Slashdot Mirror
Linspire To Run Windows Games
Ken writes "Aviran's Place reports that Linspire and TransGaming released Cedega for the Linspire desktop Linux operating system, allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box."
Not a linspire fan, but i think its about time someone's thinking this way. Portability is key for widespread acceptance, and I like cedega, because in my experience, it works.
sigSEGV - doy!
Does it play Solitaire?
at 45USD a year, I think I will pass on that ...
Kevin Carmony, president and CEO of Linspire, Inc. ..."Point2Play with Cedega is so easy and affordable, you'll be able to play Windows games on Linspire for less than it would cost to purchase a Windows system."
Cedega = $44.95
Game X = $40-50
Total = $80-95
Windows Home = $100~
Windows Pro = $130~
Windows Longhorn = Unknown
Makes sense to me.
-Teiresias
Actually, Lindows was supposed to run ALL Windows programs before they scaled back their early claims. Looks like it just got put on the back burner.
"Is this Winkhorst a nova criminal?" "No just a technical sergeant wanted for interrogation."
Yes, but will it run linux?
TransGaming Releases Latest Cedega Portability Technology for Linspire Operating System Gamers Able to Play Hundreds of Microsoft Windows Games on Desktop Linux Right Out of the Box.
Linspire, Inc. and TransGaming Technologies announced the release of Cedega for the Linspire desktop Linux operating system, allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box. TransGaming's innovative Cedega portability technology, combined with the Point2Play graphical front end, offers equivalent game-play experience and performance, making it possible for avid Linux gamers to play titles like Half-Life 2, World of WarCraft and Battlefield 1942 on their machines. The product, which can be downloaded and installed through Linspire's CNR (click and run) software library for $44.95 USD, includes one year of access to Cedega plus regular software updates and membership to TransGaming.
"Gamers don't have to choose between Linux and Windows anymore," said Kevin Carmony, president and CEO of Linspire, Inc. "The release of Cedega technology for Linspire fills one of the most serious application gaps that exist for widespread adoption of desktop Linux. The added bonus is that installation of Point2Play with Cedega is so easy and affordable, you'll be able to play Windows games on Linspire for less than it would cost to purchase a Windows system."
You can play the games right out of the box, assuming that you can get functional drivers for your video card. For all of us who use ATI cards for games, this is not so exciting.
Not to rain on anyone's parade (this is certainly good news for Linux users, though of course it'd be best if it were free), but how much of th ecurrent Linux market overlaps with the Widnows market. It seems to me that if you're buying a gaming rig, you probably already have at least one HDD that boots windows automatically (especially given the relatively incremental hardware advances since last summer). I'm not saying it's not something Linux users should demean, but I'm just not sure that they can count on this gaining Linux market share since those who game, run windows, those who like Linux, run Linux. The Linux community may now run games, but is this supposed to bring new people into the fold as the blurb suggests?
They especially don't have to choose if they decide to say with Windows. I love marketing speak.
"Oh crap" Bill Gates 06/27/05
Link is already dead..
- Newsforge
- ADDICT3D
Linspire, Inc. and TransGaming Technologies today announced the release of Cedega for the Linspire desktop Linux operating system, allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box. TransGaming's innovative Cedega portability technology, combined with the Point2Play graphical front end, offers equivalent game-play experience and performance, making it possible for avid Linux gamers to play titles like Half-Life 2, World of WarCraft and Battlefield 1942 on their machines. The product, which can be downloaded and installed through Linspire's CNR (click and run) software library for $44.95 USD, includes one year of access to Cedega plus regular software updates and membership to TransGaming. For more information or to purchase Cedega for Linspire, please visit www.linspire.com/Cedega.
I agree. Why buy more software for Linux (which is supposed to be mainly open-source) and run Windows programs like Wine? Why not use an actual Windows environment?
:)
Still, though, I'd love to play Madden 2005 on my Linux. It just sounds so forbidden.
That that is, is.
It also uses the Windows security model!
In case of slashdotting...
mirror is here
and article text:
TransGaming Releases Latest Cedega Portability Technology for Linspire Operating System Gamers Able to Play Hundreds of Microsoft Windows Games on Desktop Linux Right Out of the Box.
Linspire, Inc. and TransGaming Technologies announced the release of Cedega for the Linspire desktop Linux operating system, allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box. TransGamings innovative Cedega portability technology, combined with the Point2Play graphical front end, offers equivalent game-play experience and performance, making it possible for avid Linux gamers to play titles like Half-Life 2, World of WarCraft and Battlefield 1942 on their machines. The product, which can be downloaded and installed through Linspires CNR (click and run) software library for $44.95 USD, includes one year of access to Cedega plus regular software updates and membership to TransGaming.
