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Mandrake Linux Gamer Edition
JWhiton writes: "According to Blue's News, Mandrake and TransGaming are going to ship a new distribution of Mandrake Linux specificially aimed at gamers. It comes with The Sims and TransGaming's WineX for compatibility with Windows games. Apparently it's going to ship on November 9th."
I watched a co-worker attempt to use my laptop which has debian installed on it. How I laughed he actually asked me if I was running XP !!
The dork thought that KDE was XP
Although world domination is the goal, I can't help but wonder if the windoze using public is ready for it.
Be prepared for a whole load of newbie questions to clog up the mandrake mailing lists and newsgroups!
Finally there may be a distro that can capture the gamer and the techie. I hate dual booting! This could be the answer I have been looking for. I agree that I am not too hot on the Mandrake distro, but this does have potential.
LD
It is scripted using Perl and uses a MySQL database backend.
I currently use Manrake 8.1 and I use it for everything except multimedia and games. For which I use win2k. Of course most of everything I do is multimedia and games. Hopefully if this version of mandrake works well, and isn't an unstable piece of junk then I will only have to use windows for multimedia. I just wish it were free. I'm not willing to pay 70$, especially since I don't want the sims.
I think I might just keep trying to configure mandrake 8.1 to do all that stuff.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
This is a GOOD MOVE!!
,extra features, and perhaps make it easy enough to install, people will have a reason to use linux. To play their favorite games!
packing games with linux and calling it the gaming edition is genius.
Gamers who may not otherwise have ever known about linux will see linux plays games and may actually improve frame rates and speed, they might actually buy it just for gaming purposes considering they spend $500 almost for Gforce3 graphics cards and soundcard. Linux could be sold on the fact that it is a "gaming" OS.
Think about that.
Example. Linux Mandrake Gaming Edition (Starcraft)
Linux Mandrake Gaming Edition (Warcraft 3)
Linux Mandrake Gaming Edition (Quake 3)
And if they manage to somehow get these versions to have higher frame rates
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
I always hear Mandrake derided by a signifigant portion of the
A distribution explicitly targetted at gaming is something that wlll really get gaming jump started. Even if the distro itself isn't used by everyone, it should give developers something to target, and from there other distros can adapt to meet it.
Oh God! Let us all pray! WINE is great for some stuff but with certain games it just doesn't work or works poorly.
/windows/Unreal/system/unreal.exe` when I can get it to run in full screen mode!
Oh well, I'll go back to `wine
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Sig
1. People who know what they are doing will build their own customised version from whatever version or distro they downloaded to work from.
2. I am firmly of the opinion that Linux should stop trying to compete with Windows on Windows's home ground - the office market. Those people are sluggish and resistant to change (we'll see how many even upgrade to Office 2000, not to mind Office XP, or Windows XP)
3. I think the linux missed out on exploiting a weakness in Windows - gaming - by the OS community concentrating on Windows one-upmanship with StarOffice vs. MS Office, etc., . WIn32 GUI vs. Gnome/KDE (who cares, like I said, people who know what they want will use FVWM if needs be, and the Office-lethargic group will stick with Windows/MS as has been shown).
Years ago (like 10 maybe) people would say to quit using that Amiga - it's a kid's computer and all you do is games or graphics, etc., . These days the thing that drives PC sales is exactly what MS lackey's would have scorned - games sell new PCs; that Clippy fucker doesn't.
Linux, if a direction should be made (I realise that that goes against general OS consenus, but I see more inventiveness and ingenuity from the demoscene (the real demoscene) with no OS at all IMHO), should aim to beat Windows at what it's weaknesses are, not by trying to beat it on it's strengths (Office, hardware support....I'd happily buy that one video card supporting everything than have a choice of 50 with shitty support).
Acting stupid isn't much fun when there's someone around who knows better
I use Windows Media Player with Wine to watch my...uh...Multimedia Presentations. It really does a decent job with AVI files. I have only tested it with the older non-"themeable" release of Media Player.
The only problem that I have seen is that sometimes the colors will get messed up. It doesn't always do it with the same file. So, it is not like a perpetual bad coloration from the same file.
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If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Congratulations, you just figured out why Linux is taking so long to cut into Microsoft's desktop market share: A large number of Linux users are condescending dorks like you.
Interesting idea, and I applaud the developers, but I really think it's not going to make any new Linux users.
Little Billy gets a new WinXP machine for xmas all ready to run *every* new Windows game with potentially less headaches than keeping a Linux box upgraded with the kernel du jour and the patch of the week.
