Any plans to a Linux version of Launchbox?

[tallpr24]

would love to see this running on my steam deck.

[Megadriver64]

Second this. I am switching to linux cause of the horrible spy from microsoft.

[DragoonDemon4]

Me too, my plan is to convert my main PC into a PC game console, get a laptop to work a Nas tower for my personal cloud and a steam deck or something similar to play outside and it will be very helpful for my emulators to be on Linux so when my main PC will be only for games I like to have on an os that won't bother with using keyboard all the time and be more os focus on the task that is gaming and something like nobara or bazzite will work perfectly but I don't want to loose my launchbox license passing everything to emudeck or something like that I like more the way launchbox organize my emulator games

[xxxtrashcion]

On 7/2/2024 at 6:35 PM, DragoonDemon4 said:

Me too, my plan is to convert my main PC into a PC game console, get a laptop to work a Nas tower for my personal cloud and a steam deck or something similar to play outside and it will be very helpful for my emulators to be on Linux so when my main PC will be only for games I like to have on an os that won't bother with using keyboard all the time and be more os focus on the task that is gaming and something like nobara or bazzite will work perfectly but I don't want to loose my launchbox license passing everything to emudeck or something like that I like more the way launchbox organize my emulator games

This question has been asked more than once in the forums. The short answer is devs claim they are working on it, but say it could take years, if ever.

 

The honest truth however, (Stated by a developer.) is that they aren't willing dedicate the manpower to it because they have a larger user base on Windows. Linux users are being treated like second class citizens, even though many made the switch from Windows and already own a license.

 

Try emulation station until these guys otherwise get their head out of their ass.

[DragoonDemon4]

Yes, Is very bad that web have a android versión that doesn't work well with newer emulators, and still we don't have a Linux versión that will be in my opinion more easy to make than the android one. I'll stick with windows in the meantime because I don't like how emulation station handles multi game support and multiregion platforms. Also you have to subscribe to their scrapper to add videos to their games. Now with the introduction of emulator plugins we'll be able to have this function on Android and when the Linux version is available someday this feature will be carried over to Linux and have a great competitor to emudeck.

[Deira]

I haven’t seen any news about a Linux version of LaunchBox, which is a bummer because I’d love to use it on my Linux setup. In the meantime, I’ve tried SteamROM Manager, and it’s a decent alternative. It doesn’t have all the features of LaunchBox, but it gets the job done for organizing my games.

 

[Retro808]

You can see the most updated response on a Linux version here:

 

[DnK]

I have launchbox in Windows without license, because I use ES-DE has visual interface, and I use the same media for both and it works fine, in github you can find a project to convert launchbox databases to ES-DE format and work fine.

With this I have...

In windows

Launchbox to organize, multimedia and launch games if I want to

ES-DE with multimedia and launchbox info and free visual frontend

And for Linux

ES-DE with multimedia and launchbox info and free visual frontend, with emulator and Linux system.

I think that for now is the best combination, the only bad thing is that you have to adapt the ES-DE code so that the media folders are the same as Launchbox and compile it.

 

Edited January 4 by DnK

[Fursphere]

2.29% of the overall gamer user base is linux users, per Steam.    You can see it here:

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

Then they've got 6 unique flavors of Linux that have enough users to show up.  Who knows how many didn't even make the list because the user base is so small.

Launchbox users is a small fraction of overall Steam users, and I'm willing to bet the "linux vs windows" ratios are about the same. 

Its a solid catch-22 problem.   Dev's aren't making stuff for Linux because there isn't a big enough user base to justify the effort.   User's aren't moving to linux because dev's aren't making enough stuff for it.  

Then add in the linux community itself is fragmented all to hell, because every time someone gets pissed off at a distro, instead of working to fix that feature, they hard fork it and start their own.  "Everyone else is wrong, and I'm right" type of thinking.  Look at how many distros are out there:  https://distrowatch.com/

If Steam ever releases SteamOS for PCs, there might be hope.   But I'm not sure how many 'gamers' want to essentially turn their PCs into single purpose devices (consoles!) and not do all the other PC stuff that requires Windows. 

