That's not the important metric. It only tells you the percentage of users, not the percentage of people who play games on Linux (or buy games).

For instance, I have a Steam account. I've got the client installed on my phone and Mac. I don't really play games anymore. I'm sure this counts towards something.

What's meaningful to those who might target a platform is what percentage of those people buy games. It might just be that Linux users are the only ones who play dungeon crawlers, for instance - which could be meaningful information.

Perhaps the EU needs to import more H1-B type talent to develop this new alternative.

We've seen how well it has worked out for us here in the US...[rolls eyes].

Maybe it is due to people who have enough money to have cars worth stealing from.....have moved OUT of the hellhole that CA is rapidly becoming, especially SF.

Less targets means less of that type of crime.

You never seem to want to differentiate between LEGAL and ILLEGAL immigration, like with your citations....I'd believe the number cited for legal migration, but the overwhelming vast majority are sick of the illegals here and happy that Trump for the most part has completely shut off the previously porous southern border.

Census by the founders includes *every person* not just citizens. Disagree with the founding fathers on that one eh? Also there is an easy thing to do with people who are illegal, just make them legal. Reagan knew there isnt a practical alternative and now a new generation will have to learn that.

Nope....I liked Reagan a LOT, but he fucked up really badly on that one thing allowing an amnesty....caused a rush on the border...Hey everyone isn't perfect and he fucked that one.

Fuck legalizing them....send them all back and try to come in the legal way. I'm not against streamlining and reforming our immigration system to legally come here, but even with that we should be choosy about who we let in, only those that will benefit the US and show they will be likely to meld into the melting pot and become US citizens.

We need to set up system around work that will pretty much lock out ANY person here that is not here legally....I hate the thought of a national ID, but if something similar to it had to be in place to root out all the illegals, make it impossible to work and live here, I'd be for it.

And maybe we need to amend the constitution and ONLY count citizens and ONLY allow most things for citizens....let's make it as unattractive and difficult as possible for illegal immigrants.

Three we are going to see a bump in immigration to the US as the Republican's have made immigration enforcement a total disaster...

Disaster?

I hardly think so....they have gotten the PR wrong in many cases, but I and lots of folks appreciate the efforts and accomplishments so far.

The main problem is, we're not rounding up and deporting illegals fast enough in large enough numbers.

But progress is progress and we're already starting to see some change in good numbers.

One nice side effect will be, hopefully, if we can deport enough NON citizens, they won't be counted in the next census and the reapportionment of house seats to more represent actual CITIZENS in states will come about....

Open up more housing to citizens with illegals gone out of places....and take huge fiscal burden off our government services (education, medical, etc)....with them off the roles being a burden.

The value I see in Xbox:

1) Their vendor agreements re: distribution and sales for games.
2) The OEM hardware channel profits/relationship.

Frankly? I see 2 options.

AMD is doing great. They're the only big players in the market I can see that understands how to grow a business instead of simply loot it. Xbox would potentially give AMD a big market leg up in their other product lines (namely, low power CPU/GPU). Xbox itself has always heavily depended on AMD hardware integration to run well. AMD excels at buying things and making them feed their entire pipeline - and that model works extremely well for Xbox.

It would just depend on what kind of deal they could get on the company, and Windows use (if they'd even want it).

Failing that... maybe Valve.They're already trying to turn SteamDeck and SteamOS into something that runs and works on everything. They've got obscene amounts of money. Xbox could be a great already-installed base as well as give them additional studios to make games for their platform. Though this seems less likely than AMD.

Considering how easy it is to port or support a game on Linux or Mac these days with WINE (with vibe coding), even Windows support seems a diminished quality for gaming.

I've personally taken 2 old games and made them playable on MacOS just vibing them. One was Homeworld, and the other was an indie game (the name of which I can't remember, but it was in the theme of Thief).

There was a time not that distant from now when Microsoft was getting a significant percentage of their revenue from gaming. This seems like they're slaughtering their sacred cow.

I can't see much upside for Microsoft in the future. They're basically moving cloud-only for most products, except for Windows itself. I understand how that works on the books, but I don't see how well that works for their customers. They're shrinking their market substantially to cater to larger and larger enterprises.

