Previously, I queried the lack of a veriety of graphically rich game types that are easily available at your local computer shop, using the phrase "Chicken and the Egg" with regard to games and linux. I'm certainly not the first to think like this, but I think that a brief description of how I came to enjoy computers might serve to illustrate the point of this rant.

I came to the computer world rather late. In my early thirties I was in the process of recovering from an operation and spent a great deal of time at my girlfriend's house, and she had a computer there.

On it were a number of programs, but the one I was mostly interested in was a strategy game: "Pirates' Gold!" which entertained me often for 8 or 9 hours at a stretch.

Another game of that time was "Doom" - the original one, which back then, was one of the great games and certainly I managed to scare myself quite nicely while running around dark underground tunnels ! Having a very vivid imagination is not optimal when coming home alone to a dark flat after one of those gaming sessions.

The operating systems used on that computer were initially Windows 3.1 and then Windows 95.

Eventually I bought myself a PC and graduated to Windows 98 and then the internet became readily available here in South Africa. Still the focus was the games and my buddies would come around, play games on my PC and eventually buy their own PC, to play their own games.

What I am trying to get across is that often the first introduction one might get to PCs is the gaming aspect. E-mail is great, likewise net surfing and IM, but communication software is hardly designed to be entertaining: it does a job but that is all.

There are other aspects, like music - transferring all your CDs to the hard drive, creating playlists and playing the sounds, Or DVDs. Or making artwork with some graphics package. Or using the PC for your studies - typing your essays, using the internet to gain information for that. Or learning to code, either designing webpages, or making new programs, and so forth.

Nowadays, being taught how to work a PC is pretty standard at school, and that usually entails working with some office package, initially and then if such is your subject choice, going on to programming.

Gaming is the one aspect that is designed purely for pleasure - whether playing network games with buddies or over the internet or by yourself. And, at the moment, if you want to play PC games, you are going to buy a PC with Windows XP installed.

And usually the first operating system you learn to use is the one you will stick with, unless something really dramatic happens, because people invariably like what they know, and often don't have the interest (or the time) to learn something new. The e-mail works - great. The browser works - lovely. I can play my games - perfect ! ... and what is this Linux stuff anyway?

Hence, I feel that no matter how great the package manager, no matter how effective the kernel, no matter how great the GUI, be it KDE or Gnome or whatever 'box of your choice, the need is for awe-inspiring games - the entry-level PC user needs to be hooked on deeply immersive Linux games. Linux will be what he learned on, Linux will be his system of choice.