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Quake?
Why is that the only game ever mentioned? I don't even like quake.

Here's a couple hunred of which at least 100 work fine through winex. And many others that are playable but not perfect.

Here's 251 native linux commercial quality games, 250 of which are not quake.

And there are countless others at sites like happypenguin that are free(beer and speech) that could be conisdered not "real" games I guess.

Go spread your FUD somewhere else. Oh nevermind this is slashdot, carry on. lol

With such a control over the hardware, you are allowed to bypass the XWindows system, which kills the performance in such desktop environments as KDE and Gnome. Painting directly to the hardware buffer, buttons and other widgets can be responsive in a unique way.

The only common manner across all major platforms, BSD, Linux, yes, even windows that you can do this is via DirectX. Compiled binaries can be ported cross platform due to the quality of the cross platform implementations.

Not only this, but the breadth of the system allows realtime multimedia eventing systems, such as audio responses to important system events. Platforms such as NT incur an inherent delay, but not when using directX.

So do web sites, FTP, and email. Shall we make it illegal to write web browsers too?

many people do use it to break the encryption scheme so they can rip and distribute movies. Is this necessarily what we want? If movie companies don't get paid for there work they'll stop making movies, blahda blahda

I'd much rather live in a world with fewer movies than in a world where Hollywood is allowed to dictate what programs I can write or use on my own computer.

Additionally, while this is not a popular idea around here, isn't it the companies right to decide that they only want their disks to play on windows systems?

Companies have every right to decide what is done with their property. However, once they sell a disk to me, it becomes my property, and at that point it should be up to me (and only me) how I use it.

I don't see anyone saying that people should be allowed to hack popular windows only games to run on liniux, so why should movies be different?

There is no argument about that because everybody agrees that it should be allowed. Products such as WineX and VMWare allow you to play windows-only games under Linux.

Hell, even the wankers using WineX have been running NWN for a while.

Though a little unpopular with the politial types, winex really works. I'm running SuSE Linux and currently have the following (windows) games installed:

• Diablo II
• Warcraft II
• Starcraft
• Deus Ex
• Icewind Dale

"...all sorts of video games (if you know where to look).

That sounds cool. Where might I find information?

"...all sorts of video games (if you know where to look).

That sounds cool. Where might I find information?

The NWN client is already running with WineX as indicated by this thread.

I can't see Linux playing DVDs well (a la WinDVD)

And why not? Xine is about to hit v1.0 (and now includes the dvdnav plugin in the mainline source - all you need is libdvdcss dropped in, and you even get DVD menus!), Mplayer is loved by many, and vlc works well too, from what I've heard. And hey, for games on Linux, there's always WineX - yeah, it doesn't work for every game, but a lot of them do work.

Over the last year, I've bought Codeweavers Crossover (both Plugin and Office) and a subscription to Transgaming's effort. Take a look at the programs listed in the main Wine tree and at Transgaming's site.

If you want to roll your own, most of the code is available in some form from both branches, though the commercial distributions are more polished. If I were to deploy Wine over a large number of machines, I would probably go back to building my own just to cut costs.

. . . but it doesn't seem like a great leap to apply it to the programming world.

No, it doesn't. Just ask the folks at Transgaming who have been developing WineX using the SPP model for some time now. I remember reading their licensing terms on their web site about a year ago, but when I went to look for them today I couldn't find them. ^.~ Hrrm. That's a bit disturbing.

Until I see Medal of Honor and Battlefield 1942, I have little choice in the matter. :(

That is, if you actually *did* want to do something besides evoke pity with your comment....

However this really is a moot point. The goal of the rural cyberecafes is to provide access to email and web browsing, not to train a generation of "uber1337" kiddies that can't do anything but cheat in CS.

And eveidently you don't understand what capitalist system is. If it was a socailist system there would be no choice, its one-service-for-all, kind of like how Microsoft wants it, that for every PC you have you have to pay the "Microsoft Tax". Linux is the one trying to break this up so there actually is competition in the x86 PC market.

~noodle

I played GTA3 about 45 minutes ago through WineX.

My $50 USB CompactFlash reader I couldn't get to work to save my life in Windows XP, tried for 20 minutes and just for sh*ts and giggles plugged it into my Linux box (my main box actually) and it worked right away, only had to mount it.

