Slashdot Mirror

>> ubuntu, arguably the most advanced desktop linux, won't play DVDs

Linux won't play DVDs (until you simply install a package) for the same reason Win7 won't play Blu-rays out of the box: Licensing. It has nothing to do with how advanced the OS is.

>> if you are anything more than a flash gamer, linux is out.

No, Linux is only out if you want immediate access to the latest cutting-edge Windows-only game. It's perfectly fine for playing the dozens of games that have native ports (Urban Terror, World of Goo, Nexuiz, Warsow, Second Life, etc.), and many Windows games...

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames
http://appdb.winehq.org/
http://www.cedega.com/

I played EverQuest and World of Warcraft from it for years.

>> the only way to play netflix on linux is by running it in a windows VM.

Just another great reason to boycott NetFlix. Seriously - who doesn't have on-demand movies assailing them from a half-dozen directions nowadays. I spend most of my time catching up on old series via Linux with XBMC or Boxee.

>> no itunes.

It used to work under Wine, but I don't think anyone cares about it anymore since there are multiple alternatives that works natively with Linux (or any OS with a web browser). I use Amarok every day and don't miss iTunes at all.

Gaming.

yes gaming

There never was a real linux client and CCP had no dedicated linux developers as far as I know. It was always the Windows client wrapped in Cedega maintained by TransGaming. I believe most linux users were aware that plain Wine with the regular Windows client performed better in most cases, thus the official linux package was hardly used. Why maintain something that noone uses, right?

They still have a Mac version, but that is also the Windows client, wrapped in Cider.

...why? Wine runs them decently (there are some bugs as you can read there. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a bit more developer resources) well as it is. If those aren't good enough, there is always Cedega...

As a game developer, I'm kind of annoyed how trivializing this is to the development process. A great game can take a team of ...

I think it would be adequate if you "just" ensured that games worked well under Wine, or, more practically, it's game-specific derivatives.
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames/
http://www.cedega.com/

Runs just fine for me using Cedega - in fact it's in the "certified" (fully supported) category:

http://www.cedega.com/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=5124

Loading a copy of WoW using Glider is not an essential step, Windows will load up WoW for you just fine.

Interesting, it looks like Cedega may be able to load and run it, too. And if a Blizzard customer happens to have Linux installed but doesn't have a copy of Windows, then using Cedega is certainly the easiest and simplest and most straight-forward way to run the software, i.e. "more essential." Surely 117 would apply?

(And I wonder if ReactOS can run it.)

The "essential step" aspect of their argument is probably the weakest, and this is where this ruling's dangerous precedent should be attacked hardest. There are so many ways -- legitimate ways -- to do things on a computer, that I don't see how any law is going to say that Microsoft's way is The One Legal Way and the only one that can be called "essential." Obviously, Blizzard wants people to have to buy and use Microsoft's product in preference to anyone else's, and they could even put something in their EULA only granting rights to Microsoft customers. But if 117 of copyright law grants users the right to run software, then the EULA never comes into play.

I guess your statement dragging Microsoft into it, caught my eye. Someone could just turn it around as "Loading a copy of WoW using Windows is not an essential step; Glider will load up WoW for you just fine." ;-) I wouldn't necessarily agree that Glider is as "essential" as Windows, but it does raise the issue that there is more than one legitimate loader (which doesn't conflict with Blizzard's business interest) out there, and that in turns exposes the gray nebulosity of judging essentialness.

luckily it is as simple as that: Cedega. Almost game that runs on the Mac will run in Cedega just fine. They're both built on the same technology.

you can play Wow on ALL platforms

Where is that WoW native Linux client? Oh yeah, there isn't one.

due to them supporting openGL and not DirectX

City of Heroes is built on OpenGL also, go figure. However, the graphics aren't the only thing to a game client does, and the non-graphics part of City of Heroes is built for Windows only. This wasn't a malicious decision, it was a practical one. NCsoft isn't as big as Blizzard, it never has been. Hopefully, as demand for the game grows, they'll be able to go back and capture some of the Mac and Linux markets as well. I'm pushing on NCsoft for this to happen, hopefully we'll get their ear.

now that VISTA has bombed

For the record, NCsoft does not support City of Heroes on Vista. They say they are working on it, I'm sure they'll get around to it eventually, and by all reports, it mostly works fine on Vista, but it's not like NCsoft are a bunch of Microsoft sycophants.

