7 hours ago, Litjan said:

This. 

I believe that Linux users are overrepresented on forums because they are a.) very vocal and will get up in arms whenever Linux is discussed (watch this space to see this point getting proven 😉), and they are b.) very active on forums because they are looking for solutions to the problems they have because of their OS from other users (drivers not working, which distribution to use for what, etc.).

Aah, the old argument used to silence Linux users. And yes, this is the way to make me react, apparently "proving your point", just to let you know that I never "vocally" promote Linux, at most discuss it in a dedicated thread.

Yes, I love my OS (can you say such a thing about yours?). Yes, I'm grateful for Laminar Research to support it  (and you're surely aware as to why they support it). No, I don't have any drivers issues - you are apparently not up to date with this old "fact", this is very rare now, and nowadays it looks like the tides has turned, hum... Windows 11, looking at you ! 🙂

1 hour ago, Pascal_LSGC said:

as to why they support it

I think they like the challenge...cant see any other reason, really... 😅

38 minutes ago, Litjan said:

I think they like the challenge...cant see any other reason, really... 😅

I'm a bit surprised. Ben has explained in the past the main reason why: a lot of 3rd party and some Laminar developers (used to?) work on Linux. That has for sure attracted quite a few developers to the X-Plane ecosystem. As Ben himself is not especially a Linux fan, I guess the decision was purely pragmatic.

Also, I would guess that the Android version was made a bit easier by having an already working Linux compilation path.

Edited February 10Feb 10 by Pascal_LSGC

Its tough to avoid taking the bait, isn´t it? 🤣

I am just teasing you - Linux is awesome! 😉

Edited February 10Feb 10 by Litjan

15 minutes ago, Litjan said:

Its tough to avoid taking the bait, isn´t it? 🤣

I am just teasing you - Linux is awesome! 😉

Well, maybe you did also took the bait? 😄 Thanks for the effort, but I'm not interested in what you think about Linux, especially since the tone seems to have switched to sarcastic mode 😉 

But again, and here I'm serious, I'm actually concerned about how you repeatedly confine "Linux users" in that pesky category that apparently annoys you so much.  Boooooh, Im one of "those"!!! 🤣

Anyway - same old same old mines better or bigger than yours - very tiresome. If its not MS v XP its MS v Linux or Mac or whatever.

So why do Laminar bother with creating, developing and producing a sophisticated software product for 3 operating systems? and have done so since the beginning?

Back on topic - nothing wrong with X-Crafts stuff at all, really like the EJets they all work for me and are a high quality sim model just waiting for the promised and previewed ERJs to arrive so I can get back to playing with the 145 in XP again! 

12 hours ago, Litjan said:

I am really not invested in Microsoft, I am a lazy-to-the-bone user, though - and the day I can install Linux and all of my "stuff" simply works (no distros to watch, nothing to download to get compatible, automatic updates that are working,...)  I will happily switch to it.

Fedora is a good, professional general purpose distro and its Plasma spin feels quite a bit like Windows 10. It automatically looks for updates, but does not force you to install them. Softmaker's Office NX (30€/year) looks and feels a lot like MS Office, with a minimum of transition required. Since you're a fan of vanilla XP with merely a handful of freeware 3rd party aircraft and spend a lot of time with World Editor, you're golden anyway with nothing to get in the way. And I'd be very surprised if you ran any overly specialized peripherials that would require fiddling with drivers.

On 2/2/2026 at 3:52 AM, jcomm said:

Developer Spotlight: X-Crafts (Follow-Up) - Interviews - Developer Spotlight - X-Plane.Org Forum

I purchased sometime ago the 195, and have been waiting for v2.0 and / or any updates and fixes...

Really looking fwd into whatever is comming...

I’ve been tempted several times to get an e-jet as they seem to have become high quality addons, and I really like Marko’s communication style.

And I’ve ridden on a few of them - nice jets IRL, too 😉. But I always stopped just short as I simply have enough modern “twin jet” airliner 737 look alikes.

OTOH, the ERJ is something I’m really interested in - many trips from/to KLAX in them, and it was cool to en-/de-plane right on the tarmac😎

you gotta watch your head inside, too! 😂

of course, I’m not an “Airline Pilot” guy, so if I get this, it’ll be the Legacy biz jet version. 😁

 

17 hours ago, soaring_penguin said:

I cringe every time I have to solve a problem on my dad’s laptop.

After some real struggle sessions with Win support, I moved my In-Laws to ChromeBooks. 

Boom! Done.

All I’ve had to do since then is pick out new hardware once every few years. 

8 hours ago, Pascal_LSGC said:

I'm a bit surprised. Ben has explained in the past the main reason why: a lot of 3rd party and some Laminar developers (used to?) work on Linux. That has for sure attracted quite a few developers to the X-Plane ecosystem. As Ben himself is not especially a Linux fan, I guess the decision was purely pragmatic.

