14 DAY TRIAL // A petition aimed at Blizzard, which was asking for Linux support, has gathered a lot of attention from the Linux community, but not for the important answer from Blizzard's CEO. The author of the petition made the stupidest and most uncalled-for comments following Mike Morhaime's response.
Online petitions usually don't have a chance of being answered or even acknowledged, especially by big companies like Blizzard, but it happens from time to time. A new petition surfaced last week, with a Linux user gathering signatures to convince Blizzard that Linux is a valid gaming platform and maybe to hoping to get some answers from them.
Very few people expected a reaction from the video game developer and publisher, despite the fact that the creator of the petition said that he got some feedback from inside Blizzard, although with no important information. He then posted a response he got from Blizzard's CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime, who basically said that Linux still had a small market share and they wouldn't devote the resources just yet. They are still waiting to see what happens.
That would have been enough for everyone
Blizzard gave an answer, very polite and to the point. They didn't say that they didn't want to hear about Linux, just that they were not doing anything at the moment. At least we now know where we stand. Unfortunately, the creator of the petition, Andrew McKinnon, posted the most stupidest response, which was downright insulting.
"I am not sure just what the hell Morhaime is smoking but obviously he needs to stop or change to a different plant. How can he say we are under 2% when there is no concrete evidence to prove it. He also can not seem to grasp the fact that the reason why some of use are stuck using Windows is because of Blizzard and not because we love using Windows," wrote Andrew McKinnon.
As you would expect, the Linux community responded immediately, apologizing for Andrew who made an arse of himself. A lot of publications, forums, and communities have already distanced themselves from his position, and gamingonlinux.com posted a very good editorial piece about it.
The point is that we can only hope that Blizzard doesn't judge the entire community by the actions of a single, misguided individual, and that they will reconsider their Linux plans.