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Comment by mort96 | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft turned every PC user who doesn't use Windows from a first-class player into a second-class player who can't play what's now branded as "Minecraft". It's impossible for Linux and Mac players to play the game with any of the consoles, and there's a good chance you can't play with Windows people thanks to how Microsoft railroads you away from "Minecraft: Java Edition".

They've split the community and shown clear hostility to people who aren't using Windows. What more do you need to conclude that Microsoft is "destroying" Minecraft?

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Could you please explain your points?

There used to be a game called Minecraft. It was written in Java, and was the same on Windows, macOS and Linux (and any other platform with a Java runtime). People on all platforms could play the same game with each other. They also made a C++ reimplementation of Minecraft – codenamed "Bedrock" – which they used for the console and phone editions of Minecraft.

Eventually, they released a "Windows 10 Edition", based on the Bedrock code base. This version is incompatible with Linux and macOS, and can't play multiplayer with the Java client.

Later, they renamed the Java client from "Minecraft" to "Minecraft: Java Edition", and renamed "Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition" to "Minecraft". They also started railroading buyers towards this game formally known as "Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition".

As a result, the definitive version of Minecraft, the version someone gets if you just tell them to "buy Minecraft", does not work on Linux or macOS. If you're a Linux or Mac user, and you want to play Minecraft with a friend who uses Windows, you're probably going to find that their game is incompatible with yours. Because as a Linux or Mac user, you don't get to play the version branded as simply "Minecraft". You're off in your own separate world, playing the incompatible game known as "Minecraft: Java Edition".

To add insult to injury, there's nothing technically preventing the game now known as "Minecraft" from working on Linux and macOS. "Minecraft Education" is a product based on the Bedrock code base which is available on Linux (well, ChromeOS) and macOS.

Does that make it clearer?

Seems like you insinuate cross-platform Java to Bedrock play was possible at some point, and now isn't. I don't think that was ever the case.

In any case, I don't see how any of what you described could be characterized as "hostile."

I did not mean to insinuate that playing multiplayer between Java and Bedrock was possible at some point. I mean to say that playing multiplayer "Minecraft" between Linux, Windows and macOS was possible, but is no longer possible, since "Minecraft" is now a product which doesn't work on Linux and macOS.

If you don't see how what I described could be characterized as "hostile", you've either misunderstood something, or we have a different understanding of what "hostile" means.

> we have a different understanding of what "hostile" means.

Indeed.

Pray tell what you call it then:

A company takes a game that had a very lively multiplayer community, replaces the game engine that was based on software that could run on any platform as long as it supported Java to .NET where the only possible platform is Windows. Take everyone who has ever purchased the game and force them to migrate their accounts to a Microsoft account in order to continue playing, then intentionally make the two versions of the game incompatible just to force people to play a watered down "definitive edition" that still lacks many of the features that allowed the community to thrive in the first place while issuing all these updates that essentially equate to "spyware".

Yes, I think the word you are looking for is, in fact, Hostile.

Nitpick: Bedrock edition uses C++ not .NET. Either of these could support Linux in principle (as noted, Bedrock edition runs on ChromeOS over a Linux kernel), but Microsoft doesn't care to facilitate that.

No, it's not the word _I_ am looking for. They still release and support Java Edition. Thereby supporting those users. Therefore, decidedly _not_ hostile.

For what little it's worth, the community has created a plugin for Java edition servers called 'Geyser' which allows bedrock clients to join an java edition server.

(Microsoft obviously have no intention of bridging this divide, but hobbyists manage to do it for free...)

That plug-in helps if you're a Minecraft player and want to play with your friends who play on a Minecraft: Java Edition server with that plug-in. It doesn't help if you're a Minecraft: Java Edition player and want to play with your friends who play Minecraft.

Basically, it just further solidifies Minecraft players as the first-class citizens of the community and Minecraft: Java Edition players as second-class.

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