lot of people, including myself obviously. Apple borrowed heavily from BSD, and Android uses much of the Linux kernel and other OSS despite being otherwise rigidly controlled. The last wall to be toppled is the realm of desktop PC users who click on things for a living being sold hardware with an OSS OS.
If you scoff because it’s used by a minority, or because the “evidence” of its inferiority is manifest by the symptoms you describe, you should consider that almost every modern popular “truth” was once in the minority, whether scientific or religious. The nature of positive change is that those we considered fools for so long turn out, ever so slowly, to have been right all along.
Maybe open source software and Linux is just a byproduct of computer nerds with too much free time and will never amount to anything, but I think it should be given due credit whatever the conventional wisdom may advise.
Anyway, end of rant thank God, but to Dominus: Sorry for being an ass. I hear what you are saying and apologize. I’d like to step up and make some form of Linux binaries available. I definitely need to do some research into package management and such to do so, though. I’m pretty quick on most days but don’t have any experience with getting source code to a .deb or .rpm package that works in most systems without dependency problems. Any advice is appreciated, as always.
We’re working on it 😉
I’ll get back into the swing of things in a month. Just recovered from a crazy federal election.
There is a Fedora build maintainer, and an ubuntu build maintainer I’ve been in contact with — we just gotta get our stuff together.
D. <3