Elite:Dangerous for Linux?

Here's my own ‘me too’ for a potential native Linux version (though I'm pretty confident the Windows version will be decent on WINE/PlayonLinux).

The only downside is it would totally kill my productivity. Right now, having to reboot my desktop machine into Windows is a nuisance, but it separates work and play. I don't need the excuses. :) (Steam and PlayOnLinux haven't helped there, either — *sigh*)


Library versions are practically set in stone at compile time, meaning that you often can't grab a package from one Linux and expect to get it working on a different one. This is even before you get to the platform differences; Linux seems to be identical on Intel 32 bit, Intel 64 bit, Arm or any other hardware platform to which it's been ported. Seems. Isn't.

Let's leave out the non-Intel architectures for now, since there's no way you could get a binary to run on them without emulation. (and I really wouldn't want to emulate Intel machines on ARM)

The library situation is pretty bad, but plenty of binary distributions (like Firefox) deal just fine! They don't statically link*— instead, they include all the libraries (dynamic .so files) along with the distribution. A start-up script changes the library loading order for just that program before starting it, so the first libraries the dynamic linker finds are the bundled ones. This works so well, I could run 32-bit Firefox on my pure 64-bit system years before multi-arch came along.

So nothing insurmountable there.

The only problem you may find is bundling GPL libraries (i.e. not LGPL), which cause trouble for commercial software. But that, too, has been dealt with by others! As you said, Steam is closed-source and non-GPL and still works fine, with sound and graphics.
 
Id say it might be a bad idea to test it in WINE, might end up submitting bad bug reports back home.
Finished game yeah, but for me it has to be a native build please.;)
 
It sounds nice but I doubt there is many players out there running Linux. If and until SteamOS kicks-on I see Macs as the only real route for UNIX/UNIX-like gaming.
 
I got as far as needing to install mono, and gave up. I know my linux box doesn't really have the GPU to make it worth spending too much time on (kind of annoyed at needing to buy an OS just to play this though).
 
I am an early beta pledger and I only have Linux machines in my house. I understood that the game was not guaranteed a Linux port but I pledged anyways because I love the world of Elite so much. For Elite I am fully prepared to run my beta and final release games in Wine or under VirtualBox or even dual-boot if needed (shudder). But if a proper Linux port was ever or will ever be on the agenda I fully support it.
 
virtualbox is probably a waste of time for anything making heavy use of the graphics card. I tried with the godus 'beta' joke release, and was getting low single digit frame rates (albeit with a low spec machine - but I don't think it needs much).
 
Linux

I know that you are pushing Windows and Mac first and I understand that, but I would like to make the developers aware that the largest number of active Elite users at the moment are in the Linux world (specifically on Ubuntu-derivatives).

The original Elite can be found in the package manager under the name Oolite. Go forth and trade commander Jameson!

The post is just there to say we are out there and still playing the old BBC-B version but some of us would happily play the new version too. When the game is finished you could sell the game via Steam (well supported on Ubuntu and Mint) or else directly through the Ubuntu/Mint package manager.
 
Welcome to you Aralk. As to your question about a Linux version of Elite, this has never been ruled out by Frontier Developments. So who knows, it might happen one day. Also we already have a discussion about the possibilities of an version of Elite for Linux, so I will merge your thread with that one. Have fun in the forum. :)
 
Sorry for bumping this old thread, but I finally got my hands on alpha, and tried out running "Elite: Dangerous" under Wine in Linux. Unfortunately my fun was cut short, because EDLauncher is .NET app and it seems Wine still struggles with them. I will continue my digs and workarounds, but so far no big luck. If someone knows tricks how to make dotnet40 install properly under Wine, let me know.

Edit: it seems biggest problem is Net 3.0, which doesn't install on Wine, Net 2.0 and Net 4.0 does. Unfortunately, EDLauncher requires 3.0.
 
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I would like a linux version too I don't have the words to express if there was a linux version :D

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but I finally got my hands on alpha, and tried out running "Elite: Dangerous" under Wine in Linux. Unfortunately my fun was cut short, because EDLauncher is .NET app and it seems Wine still struggles with them. I will continue my digs and workarounds, but so far no big luck. If someone knows tricks how to make dotnet40 install properly under Wine, let me know.

Edit: it seems biggest problem is Net 3.0, which doesn't install on Wine, Net 2.0 and Net 4.0 does. Unfortunately, EDLauncher requires 3.0.

Tried playing with winetricks?
 
Not sure if this short interview with DB re Linux has been posted to this thread already; from the dates it seems unlikely.

http://www.tuxradar.com/content/interview-david-braben-0

Excellent find :). I have just successfully run the release 2 of Shroud of the Avatar on my Slackware system, even though Ubuntu is the only flavour officially supported and I did not need to do anything else other than extract the tarball and run ./demo.x86. Of course this is on a system designed to handle gaming (ie Nvidia 650GTX).

Aim for one system (in most cases it seems to be Ubuntu) and let the end users of other flavours figure it out, usually if it takes a bit more effort someone will offer a handy guide.
 
nice, he does bring up some good points maybe if he had elite dangerous on steam for linux then it would get greater exposure, only reason I have windows is because of games, I hope this will change one day.
 
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