BLUG Future Topis (Was: [lug] How did the Install/Info Fest turn out?)

[Glenn Ashton]

Of course you have a right to disagree, and I will go as far to agree that
productivity tools are great things to have presentations on.

However, for Linux to move into the mainstream and onto desktops,
particularly in the context of college and universities, gaming is one
area where Linux is going to have to put up or shut up to win acceptance.

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that PC gaming represents a bigger market
than all of the IDE software sold to private individuals.  Once people see
that they can do the things that they like to do with a computer, Linux
will become more real to them.

I know a whole bunch of coders, DBA's, and network engineers who fell in
love with computers in general because of computer games.

Of course, there is room for everything in the open source world.  We have
had presentations on various productivity kinds of tools, and will I
imagine in the future as well.  My suggestion was simply that games are a
gateway for people into a wider world, and that if we want Linux to be
widely adopted, and even loved, that overlooking this aspect in favor of
sheer pragmatism would be shortsighted.

-Glenn Ashton

On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Michael Deck wrote:

> I may be all alone out here, but I'm going to disagree with this statement. 
> I have no interest in games whatsoever: I spend more than 8 hours in front 
> of this doggone tube and when I'm not working I want to be as far from it 
> as possible. My heart and mind would be more quickly won with a focus on 
> productivity and reliability tools.