Hardware: dood seriously, read comments about any particular piece of hardware your are gonna buy - if you seriously consider buying hardware without first researching if it is right for you, you don't deserve to have money to spend on it.

Oh yeah, about 2 hours ago I played a LAN game of War3 with my girlfriend (right after running the ingame Battlenet updater to get up to 1.04)

For me its Photoshop & Quickbooks. And, believe it or not, I like Mozilla on windows better than Linux because of the quick start feature there. At least with Transgaming, Warcraft III is no longer an excuse. :)

It could be nice to have an "Escaping from Windows " site, with a list of the most popular Windows games and apps, and how well they run in emulators, or interact with open source replacements.

How well it works in WineX: 4 out of 5
User Comments: Fallout works really fine; Haven't
experienced any glitches while testing
the game.

http://www.transgaming.com/gamepage.php?gameid=173

Actually, its definatly playable, my housemate has been playing it under linux for the past few days, and is happy with it.

Visit this link to see how other users are finding it.

David

While those are clearly not as good as native ports, their holistic approach seems to work much from an economical point of view than, for instance, Loki's. Transgaming also has a much better chance of actually creating a Linux gaming market, as it almost "eliminates" the unfair competition between Linux and Windows games (gamers are a very impulsive crowd, very few will actually wait a couple of month for a Linux port)

The Raven

I have now traded the PC to a PowerMac and only use Linux at work and for a "multimedia-server" to stream movies and music to my computers.

Ciryon

Ahem. Can we say "Transgaming"?

Just my opinion.

I'm assuming when you say you are a Microsoft user you mean that you have only ever used Microsoft products. At this stage, any Unix-based operating system, be it a Linux distribution, Lindows (I do not personally count Lindows as a true Linux distribution), FreeBSD, or whatever, will be like jumping into a cold swimming pool. That is to say, it will be a shock at first, but if you are reasonably intelligent and you have picked a newbie distribution (Mandrake, Lycoris, Lindows, ELX), you should be able to adjust.

Some things to keep in mind:

1. You will not have perfect compatibility with Windows apps like MSOffice. You can use OpenOffice and most of your docs will look fine, but some will have visible display glitches (although I have never seen one that was unreadable). You can also download browser plugins for Mozilla (the best Linux web browser) which give it virtually all the worthwhile functionality of IE. Ximian Evolution is an excellent replacement for Outlook. OpenOffice, Mozilla, and Evolution all come with most new Linux distributions today. Another solution is Codeweavers Crossover Office and Crossover Plugin, which let you use Windows office apps and browser plugins. However, this option requires a subscription fee.

2. Many/most Windows games will not work at all, or without a good deal of tinkering. If you are a hardcore gamer, check out Transgaming WineX which can let you play some of the most popular Windows games with a minimum of glitches. This option also requires a subscription fee.

3. A Linux installation needs either its own hard drive, a free partition of space on a Windows drive (at least a few gigabytes) or its own machine. If you have only one machine with one partition on one hard drive, and that is for Windows, then you *might* damage your Windows installation installing Linux. Your best bet if you don't know what I am talking about is to ask a friend who knows more for some help in the installation.

4. While most hardware I have ever purchased is supported, some things just don't have support yet. One example is the "winmodem". Most modems sold today are sneakily designed to work only with Microsoft Windows. Yes, this is a conspiracy between Microsoft and the manufacturers of those modems. If your modem doesnt work, you will probably have to buy a new modem which specifically says it is a "hardware modem". As someone in [your local computer/electronics store] for help.

**Aside from all that, a tonne of things are different in the actual underlying operating system, but if you aren't a developer, you proably won't be intersted in those details. (Feel free to continue this thread if you are, I will be happy to answer more questions.)

With all this, I was trying to provide full disclosure of pitfalls to migrating, not to discourage you. I definately think the switch to Linux is worthwhile in the long term.

If as you implied you have only ever used Microsoft products, the best path you could take is to switch to OpenOffice and Mozilla running on Windows, then if you are comfortable with them, try to dual-boot with a newbie distribution like the ones mentioned above.

C'mon you make this too easy...

nwn is almost here

as is WCIII

Normal Person: "Er.. OK. Show me The Sims next!"

