Slashdot Mirror
WineX 2.0
ZaMoose writes "Looks like Transgaming has released version 2.0 of WineX (with full support for Jedi Knight II and initial 3D sound support. Joy!) Prepackaged .debs and .rpms are available only to subscribers, but you can always just download and compile it yourself (you just won't get the nifty SafeDisk workarounds/InstallShield proprietary stuff)."
But still...
It'd be really nice if games were ported/developed for linux. Then people will start switching operating systems. Nobody cares if you can run certain programs on linux with a bit of hacking except for those of us who already run linux. Recompile these games for linux, use standards such as opengl, etc...
That being said, I really like seeing these things coming to linux. I love playing certain computer games, and really hate that they are only written for windows (I miss you loki). But hey, I'm off to play some JK II now
They provide a truly useful service for Linux gamers at a very reasonable price (far cheaper than most games) where purchasers actually get control over the direction of the project with their subscriptions. They also make their source code avaliable to anyone, sans the copy protection needed to play a lot of protected games. Install WineX from their source, test the non-copy protected demo version of your game, and if it works, buy WineX.
/sbin/ldconfig
/sbin/ldconfig
_ libdir}/*
That said, they're two ways to install software on Linux. One is RPM, the other has non standard install, uninstall, auditing and verification, leaves crap all over your system, makes it a nigthmare to build applications upon, and generally sucks. Here's a spec file you can use to create source and binary packages of Winex.
Summary: Runs Windows programs (especially multimedia ones) under Linux
Name: winex
Version: 20020407
Release: 1mm
Source0: %{name}-%{version}.tar.bz2
License: APSL
Group: Applications/Emulators
BuildRoot: %{_builddir}/%{name}-%{version}
Requires: kernel >= 2.4, XFree86-devel, gcc >= 2.7.2, flex >= 2.5
Requires: bison, glibc >= 2
%description
TransGaming WineX is a derivative of the Wine project. Wine is an implementation of
the Microsoft® Win32® APIs on top of UNIX and X-Windows - in essence, it is a Window
s® compatibility layer. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows to be installed, as
it provides an alternative implementation of Windows written from scratch with no Mi
crosoft code whatever.
TransGaming WineX includes a new implementation of the Microsoft DirectX multimedia
APIs, including Direct3D - the core graphics system most Windows games use for hardw
are accelerated 3D.
%prep
%setup -q
%build
%configure
make depend
make
%install
%makeinstall
%post -p
%postun -p
%clean
rm -rf %{buildroot}
%files
%defattr(-,root,root)
%{_bindir}/*
%{
%doc README ANNOUNCE BUGS DEVELOPERS-HINTS LICENSE LICENSE.winehq
%changelog
* Sun Apr 7 2002 Mike MacCana 1mm
- Created packages
I disagree with the premise that one can make a difference by not buying PC games, because I don't think Microsoft or game companies would really feel the difference. on the other hand, by supporting transgaming, codeweavers, and other contributers to the wine project (or by contributing your time to the wine project directly), then it will soon be irrelevant to open source people that some companies choose to write their software for windows. we will be able to offer compatibility at an API level, combined with a vastly superior price and support model.
Companies write software for windows because people who own windows tend to _purchase_ their software (because they don't know about the free alternatives). Windows users are used to shelling out money for software, even "free" shareware.
Linux and BSD, however, now have several good office products, excellent networking support including email, web browsers, and server software, and user-friendly distributions. when it becomes possible to play windows games and use legacy windows software, computer distributers will find competitive advantage in selling Linux or BSD pre-installed computers for $500 with hundreds of whizbang features which would cost several $1000's to provide under windows.
Linux & BSD distributions offer far better value for the money than windows already.. the only advantage windows has now is a commercial software base, and it would be a tremendous boon for open source operating system users to have access to all of that old legacy software.
Companies who develop X-Windows native software will continue to enjoy a vastly superior user interface over old, worn out windows software running under wine, so I really don't think it will be a problem to find companies willing to develop cross-platform or Linux native software using any number of convenient libraries which are already available. (Eg. Java, Qt, wx-windows, modular development best practices, etc.)
What ever happenned with that? Did they reach the number of subscribers? Did they scrap that idea?
I personally am always doubtful, when people claim that they are going to release source under an open source license at some future date. From what I've seen they seem to change their mind over half the time.
I guess, I really don't care either way if release the source or not. I'm not subscribed and so they're under no obligation to me, but I was just curious.