Gamers dont have to choose between Linux and Windows anymore, said Kevin Carmony, president and CEO of Linspire, Inc. The release of Cedega technology for Linspire fills one of the most serious application gaps that exist for widespread adoption of desktop Linux. The added bonus is that installation of Point2Play with Cedega is so easy and affordable, youll be able to play Windows games on Linspire for less than it would cost to purchase a Windows system.
Thats not the point...
I don't want to have to reboot to play a game.
Oh come now. Just try to install Warcraft III with Cedega.
I'm serious, that's the only game I was really hoping to play with Cedega when I tried it out. It flopped hard core, yet, WC3 is on their list of supported games with a flag indicating that it is playable.
Lies.
I read the script, and I think it would help my character's motivation if he was on fire. -Bender
Maybe it's because having to save all your work, rebooting, rebooting again when your game is done, and restoring all your applications to the right state is a HUGE WASTE OF TIME.
Right now, for instance, I have 12 applications open, only a few of which have entirely satisfactory auto-restore-after-shutdown functionality.
Other posters have pointed out that you forgot to add the price of Game X in your Windows numbers.
However, you also forgot to add in the price of Linspire which is ~$80-90 I think.
So 80+40+45=165 for Linspire and $140 for Windows Home or $170 for Windows XP.
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." -Zapp Brannigan
http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20020531/windows _gaming-06.html
Yes, actually it is about half the speed on Linux. But I still think it will become faster. I also think Wine/CVS may catch up to WineX/Cedega in a year or so. After all, the real goal is to not have to leave Linux for atnything.
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
Not really interesting.
Cedaga costs $44.95 and you also need Linspire Five-0 which costs $49.95 so that's almost $95.
I'd rather have a dual-boot system with Windows than some sort of emulation software that may not boot a quarter of my games.
What they say: "allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box."
What they mean: "about 90 or so games run after spending hours changing config files and trying different version of cedega. 90 is nearly 100 right?"
Aside from the obvious flambebaitness of your comment, you're right.
Making most games work with Cedega is dead simple if you use Point2Play (recommended by Transgaming unless you "know what you're doing").
Most every game I've tried on the supported list has worked the first time.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
using an "it costs less" argument will not work:
Windows XP Pro, via bittorrent: $0
Game X, Y, Z, *and* A, via bittorrent: $0
Total: $0
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Bah, you got to it before I did.
;)
Though... if someone were to use the coupon code LycorisWelcome between 7:30AM and 1:00PM PST they could get Linspire 5.0 for free.
...It's a gateway to thousands more user problems. While my hat is off to the Transgaming team for their countless hours of time, effort and dedication to the winex project, and gaming on linux in general, it's far from a good solution. Certainly not one I would unleash on the clueless.
Most games don't play well, or play with really annoying issues. For example, many in-game videos do not play properly in Cedega, and if you can't skip them, you might be sitting there a long time waiting for them to finish. A good example of this is Black and White, where the opening video can't be skipped, and plays at about 3fps.
There was (may be fixed now, I don't know) another issue where you couldn't install games spanning multiple CDs without copying the contents of those CDs to the hard drive. So now you're involving the commandline, and/or file managers in order to install a game. Not quite as point-and-click easy as windows.
Many games which rely on Directplay for their multiplayer functionality do not work at all. Warcraft 3 is a good example of this. Works great single player (assuming you skip all the in-game videos) but fails horribly in multiplayer.
Lastly, most copy protections are not recognised under Cedega/Linux, forcing the user to go out and find a crack for their game.
The solution here is not to run Windows games, but to find more ways to convince major game developers that they should release ports to linux directly. All this Linspire/Transgaming thing is going to do is frustrate people who just want to play games. It will unquestionably leave more with a negative opinion of Linux in general.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
I think consumers are more worried about anti-virus software and spyware blockers. I mean, I looked around and I found virtually *no* anti-virus software for linux desktops! If only I could run Norton Antivirus in Wine, then I could *really* make the switch!
Heck, Linux also needs to get up-to-speed on good defrag software, desktop-icon cleaner software, and maybe a closely bundled browser and media player! There are _a lot_ of opportunites for Wine in this space I believe.
Heck, couldn't someone make a linux distro that boots into X/Wine by default?
