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Hello,

My name is Arend Stührmann, also known as CCP Whisper, and I am the producer in charge of the project bringing EVE Online to the Mac and Linux operating systems. As you may know, we have been working in partnership with Transgaming Technologies, utilizing their Cider engine to allow EVE Online to run on the Mac OS and their Cedega engine to enable operation under Linux. This project went live in late 2007 and in that time we have seen the same slow, steady growth in the numbers of users of the Mac client that has characterized the growth of EVE Online throughout its history. However we have not seen a similar growth in the numbers using our Linux client.

It is for this reason that I am sorry to have to announce that from the 10th of March onwards CCP will no longer be officially supporting the Linux operating system. The low amount of users of the Linux client did not justify the degree of additional complexity having three operating systems imposes on our development and release schedules. There is the matter of maintaining the hardware infrastructure to facilitate the development work, spending man-hours on testing and diagnosing faults in the client as well as regression testing. While we did embark on this project with the aim of being one of the few MMOG’s on the market offering a game client for all of the major operating system architectures, we feel that the time and resources that were being spent on the Linux client would be better utilized in areas where more players would benefit from them.

I would like to thank you for your past support of our efforts to bring EVE to the Linux OS. The feedback and commitment we obtained from players like you helped both CCP and Transgaming with our attempts to improve on the quality and stability of the client. Many of us in CCP use Linux and are convinced of its merits as an operating system.

Should you wish to continue playing EVE Online under Linux there are several options available. Some of these are free and some require purchase of software. A selection of these is at the bottom of this e-mail along with basic instructions on how to use EVE Online through them. If you wish to stop playing EVE Online and want to request a refund of unused game time, please contact our billing department by filing a petition in the billing category. They will assist you in obtaining a refund for the remaining game time and closing your account.

Again, thank-you for your support,

Arend Stührmann

Associate Producer

EVE Online

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With the dropping of classic client and now linux, i would not be supprised if mac support tied to a tree and bashed with a shovel soon too.

Just not enough players using them to keep support better used in other areas i guess.

Well that stinks. I used both the Windows and the Linux client.(You couldn't pay me enough to use a Mac, sorry). Shame.

One thing that really annoyed me with the Linux client was the inability to minimize the game. I probably would have used it more if it wasn't for that issue.

Ah well, here's to more people working on the game instead of a limitedly used client

the thing is only players that  run linux got that mail (ppl who use wine dont afaik) and lately CCP is trying to get any penny and dont spend to much, i bet was a decision taked by a man that look at numbers and dont care about ppl etc 

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Originally posted by mmo4life
With the dropping of classic client and now linux, i would not be supprised if mac support tied to a tree and bashed with a shovel soon too.
Just not enough players using them to keep support better used in other areas i guess.

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well there are 3 people in my corp that i know of out of about 80 that use the Mac client (i being one of them). I know that's not alot, but it's about 2.4% of the corp... the Mac is what, 8-10% of market share, somewhere around there. So i mean yes it's a low number, but still, there are people using it, when we are a small corp. So i don't think they will drop support Soon, but I won't put it out of CCPs reach on doing so either.

Originally posted by czedlitz

 

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Originally posted by mmo4life
With the dropping of classic client and now linux, i would not be supprised if mac support tied to a tree and bashed with a shovel soon too.
Just not enough players using them to keep support better used in other areas i guess.

---

 

well there are 3 people in my corp that i know of out of about 80 that use the Mac client (i being one of them). I know that's not alot, but it's about 2.4% of the corp... the Mac is what, 8-10% of market share, somewhere around there. So i mean yes it's a low number, but still, there are people using it, when we are a small corp. So i don't think they will drop support Soon, but I won't put it out of CCPs reach on doing so either.

I think Mac will last until the Dec change to SM3, thats when the other shoe drops and Eve fall back completely to 1 single client.

Its funny but it all started when they dropped Win98 support a couple years ago, now my classic client, SM1, windows 2000, Linux.... and very soon Mac and SM2 support.