(THeir GPU investments have largely been a loss leader for their other cloud services... "data has inertia" or however that saying goes: storage, compute, and network activity on their cloud which wouldn't have gotten used if not for people moving data to the cloud to process it, subsidizes the discounted GPUs. All the cloud providers are doing this.)

Yeah, but why not? You're clearly not doing anything with the property. Might as well let someone get good use out of it.

Microsoft seems intent on destroying every one of their valuable properties with enshitification, trying to pull the last dollar out of existing products instead of innovating or providing anything for their customers.

As for Xbox being a loss leader... what are they smoking? The boxes themselves have been for a long time, that's just game industry economics. They've already divested from that, pushing the hardware cost onto manufacturers, which is sure to make the platform price go up. But the software side of that business? It's always been incredibly lucrative.

What have MS done, lately? The only things that come to mind are increased "vertical integration", pushing their customers to the cloud while at the same time increasing the licensing costs and decreasing the quality and usability of all of their self-hosted products. Managing Windows has become increasingly difficult, and once useful tools don't even work. The tools that do work, Powershell, usually don't even work, with constant drift across products as to what works and what doesn't.

There are further cultural observations to make specifically related to Xbox, but I'm sure that would get some people in a tizzy.

You can suggest that, but you are saying "give up your close ties to family/friends/social life", and "move further from your job, or find a new one". Obviously if they really want kids they will make it work, but it's the ones who would like them but are not willing to give up so much of their lives, and limit themselves to one or zero.

Im saying exactly that....if need be, you MOVE to where life is better in general.

Grow up, be an adult make adult decisions.

When exactly did people start being such pussies and afraid to move out on their own...? This wasn't so unusual only a few decades back.

Hell in pioneer days....married couples would load up the wagon and head west often to never see family again.....

That's a bit extreme but is shows mankind often moves to where it is best to live.....when did people get so afraid to leave mommy and daddy? Can people not make friends in new places?

People act like it's a big deal.

Ever since I went out of state to college...I've almost never lived back in my home city or state....it's been great and no downside whatsoever....

I don't see what the big fucking problem ius with kids today.

I have a VERY tight loving family I grew up with, parents, cousins....I still have lifelong friends there and along the way in all states I've lived in.

Moving doesn't mean the end of relationships, just changes....

From observation and what I read...it seems that largely, at least in the US....it is liberal women/couples choosing to NOT have kids the most and birth rates amoung conservatives are rising in some cases....

Good deal that means over time...the liberals will self select themselves out of society....win win.

Really though, children are a huge commitment that, when done properly, requires you basically remake your life around what is best for a stable family unit for the next 20 years and really, once you have a kid, you'll always be a parent.

Err....well, that's been the common, well known NORMAL way of humans since the beginning till about...well, maybe 10-15 years ago when people went off the rails and norms went down the drain?

I mean, no one questioned this at all in all of humanity till just recently......

I think more than anything this is due to toxic feminism which has been fermenting to a head in recent years.....woman are going against what nature tells them and we have society backing that up.

But I get surprised to hear people today stating what you just did sounding like it is a foreign concept someone is newly trying to push on society?

it's hard to say if the Republicans will continue to lean into anti-immigration as hard as Trump did.

God I hope so.....we still have a LONG way to go to get rid of all the illegals that are currently here and need to go....

It's going to need a bit more than cheaper baby supplies. For example, a lot of people can't afford to buy a family sized home.

Suggestion to them...MOVE out of the fucking urban city areas....don't live in NYC....

The US is HUGE and there are tons of places with great jobs, MUCH lower costs of living and your housing dollar goes much further.....less crime, better education, etc.

There is plenty of good housing in you're willing to move out of the areas where it sucks.

Oh when I had an apartment there was no extra room to give someone. And 2 bed where I live now is $3700/month, which is more than my remaining mortgage.

GFC...where the fuck do you live where a 2 bedroom apt is $3700/mo?

I rent a 3 bedroom HOUSE for faaar less than that a month....