[abdulmuhaimin]

theres MacOS. Thats the real immediate threat of Windows 11.

And honestly with recent development of Apple's hardware, and gaming on Linux, Microsoft should be worried. Windows 11 feels like Microsoft make a step forward and 2 steps backward

[pjmlp]

In many countries there isn't, at least not at the same 300 euro price range many families manage to get by.

Since Windows XP that we are going to have everyone switch in droves to Linux, because Microsoft did X.

What gaming, running Windows games on Wine and Proton, because studios can't still be bothered to this day, even when they are already using POSIX like (PS/Switch/iOS) or Linux based OSes (Android/Stadia) ?

[w4rh4wk5]

Regarding gaming: in fact a lot of the big studios don't really care about PC as a platform in general, not specifically about Windows. See Elden Ring for example, it has a PC 'port' that is about the bare minimum you can get by nowadays (locked at 60, no ultrawide support, performance issues on non-high-end systems etc.). And that for a AAA title.

One would think that a modern game engine takes care of all the issues, allowing a studio to port their game from console to PC with the click of button. But reality has shown that this is not the case.

While modern consoles and cloud service (like Google Stadia) may use POSIX like OSes under the hood, you'd still be using a proprietary API to interface with the platform. Porting a game from PlayStation or Nintendo Switch to Linux is not easier than porting it over from Windows.

I've worked on a Google Stadia port in the past and are currently working a Nintendo Switch port, along with a PC port. If I had to port to native Linux, without Wine/Proton and DXVK, I'd take the PC version as basis.

[pjmlp]

Right, because consoles provide a known target, and there is more to do a port than clicking on export button.

Middleware hasn't killed the porting business exactly because of that.