Eve is Deed...Long Live EVE !!!

Well, I had to unsubscribe.

EVE is great and all, but I was most enthusiastic about their choice to support as many OSs as possible.

Probably annoying for them, but it plays into the very circle of: People don't code for software in Linux because people don't use Linux because there isn't any software.

I couldn't find any specific references to what's running on their servers, but it'd be a shame if they were using open source and not supporting it ... but WINE users can be lumped into the same boat.

And chances are, with the economic conditions, that those developers aren't going to move over to windows development.  How would you explain to a bean counter that  you need 30 people (random#) to do the work that 20 (random#) people have been doing successfully for the past 6 years ... sounds like a pink slip to me ... and everybody involved loses.

Originally posted by whpsh

Well, I had to unsubscribe.

EVE is great and all, but I was most enthusiastic about their choice to support as many OSs as possible.

Probably annoying for them, but it plays into the very circle of: People don't code for software in Linux because people don't use Linux because there isn't any software.

I couldn't find any specific references to what's running on their servers, but it'd be a shame if they were using open source and not supporting it ... but WINE users can be lumped into the same boat.

And chances are, with the economic conditions, that those developers aren't going to move over to windows development.  How would you explain to a bean counter that  you need 30 people (random#) to do the work that 20 (random#) people have been doing successfully for the past 6 years ... sounds like a pink slip to me ... and everybody involved loses.

CCP uses microsoft software on the server side and their hardware is from ibm. About the only open source that they use is the python stuff.

Honestly the WINE client is used most because it works better than the official client, even allowing people to run the premium client.

The main cause for most developers not releasing on Linux is because they develop with directx, they develop with directx because the opengl api is shit to work with. I'm at an extremely pro-linux/open source school and guess what they use for thier game design/3d programming courses....yup directx.

Originally posted by Minsc

Originally posted by whpsh

Well, I had to unsubscribe.

EVE is great and all, but I was most enthusiastic about their choice to support as many OSs as possible.

Probably annoying for them, but it plays into the very circle of: People don't code for software in Linux because people don't use Linux because there isn't any software.

I couldn't find any specific references to what's running on their servers, but it'd be a shame if they were using open source and not supporting it ... but WINE users can be lumped into the same boat.

And chances are, with the economic conditions, that those developers aren't going to move over to windows development.  How would you explain to a bean counter that  you need 30 people (random#) to do the work that 20 (random#) people have been doing successfully for the past 6 years ... sounds like a pink slip to me ... and everybody involved loses.

 

CCP uses microsoft software on the server side and their hardware is from ibm. About the only open source that they use is the python stuff.

Honestly the WINE client is used most because it works better than the official client, even allowing people to run the premium client.

The main cause for most developers not releasing on Linux is because they develop with directx, they develop with directx because the opengl api is shit to work with. I'm at an extremely pro-linux/open source school and guess what they use for thier game design/3d programming courses....yup directx.

I appreciate you proving my point.

I think OpenGL is better, but is just me. Is true that most game devs seems to love DX. No idea why. DX don't make sense to me, at all.

Originally posted by whpsh

Originally posted by Minsc

Originally posted by whpsh

Well, I had to unsubscribe.

EVE is great and all, but I was most enthusiastic about their choice to support as many OSs as possible.

Probably annoying for them, but it plays into the very circle of: People don't code for software in Linux because people don't use Linux because there isn't any software.

I couldn't find any specific references to what's running on their servers, but it'd be a shame if they were using open source and not supporting it ... but WINE users can be lumped into the same boat.

And chances are, with the economic conditions, that those developers aren't going to move over to windows development.  How would you explain to a bean counter that  you need 30 people (random#) to do the work that 20 (random#) people have been doing successfully for the past 6 years ... sounds like a pink slip to me ... and everybody involved loses.

 

CCP uses microsoft software on the server side and their hardware is from ibm. About the only open source that they use is the python stuff.

