RE: Snowie and GNUBG

[Timothy Y. Chow]

On Wed, 2 Dec 2020, Ian Shaw wrote:
> I think XG has gained in popularity over gnubg mainly because it is 
> faster, and only marginally because of the slight playing strength 
> advantage.

I think it's hard to be sure why XG has gained in popularity over GNUBG, 
but I would agree with you that the playing strength probably doesn't have 
much to do with it.  The USGBGF endorses XG so I would guess that has an 
influence.

http://usbgf.org/learn-backgammon/backgammon-resources/software-2/

People tend to use what other people tell them to use.

Also I recall that there was a period of time when there were problems 
with the GNU Backgammon website and finding the right thing to download, 
etc.

But being free is always a plus, and now that Xavier seems to have all but 
abandoned XG, there could be an opportunity for GNU to regain ground, if 
there is the desire for that.

Tim