Sure!! Right here.

You could always try it in Wine [1] [2] [3]

David

... winex seems to ork pretty good for most of my windows needs...

Maybe in the future wine(X) can serve as a porting platform?

This is already (kinda) being done. Kohan and The Sims have been "ported" to Linux via WineX.

P.S.
I know "ported" isn't quite the right term for this, but...

Read the page over at Transgaming for your favorite game before speculating on what works and what doesn't.

I am a Transgaming subscriber and I play several games with WineX (however I still have yet to get HL/CS working worth a damn on my machine, but I don't play it much anyway, so I haven't put much effort into it).

It's also useful to copy the 'resource' directory and 'comi.la*' files from the CDs into the directory you installed to, rather than just linking them, to speed up loading times. (and for a quieter experience, for those with fast CDROM drives)

You laugh at Microsoft because they have to fix security in their software all the time.

Well, I'm laughing at Linux because your line of supported applications and games is comparable to the Mac section in any general computer store on Earth.

I like the idea of free software... especially the "free" part...

Yup, as do I. That is why I'm a TransGaming subscriber. I don't game much, and what I do play has Linux ports out (Q3A, Tribe2, etc.), but I like what they are doing and support them with my 5 bucks every month (OK, I missed one month when my CC got reissued and I forgot to update that with them, but...). That's why I usually buy Linux (well, the major versions anyway like MDK 8.0, SuSE 8.0, etc.). And when there is no buying available, I'll happily donate some spare cash to them (like Gentoo for instance).

Winex is a GREAT project -- it's not perfect yet, but they've really done a good job. And you just can't beat 15 bucks to go windows free!

I haven't booted into windows in so long I'm probably going to delete my windows partition -- I've just got to make sure UT 2003 is supported under Winex... :)

Check out Transgaming . They allow me to play Warcraft3 on battlenet(and Diablo II). Sorry about the Blizzard references--but man, they make great games!

I'm going to buy a subscription tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm going to buy a subscription tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.

Games like Warcraft never interested me. Number one task for WineX is best game of 2001 - Civilization 3.

Few weeks ago I downloaded CVS snapshot as usual, and - as usual - tested Civ3. But first time ever - Civilization3 worked in Wine. I played few hours with only one problem - lines in F4 view (peca/war/etc) weren't visible. So I've asked on comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine, but nobody answered. Then I updated my CVS snapshot and... from this time Civ3 never worked again. When I click "New Game" - nothing happens.

I just haven't got time to back to old version (AFAIK it's possible with CVS), so I am asking here - is Civ3 working for you in WineX? (it could be something wrong on my system)

There is a
forum but nobody wrote yet, that Civ3 is working for him/her.

WineX will not work with SCSI drives and copy-protected CDs. Every new release has something about how SCSI support has improved, is fixed, etc, but it never seems to work. If you check their forums you'll see what I mean. Most every issue is marked "fixed", with the solution seemingly always being a symlink or some such. It's not fixed as of the last release.

Does anyone know if they got it fixed this time? I tried to check the release notes at http://downloads.transgaming.com/files/winex-2_1-r eleasenotes.txt, but got a 500 error (on a .txt file no less). If the SCSI issues are fixed, then I'm gladly subscribing again. If not, I'm saving my money and keeping my new dual-boot setup.

If you have SCSI drives, make sure you investigate this before giving them any money or you'll likely have paid for nothing. I don't think SCSI support is real high on their support list. It's been broken for almost a year, after all...

-B

FYI, Carmageddon 3 seems to work pretty well under Transgaming's WineX.
Transgaming's database here

The games are the same one's you play under Windows, the software that let's you play them under Linux is from TransGaming.

What about transgaming? SimCity 3000 is apparently working well using this. "Monopoly Tycoon" is also on the list, though apparently won't work until DirectX 8 is working with wine.

Wine comes default with redhat 7.3 but actually WineX is much better at handling games, especially those needing directx, but at a small fee, or use the developer's CVS version for free.

