PMDG DC-6 Release info

[brucek 38]

Can't wait to try this bird and show PMDG support which may result in more of their a/c for XP.

 

Bruce

[VeryBumpy 272]

Glad the X-plane players are getting some love.

 

I anxiously await the FSX version, however. Hope it's not too far behind.

[Slayer 190]

Day 1 purchase for me.

 

Even if it was a P3D /FSX release at the same time I would still go for the XP version with the additional functionality.

 

I just like the way props feel in XP more than FSX/P3D but that's pretty subjective as I don't fly for real.

[signmanbob 592]

June 1st!! That's great!....and for X-Plane...That's perfect!!

Life is good!

[blueairone70 3]

I have x-place on my computer ,but never use it. But with this plane I will now try to learn how to use x-plane the reason I don't like how setup control & view but noti will have a reason to try x-plane

 

Hervy L Galloway

[ohsirus 241]

 I don't like how setup control & view 

 

That's great you'll give it a try and I assume others may also, the setup & view are the most common gripes from people who are used to MSFS, but trust me it's just as simple.

[Patco Lch 1,465]

Oh the sweet child hood memories of the DC-6 riding to Nicaragua on Lanica as well as other trips to Latin America on Braniff. Would it not be way cool if airport devs would start making some 50s vintage airports to go with her? Like maybe ATL, MIA or Idelwild the way they were back then.

[WR269 367]

Product page now updated

 

 

http://www.precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/XP/dc6.html

[kellpossible1 2]

Just like IXEG no linux support? what a bummer if that's the case.  another one to add to the list. Guess it goes to show just how much more enjoyable the experience is that we persist in using the os even though some designers aren't supporting it...

[tf51d 284]

Frooglesim has just posted a new video on the DC-6, He calls it, "Your First Impressions"

 

[sizziano 172]

Just like IXEG no linux support? what a bummer if that's the case.  another one to add to the list. Guess it goes to show just how much more enjoyable the experience is that we persist in using the os even though some designers aren't supporting it...

 

The Linux market is minuscule. Why you or anyone else is surprised when it isn't supported is beyond me.

[CyberMike 18]

Because the difference to Mac is even more minuscule.

[alpha12125 213]

Because the difference to Mac is even more minuscule.

Support is still an issue though. 

 

From the Data provided by Laminar the current usage of linux is 3%. Just taking these numbers  and guesstimating that PMDG will sell 5000 copies of the DC-6, that is 150 copies sold to linux users.  At a guessed price of 70$ that makes 10500$ revenue. Making the assumption that this money could be entirely spent on simply making the port and the average company hour is around 40$ you come to 260 hours.

 

So for that money you have 6 weeks time to develop, beta test, troubleshoot all strange borderline cases and fix them and on top of that provide lifetime support for the product.  Plus you never make any profit because you used all the money for costs.

 

Just for reference using the same numbers for mac they will sell 1500 of those copies on mac.

 

There is no ulteriour motive behind this. Linux is irrelevant from a flightsim perspective, if x-plane continues to grow and the linux% stays the same than maybe one day people will find it viable. But as far as making money goes and supporting families, the decision will be the same for the big companies.

[kellpossible1 2]

The Linux market is minuscule. Why you or anyone else is surprised when it isn't supported is beyond me.

 

Not overly surprised, just disappointed.  Most major game engines support all three platforms, so a large percentage of games coming out also support this platform.

 

 

 

 

Support is still an issue though. 

 

From the Data provided by Laminar the current usage of linux is 3%. Just taking these numbers  and guesstimating that PMDG will sell 5000 copies of the DC-6, that is 150 copies sold to linux users.  At a guessed price of 70$ that makes 10500$ revenue. Making the assumption that this money could be entirely spent on simply making the port and the average company hour is around 40$ you come to 260 hours.

 

So for that money you have 6 weeks time to develop, beta test, troubleshoot all strange borderline cases and fix them and on top of that provide lifetime support for the product.  Plus you never make any profit because you used all the money for costs.