Like it or not, Windows Update is much easier to use for the Unwashed Masses than is cvs (now my FreeBSD||OpenBSD bias is showing :))
Trolling is a art,
I think that one of the things holding Linux back is games. Yes there are some good games, but none of the phenominalo games (such as HL/CS/TFC/etc) are availible, or they come out a year plus later than the Windows version, so most people will have already played it if they're going to. Sure you can buy WineX, but then you have to hope you can set it up correctly. But to bundle that with a great distro like Mandrake (my favorite non-debian distro) is ingenious. To include The Sims is also smart. Good going guys, I look forward to the reviews. Maybe this will help Linux become more mainstream, IMHO. I mean, what's a desktop OS without Counter-Strike? Nothing! He he he.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
does this mean that Mandrake might help to port games to linux? It could be good to see a wider range of well known games than just the loki ones.
H
zadok.org.uk
Mandrake also has the WindowsNT Windows 2000 Power user crowd.
The only thing missing from the power user OS was the games. Power users want their games, well now they have it. Its only a matter of time before millions of windows2k buying Gforce3 using gamers rush the Linux OS.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Anyone know of any links to places that show linux vs. windows going head-to-head running games like quake3 on the same hardware to show what performs better?
Eventhough now it's unimportant to Linux users, it's a milestone! You have already seen how fast Linux grow. Imagine that 5 years from now, Linux will go on par with Windows in gaming. Later on, I expect that game developers will seriously consider Linux as a potential platform for their market.
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Error 500: Internal sig error
i'm sure they could have come up with a better game to package than the sims...a game that demonstrates the capabilities of the software. however, the biggest mistake here seems to be the lack of an 'gaming expansion pack' sold seperately...i know you can probably download it somewhere, but i think thats what should be on the shelves rather than a 'gaming distribution.' what about the whole already installed userbase? hmm...
Do they have a list of current games that work and that dont
What is theyre compatibility testing strategy for future games and changes in DirectX
__ and what is this Forms Key : )#()fskdfkls error slashdot keeps on throwing up when i press submit
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
how is that a troll?
Sorry to shatter your little open sourcve fantasy with a brick of truth, but games run slower on linux. It's a fact. Come to grip with reality.
I checked mandrake's site and transgaming.com but couldn't find any mention of this "gamers distribution" for 69.99 or whatever anywhere. I also checked google but no luck. I would think there would be an announcement since this is supposed to be out in 19 days... anyone have links?
While this probably comes as good news to some who want to play their windows games on linux, it may not be good news for linux.
If/when wine gets to a point where it can perfectly emulate 100% of all windows games, there will be no reason for software developers to release any linux games, and linux ends up losing exposre.
I don't know what will happen, but this is just one possible scenario to think about,
I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants
Mandrake Millenium?
I think that Linux is great the way it is today! The only thing that Linux needs is some great graphical programs like Adobe Photoshop or Jasc Paint Shop Pro. I use dual-boot only because of my family and these programs. IMHO We don't need `user-friendly' and `for-the-masses' distributions. M$ W$ is a toy and a toy if for playing...
- All the sales of all Linux Games are dwarfed by
the sales of a single, average, Windows game
- While commercial Linux 2d games are generally more stable than their Windoze counterparts, there are still a lot of problems in the 3d area, and the future is bleak (VA layoffs, etc.)
Anyway, it's a good step forward, even though it might not be a commercial success.
The Raven
What the need to do is take something (probably linux) and have games so that they have their own OS, and the users would just boot the disk to play - the initial set-up would be a pain if the video card isn't supported or something (so don't use solaris ;) ) but it should work well...
Transgaming would be making money off of their games thats the reason.
They'd be better off selling linux games for $20 extra and getting the money transgaming is getting than having people buy windows games and running it on linux. You see they want you to buy the game twice because they make double the money.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Refer to the slashdot article about it:4 6&mode=thread
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/14/13182
I'd rather just purchase that, and be able to install it in my choice of distribution.
That article is an awfully subtle joke, it took me a while to realise that no one could possibly make that many mistakes. :)
Linux, being free, wants to be free. Don't force people to buy it.
.. $4.95 - $9.95? You receive two things: the installer for The Sims and a coupon for $2.95 - $8.95 off your next purchase of a full-packaged game from TransGaming -- the goal being that if you do purchase another game from them, that installer kit download ultimately only cost you $2 - $3.
.. business major)
"The Sims" won't be free anytime soon, so here is my humble idea for making this successful:
They create a 'standard' game/application management and installer program for these type of applications. The entire package as a whole can be compatible with the standard add/remove for a distro, but to control the contents requires using its own tools.