Honestly the WINE client is used most because it works better than the official client, even allowing people to run the premium client.

The main cause for most developers not releasing on Linux is because they develop with directx, they develop with directx because the opengl api is shit to work with. I'm at an extremely pro-linux/open source school and guess what they use for thier game design/3d programming courses....yup directx.

 

I appreciate you proving my point.

Proving what point? That Linux has terrible development tools?

Originally posted by Teiman

I think OpenGL is better, but is just me. Is true that most game devs seems to love DX. No idea why. DX don't make sense to me, at all.

who make games=  business

time=money
so is normal to use dx because you save allot of work that means less coders and you save money

simple like that

Why is this news at all? People 're making it sound like Linux is a viable OS for a major MMO. Its not. There's just too much crap going on to support a fringe OS with limited development resources. It doesn't even need to be said.

Originally posted by Kexin

Why is this news at all? People 're making it sound like Linux is a viable OS for a major MMO. Its not. There's just too much crap going on to support a fringe OS with limited development resources. It doesn't even need to be said.

Linux is an extremely viable OS. It's not as user friendly as windows, but I can get the darn thing to do what I need it to do alot better than Vista or XP in a 64 bit enviroment.

The fact that OpenGL has too many drawbacks makes game developers less likely to use it STINKS!! That doesn't mean you can't use wine. Hell I play WoW in OpenGL and I don't get the craptastic FPS I get when using my Vista client.

Don't bash Linux. It's actually one of the most flexible platforms I've ever used. It takes a while to get used to it. Some distros are easier to learn than others, but saying it's not viable is rediculous!

Originally posted by Minsc

Originally posted by whpsh

Originally posted by Minsc

Originally posted by whpsh

Well, I had to unsubscribe.

EVE is great and all, but I was most enthusiastic about their choice to support as many OSs as possible.

Probably annoying for them, but it plays into the very circle of: People don't code for software in Linux because people don't use Linux because there isn't any software.

I couldn't find any specific references to what's running on their servers, but it'd be a shame if they were using open source and not supporting it ... but WINE users can be lumped into the same boat.

And chances are, with the economic conditions, that those developers aren't going to move over to windows development.  How would you explain to a bean counter that  you need 30 people (random#) to do the work that 20 (random#) people have been doing successfully for the past 6 years ... sounds like a pink slip to me ... and everybody involved loses.

 

CCP uses microsoft software on the server side and their hardware is from ibm. About the only open source that they use is the python stuff.

Honestly the WINE client is used most because it works better than the official client, even allowing people to run the premium client.

The main cause for most developers not releasing on Linux is because they develop with directx, they develop with directx because the opengl api is shit to work with. I'm at an extremely pro-linux/open source school and guess what they use for thier game design/3d programming courses....yup directx.

 

I appreciate you proving my point.

 

Proving what point? That Linux has terrible development tools?

Wow ... didn't you say you were going to school?

I guess I'll have to explain.

DirectX is an MS product. MS only supports MS products. If you want your game to run on Windows, you have to use DirectX. So why bother making tools for OpenGL if you HAVE to use DX? Why try and improve on it? The results are ever aging tools for ever poorer results.

But from what I understand, they both make calls to different functions to create 3D images. Were I a conspiracy nut, I'd point out that optimization of the DirectX functions while not improving (or worse, sabotaging) the OpenGL calls, would give the illusion that DirectX was better than OpenGL. It's a good thing we all know that MS wouldn't do anything dirty like that.

And if your school is so pro-linux, why aren't they teaching you how to make better tools for the open source environment? It's because they really aren't. It's just better business for the school. Who would want a degree from a school that didn't teach DirectX when you HAVE to use DirectX.

Ever wonder why the student edition of MS products are always like $10? It isn't because they feel the need to improve on education. It's to minimize the desire to look for other solutions.

The first rule of tyranny is to create ignorance so the people don't know they're being oppressed.