 

Just for reference using the same numbers for mac they will sell 1500 of those copies on mac.

 

There is no ulteriour motive behind this. Linux is irrelevant from a flightsim perspective, if x-plane continues to grow and the linux% stays the same than maybe one day people will find it viable. But as far as making money goes and supporting families, the decision will be the same for the big companies.

 

Define ulterior motive? I'm sure it's a mix of reasons. If it were purely money to choose to support or not support a platform, why are so many big companies making the "mistake" of supporting this platform? One motive, which I'm sure is one that drives a number of developers, including myself, is that linux is a much more friendly platform to developers themselves, I love the software development environment on linux and struggle to go back to windows for this reason. I have a sneaking suspicion this is why x-plane originally supported the platform. There are other motives too, of which I'm sure the likes of Valve, Unity, Unreal, Crytek etc are well aware of.

 

As for support numbers, this is hard to quantify, do you have/know any data which suggests that the support costs of an additional unix platform (on top of supporting mac osx) are as large as you make them out to be? I'd be interested just as an aside to this whole thing.

 

Anyway, didn't want to hijack this thread, just wanted to leave the comment that there's an x-plane user here who thinks this looks fantastic and would like to buy this product but won't/can't for this reason. that is all.

 

Edit:

Also looking forward to this product having raised the bar for all the other developers, and seeing what's to come.

[alpha12125 213]

Not overly surprised, just disappointed.  Most major game engines support all three platforms, so a large percentage of games coming out also support this platform.

 

 

 

 

 

Define ulterior motive? I'm sure it's a mix of reasons. If it were purely money to choose to support or not support a platform, why are so many big companies making the "mistake" of supporting this platform? One motive, which I'm sure is one that drives a number of developers, including myself, is that linux is a much more friendly platform to developers themselves, I love the software development environment on linux and struggle to go back to windows for this reason. I have a sneaking suspicion this is why x-plane originally supported the platform. There are other motives too, of which I'm sure the likes of Valve, Unity, Unreal, Crytek etc are well aware of.

 

As for support numbers, this is hard to quantify, do you have/know any data which suggests that the support costs of an additional unix platform (on top of supporting mac osx) are as large as you make them out to be? I'd be interested just as an aside to this whole thing.

 

Anyway, didn't want to hijack this thread, just wanted to leave the comment that there's an x-plane user here who thinks this looks fantastic and would like to buy this product but won't/can't for this reason. that is all.

 

Edit:

Also looking forward to this product having raised the bar for all the other developers, and seeing what's to come.

 

 

Well it was more a jab at the "you dont support this because you dont like open source and are a corporate monkey" tone that often gets spread around why linux is not more successfull and other borderline tinfoil hat theories.

 

Which large flightsim companies support linux ? Don't forget i am talking about flightsim here alone. X-Plane has linux support because one of the developers is an avid linux supporter and it is him that keeps x-plane on linux. Austin is a Mac guy, he doesnt care about Linux and i am pretty sure that if it wasnt for the one person running the show he would drop linux support.

 

Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against linux, I use debian on my webserver. I am just a realist. People do things to make profit, or at least see a sense in it. Linux is increadibly stable and modifyable and cheap. thats why it gets used in the webserver environment.  Valve sees the future because they have an operating system at no cost that they can distribute their steam machines with that will fight playstations and x-box in the future. Unreal and Crytek bank on the future of steam machine and the proliferation of steam boxes. Ironically those steam distributions, that are very heavily controlled and dont allow the freedom of standard distros, will probably be the cataclyst that makes linux viable in the gaming market. Making Linux more like Windows brings it success

 

Of course it is hard to quantify but noone has any big numbers so you make your assumptions. But nevertheless, each ticket has to be answered even if it is a non issue. I am just assuming the same ratio as for mac/win.

 

X-plane in general still suffers from the too small in the sim market to matter for most of the big sim developers, so i know your pain. Just in the last year this has started to change and now we see the fruits. Maybe in 5 years we have a large enough userbase that companies are willing to take more bets in regards to linux and it will be win/mac/linux compatible for all