WineX even sets up menus (Program files) on my kde menu, just as if it were still windows

That Lindows parted ways with CodeWeavers. Back in October of last year they were all gung-ho about producing a system that could run Windows software. But, once the Codeweavers deal fell through they scrapped "plan a" and opted for "plan b" instead: sell basic machines to computer novices who don't plan to install Windows software anyway. A lot of the Lindows Insiders are still trying to get Lindows to support PC games with Transgaming's version of WineX. But, we'll see what happens. Honestly, I don't think this is a bad thing. In one sense you want to "provide a bridge" for people on Windows machines to make the transition over to Linux. But, on the other hand, you want people to stop supporting Microsoft's monopoly all together. And, that means stop buying Microsoft software and start using open source alternatives. It might also convince game companies, and others to start release Linux versions of their software as well.

winex not windows you fucking retard.

bashing winex has nothing to do with bashing windows or hating bill gates.

Actually, if you go to TransGaming's website, you can get the proper WineX files to run many Windows games under Linux - Including Jedi Knight 2, Max Payne, and others.

You're probably sceptical - I was too, at first - that recent 3D games will even be playable since they aren't native Linux versions. In fact, they are very playable. I played RTCW under WineX before the native Linux version was released - was very playable; and since I've played through JK2 and MaxPayne without any hiccups =)

Anyway, they offer two means of getting the WineX files. Firstly, you can grab the code from their CVS servers - it's the most up to date, but does not include certain proprietary / protected code (like stuff for accessing copy-protected CDs). The other option is to become a subscriber (for $5 / month) and then you can download pre-compiled versions that are much easier to install. Other subscriber benefits include the ability to vote on what TransGaming should work to support next, get help from others in their game-specific forums, and other useful stuff.

Anyway, just thought you might like to know =) With TransGaming's WineX and Ogle's DVD player, I was finally able to completely knock Windows off my box forever without any regrets =)

I tried Half Life, it died.

That's funny, because Half-Life works in both the vanilla Wine and proprietary WineX.

Maybe you should read a few FAQs...

Can't speak for the last two days, but as of Nov 23, 2001 the 20,000 was still there.

HTH

You know, I was really hoping this was going to take off. The only reason why I still have Windows on my computer is for games. Everything else I can do under Linux or Wine.

It's true that Transgaming was making a huge contribution to Linux, in an area where Linux was very poor. They were not that expensive with what they asked for their efforts. (Subscription based; $5 per month, $50 for a year)

However, they stated on their website that after 20.000 people became a member they will GPL all their code. Now Wine is LGPL they complain that it is too restrictive, while LGPL is less restrictive then GPL.

Another thing, the place where they mentioned the 20.000 people limit (Business Model), has suddenly been changed in the past 2 days. I know because I was looking into subscribing to them. I was even planning on mailing them to ask them how many people they already had. So is it a lie? Were they ever going to GPL their code? We had only that statement that disappeared without a trace.

So presumably no. Why? Because in their CEO's rant about Wine's license change to GPL, he states that it is impossible due to DMCA issues with the copyright protection they implemented. Also, they would for some reason be 'locked' into supporting Wine even if their business model would not pay what they want it to pay.

I can agree a little with the copy protection bit. However their claim that it contains highly sensitive information is nonsense. Advanced copy protections like SafeDisc and Securom have been reversed completely. Look up any reverser's webboard and you'll be smacked around the ears with all the little tricks that they use. With that you could even easily emulate the protection (which is already done in programs like Daemon-Tools).

So that can't be it. Did I mention that programs like InstallShield and Wise have been completely reversed too? Again, with this info around that can be found on any reversers board, anyone could write his own InstallShield installer.
The DMCA threat is overrated, although the DMCA has been abused for more ridiculous things already.

Then secondly, being locked in for support. I write some crappy OpenSource tools. I do this under an Artistic License. But with this, or even the GPL, there is NO obligation mentioned anywhere that I have to give support on it. Better still, it is explicitly stated that NO LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY is given with this software.

So what do they complain about? Maybe they claim that they have to keep up to date with the Wine tree? Also not true. They can take any copy of Wine, and work on it, as long as they publish their changes. No other obligation then that.

So where does this leave us? Remember SSH? The original author (Klonen if I recall correctly) had SSH as a GPL package, but later on changed it to a pay-for-commercial license. A group of people took the last GPL'd version and coded on it until they got OpenSSH, which is a perfectly fine SSH client and 100% GPL. This is a GOOD thing.