They distribute the application manager/control panel part for free, and keep it opensource. An installer kit is developed *specifically* for installing these type of packages, which is also kept open. Anyone can go out and buy a game, get it to work, and create an 'installer' and distribute this freely to whomever they want.
License "The Sims" from Maxis for a reduced cost - 30-50% of MSRP. Include a single "Transgaming Kit," either in the box for The Sims or as an extra shrink-wrapped CD + manual on the outside (think magazines that come in plastic bags with posters and CDs) - the kit contains a distro, packages to install their application/game management on any of the popular distros, and the installer to install "The Sims" into their application/game management system. They sell this for the regular cost for The Sims +10-20%.
What if you already own The Sims? IANAL, but you shouldn't have to purchase it again. You download the toolkit for free, and if someone has freely released an installer for The Sims, you're in luck -- for free. If there isn't, or you don't want to go through the trouble, you go to their web site and pay them
This will encourage repeat business and allow them to recover some logistical/management costs without stifling the freedom of free software.
Many gamers use Linux at work, at home, but don't use it for games because it often won't run the games we want to play. If I were to pick up a game, and TransGaming could atleast compete in price for these new releases, I would purchase from them *just to support the cause* - regardless of whether I planned to play it on Linux. Why not? Their price competes. They get to keep things flowing. I get the same package either way, but now I also get the kit that will allow me to easily play it in Linux without killing myself.
..
But please, do not sell full-priced distributions with every copy of a game that you release. You're only doing this to justify the cost, not as a true value-add. How many of us are going to dump our current setup just to install that special gaming edition distro? 5%? How much of that full price are you trying to justify as being for "that special gaming distro?" 50%?
IANABM. (..
Good luck,
Jason
"Amiga's are only good for games, and video taster" i'd hate for the word amiga to be substituted with linux, although i am happy to see this as well, i thik it will be tough to maintain the lines, and pay attention to when the tide is starting to shift into a "linux is only for games" mode by the mass-at-large....
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
Don't they realize when a major site runs on eopn source software it only makes open source look good if the site is STABLE.
Oh ya MySQL is great, alot of companies use it in mission critical environments.
oh like who?
Well slashdot uses it!
Good way to get people to avoid open source...
...the Linux jihad complaining that Windows users can't see the light about Linux, or the other Linux jihad complaining that now all these Windows users will start using Linux!
(OT: What the hell is an "Invalid form key"? Is anybody else getting this?)
-Joe
I think taco should code in a new category in mod.
-1, the truth.
Since on slashdot truthful statements are usually mislabeled troll.
I agree anything that exposes the true shortcoming of linux should be censored via moderation but lets mod it properly, -1 the truth is what those statements deserve.
I mean if we mod down any posts that admit linux has some problems, those problems will just disappear and no longer plague linux. Of course the best way to avoid problems is to ignore them. Discussing problems never helps,just pretend they don't exist thats the best solution to anything.
So taco think you could handle adding that to the code you dumb monkey?
That is all.
Slow Down Cowboy!
Slashdot requires you to wait 20 seconds between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment.
It's been 12 seconds since you hit 'reply'!
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For those who haven't figured it out, adequacy.org is a troll site.
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
I tried out Mandrake a couple of years ago and it already shipped with BSDgames and several versions of Tetris.
Sheesh. What more could anyone possibly want?
- Derwen
http://fsfeurope.org/
It brings a game that is a best seller to the linux platform that the average Joe (and some geeks) actually like to play. It is not a matter of us the /. crowd wanting to install Diablo II and Starcraft on our 31337 boxes; it is a matter of bringing this to the average Joe so that the game works and is worth the $69.99 USD that he paid for it.
;-)
I for one am *so* glad to see The Sims pre-bundled; my girlfriend now can stop making the following excuse: "I'm sticking with Windoze because I can't play The Sims on it."
Karma whorin' since 1999
Let me correct "the excuse" for you all; it brings some confusion.
"I'm sticking with Windoze because I can't run The Sims on Linux."
Karma whorin' since 1999
Yes. I got it too.
-- Wanna textmode user interface for ruby? http://freshmeat.net/projects/jttui/
My desktop.
I hate playing CS. I really like it when it was Beta6, Beta7, etc...but then cheaters came...
Sorry, but CS is dead for me.
Well, if we want linux "make it" to massmarket. This is really something that we need, "plug-n-play games". Yes, you can install winex by yourself, and propably all the orher packeges that come with this new mandrake. But how many can do it just in few minutes, there is always lots of configuration when installing stuff. ...
