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Newly Released WineX 2.2 Supports EverQuest
Mattzilla writes "The latest release of
Transgaming's WineX (details available here) now supports EverQuest. You asked for it, here it is. This release also has Direct 3D and Direct Show updates as well as fixes for Mandrake 9.0 and RedHat 8.0 CD device auto-detection. With EverQuest now under Linux I'm sure a great deal of people won't find a need to be dual-booting any longer." The EverQuest support is called "preliminary"; check out those release notes for a few known problems and workarounds.
Transgaming is nice and all, but it seems that all the momentum is over porting games. When are we going to see ACT! and VisiCalc running on a Linux box? What about Norton Utilies?
More games are good (even one with EverQuests fatal reputation) but it seems like it's the "sexy" side of WINE that causes the most "geek lust." What about the plainjane broad that's your ticket into corporate America?
It's the classic case of love vs. security. Will it be the penniless Citar player or the evil Majarajah? Right now, my pendulum is swinging towards the Majarah (maybe it's the recession?).
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
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
The Raven
But, just seeing that, finally got me off my ass enough to subscribe. I tried it yesterday, and it worked for a little bit, then crashed. And it took forever to load. However, I can now look forward to breaking away from the EULAs from Hell.
There are four boxes used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.
I really wonder: Do we need Wine anymore? Mono will open .Net programs for linux execution. Wxwindows and winelib enable easy ports. QT allows plattform independancy. Java - apllications run under Linux OS.
Hmm, would be nice to have a OO - fork that imitates WinWord-GUI, like Abiword (sorry, not mature yet).
There are much more applications than two years ago, games, great software.
Windows Software? Dreamweaver, of course. I also like the SQL wizard of MS-Access, despite of Acess sql syntax.
Perhaps even the big gaming companys like Sony and Nintendo will base future game engines releases on Linux OS.
OpenGL is fine, but directX is superior.
Even Windows is going to be cloned: www.xpde.com
I prefer KDE, 3.1 looks amazing (forget Bluefish!)
Uh, we HAVE been bugging developers to make native versions... newsflash: it isn't working. I think WineX is a good thing(tm .. sorry, had to say it) at first, as it will lure new users if they are able to play their Windows games under Linux. If the userbase increases, it gives developers more of a reason to write native versions of the software.
The entire purpose of Linux is to avoid MS? Oh, that's rich. Maybe you should start bitching at the Samba team and the kernel devs who add in optional support for the Windows file system.
Please... Linux is NOT a religion. It is an Operating System, a means to an end. Nothing less. Nothing more. (and before anyone says it, yes I understand the philosophy of Open Source and even agree with much of it. I just don't believe it is the be-all, end-all of software development)
-- Jim
The advantage of Wine is that a developer could write their game for DirectX and have it work for both Windows, XBOX, and Linux. If WineX was a perfect implementation of the Win32 gaming APIs, then everyone wins!
Linux people can use linux to play games and do work.
Windows people play their games.
Some people will never switch from windows, but those that are on the edge (because of games) could be easily swayed because of projects like this.
If enough people are using linux, then eventuatly people will start to write games for them. It's only a matter of time.
I primarily play military turned based games and the dearth of those games for Linux has led me to a mixed bag of solutions. One of them has been to use Freedos to run DOS games such as Steel Panthers (MBT) Main Battle Tank and Steel Panthers III. But is has been the Safedisc protected CD of the Talonsoft series of game which has been the most frustrating for me. I have spend a couple of years in a wargaming club working for a club wide game using East Front II running on a Linux box under Wine. Why not Win2000 or WinXP? Try the cost for starters, and then security issues and finally the EULAs and the service packs. I want, I NEED to run east Front II on a Linux box. To that end I have been a subscriber to Transgaming and even though I don't care for the voting system (only because East Front II isn't as popular as some of the others) I will continue to subscribe to transgaming on the hope they can finally get EFII to run. It has been a frustrating year for me, and I have gone as far as gaining some of the tools needed to crack EFII so I can run it on a Linux platform. Is Transgaming efforts doom to failure in a commercial sense? Who cares? For me the issue is to get these games running well on a true multitasking/multiuser platform and I will as well as hopefully more people will continue to subscribe to Transgaming. Microsoft's main strength has been in computer gaming but even that market is apparently moving onto the "more secure" Xbox. Windows games on Linux is an economic alternative to rising license/OS costs, and as I said before Transgaming is well worthy of continuing support. It's only $5.00 USD a month. Disclaimer: I have no financial stake in Transgaming.)
