The problem is that releasing a client also sets an expectation that the client will be supported, no matter what Roblox actually intends here.
From a personal standpoint, I absolutely do hear all of the Linux users on here. I’m a pretty hardcore developer, I love open source stuff, Linux is fantastic. I would love to be able to ditch the likes of Windows and macOS and go full Linux one day. It would be awesome to own my own stack like that.
The problem here is that of limited resources. Roblox is a large company, but they are not infinite in size, and they are not capable of satisfying every single user need. It is actively in Roblox’s interest to capture as many players as possible who are interested and meet them in the most possible places on the most possible platforms. However, it is also actively in Roblox’s interest to not spend many times more money per user than they receive from them. Platforms generally enjoy ‘economies of scale’ here - there is a fixed cost to building out and maintaining a certain branch of the engine on a certain platform, but as the audience using that platform increases, the revenue is not fixed - it is instead marginal per-user in that audience. This is why Roblox can justify being on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Amazon tablets, et cetera. They have evaluated the opportunity cost of these platforms and decided that there are enough users (projected and current) that the fixed cost of continued maintenance can be amortised among them without massively tanking net profits. Remember that continued maintenance is far more than just technical - customer support may need training, for example.
You might think I’m talking about money a whole lot. Maybe that makes you think it’s some greedy capitalist pursuit. (I’d say that’s basically the foundation of capitalism as a pretty hard left socialist)But this is not about some guy’s pockets getting lined - not entirely. There are employees that need to get paid. Rent, electricity and gas bills will be due. Contractors will be hired. Research will be done. This costs money. Roblox needs to decide how much money they are dedicating to which causes, which also mean Roblox needs to decide how much money they should strive to make per user - aka, they need to figure out how they will amortise their fixed costs. If they can’t justify keeping it, it will go, because otherwise they will hurt real people and destroy real livelihoods by being financially irresponsible. If you don’t believe me, ask Meta how their Horizon speculative investment is going.
You may love something. I love it too. But we can’t play pretend and lose our tempers over Roblox doing something that is obviously business sense to them. It’s not even special, either - there is so much software I use every day that makes these very same calls, whether it’s my DAW, or my editing software, or my paint tool… Heck, even in the audio space, there’s plenty of companies making these calls about Windows versus macOS. Roblox is nothing special or new under the sun.
I am an advocate for Linux support everywhere, but I am kind of - nay - very tired of having to listen to the same old internet debates play out where one side is people who live in a world of business decisions and opportunity costs, and the other is in a fantasy post-scarcity utopia that doesn’t exist. Harsh words? Maybe. But that’s what I think, and bluntness is more concise than otherwise.