;) What really would own, would be API that has support both in windows, linux, mac etc. Maybe something that would be almost compatible with directx, so that games would be relatively easy to port to it..
How unattractive it sounds; but if you would just combine window$ (simple) usability with Linux stability and configurability (with all the API supports)
Linux really needs something like OSX, so incredible GUI and applications (and support!), that everything you want to do, you can just do it as "point and click".
.. of course people that don't want those automatically installed guis and want to configure everything by themselfs can still install e.g slackware and install all the components they want..
And about that emulation; yes, the idea sucks
- b
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I've developed a deep hate for microsoft, but never had the juevos to give up most of my games and switch completely to linux, if this distro is everything promised, it could make that decision alot easier, for me and tons of other people like me.
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
I agree that it is crazy, but The Sims has been on the top 10 selling games list, if not the top slot (When D2 or Max Payne wasn't : ), since it came out... what, almost 2 years ago? Bundling the most user friendly "desktop" distro with one of the best selling games of all time can't be a bad thing. Furthermore, allowing me (even the possibility of one day, in the not too distance future) to able to play all my games, do the occasion office task, and check email/surf makes... me warm and fuzzy. I love linux and the whole concept (http://www.kmfms.com/), but until it can do gaming to even a comparable level as WinDoze, I'm stuck with multi-boot. Another example of this... Even now, with XP lumbering out of the gates, I still only use XP(Win2k) occasionally because Win98 still plays _all_ my games faster and more reliably. Sure, I love being able to End Task in XP if a game actually (rarely) does happen to crash, but not everything works in 2K/XP. Dark Age of Camelot is a perfect example... I don't want to use 12.41 when I can use the new DetonatorXP (12.85, for Quake 3) just because 12.8x causes a blue screen on exit of DAoC. Please, please give me a linux desktop (distro)that isn't butt slower than XP/98 on the desktop for surfing, mp3s, multitasking... then add a DirectX layer / wine emulation for mainstream gaming... and I can finally go to one OS. Hell, I can use VMware for any other tasks that require, and are suitable for doing so, on a XP virtual machine! Peace
(Insert Flame Here)
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Games and multimedia are the two primary reasons I still use Windows, but I could easily lay off the games. I'd like to see an equivelent to VirtualDub for Linux. THAT would be truly great.
so...basically she has to buy the game again? thanks for supporting my point.
You should BUY linux, however once you buy something you should OWN it.
This means you have the right to do whatever you want to it because the source code is now owned by you!
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Yikes! I wish this wasn't so true... I wonder if maybe the problem could be server or bandwidth related and not the software driving SD?? It's been like this for months now... wasn't always.
Hey,
Have you been living in a cave or do you really not like GIMP? After all it was the original killer app for linux. Out of the little buttons they coded for the interface GTK grew out of GTK GNOME out of GNOME...
I'm still waiting for the killer audio app ardour(http://ardour.sourceforge.net) to start maturing.
On the topic of games. I like WineX pretty soon everything I play will run well enough under it and I wont have to waste an entire partition to play a couple games and watch demos from the demo scene. The worst part is is that it's the first partition on the disk which is the fastest and the best for swap and music file storage.
*sigh*
There's a difference between technical suitability and marketplace suitability. Windows gets the games first because it's a big market. It's a big market because it gets the games first. Round and round it goes - infinite recursion without a base case. From a technical standpoint, it's not very good at all for games.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Well done, you've just described SDL.
You saved my sanity. Someone else saw it also.
Thank you AC MAN!
Yes.. True Ubergeeks run distros like Slackware or Gentoo and compile their own damn packages!
because it doesn't provide any benefit other than saying, "I'm using Linux."
Before those you ridicule can be ready for Linux, they need to educate themselves or have someone else teach them about it.
Any effort to get more people interested is a good effort in my opinion, not because MS products are, well, terrible, but because competition is a good thing.
bleh
There I was thinking that Mesa was a slow software implementation of OpenGL, which I had to spend hours picking out of my system before I could get my NVidia hardware OpenGL drivers to work properly.
Maybe that was a different Mesa. Maybe I'm just plain wrong. My memory isn't what it used to be...
One of the main reasons that I have kept my box running win98 (because I can't afford a second computer such that 1 box runs linux and the other runs win for gaming) is because the games I like to play are made for windows OSs'. This news makes me very happy. So really, I have nothing intelligent to say about this Mandrake for gamers so I will just keep it simple:
wOOt!!
This will be an AWESOME promo!!!
REAL Uber-geeks use slackware!
(What does Invalid form key: gnhJOrlDvl mean?)
