If all other executives would earn as much as the guys from Wikipedia, the world would be a better place.
However, the comment I replied to made a pretty universal claim about rulers.
Yeah, universal statements tend to lack nuance.
But especially with the right-wing parties I see quite a bit of malice for the point of personal gain.
And at least in Austria, Germany and the UK the conservatives are so deep into working for personal gain, that they completely forget what would benefit the country and the people.
(I don't have enough deep enough insight into the governments of other countries in Europe to say anything about that, but from what I read, Hungary and Italy are not better off)
Is there a reason why you ask this here and not just ask the staff at the shop?
Stuff like that can differ from shop to shop. So better ask the person who knows the answer.
I do see what you mean, but I do have to disagree on that point.
Someone involved in illegal bird killing or other acts of environmental destruction (oil, gas, producing garbage, ...) most surely knows what the effects of their actions are, but their want for personal gain is bigger.
And the moral difference between doing something terrible out of mallice or greed is very small, if it even exists.
Slavery isn't better when it's done just for the money.
There's a difference though.
If the game doesn't work for (some or all) Linux users, that's not a big problem from Epic's POV. They'll lose a couple users that wouldn't have been able to play the game without Linux support anyway.
But if the Anticheat faills on Linux, that is a completely different story. Then cheaters would all dual boot over to Linux to cheat all they want. That's now a problem for the whole game's user base and consequently for the publisher as well.
Something as low-level as an Anticheat would have to be rewritten almost from scratch to work on Linux and this one really needs to be tested with every possible permutation of installed relevant software. Because if one combination is found where it doesn't work, you can be sure that the day after every cheater will be running this config.
(Just to check, do you have a background in game development and/or low-level Windows/Linux programming? I got all of that and I can tell you, nothing that looks easy from the outside is actually easy. I think you are vastly underestimating how much work goes into something until it "just works as expected")
Companies just because they have money doesn't mean they know what they are doing. And sometimes even less than random people.
Well, if half a million people are guessing on a choice of two options, some are going to get it right. But that's not due to the insight of the people, but due to numbers.
Every time someone makes the business argument all I can think of Microsoft flopping with Windows Phone despite all their money. Google failing with Stadia and losing opportunity they had with hangouts to imessage. LG bowing out of smartphones. Blackberry and Nokia too late to enter smartphones despite prior dominance. Epic was so late into trying their hand at digital distribution until 2018 when doing it earlier over the past decade would have made entry easier.
These examples really don't apply here.
- Windows Phone, Blackberry and Nokia were caught up in a massive market change where they where too little and too late.
- Stadia was a purpously risky gamble to be first at a potential "next big thing" and was scrapped when the global economy crumbled and cloud gaming showed no signs of wide spread adoption. If anything, this is the opposite situation than Epic and Linux.
- Hangouts was renamed and merged with other Google chat apps, but in the end they now have messages, which is the messenger with the highest install count worldwide.
- EGS is still a comparably new thing, considering that Steam is in the market since ~20 years while the EGS is here only ~5 years. They are growing steadily, so this is not an example that we can look at in retrospect, because it's still unfolding. Also, sure it would have been great if they would have had to run a game distribution platform in 2003, but their money shower didn't start until Fortnite exploded in 2017. And they pretty much immediately got into the business when they had the money to.
Also, there are some other factors in play that you didn't consider.
Smartphones exploded between 2007 and 2010. It went from nothing to almost everything in just a few years, and those who got lucky and where ready at the right time managed to take the new market. Windows Mobile proves that it's not enough to be super early. You need the right timing in both directions.
There is no indication that Linux will have >50% market share among gamers within the next 3 years. Yes, it nudged Linux over the 3% mark but at that rate it's going to take a long while. Also, contrary to smartphones vs feature phones, the steam deck is an additional gaming PC for on the go. It doesn't replace desktop gaming.
Also, when it comes to mobile gaming, the Steam Deck is a distant fourth between Android, iOS and the Switch.
And even if you limit the scope to x86 mobile gaming, they are by far not the only competitor. There are lots of others, many of them using Windows, who do the same.
And the biggest edge the Steam Deck is it's value, because Steam subsidizes the Deck with their Store sales. Most people don't care whether it runs Linux or not.
Did you read the second line of my post?
The code changes aren't the issue.
Es braucht viel mehr Armin Wolfs im gesamten deutschsprachigen Raum. Und vielleicht auch weltweit.