Now Transgaming is pushing Rewind, which is pretty much the same coupe as OpenSSH, except they do it so that the X11 license can be kept. Now you can argue that Transgaming deserves money for the work they do. Well I agree with that, but how far should we support that? Is Transgaming just putting up a friendly OpenSource front so they can get people to work for them for free? Or is it to get people to like them?

In short, by pushing the Rewind branch, they take away time and resources from the main Wine tree. This hurts us normal users. They put up a false front to attract coders and clients. If they were honest about their work, and it would help the Linux community then I'd gladly pay them for their efforts, but now I'm pretty much disillusioned.

You know, I was really hoping this was going to take off. The only reason why I still have Windows on my computer is for games. Everything else I can do under Linux or Wine.

It's true that Transgaming was making a huge contribution to Linux, in an area where Linux was very poor. They were not that expensive with what they asked for their efforts. (Subscription based; $5 per month, $50 for a year)

However, they stated on their website that after 20.000 people became a member they will GPL all their code. Now Wine is LGPL they complain that it is too restrictive, while LGPL is less restrictive then GPL.

Another thing, the place where they mentioned the 20.000 people limit (Business Model), has suddenly been changed in the past 2 days. I know because I was looking into subscribing to them. I was even planning on mailing them to ask them how many people they already had. So is it a lie? Were they ever going to GPL their code? We had only that statement that disappeared without a trace.

So presumably no. Why? Because in their CEO's rant about Wine's license change to GPL, he states that it is impossible due to DMCA issues with the copyright protection they implemented. Also, they would for some reason be 'locked' into supporting Wine even if their business model would not pay what they want it to pay.

I can agree a little with the copy protection bit. However their claim that it contains highly sensitive information is nonsense. Advanced copy protections like SafeDisc and Securom have been reversed completely. Look up any reverser's webboard and you'll be smacked around the ears with all the little tricks that they use. With that you could even easily emulate the protection (which is already done in programs like Daemon-Tools).

So that can't be it. Did I mention that programs like InstallShield and Wise have been completely reversed too? Again, with this info around that can be found on any reversers board, anyone could write his own InstallShield installer.
The DMCA threat is overrated, although the DMCA has been abused for more ridiculous things already.

Then secondly, being locked in for support. I write some crappy OpenSource tools. I do this under an Artistic License. But with this, or even the GPL, there is NO obligation mentioned anywhere that I have to give support on it. Better still, it is explicitly stated that NO LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY is given with this software.

So what do they complain about? Maybe they claim that they have to keep up to date with the Wine tree? Also not true. They can take any copy of Wine, and work on it, as long as they publish their changes. No other obligation then that.

So where does this leave us? Remember SSH? The original author (Klonen if I recall correctly) had SSH as a GPL package, but later on changed it to a pay-for-commercial license. A group of people took the last GPL'd version and coded on it until they got OpenSSH, which is a perfectly fine SSH client and 100% GPL. This is a GOOD thing.

Now Transgaming is pushing Rewind, which is pretty much the same coupe as OpenSSH, except they do it so that the X11 license can be kept. Now you can argue that Transgaming deserves money for the work they do. Well I agree with that, but how far should we support that? Is Transgaming just putting up a friendly OpenSource front so they can get people to work for them for free? Or is it to get people to like them?

In short, by pushing the Rewind branch, they take away time and resources from the main Wine tree. This hurts us normal users. They put up a false front to attract coders and clients. If they were honest about their work, and it would help the Linux community then I'd gladly pay them for their efforts, but now I'm pretty much disillusioned.

Every other message on the RtCF Transgaming Forum expresses a similar opinion. See my post about why I use wineX instead of the Linux binaries.

Basically wineX works for me, the binaries don't. wineX has support and is continually impoving, the binaries don't and aren't.

Saying that you won't pay $5 a month for Transgaming membership because too many users vote for a game you don't think should be officially supported is silly. Any work Transgaming would do to improve RtCW would certainly improve wineX performance for other games as well.

For christsakes, RtCW isn't even offically supported (and probably never will be because it will never pass the monthly vote). That doesn't matter to me though because it already works fine with wineX 2.0