What a bunch of self-aggrandizing pseudo-elitist bullshit.
Anton, you sound just like the condscending dorky Computer Guy from Saturday Night Live. Hork! Hork! Hork!
Microsoft tactlessly calling their marketing campaigns "jihads" OR TexasFury here ascribing that kind of offensiveness to the Linux community's ambivalence about improving gaming by hacking the Windows versions.
SNL's Will Ferrell's GWB: "Don't mess with Texas!"
Dork. Oh... that's as in uninformed.
Linux is only worthless if your time is free.
..., your own sheer idiocy. Obviously, you paid no heed to the fact about how I observered one camp of Linxers complain about Windows being 'sheep', and the other complains that the 'sheep' will now start using Linux. Then again, when an idiot. always an idiot (just like the parable of the scorpion, the frog, and the river). But you make me laugh heartily, as all fools make me want do. Don't ever change, sweet lad, the world needs people like you to laugh at.
Not only will this benefit home users who want to play games, but it will offer arguably the first Linux games and multimedia standard to work with. This will be GREAT for developers, who not only won't have to go through several days' worth of download and internetial documentation searching in order to get their machine ready to develop games for, but also to ensure that all these developers are working from a similar base, which will help reduce dependency issues.
Hopefully they'll talk it out with some of the prominent developers out there too, including some in the open source world. I'm probably going to get my hands on this, not just for the included games, but the possibility that downloading other free games will be made easier.
(sorry if this got posted more than once, I'm getting weird formkeys errors...)
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
macs run on different architecture all together..
Thats why I run a dual cpu winxp box. I can run IRC/Winamp/SSH/Xwin/email/xwin in the background, and it doesnt take any cpu time away from my counterstrike or tribes. In fact, I dont even reboot anymore. I dont even close tasks for memory, I just load a game and play. I still get 60+fps
WinXP cleartype and stability make it a perfect workstation. *Note I didnt say server, nothing beats *nix for a server.
--
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. - Abraham Maslow
"...excuse me for being...a braindead open source chimp..." youre excused.
Dont ask me...Im just the bass player.
A dual system to do all that? A bit excessive, perhaps. It really shouldn't take a dual system for all of that.
...
I tend to get a quite a bit out of just a Pentium III 800, but this is all beside the point.
The things I run in the background are not CPU demanding, and they go into Wait status pretty quietly. (Explorer uses hardly any CPU time if it's not actively doing anything, and that's true for WinAMP, Outlook, ICQ, AIM, AVG, etc... basically anything most people are likely to be running)
But even if MS Operating Systems DO perform "Well enough", the point I was trying to make originally is that the level of multitasking they perform isn't really on the level of Unix. It's certainly not as efficient, and it's definately not preemptive.
But yes, I certainly agree that Windows XP makes a great Workstation OS; Windows 2000/XP is a serious improvement over the previous Windows 95/98/SE/ME
Windows is becoming stable. Linux is gaining viability as a gaming platform. Pretty soon the merits of one over the other will be judged less over technical features and more over such things as cost and legalities.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
There is an interesting transcript of a chat with Jacques Le Marois, head of Mandrakesoft. Most of his 44 answers are predictable but I didn't expect that he would predict a 99% market share for linux on the PC in the next years !(with 20% or 30% for mandrake)
Yes 99 percent !
The text is in french but I used this excellent translation engine and mirrored the original translation.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
"I just like decent package management!!" tells ME you are already there, my friend..;)
Put identity in the browser.
It will start october 22. From their website :
...
TransGaming's subscription services will be available in fall 2001. For just $5 a month, subscribers will be able to directly support our work on Wine and will be able to vote on which games we should work on next. We want you to be a full participant in the development process, not just an innocent bystander!
Once 20,000 subscribers are signed up, TransGaming will release all its current code under the Wine license. In many ways, TransGaming subscription model is an economic experiment in novel mechanisms for funding Open Source projects. For more insight, please have a look at our Open Source Philosophy.
If you are interested in subscribing, please fill out our Survey, and we'll get back to you when our code is ready for widespread public consumption.
Interesting, yes but 5$ each month just to vote
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
Linux really needs something like OSX, so incredible GUI and applications (and support!), that everything you want to do, you can just do it as "point and click".
.. of course people that don't want those automatically installed guis and want to configure everything by themselfs can still install e.g slackware and install all the components they want..
In short, Linux needs to drop X.
Hmm, it sure would be nice if Apple would port Aqua to Linux (or, better yet, open source it).
Actually a lot of things I have seen indicate that Linux may be slightly ahead of Mac.
