Hi Dark, Ah....I see where you are getting your information, and see why you think as you do, but you are jumping to a few false conclusions on how games and other Linux software is redistributed.
First, unlike Microsoft there is no single developer or company who creates the Linux OS. As a result there are many different brands and developers of the Linux OS, and they all have differences that make them unique and somewhat incompatible with each other. For example, Ubuntu setup files use the deb package format and Fedora uses the rpm package format. Its possible but not highly recommended to try and install a software package in rpm on a deb system nor a deb package on an rpm based system etc. Therefore each distribution makes custom builds and setup packages for games and other software. So to take Rocks and Diamonds, for instance, you would not download the game from the Rocks and Diamonds website directly. Instead you would go to the Ubuntu software repository and see if there is a setup file for Ubuntu there. If so you could go to Ubuntu Software Center, select Rocks and Diamonds from the list of games, and software center would download and install the game plus any dependencies such as SDL that are required. Fedora Linux, Arch Linux, Debian Linux, you name it all would have their own way of downloading and installing the game directly from their own software repositories. Does this make sense? So to clarify my point is that most software is not downloaded and installed from the original developer directly. Instead your distribution such as Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, whoever gets the source code from the developer, compiles it, creates a setup file for it for their distribution/brand of Linux, and puts it in their own repository to download and install. this is a service they do so you don't have to worry about all the manual instructions of compiling and setting up the game by hand. Linux developers are well aware most people don't have the technical skills to do that on their own, and you just have to know where to get all the games and software for your Linux platform already packaged and ready to install. So to answer your question "why are directions for Linux so complicated" its because the developer makes the assumption you use Linux and know about software repositories and such. They give you generic instructions to compile and install the software in case your Linux distribution A, doesn't have an available version for download, or B, you are a developer planning on creating such a package for redistribution. Since I suspect you didn't know about global software repositories where setup files etc are stored it is easy to be mislead or given to false assumptions that all software has to be compiled and installed according to those directions on the Rocks and Diamonds website. Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
