Linux Games: Windows And Wine
While the Linux operating system has long been known for its economical advantages over Windows in business applications, many hard-core PC gamers have not been generous in their praise of Linux games. Because Linux is an open source project, many of the games developed for Linux come from individuals working for free, and as a result Linux games often do not have the polished graphics of games designed for Windows or Mac operating systems. Basic marketplace realities are such that until the Linux OS shows up on more desktop computers, commercial game makers will focus their efforts on making Windows-based games. The current quality of PC games made for the commercial market is a direct result of the tremendous number of people involved. Each game level has its own designers, audio engineers, visual artists, quality assessors, and writers working as a team. All those people need to be situated reasonably close to each other, usually in a common place of work. Once a PC game has been developed and tested, it has to be mass produced and marketed. That involves accountants, attorneys, PR people, and gaming company management. Getting a major PC game launched requires dozens, if not hundreds, of people, and millions of dollars, and no company will engage in that sort of undertaking without knowing in advance that there is a ready market for their efforts. Linux games, for the most part, will continue to come from the unpaid efforts of open source developers. One solution for those gamers who love Linux but love their state-of-the-art Windows games just as much has been to use a "program loader" like Wine to run their Windows based games on their Linux OS. Wine will let Windows games being run on a Linux OS behave as native Linux games do, but with the Windows games features intact. Thanks to Wine, PC users who would prefer the Linux OS and have hesitated to migrate from Windows because of their significant outlay they have invested in Windows software applications now have an alternative. Wine, however, is still a work in progress, and may not be equipped to load the latest versions of all Windows applications. But it has been proven to work very successfully with a growing number of Windows games, letting them function flawlessly as Linux games. And once more Windows users become comfortable with the Linux OS, the demand for the Linux OS as a default operating system will grow. When that happens, commercial PC games developers will start putting the same kind of money and talent into Linux games with all the graphic sophistication of their best Windows-based efforts. In the meantime, the Wine website keeps an application database updated with performance reports on hundreds of Windows applications, and many of them are for Windows games being run as Linux games. TransGaming Technologies of Canada has also introduced a commercial version of Wine-based program loading, Cedega, which for a monthly fee will let users transport their Windows games to Linux. Cedega supports, among others, "World of WarCraft™, "Civilization IV™, "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion™, Madden® 2007 Battlefield 2142™. Subscriptions currently run $5 USD per month. |