A lot of the pro-Mac numbers talk about "total Macs" sold since 1984. Well, I can tell you that probably at least half of those are not gaming machines, and that is just my own idea of seeing them, minus about half to keept it a safe figure.
On desktop, they are probably slightly ahead. But overall, I am not so sure.
Fred is a DBA, so Windows "major major asset" is DB modeling tools.
Recent Oracle clients run on Java technology. Java technology runs on Linux86; Fred can download a Linux version of the SDK or the smaller JRE.
Sally is a project manager, so Windows "major major asset" is project tools.
She can use MrProject or Toutdoux.
Biff is an accountant, so Windows "major major asset" is spreadsheet software.
Like Gnumeric?
The situation with office apps does not parallel like the situation with Photoshop vs. GIMP. Most office suite users do not need the "high-end features" that Microsoft pushes on users with each new relea$e. Even then, those who clone MS Office don't have to worry about broad color-correction patents that play a significant part in keeping GIMP from matching Photoshop's feature set.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I tried out Mandrake a couple of years ago and it already shipped with BSDgames and several versions of Tetris
Mandrake has never shipped with a Tetris brand product. The Tetris Company has not licensed the TETRIS trademark for software running on any POSIX system. Of course, the Windows 3.1 Entertainment Pack (which contains an outdated version of Tetris) will probably run under Wine, and Mandrake shipped with a lot of independently produced falling tetramino games (i.e. clones of Tetris).
If you really want an innovative tetrisclone, don't spring for Tetris Worlds on GBA. Get TOD: Tetanus On Drugs. Source and Windows binaries are included; DOS and Linux binaries are just a recompile away.
Will I retire or break 10K?
What really would own, would be API that has support both in windows, linux, mac
You mean like the Allegro library? It's like SDL but it has primitives (line, rect, circle, etc. make retro wireframe games easier) and a simple GUI layer, and your games will run on windows, linux, beos, mac os, and even DOS.
Durn form keys... Over a dozen bugs have already been filed at sourceforge for this issue.Will I retire or break 10K?
Games do not run as well under wine as they do nativly. There are graphics glitches, and countless flaws that cause problems. People will go out and buy windows games, and find that they run slowly, or badly, and assume it's just because Linux is terrible at games. This will also deter companies from porting to Linux because the games already run under wine.
BUT, native Linux games do run really well. All the native Linux games I've played (Quake1,2,3, Tribes2, UT, sof, etc) run really well. As for raw framerate, they are about the same (In heavy benchmarks Linux scores roughly 10% higher, but this isnt that noticeable in real gameplay). The benefits come from things like loading time, etc. Starting quake3, loading levels, etc run 3-4 times faster in linux than in windows, and it also handles heavy loads a lot better. It just overall feels more responsive.
So while wineX is a good way to increase linux gaming support, it will not really make developers port there games to linux.
I'll probably get modded down for this, but it needs to be said:
I really don't care if Linux is accepted as a desktop OS. It works great for me now. X, Emacs, and TeX are all I need anyway. What else could you want?
My other car is first.
Actually, there is nothing at all wrong with the effort on StarOffice/OpenOffice. I think it should continue, and I have some good reasons that have nothing to do with duplicating MS Office.
The single greatest feature of free/open software is that any competent person can add the features s/he needs. Having all of the basic components gives a lot of people a platform to build upon. In the case of office suites, this is the place where localization into minority languages is most likely to take place. MS is not interested in tiny markets. That lack of interest is only going to hasten the decline of many languages. It doesn't take a market of millions for free/open tools to get localized into those languages. In fact, I suspect that a dedicated group of less than a dozen programmers who know a language can do it.
When we look at the bigger picture, we have the capacity to create a target that can never be pinned down. The reason lies in the Bazaar that ESR referred to in his essay. With a large enough number of people, all addressing their own problems, scratching their own itches, we can have software that solves an enormous number of unusual problems.
Free software/open source will win the race by defining it. And the definition will be simply the answers to the question, "What have we made it do today?" We won't beat Microsoft, any more than Microsoft beat IBM. Microsoft defined a market and won it.
Frankly, I don't mind if Microsoft does well. In fact, given the inter-dependencies in the stock markets, I hope they do. I just want software that solves my problems. It seems that I keep having to build it. So long as there are millions of people who want what open/free software provides, it won't die. That's what I care about.
