Roccat Reaffirms Commitment to Linux

Posted 12/14/2012 at 10:47am | by Paul Lilly

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Linux is no longer the red-headed stepchild of PC gaming.

In the land of Linux, gamers are sometimes an afterthought, but not all the time. Things are steadily improving, and that hasn't gone unnoticed by developers and hardware manufacturers. One such company taking notice is Roccat, a games peripheral maker based out of Germany. Following the recent launch of Roccat's Isku FX Multicolor Gaming Keyboard, the company sent us a note today essentially reaffirming its commitment to supporting Linux.

Such support could go a long way towards making a name for itself in the U.S. market, which Roccat started serving a year ago. Roccat claims it's only one of two manufacturers coding its own drivers, and has been relying on the talents of Stefan Achatz to write Linux drivers for every Roccat product since 2008.

"We are very pleased to have such a committed developer," says René Korte, Roccat CEO and founder. "We place great emphasis on software, as it is the basis for many of our products’ innovative features. Therefore we give our thanks to Stefan Achatz, who has managed to transfer this level of quality to his Linux drivers."

According to Roccat, 5 percent of the desktops around the world now run Linux, and while some would view that as too small a number to dedicate resources towards, Roccat views it as proof that "Linux [is] becoming a more interesting platform for hardware and software developers."

Roccat isn't the only one showing love for Linux. Valve's Steam for Linux beta recently went live with 26 titles, which it then followed by confirming it's working on a Linux-based Steam Box. And then there's Dell and its newly released Ubuntu laptop, albeit it's a bit on the pricey side for an open source laptop.

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