Markets for GNU/Linux While IBM reveals its first all GNU/Linux mainframe, Loki, the GNU/Linux game company, has shut its doors. It's not surprising to see why. IBM's old mainframe OS, z/OS, was just something they had to produce to sell their big iron. Since they now can get out of the mainframe OS business, they should, just as Apple has exited the kernal business. Total cost of ownership for their machines goes down, R&D costs for the OS go down, and everyone is happy.

In contrast, Loki was trying to sell into a market that doesn't really exist. It's a trivial observation: most people use Windows, and even those who use GNU/Linux can probably dual-boot to Windows also. So why write games for any platform other than Windows? Loki did it for love, but still thinks it could do it for money.