Dawn of the Dead
What joystick device does WineX use? How do I get joystick support for X-Plane, and I asked for the name of a WineX game/demo that joysticks are known to work for. I get a half assed instructions on how to install a joystick under kernel 2.4.x and ticket closed.
Well my joystick has always worked under Linux, I complained about the response, they said they answered my question, I asked them to reread the question, they then gave me the name of a demo, my joystick worked with that demo. They also said it was a their practice to close tickets without customer feedback. In general they were plain rude.
My joystick still does not work with X-plane, I would also like to have a descent combat flight simulator like Aces High both games load and run well except the joystick does not work!
Get a free ipod.
For the most part I have never been really impressed with wine-x as a whole. I had issues with warcraft III and all i got from transgaming was something along the lines of "oh that don't work, sorry your SOL" kind of response.
One thing that irks me about winex and to complete the subject of this reply is that most Linux applications that i have actually bought, winex is the worst support oriented one yet. By this you will notice that nothing is ever mentioned on thier web site about using SuSE, and it isn't like SuSE isn't some backwater distro ? So why is it that SuSE seems to be silently ignored.
I guess they have investments mostly in mandrake and only support mandrake fully, and if the word "linux" is utter in a public forum red hat comes to mind.
I guess i take the stance that if you are making a linux product then you should at least support the big 3 (Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE) and have instructions and more info for the Gentoo crowd. To me this would make wine-x a complete product.
For what it is worth i won't be updating my subscription, since this is really just a temporary fix and don't see much long term value in thier product as games are moving more and more to the console market. I play mostly on my PS2 anyhow warcraft 3 was a small exception. But now i just play on my Mac with no goofy tricks i just play it, which is all i wanted to do in the first place.
Some everquest player committed suicide about 6-8 months ago. It got worse when his mom sued Verrant/SOE (and lost). The 'toilet' joke is a referrence to the guy who died in the Korean Internet cafe a few days ago... He had been gaming for like 80+ hours straight and they found him dead on the toilet of the establishment.
I know more than you drink.
It's a compelling argument you make. My office is currently investigating a Microsoft Outlook deployment. I eagerly searched for open-source/free software alternatives that achieve the same integrated functionality, and came up lacking.
It's better to use free software on a non-free operating system than to use no free software at all, but it's worthwhile to examine the possibility that the Cygwin project, among others, are making it easier for people to stay with Microsoft Windows than use GNU/Linux, just as it's worthwhile to wonder whether Wine and WineX are are keeping more people tied to Windows as well.
My personal experience? Administrators using Cygwin become very impressed with the power of the *nix-like environment. They begin using it on a day-to-day basis, and see no reason to stop using Microsoft Windows on their desktops.
Until the day they run up against the huge limitations of using Cygwin, be it the performance penalty, lack of target platform support in many popular software packages, or simply any one of a string of painful interoperability problems. They then install GNU/Linux on a second partition or a second machine, and experience the full power of the operating system, and amazing graphical user interfaces which have been blazing trails for the last 2 years that Microsoft has attempted to follow. In turn, the best innovations of the MS desktop have been integrated into these free projects, as well.
So I'd have to say that because of the enormous minority situation GNU/Linux is in, Cygwin and running free software applications on a proprietary operating system like Microsoft Windows is an excellent "Gateway Drug" for power users, and eventually lesser users. Likewise, being able to run non-free software on a free system eventually leads to the replacement of that non-free piece by those who value software freedom over the convenience or entertainment value of the non-free software.
From my point of view, all roads lead to the ultimate "killer app" of the GNU/Linux world: the General Public License and the open culture it forces on otherwise selfish individuals and corporations. Yep, it's viral, and those who wish to take away software freedom hate it. Heck, a lot of freedom-loving individuals hate it too because it infringes on *their* individual freedom by requiring them to contribute their code back to the common pool. Love it or hate it, it's the reason why people are migrating to GNU/Linux from proprietary systems (of all types) in unheard-of numbers.
Matthew P. Barnson
I learn what I think when I read what I write