A more recent example of that is Blackberry 10. The way they tried to get developers was to ship an Android runtime so you can run Android apps. They even offered payments of $100 for every app a developer ported.
That just led to the BB appstore getting flooded with low quality Android apps that looked out of place and had terrible performance.
Which is not to say that BB10 would’ve succeeded if it had better apps, but it certainly didn’t help.
But with Proton/Wine it’s different because the games actually run really well, sometimes even better than they do on Windows, and it’s completely transparent to end users (unlike BB10, where Android apps behaved/looked different)
Plus, it doesn’t make a difference to the Linux desktop’s success whether devs write native apps or not. If a new business makes a real effort to develop and sell a Linux desktop product, the only thing that will matter is if customers can adopt it without losing access to the software/workflow they’re familiar with.
If they can pull that off, then competing against Windows shouldn’t be that hard; just don’t have a seething hatred of your own customers, and you’ll have a head start on Microsoft.
The only issue I see with the Proton reliance is the risk that Microsoft will do Microsoft things, and start introducing subtle API changes designed to break Proton/Wine and sabotage the competition. That’s a legitimate concern, but maybe today’s antitrust climate will make them a little hesitant to do that kind of thing? (Probably not)
That just led to the BB appstore getting flooded with low quality Android apps that looked out of place and had terrible performance.
Which is not to say that BB10 would’ve succeeded if it had better apps, but it certainly didn’t help.
But with Proton/Wine it’s different because the games actually run really well, sometimes even better than they do on Windows, and it’s completely transparent to end users (unlike BB10, where Android apps behaved/looked different)
Plus, it doesn’t make a difference to the Linux desktop’s success whether devs write native apps or not. If a new business makes a real effort to develop and sell a Linux desktop product, the only thing that will matter is if customers can adopt it without losing access to the software/workflow they’re familiar with.
If they can pull that off, then competing against Windows shouldn’t be that hard; just don’t have a seething hatred of your own customers, and you’ll have a head start on Microsoft.
The only issue I see with the Proton reliance is the risk that Microsoft will do Microsoft things, and start introducing subtle API changes designed to break Proton/Wine and sabotage the competition. That’s a legitimate concern, but maybe today’s antitrust climate will make them a little hesitant to do that kind of thing? (Probably not)