Having tried Transgaming's software and gui front end, and only getting 1 game out of the 15 I have to work. It definately isn't worth the $5.00 usd that they want you to pay per month to use their services. Hours of frustrated tweaking, redownloading, reinstalling, reeverything... and still end up with a useless gui that takes up much needed anime room. Save the dough until they actually put some effort into game support. Transgaming forums are full of help requests and zilch for feedback from transgaming. Mr M.
Given the general idea on average geek's opinion on Linspire's suitability for anything, and how Transgaming has kept up their relations with Wine folks and rest of the opensource community, wouldn't it just make sense to call this "Linspire Evil-in-a-Box" and bundle Doom III with it (Not native, of course - running in Cedega!) to draw people's attention away from the true "evil" in the box? =)
But seriously, I've been playing a lot of games in DOSBox lately, and I just wish there was something as brilliant for Windows apps too. A self-contained distro for just playing Windows games might be a great idea - too bad plain Wine just isn't up to the task yet and Cedega isn't open.
(a letter to editor from "a worried Windows 98SE license owner who can't get the damn thing to even boot on the new machine and XP upgrade costs too damn much")
Pure and simple if the Linux community is going to squak about Windows, bash Microsoft, and copy everything they do, then they might as well quit now. Innovation and providing the end users with what they want is where it is at. Microsoft does it, Linux doesn't. Simple.
TuxRacer proves that decent graphics and speed are possible natively on Linux. Linux based game design and publishing is needed, not using Windows games on Linux. As Linux is proven to be capable of running games of its own just fine, more publishers will port their games natively to Linux. Trying to co-opt Windows apps onto Linux is kludgy and ultimately screams "we're unoriginal me-too hacks". The Linux world needs to innovate, carve its own path, and create not copy. Until then, it isn't going to be getting where we want it to go, which is to be loved for being what it is and not used simply because we are angry with Microsoft.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
Easy as PIE - even WINE runs WC3 Your video card/linux setup support is your problem.
Don't make your problems my problems!
Why should I have to reboot my desktop -- which has an uptime of several months -- just to play a game?
:) They are the one who has to activate it, not me.
Why does uptime matter?
Other than that, I agree with you, though when I build desktops for people, I usually buy an OEM version of XP Pro, as Home annoys me, then I just use a premade install image that I made when I was bored one day, set it up, and reseal it. Works great
God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!
Most gamers have moved on to platforms like PS2, and are drooling while they see the specs on the PS3 (or whatever they were calling it last week) and the GameFrog (or whatever the Nintendo thing is).
Seriously, I can't remember the last time I bought a Windows game. Maybe a few years ago? So long as I can get Fable (ya ya, so it's xBox, but it's not even that great) and Lego Star Wars and Sims: The Urbz and suchlike, why would I want to buy a Win game?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Actually, if you're using an ATI card you won't be doing too badly. They are making linux drivers which seem to be improving over time. There are issues with the drivers and they aren't as good as the NVidia ones, but then again even my windows ATI drivers have done some pretty funky things before.
Now, for other craptacular cards such as the various intel, etc brands... you're going to be in trouble indeed. Many laptops and onboard video sets use them. They don't perform well in windows, and - in my experience - are even more troublesome (and unsupported) in 'nix thus far.
The failing point is often the hardware though. It will install fine if you have an NVidia card or possibly an ATI... but with others it can be pretty hit-and-miss.
Cedega has never liked my Epia's Unichrome cards (even for games that seem usable - though not spectacular - in windows)... and I'd bet that it sucks equally on Intel/etc cards.
Have you looked at the average game? Basically Q3A engine with a few new graphics and a title like "medal of honour!".
Same shit different day.
Not to say they're not partially fun. Just not worth being in windows for.
I'd rather [and do] do without then install windows.
I do play UT2K4 once in a while because they made a Linux port that works well.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
I hope you're just kidding, or really ignorant. There's no virtualization solution out there that's even close to be somewhat usable for games.
I'm not a fully crazed gamer, but I do enjoy playing games a lot, and my hardware isn't that bad. That said, I split my time between development work and gaming, and dual boot (windows being purely for games and finance management).
For a while I tried to be windows free, pure linux, and I even got a cedega subscription. I was disappointed, in that I could only get about 1 title in 10 to actually work, and none without serious UI gotchas, visual artifacts, crashes, etc. This was 6 months ago, and it is possible that things have changed.
So while this is a fine idea, I highly recommend proving it out. I know I am not going to be an early adopter, as I felt like the claims made by cedega were, in my experience, wholly unsubstantiated back then. The idea is great, but the last time I tried it, the technology and stability just weren't there.