I am a W2K power user. I love my games and hot hardware (GF3). I've been geeky my whole life. I've played w/ many distro's of Linux and it is fun to play w/, but for me it's not a desktop replacement. W2K offers better driver support, easier/quicker updates and installs to get back to the reguler stuff, 99.5% of games are Windows only. Wine is nice and it does run a lot of stuff, but not w/ the reliability and ease of use of just running windows. Linux is still doomed to sit on the 2nd hard drive of many geeks, and nowhere near Joe Intel. And run mainly by a few M$ hating "I'm better/smarter than you because I run Linux." types. I'm not saying that's how all Linux users are. Like I said Debian is sitting on my second hard drive w/ a few bios clicks to run it. However, W2K offers EVERYTHING I need so day to day that's where I'll stay. If I feel like playing around, I'll switch over and run Linux for a few hours until the urge for some CS hits.
I first came to IBM PC in order to play Ultima VII :'we'll never need more'), and use of paging memory, a EMM386 story...
All other motivation was just some excuses !!!
And at that time, I was using a C64.
So when I take My IBM 386sx25 with a hidden dos and a graphic interface that prevents you to do ohter thing than lotus 1-2-3.
I had a hard time.
Remember, Ultima VII needs near 600 Ko of the famous 640 ko (thanks bill for the
I totally srcew up the install, resinstall Dos, learn dos, learn driver management, learn memory management (this was because programmers rarely make user manual, they make developper manual...)
And after 3 days without sleeping, I manage to play to Ultima VII. And it was great !
My friends also go to PC world bevause of games, Monkey island was a goo motivation, for example...
Look at what OS has the more games... And what OS has everything to be on top, but doesn't spread...
All ways that can give us games on linux are good !! All !
And because gamers are tweakers (do you know quake mods ? they are written in quake-c often by people that didn't program at all !), Linux will gain much, much of this communauty !!
Just remember :
GAMES IS THE FUTURE OF THE HUMANITY !!!
(As work will be for the robots, and sex cannot be the meaning of a life...)
Okay, meanwhile, we'll have to do a certain revolution to kick ass of rich, powerful people that think they ca master our lifes... without asking us.. But It'll come !!
A windows gamer, A linux programmer, a life enjoyer !
I run Coutnerstrike under the debian unstable snapshots of wine. There is a howto out there. Check out lhl.linuxgames.com
Talking about shiny new games and geek toys in the same sentence as mentioning November 9th! Don't you know that Europeans write the day before the month, you heartless moron! I'm sure that the French will be more busy to mop up what'll be left of the Tour Montparnasse than to drool over the new Mandrake release.
Yea, it is "unbeliavable" but a sims executable for Linux already exist.
What happened to it is Loki Games. Loki didn't accept the "price" of license and since no other game companies like Loki on Linux, it was canceled.
As a licensed owner of the game, it made me mad for sure. Months of watching newsgroups for a "light" for Wine compatability of the game, it of course shocked me.
Sounds unbeliavable?
Here is the link of that story: http://www.linuxgames.com/news/index.php3/4035
Don Hopkins did it, a sims executable for linux natively exist and now Mandrake and Transgaming tries to run it via (ok, not emulator) Wine.
It sounds tragi-comic to me, am I alone?
This is just an advertising gimmick; nothing new is being advertised (winex is already available, they are just putting it in a pretty package with some windows game).
There are people out there that do not use the computers as 'general purpose' machine but for a specific purpose, and always the same. And many PC are sold expecially for a purpose: Games. So it quite logic to build a distribution to address this need (if Linux is ready for that is another question).
Linux distributors starts to realize that the 'package and support' business model pays more when you address vertical market segments. Want a web server/firewall/game machine/database engine/whatever ? Just insert the CD, follow installation instructions and you are done.
Linux and open-source software, because of flexibility and aboundance of tools, are quite good to build vertical solutions. Moreover, this allows distributors to sell basically the same things in more than a shrink-wrapped box, sort of like car manifacturers uses the same engine/components for more than one car.
If these pre-built solutions are valid and the price is right, most people will buy them, instead of try to build their own out of pieces downloaded from the Net.
Ciao
----
FB
It's time the Linux distributions accepts that they can't do everything themselves and adds a simple "installer" to help out with downloading MS's free truetype fonts, emulated plugins for Konqueror etc.
Mandrake aren't allowed to distribute the nvidia drivers with their distro if I remember correctly. So what's the point of releasinga gamers OS when alot of the gamer's market will have extremely slow performance compared to their windows install?
hi :D
good translation, but OS (Operating System in english) is translated BONE. Quite funny for a frenchy like me
I'd like to say also that Mandrake should maybe packaage a distro with Quake on Lan.
