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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
If you get the CVS version you have to use No-CD cracks for games that have SafeDisk or SecuRom.
You can find most No-CD cracks (legally!) from your local www.gamecopyworld.com mirror
I highly suggest paying the $5 a month though. I have been doing it since the first day Transgaming set it up - and I will continue to do so. It is a great community and a great project - and its benefits are direct (no more rebooting!).
Derek
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.)
It seems that everyone missed the biggest new feature of this official release. This is the first official release of WineX with DirectX 8.0 support, meaning the newest games have a chance to work.
Holy shit!
It is perfect! I was playing in 1024x768x32 and it is flawless. Everything is there, sound, FPS, movies, everything is just as it is in Windows! In fact I think it even loaded the levels faster than it does in windows - very cool.
Seriously, on the FPS side, I couldn't tell a bit of difference from playing it in windows. This is on a 1.2Ghz Tbird with 512MB of RAM and a Geforce3TI500 using the newest nvidia drivers (2880).
It even installed perfectly and added itself to my kde desktop/menu.
Great job transgaming!
Time to try some more games!
Derek
Lost in this release is a far more important announcement. Transgaming is throwing support behind a fork of Wine: ReWind!
Seems, they take issue with the recent change of licenses for Wine. They are actively encouraging developers to contribute to there X11 fork. Understanding that a vote of the developers leaves there branch in the minority, they are touting cash incentives and the some of there 2.0 source as bait.
The war of the branches begins...
Remember, Wine Is Not an Emulator... It will only run windows programs on x86 hardware.. The win32 binaries still run natively (sort of) under linux. Wine does not translate machine instructions from x86 to whatever you're running, it just moves them around more to linux's (or BSD, or hypothetically any other x86 native OS's) liking. So, as long as MacOS only runs on PPC (foreseeable future, which is fine...) it will never run wine in its current incarnation. There would have to be a true emulator in there somewhere to do that...
Oh you mean like the brain dead interface to the ATI pixel shaders that DX8 exposes versus the fully functional opengl extensions. Oh ok yeah like Carmack hasn't gone on a rant about that one. DX is just good enough that lazy ppl use it.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
It's a question of motivation of game writers.
Scenario A.
Goal: I want to popularize the platform XYZ, because I think it's great. I want more people to use platform XYZ.
Action: Let's implement some game for XYZ.
Scenario B.
Goal: I have a great idea for new game. I want more people to play my game.
Action: Let's choose some platform that (a) allows to write games easily and (b) delivers games to broad audience.
Rhetorical questions:
- Which scenario delivers better games?
- What is the platform of choice in scenario B?
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.
This is FUD.
Transgaming plans on releasing many pieces to the X11 Wine branch for two good reasons.
1. It costs more to maintain these many code deltas from the main (Rewind) tree. If they are general bug fixes that aren't strategic like DirectX or InstallShield, they want to release it to X11 so they don't have to use resources to keep maintaining it.
2. For strategic pieces like COM for InstallShield, they plan on trading those pieces for other LGPL Wine pieces that they need. For example, if they want a certain LGPL piece, they may consider licensing their own ASPL piece if that LGPL piece is also made X11. Everyone benefits.
I personally support both Transgaming and CodeWeavers financially. I hope both succeed and continue to improve Wine for everyone.