In Soviet Russia, us are belong to all your base.
Of course, those millions of dollars and teams of programmers working for years are obviously spending their time working out how to do a for loop...
Perhaps they don't make Linux because the cost and effort aren't worth the rewards. Coding for a new architecture is more than re-writing a few API calls. You often have to completely write most of it from scratch. Then TEST IT ALL OVER AGAIN. Testing takes months. Testing for Linux would take even longer. All for a potential extra 10,000 customers, 9,000 of whom are convinced that 'information wants to be free' and look for your game on bittorrent.
funny, WC3 base and frozen throne work beautifully on my system (Cedega on Gentoo) and did right out of the box. So does WoW, Diablo II, and every other blizzard title I've tried. The only thing that I've not been able to get working is Halo.
"...allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box"
At about 1/3 the framerate with none of the special effects and only after about 6 hours of headache to get the game running at all!!
Seriously, I give money to transgaming...but it's just not there. Use Linux for whatever you use it for, just not games.
Windows >>> Linux... when it comes to games.
Weird hardware, or a weird linux distribution.
Don't expect everything 'mainstream' to work properly on the plethora of hardware/distribution combinations out there.
On SuSE linux (~8.2-9.3) Warcraft III in Cedega/Point2Play really is easy. No settings to configure, everything works out-of-box.
I'm sorry to say that the current situation is unfortunate; the truth of that matter is that it will work out-of-box, but only with certain configurations, and there is no real way to improve that without greater unification among distributions (which, I believe, is a mixed blessing), and more support from hardware manufacturers (which will be extremely positive).
Also, Transgaming has made noises about going completely opensource, but this is really only likely if they get some large licensing deals, like funding support from RedHat, Mandriva, and/or SuSE, or if they are purchased by Crossover or something.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
I use Cedega on Ubuntu and Debian, so far only to play World of Warcraft. I get 20 FPS with a fairly anemic NVidia card (GeForce 2 MX 400) at 1024x768. Installation was dead simple (they provide .debs). There's usually a minor bug or two when a new release of WoW comes out (Blizzard, understandably, doesn't test on Cedega before releasing patches), but they have consistently been fixed within 24 hours. I have maybe 200 hours in the game, and am completely satisfied with Cedega. I haven't tried Point2Play, but I hear it makes it easier if you're not comfortable with dpkg -i from the command line.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
So... spend $5 a month to use my $400 gfx card at half speed? 50% of my machine cost is my video card. Why would I want to emulate the software it's supposed to accelerate? I don't think so. I'll continue to run Windows as a main OS and VMWare my Linux installation(s). Linux, because it is better (smller at least), runs quite well in VMWare whereas CS:Source would probably scream under emulation.
Ever done a `man` on `top` ?
And what does that have to do with anything against Windows? Despite the claims of some, Windows products (certainly 2000/XP) don't just spontaneously become unstable - something has to happen. Even if a particular game causes system instability serious enough to require a reboot (I should note that I haven't played one of those recently), all that would mean is running a reboot after running the game, leaving the computer still up afterwards for serving files and being available to start using immediately without waiting.
Go ahead, mod me troll if you must, that doesn't mean the reasons listed at the above link are wrong.
Nathan's blog
Any serious gamer will take an unhealthy interest in game machine performance, and therefore is not going to add layers of software tech which *will* slow performace and *may* not actually work.
this is product for linux users who want to play games, not for gamers who want to use linux.
If you want to play games get xp.
I'm not saying this is a good situation, but until games are developed for portability, linux users will mostly have old shit games to play.
I for one do not care enough about which OS has the biggest halo, but linux is not for gaming and it embarressing when people suggest otherwise.
Anyone who really want to play decent games and run linux, should dual boot xp, hell, they don't even have to tell anyone.
Chalk it up to ignorance. I'm not a gamer and use a Mac, so emulation has met all my Windows needs. I have a basic understanding of the difference between emulation and virtualization, and know games suck under emulation. But I am certainly am not so familiar that I would know games suck under virtualization as well, or why. If the virtualized OS has access to hardware, and games nowadays seem to rely on the GPU as much if not more so than the CPU, then where is the performance hit? Does the host OS really use up that many CPU cycles? Couldn't it be coded such that the host OS gets almost completely out of the way, and allows the virtualized OS almost complete control? A google of the topic returns some interesting articles, but none seem to address the gaming issue in any real detail.
(tig)
Ignorance and prejudice and fear
Walk hand in hand