[Starfox]

Wait for Windows 10 support End in October 2025, most Users didn´t want Windows 11 and with Windows 11 25h2 we get TPM 2.0 mandatory.

So all computers that are older than around 10 years are no longer supported by Windows. Many of my friends will switch to Linux because they are simply fed up with Microsoft's politics. With Wine and Proton you can play very comfortably on Linux (without a lot of command line)

I play Games for about a Year on Linux and i don´t need Windows back

[Fursphere]

They said that with Win98.  Windows2k. Windows XP.  Windows 7.  Windows 8. 

Yet, here we are.

[Fursphere]

If you look at that Steam survey, 0.15% is still using Windows 7.  Assuming Steam has 100,000,000 users (pretty sure its actually more than that, but we'll use 100m for this example) that's 150,000 installs still using Win7.

I'd be really surprised if Launchbox had 150,000 users.

[nickybocker]

What can we use in Linux mint right now, since Launchbox isn't available to use?

[dragon57]

19 minutes ago, nickybocker said:

What can we use in Linux mint right now, since Launchbox isn't available to use?

As was said upper in this thread, ES-DE is probably the best choice, with Attract Mode being 2nd. Both work very well under Linux.

ES-DE can be found here: https://es-de.org
Attract Mode can be found on its homepage and the latest fork, the Plus version is here: https://github.com/oomek/attractplus

[Starfox]

I use Lutris with some Runners Dosbox and FSUAE for Amiga Games.

Not so much convenience like Launchbox but it works fine.

Edited May 25 by Starfox

[SnakeWildlife]

I believe the big switch is coming.

Iv been a Windows user since its conception, Bill Gates ran the company well, but things haven't been great lately in Windows and the Steam Deck has done more than enough to convince me, that SteamOS is going to be the future, i have no doubt in my mind after using it.  People are tired of the current state of Windows and its inability to innovate or stay compatible without buying it again and again with each worser version, each containing more bloat, ads in your face and ever-more backward compatability problems. Windows 11 has caused many to finally snap. Me, i snapped on Windows 10 and i was already unhappy to leave Windows 7, iv had enough.

Bill Gates moved on and passed on leadership to a Business Man, not an innovator...but Gabe is still here and he actually gets it. I truly believe after Windows 11 the exodus and a larger migration from Windows to Steam/Linux is going to finally start. Slow at first, but it'll happen.

 

I have already made the full switch to SteamOS and it is the best thing i have ever done, zero regrets. As soon as SteamOS updates to target Desktop PC's, all my Desktops will also be SteamOS.

I struggle to find things that DONT work wether its native, proton or wine.   Sadly, Launchbox is one of the biggest missing things i hope to see make the breakthrough to Linux, i will be eagerly waiting. I'm a happy lifetime BigBox user. Whilst i dont really talk much...i check for Linux news on a weekly basis.

 

Love yall!

[Fursphere]

Man...  if I had a nickle for every time someone on the internet said "Windows is dying, the time of Linux is coming!".....

[C-Beats]

18 hours ago, Fursphere said:

Man...  if I had a nickle for every time someone on the internet said "Windows is dying, the time of Linux is coming!".....

Yeah, M$ being a corporate staple keeps it alive. They previously also had the education system since most K-12 schools used M$ and so it's just what people already knew when making personal purchase or entering the workforce. At least state side though they lost the education market to Google and ChromeOS so it's M$'s hold is being chipped away at. They also losing every software SDK atm due to constantly changing gears before the last one is finished. The forced moves to MAUI and Blazor are crippling them compared to other techs. I don't think M$ is going anyway anytime soon, but I do believe their is merit to the notion that Linux via some distro's is easier to use than it's ever been before and people are more willing to test the waters because of it. We still a LONG ways out before Linux could take over Windows, but it'll be interesting to see how long it takes (or if it will) surpass MacOS in user base though.

[Fursphere]

According to this site: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/  Windows (all flavors combined I guess?) still has s a stranglehold on the market @ 70%.  

The US itself has a higher share of Mac OS users, but Windows is still dominate @ 63%:  https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america

Then go over to Steam Charts - and Windows is the majority leader by a WIDE margin @ 96% (Win11, Win10, and Win7 combined): https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

Valve's own hesitation to release SteamOS to the general desktop PC market in my opinion speaks to just how problematic the platform (Linux in general) is.   If you have 100% control of the hardware, you can do great things like the Steam Deck (And not unlike Mac platforms...).  But once you add in the near unlimited amount of hardware combinations the PC market has (especially the gamer PC market), support probably becomes a horror show and they (Valve) don't want to test those waters.  (and driver support is spotty at best)

The enterprise organization I work for has a large in house development crew, probably 50% of our software stack is home grown.  Lots of open source and linux flavors there.  And we spend A LOT of time chasing the 'new thing' in the open source world.  And we're just working with basically 'generic' VMWare VMs or cloud VMs.  (Or docker-esq containers)   No fancy hardware to speak.  Linux is an extremely strong server platform, and I'm pretty sure most of the WWW is built on it globally today.   But a gaming powerhouse for the masses it is not.  Not for a long while still at least. 

Unless someone figures out how to get AI to fix all of its problems, because people sure as hell can't.  That's why Linux has like a thousand distros.  "I don't like the way you did 'x', I'm forking the distro"     sigh. 

Edited June 1 by Fursphere

[C-Beats]

23 hours ago, Fursphere said:

According to this site: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/  Windows (all flavors combined I guess?) still has s a stranglehold on the market @ 70%.  

The US itself has a higher share of Mac OS users, but Windows is still dominate @ 63%:  https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america

Then go over to Steam Charts - and Windows is the majority leader by a WIDE margin @ 96% (Win11, Win10, and Win7 combined): https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

Valve's own hesitation to release SteamOS to the general desktop PC market in my opinion speaks to just how problematic the platform (Linux in general) is.   If you have 100% control of the hardware, you can do great things like the Steam Deck (And not unlike Mac platforms...).  But once you add in the near unlimited amount of hardware combinations the PC market has (especially the gamer PC market), support probably becomes a horror show and they (Valve) don't want to test those waters.  (and driver support is spotty at best)

The enterprise organization I work for has a large in house development crew, probably 50% of our software stack is home grown.  Lots of open source and linux flavors there.  And we spend A LOT of time chasing the 'new thing' in the open source world.  And we're just working with basically 'generic' VMWare VMs or cloud VMs.  (Or docker-esq containers)   No fancy hardware to speak.  Linux is an extremely strong server platform, and I'm pretty sure most of the WWW is built on it globally today.   But a gaming powerhouse for the masses it is not.  Not for a long while still at least. 

Unless someone figures out how to get AI to fix all of its problems, because people sure as hell can't.  That's why Linux has like a thousand distros.  "I don't like the way you did 'x', I'm forking the distro"     sigh. 

Yeah, I wasn't trying to say even in the next 20 years you'll see it topple, Windows will be around for a long while. That being said look at the adoption of Win 11 vs 10 and 7, especially in underserved area's of the world that can't afford the next new thing. 10 and 7 still have a healthy foot hold. In the future I can see those communities swapping to Linux to make their older hardware play nicer for their purposes.

Also the reason Linux is so shattered IS because as you said 1) hardware min/maxxing sometimes requires it and 2) They can, it's open source so it's a possibility that can't be done with Windows
Android has similar issues and it's the leader in the mobile market so it's not impossible for it to happen. Just no one cares enough to really make a go for it. Valve's the biggest name in a while to even both TRYING to touch consumer markets on the Linux platform on PCs and as you said, even that is mostly because they were making an OS for their dedicated device, just seems to have steam rolled (pun fully intended) into something bigger than I think even they were initially thinking it would.

I think a lot of it is the Linux community is just happy to see their hobby/opinions being highlighted more often again. Linux for a long while was relegated to server admins, "hackers", and hobbyists (and mostly as you said still is). The attention towards something they enjoy is always a palpable excitement, it just sometimes gets carried away with all the "We're doing it boys! Windows is going down!". Like listening to Cleveland Browns fans talk about going to the Super Bowl, it just isn't going to happen... lol