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Despite having just 5.8% sales, over 38% of bug reports come from Linux

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Re: Despite having just 5.8% sales, over 38% of bug reports come from Linux

#21

Post by cs702 »

Notably, of those bug reports, fewer than 1% (only 3 bugs) were specific to the Linux version of the game. That is, over 99% of the bugs reported by Linux gamers also affected players in other platforms. Moreover (quoting from the OP):

> The report quality [from Linux users] is stellar. I mean we have all seen bug reports like: “it crashes for me after a few hours”. Do you know what a developer can do with such a report? Feel sorry at best. You can’t really fix any bug unless you can replicate it, see it with your own eyes, peek inside and finally see that it’s fixed. And with bug reports from Linux players is just something else. You get all the software/os versions, all the logs, you get core dumps and you get replication steps. Sometimes I got with the player over discord and we quickly iterated a few versions with progressive fixes to isolate the problem. You just don’t get that kind of engagement from anyone else.

Re: Despite having just 5.8% sales, over 38% of bug reports come from Linux

#23

Post by noisy_boy »

> the thing is, the Linux community is exceptionally well trained in reporting bugs

I don't have any stats to back up my claim but I believe a good chunk of those Linux users are tech folks - well, we submit bugs all day long at work, of course we are trained to do so!

Re: Despite having just 5.8% sales, over 38% of bug reports come from Linux

#25

Post by elliekelly »

cs702 wrote: post #21

Notably, of those bug reports, fewer than 1% (only 3 bugs) were specific to the Linux version of the game. That is, over 99% of the bugs reported by Linux gamers also affected players in other platforms. Moreover (quoting from the OP): > The report quality [from Linux users] is stellar. I mean we have all seen bug reports like: “it crashes for me after a few hours”. Do you know what a developer can do with such a rep…

Are there any good articles on writing helpful bug reports? Whenever I submit a bug I try to give as much detail and be as specific as possible but I always imagine some dev somewhere reading it rolling their eyes at the unnecessary paragraphs I’ve submitted.

Re: Despite having just 5.8% sales, over 38% of bug reports come from Linux

#26

Post by tyingq »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #19
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #6

Glad to see that it was a positive view of the Linux bug reporters, rather than "Bah, I spend all my time fixing packaging issues from entitled Linux users who scream at me that the game doesn't work with their obscure, home-spun distro."

In a similar vein, I think the biggest value-add that Arch has over other distros is that it turns out having the filter of "can follow well written instructions through mildly tricky commands well enough to result in a bootable system" results in a community with a base level of competence, care, and patience that puts it at least two standard deviations above the other distros and at least four (I know how small th…

WSL is somewhat similar in that installing it was harder than installing most other things on Windows. They've made it easier in Windows 11, and will probably continue that direction. I wonder if MS knows where that leads for them.

Re: Despite having just 5.8% sales, over 38% of bug reports come from Linux

#27

Post by ajsnigrutin »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #6

Glad to see that it was a positive view of the Linux bug reporters, rather than "Bah, I spend all my time fixing packaging issues from entitled Linux users who scream at me that the game doesn't work with their obscure, home-spun distro."

TBH, as a non-ubuntu (gentoo) user, i'm pretty sure, that all the packaging isues (for non-gentoo packages) are something that I, personally have to deal with, and not bother the original developer with.

Re: Despite having just 5.8% sales, over 38% of bug reports come from Linux

#28

Post by programmarchy »

cs702 wrote: post #21

Notably, of those bug reports, fewer than 1% (only 3 bugs) were specific to the Linux version of the game. That is, over 99% of the bugs reported by Linux gamers also affected players in other platforms. Moreover (quoting from the OP): > The report quality [from Linux users] is stellar. I mean we have all seen bug reports like: “it crashes for me after a few hours”. Do you know what a developer can do with such a rep…

Yep, it’s a great point to raise in support of releasing software for Linux. Adept users who can produce high quality bug reports and help solve bugs across all platforms provide a lot of value, perhaps enough to justify “only” a ~5% market share.

Re: Despite having just 5.8% sales, over 38% of bug reports come from Linux

#30

Post by ArloL »

elliekelly wrote: post #25
cs702 wrote: post #21

Notably, of those bug reports, fewer than 1% (only 3 bugs) were specific to the Linux version of the game. That is, over 99% of the bugs reported by Linux gamers also affected players in other platforms. Moreover (quoting from the OP): > The report quality [from Linux users] is stellar. I mean we have all seen bug reports like: “it crashes for me after a few hours”. Do you know what a developer can do with such a rep…

Are there any good articles on writing helpful bug reports? Whenever I submit a bug I try to give as much detail and be as specific as possible but I always imagine some dev somewhere reading it rolling their eyes at the unnecessary paragraphs I’ve submitted.

I can recommend https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html
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