Also, I would guess that the Android version was made a bit easier by having an already working Linux compilation path.

Not to mention that for the last 20 years or so, MacOS has been UNIX based, and IIRC has also become one of the small handful of officially recognized UNIX versions. 

and we all(?) know what OS Austin uses!

So, given the inherent similarity to Linux (and Linux being very UNIX-y by design), it’s really no surprise that it remains supported. 

And there must be enough non-Windows users to justify it. I do wonder how XP Lin/Mac fares in the commercial space…? Could be good as a lot of devs and engineers of all kinds don’t use Windows, even at work. 

8 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

I’ve been tempted several times to get an e-jet as they seem to have become high quality addons, and I really like Marko’s communication style.

And I’ve ridden on a few of them - nice jets IRL, too 😉. But I always stopped just short as I simply have enough modern “twin jet” airliner 737 look alikes.

OTOH, the ERJ is something I’m really interested in - many trips from/to KLAX in them, and it was cool to en-/de-plane right on the tarmac😎

you gotta watch your head inside, too! 😂

of course, I’m not an “Airline Pilot” guy, so if I get this, it’ll be the Legacy biz jet version. 😁

 

I was lucky to ride in a TAP / Portugália E195 from Lisboa to Porto-Santo in February 2018 😁

I was going for the final installment of our first Madeira islands weather radar, and it was really nice to see it's tower as I was we were approaching for a teardrop entry into the LOC36 App 😁

It's been a while since I last used my xcrafts E195, but one of these days I'll fetch the latest version and give it a ride 👍trying to fly that same flight, although that approach is no longer available irl...

20 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

And there must be enough non-Windows users to justify it. I do wonder how XP Lin/Mac fares in the commercial space…? Could be good as a lot of devs and engineers of all kinds don’t use Windows, even at work. 

The exact OS does not matter if the dev, commercial or not, does not write custom C/C++ plugins because xlua, SASL, XPPython, etc. bring binaries for all three and solely interpret scripts. Which is why most devs stick to those to maximize sales potential.

Custom C plugins require cross-platform build pipelines, which can be a major PITA, not to mention having to support OSes that you do not run on your XP box. Cross-compiling from Linux is probably easiest (ref: HotStart), followed by Mac (I think), while Windows based devs tend to go Windows only. Some commercial oddballs do Windows *and* Mac, but not Linux, probably receiving bribes...pardon, "lost sale reimbursements" from @Litjan to do so.

On 2/10/2026 at 7:03 AM, Litjan said:

This. 

I believe that Linux users are overrepresented on forums because they are a.) very vocal and will get up in arms whenever Linux is discussed (watch this space to see this point getting proven 😉), and they are b.) very active on forums because they are looking for solutions to the problems they have because of their OS from other users (drivers not working, which distribution to use for what, etc.).

Its because we can fly xplane, develop for xplane, post on the forums and talk on discord all at the same time. Except when in VR.

Whereas windows uses all died of old age while waiting for their machines to switch on and start xplane.

Mrs just switched from windows to an m5 macbook pro this week, the only windows machine we have now is a windows 8 VM for making windows binaries, with a little bit of testing xplane plugins on her old one. I cant unrecommmend windows enough, everything about it is terribly dated with massive dose of built in dark patterns and spyware, just no.

Edited February 11Feb 11 by mSparks

On 2/8/2026 at 1:18 PM, coastaldriver said:

only to discover that X-Aviation's products - none of them are Linux compatible

huh?? I count 7 of their library claiming linux compatibility. In fact, Hotstart's systems/physics dev is easily one of the most devout linux-brains out there.

 

On 2/9/2026 at 10:13 PM, brinx said:

Linux is still only 3% maybe 4% of the PC market from the latest figures

More realistic projections put it a fair bit higher than that. That stat is generally based off of web browser traffic which is easily spoofed and known to be not exactly reliable. I'd safely bet it's actually double that. And believe me. win11 is only making it grow right now. There's a steady stream of fed up users who are realizing that gaming is now pretty easy and Adobe support is coming soon (at least until they find a way to break it intentionally). Various youtube personalities are certainly helping that trend.

 

 

Good to see XCraft is along for the linux ride too. Heaven knows they're beneficial to everyone. It's amusing to see someone in here claim that they're so commonly seeking help for their own OS. Some of the best windows-problem debuggers I've ever seen are regular linuxers. 

On 2/10/2026 at 7:03 AM, Litjan said:

This. 

I believe that Linux users are overrepresented on forums because they are a.) very vocal and will get up in arms whenever Linux is discussed (watch this space to see this point getting proven 😉), and they are b.) very active on forums because they are looking for solutions to the problems they have because of their OS from other users (drivers not working, which distribution to use for what, etc.).

Just for a laugh... 😆