Going back to the ALL platforms thing again, maybe you overlooked that City of Heroes/Villains is an officially supported Cedega application? You know, just like World of Warcraft?

... grinding that anti-MS axe.

Hey, that's not fair. I stand up for Microsoft now and then. Were those posts not helpful?

The Fine Article is about HP selling consumer desktop PCs with Linux, though. I don't what your post has to do with that but you anonymous cowards aren't getting astroturf points off of me today. Instead I'll provide informative topical discussion and foil your evil plot.

The original source for this story is apcmag. From that article:

Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest PC manufacturer, has announced it will start selling Linux-based PCs from $AU600 in Australia.

I can only hope this is a pilot, with PCs for the US market to follow. Like many of the people leaving comments on that story, I would like to buy some Linux laptops from HP here in the US. I would also like to see a choice of processors. This is a nice start though.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop also comes with OpenOffice preinstalled, Firefox for web browsing and Evolution for email.

That sounds like a full featured environment for the average user. Much better than Microsoft Works, a non-removable trial copy of Office and the usual collection of junkware that comes with a Windows PC. With compatible software vendors like this impressive list finding commercial software for your HP/Red Hat system should be no trouble. Dag has a whole bunch of free stuff available for it too. I imagine Windows users will have a hard time understanding that yes, you can just click on one of thousands of great free programs and it will install but it won't turn your PC into a spam zombie. It shouldn't take them long to get fond of it though. That's a significant change for people used to dealing with a software vendor that's proud that three quarters of a million of their customers were infested with root kits.

Windows gamers will be relieved to hear that for a measly $5/mo they can join Transgaming and play Windows games. If they have Windows programs they don't want to throw away like one of these, Wine will be a nice free addition to their Red Hat desktop. If they prefer a professionally maintained compatibility engine they might like Codeweavers' Crossover Linux which supports these programs and only costs $40.

The list of hardware known to be compatible with RHEL 5 is impressive, as is the list of systems that are certified and supported.

Disclosure - I also don't work for anybody mentioned here or sell their stuff. My opinions belong to me and I'm not getting paid to have them. YMMV, yadda yadda.

The choice of Red Hat as a partner in this venture shows just how GNU/Linux

http://games.cedega.com/gamesdb/ check it out, add it as a bookmark.

It's my understanding that it runs rather well in wine, Cedega, and Crossover. I've not tried anythind beyond Cedega, but here are some links that you can check for some information.

Cedega Wiki WoW entry

Official TransGaming WoW support forum

(my own forum posts) Cedega WoW/Burning Crusade install 'guides' :
World of Warcraft
Burning Crusade

It's amazing what you can get working with these "emulators" when a large group of people are interested in it. Hence my complaints against Cedega when it comes to Counter-strike and WoW.

The article is dumb.

1. Crossover Office, a cheap, pay for product runs both Office 2003 (including Outlook) and iTunes. Not to mention Shockwave, as well.
2. Isn't Shockwave media handled by the Flash plugin now?

As for you, here are the games I play on Linux: Neverwinter Nights, Doom3, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, Half Life 2/CS:Source, Guild Wars, and Second Life. Of course, there are many other games I can play, but these are the ones I'm currently playing.

While I don't have access to the entire Windows game library on Linux, there are enough blockbusters that I can play to allow me to be happy. I'd rather my $15 go to Transgaming than Microsoft, so I've been Windows free for over 2 years.

All my family's just using Ultima Linux (disclaimer, I'm the developer...) – took a while to convince them to switch, but after they saw what it was like they were all impressed – been working beautifully. Most of our machines still have Windows on them and are dual-booting, but it's been several months since anyone ever actually switched back, we just don't have any reason to... as far as games, etc. go, Cedega works beautifully for most of them... got all the printing handled through CUPS and our home network... plus, on the offchance that a problem does occur, all our machines have SSH enabled, so fixing stuff's almost trivially easy, at least as far as I'm concerned.

By the way, in case anyone's wondering, we have seven machines that are more or less always-on, two or three others that are sometimes in use, and then a single Windows laptop that my dad sometimes brings home from work – other than that, most everything's running Linux. As far as printing we have an EPSON all-in-one in my room, a Brother all-in-one in our family room, a Lexmark inkjet that my brother and sister share through the network... three machines hard-wired in, most of the others on wireless... all sorts of different hardware and configurations, and yet it runs just fine... so yeah, I'd say just switch to Linux, guaranteed to solve all your problems in no time :-)

That's the way cedega works.