The wannabe hard-core gamers would like it very much. And as I can see here, pubs with networked PCs are beginning to catch people more than classic arcade ones. It's maybe the future.
My 0.02 euros
Im all for the TransGaming WineX and all, but I don't like the game-bundling ideas. I would get this if it weren't for the semi-high price tag, and I don't want The Sims. Mandrake isn't the best distribution either, although this takes them up several notches in my opinion. As you can tell from my username, I like *BSD. So, I think that the guys at FreeBSD should start doing stuff like this.
OK I edited the translation.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
>Like it or not, Windows Update is much easier
>to use for the Unwashed Masses than is cvs
However, Mandrake's update tool is easier to use (and more current) than Windows Update. I'd even say it's slightly more accessible to the unclued due to its default presence on the desktop.
Number of times I've compiled my own kernel since installing Mandrake for the first time in 1999: zero.
Number of times I've EVER had to check code out of cvs for my home machine, even when I ran Slackware: zero.
The roll-your-own, alpha-software-on-a-production-server, Slack-or-nothing crowd will always be out there. I'm here to say it's now possible to run a stable production Linux box, desktop or server, without even installing gcc. Security announcements get mailed to you, you run the update tool, click "Install", and you're done. It's not only possible, it's *great*. Don't kid yourself, it's not 1994 any more.
Actually the situation exactly parallels Photoshop versus GIMP
Broad patents and all?
Attacking you was pointless, but then so is your response. I didn't see many posts complaining about new Linux gamers, just the opposite. But there is a valid concern about gaining ground by emulating Windows. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
LVS: "Feel my sting, Jon."
JS: "It's hard to feel your sting, Lord Vipor, while you're adjusting your mask."
I can see a few Linux gamers looking sideways at it, but for the sake of Linux's reputation, I hope no Windows games actually expect to get any action from anything other than Starcraft and Half-Life. Sorry but it's true. Plus we need some Linux ports that take full advantage of LINUX, not a Windows compatibility layer trying to be something it isn't.
I dual boot between Win2K (service packless) and Mandrake (recently upgraded to 8.1), and dearly wish I had your lack of problems. 3 BSOD's a year? I probably average twice that a week, and that's not an exaggeration. I can all but guarentee a BSOD just by firing up Roxio's EZ-CD Creator 5. Win2K is NOT a stable platform. At least, not for me.
Conversely, Mandrake has yet to belly-up once. YMMV.
x86 hardware takes a 20-25% hit on IO alone, a dual cpu machine can help with this, you don't feel the sudden loss of responsive when you open a floppy or work with files.
With PC hardware getting so cheap, 512meg-1gig of ram should be common in machines. Might as well have as much of a IO buffer as you can use. I'm waiting for the AMD XP/MP 1800+ duals to come out. Thou, I'm my FPS is just starting to drop in newer games, I might wait for 2000+ and a gf3 ti500.
Bleah... I hate to say it, but I suspect the real reason they included a game like "The Sims" has much more to do with the lower demands on the video adapter than anything else.
One of the biggest headaches with Linux and X is getting the accelerated 3D support working properly with games. Sure, Quake usually works pretty well - but look how many 3D shooters there are, and how few tried doing a Linux port. Even Unreal Tournament for Linux is very picky... I often had it working fine with my 3DFX Voodoo 3 board, only to have it break when I upgraded an RPM of one thing or another.
Games that don't require lots of fast, 3D scrolling are automatically more Linux-friendly -- and The Sims is probably the biggest selling example of one of these types of games in recent history. So there you have it....
I don't think any system can be excessive for a home machine. The more power you have the better, video games, video/audio editing, compiling, etc...
I agree with this, but I didn't mean "excessive" as in "More than Anybody Needs", but rather -- more than enough to perform the tasks requested.
There will always be situations where more is better, but there will also be points where more isn't noticable.
I was simply stating you can get great performance in the 800 to 1 ghz range -- but that doesn't mean Windows multitasks as well as Unix, it simply means our machines are getting so fast we hardly notice anymore.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
The current linux kernel isn't preemptive either.
[The good point is there are a lot of Linux users that would like to play games, but do NOT want to install Windows (either pirated or original) because we know where that road ends...]
Where that ends..
You make it sound like windows is really addictive, like a crackOS or something. And perhaps not wrongly so, I've seen XP, and the amount of tweaking it requires to not feel like you are on some freaky circus-sideshow ride, with some evil unseen force pulling the switches, is huge..
But hey, the the day there are true print-quality graphic/layout applictions, and flash/shockwave production tools for linux, I see no point sticking to any version of windows.
-By attempting the impossible we can achieve the absurd..