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Winex 3.0 Released
syntaxman writes "You'll find the information thread here, or see the release notes. The pre-packaged files (rpms,debs,tarballs) are available only for subscribers."
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I am so close to switching over to linux, since the work that I do is mostly java programming and web design. Just the fact that I really like to play a couple games now and again.
I am just wondering if we will ever get the performance we get with games under windows. I know that they have a couple games ported, but in games like FPS where framerates are so important. I think that if Wine can perform in this area, we would see a lot more conversions to linux. Games sell computers, think of the first application that you baught, I know I didn't buy a word processor first(Links386 to be exact).
Now flame me if i am wrong, but doesn't wine work on some sort of Virtual Machine, thus adding an extra layer between the hardware and the code?
.. the Wine package for some reason has been removed from the RedHat Linux 9 distribution according to release notes..
OS/2 only lost because they didnt try. I didnt see a single OS/2 on any computer except for maybe IBMs computers and eventually IBM even took it off their own computers.
So if OS/2 did bad it was because of IBM, I had wanted to get OS/2 Warp and an IBM but the cost was ridiculous, this is why I never purchased it and its the same reason I never owned a mac.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
WineX tackles the chicken and egg problem linux has been experiencing, if you cant grasp that...dont use it..stick with your few ported games.
Gaming is a single-tasking app. While Windows supports every Windows game by definition, winex will by definition always be playing catchup. I have no need to integrate Windows games with a Linux desktop, so I might as well reboot into a Windows partition.
Think about that again - let software developers the freedom to choose to add a linux port wheter they need one or not!
If we have binary emulation of windows apps more people will use linux, and if more people use linux more companies will port their product to native linux. but for the user winex is a really good thing, some companies just can't spend money on a linux port for this few thousand sales atm.
Theres enough Windows users to buy those Native ports using linux.
How do you attract Windows users? With games. You have to start somewhere, you need a market of gamers before you can sell games. Heres how it can work, use WineX to bring tons of new games, get maybe a million gamers to switch to Linux.
Now you have a million linux gamers, little independent Linux development companies can sell games, let the big companies sit on the fence while the little linux companies make plenty of money selling games, and suddenly the big companies will see how much money they could be making and start to port.
This is the only way, you need games to attract gamers, and you need gamers to attract games. So bring games, increased gamers = increased games.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
According to the forums X-Com: Apocalypse doesn't work at all (it's not even listed in the games section), anyone knows if it is possible to run it in dosemu instead? I'd say it's one of the best games ever made, a shame that Microprose never released a patch to fix the quite serious bugs in it. Quite annoying when you after countless hours of playing discovered that all savegame files were corrupted meaning that you couldn't finish the game...
While I can't read minds, I believe Loki's little project may have retarded native port development. I realize it was taking a long time for Loki to get anything out there, but the fact is that if Loki had been making money hand over fist.. The big developers (EA etc) wouldve said hey.. Let's exploit this new market.. but it didn't happen.. I wouldve thought there were enough Linux people out there to start a market, but I guess not. Probably the next best thing would have to be a company (like Loki) just receiving massive donations so they stay afloat and can advertise better..
Does anyone have the .torrent file for this? Good to distribute the load rather than kill their server.
KDE is worth using now?
I think we have to be fair in acknowledging that Loki had no market because there aren't enough gamers using Linux. This is changing, albeit slowly, and I've seen a number of friends and colleagues consider the switch from MS to Linux. The can consider such a move largely because of WineX. Once there is enough gamers using Linux and willing to use Linux as a primary platform for games then ports will make sense.
It think it would be interesting to get some details out of BioWare on their experiences with putting out a Linux port for Neverwinter Nights. Many Linux gamers, frustrated with the wait and perception of "vaporware", turned to Wine/WineX to play the game under Linux. Now that the client is out in public Beta (and it works great, BTW), they are able to play it natively. The big question is was all this effort worth it to BioWare's bottom line, because that is what makes a project like this possible.
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
Here are a few tasty snippets from Wine HQ - Why Wine is so important and Wine HQ - Debunking Wine Myths which I feel answer you better than I can:
From the first page:
Any Windows replacement must run Windows applications
The dependency is not so much on Microsoft Windows as it is on Windows applications. Boxed off-the-shelf applications, games, in-house applications, vertical market applications, are what prevents users, companies and governments from switching to another operating system. Even if 90% of the needs of most users are taken care of if you can provide them with an office suite, an email client, a browser, and a media player, then there will still be a remaining 10% of their needs, potentially critical needs, that are not met. Unfortunately these remaining 10% are spread across a wide spectrum of applications: thousands of applications running the gamut from games to specialized accounting software for French farms, via Italian encyclopedias, German tax software, child education software, banking software, in-house software representing years of development, etc. It is the availability of all this software that makes Windows so compelling and its monopoly so strong. No platform will become mainstream unless it runs a significant portion of that software and lets individuals, companies and governments preserve their investments in that software.
Chicken-and-egg problem for Linux on the desktop
This brings us to the chicken and egg issue of Linux on the desktop. Until Linux can provide equivalents for the above applications, its marketshare on the desktop will stagnate. But until the marketshare of Linux on the desktop rises, no vendor will develop applications for Linux. How does one break this vicious circle?
Again, Wine can provide an answer. By letting users reuse the Windows applications they have invested time and money in, Wine dramatically lowers the barrier that prevents users from switching to Linux. This then makes it possible for Linux to take off on the desktop, which increases its market share in that segment. In turn, this makes it viable for companies to produce Linux versions of their applications, and for new products to come out just for the Linux market.
This reasoning could be dismissed easily if Wine was only capable of running Solitaire. However now it can run Microsoft Office, multi-media applications such as QuickTime and Windows Media Player, and even games such as Max Payne or The SIMS.
Almost any other complex application can be made to run well given a bit of time. And each time that work is done to add one application to this list, many other applications benefit from this work and become usable too.
And now for one of the myths:
Myth 2: "Wine is bad for Linux"
One undeniable fact exists: there is a vast software library that works with Microsoft's operating systems. Many of these applications already have Linux equivalents, however for most people there remains a handful of programs keeping them tied to Windows. Some of these programs have almost no chance of getting ported to Linux (e.g. Microsoft Office), others simply can't be ported because they've become abandonware (e.g. Turbotax 1999). Would I want to have Windows just because someday I may need to access an old tax program?
The fact that Wine exists won't prevent companies from porting their software, but having less than a few percentage points of marketshare will. Wine puts more free software into the hands of people who would otherwise not use it. In turn, history has repeatedly shown that larger marketshare leads to more commercial development. More commercial development has always led to more efforts to develop better free software equivalents.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle