Linux gaming support is preventing a few people I know from switching...

[josolanes]

This is definately not meant as a degrading thread towards linux but, rather, as something that I'm somewhat concerned about. My brother and a friend refuse to switch to linux solely because of lack of game (new game) support. They've tried it in the past and loved everything about it...but were miserable without the ability to play games. They don't want to dual boot as they'll only boot into Windows in that case (as there's no point in going to linux solely for web browsing, and Windows only for game playing). If linux only had better gaming support, I'm sure there would be more people switching to linux and completely ditching Windows.

This is just an observation of mine. My brother isn't all that computer-savvy but was still very capable of getting a Fedora Core 3 system up and running fine. He was mostly interested in the lack of spyware and viruses as he's had nothing but trouble with Windows in this respect. (My dad is also interested in linux because of the lack of spyware and viruses, but he's just afraid of change.) My friend, on the other hand, is pretty good with computers and more than willing to learn something new relating to them (linux, he thought, was a great oppurtunity). The lack of game support is preventing my brother and my friend from really giving linux a true chance.

When might linux gain more new-game support? Is Cedega really as good as many say it is? Can it really help someone interested in the newest games switch away from Windows?

The point of this post was to get other peoples' thoughts relating to linux's lack of support for new games, and (partly) to see if Cedega might be able to convert some very interested, potential linux users.

[Roxoff]

If they only wanna play games, why dont they dump the computer and get a Playstation or XBox?

[borromini]

I dualboot with Win Xp on my game box. The linuxes on it are used for testing, building packages, burning media and watching movies . WinXp for gaming.

There's no shame in keeping Windows because you want to game. Why go through all the hassle of setting up wine and windows games on linux?

[josolanes]

I dualboot with Win Xp on my game box. The linuxes on it are used for testing, building packages, burning media and watching movies . WinXp for gaming.

There's no shame in keeping Windows because you want to game. Why go through all the hassle of setting up wine and windows games on linux?

That's what i told them to try a while back. They kept linux and windows, but soon after only used windows because they didn't want to bother switching between the two. They often play graphic intensive games in the foreground while keeping AIM and some sites open in the background. They play the game for a while, get bored, and switch back to AIM or something else with the game minimized. So, Cedega won't necessarily be enough to switch gamers over to linux? My friend, the one that's interested in linux, told me last night that he saw that Civilization 4 is supported by Cedega (one of the newer games he purchased). With that in mind, I think he's going to give linux/Cedega a shot and see how it goes. He's pertty perseverent and will stick with linux through many problems for a while...so this might help him switch, though I'll just have to wait and see what he does.

Another reason my friend wants to switch to linux is because of the Digital Rights Management thing going on with (I believe) Vista. He wants to leave Windows and get comfortable with an alternate OS (he's looking into Suse) before he starts having problems with Vista in the future.



Roxoff: I know that was sarcastic, but I'll answer anyway. The reason they haven't ditched their computers for a console is because of the obvious school work that they need to do (which is very easy to do in Linux), becaue they only play computer games (easier to play than console games--especially when that's what you grow up playing), they would lilke to listen to music, etc. Computers are just able to do more than consoles. The main thing that's preventing them from switching is game support.


Also, still kind of on subject...my friend has also had a ton of trouble with wireless network card support. Is Suse pretty good at setting that up automatically? I don't know what he does, but when he's installed ndiswrapper in the past, he had to compile a 16 stack kernel....but by doing this, he couldn't use his video card as its kernel module only ran on a 4 stack kernel. I really don't have a clue what he did, and I don't think I've heard of anyone else doing this to get their wireless network card working. Can someone let me know how difficult it is to set up wireless on Suse? Thanks in advance

[techieMoe]

Another reason my friend wants to switch to linux is because of the Digital Rights Management thing going on with (I believe) Vista. He wants to leave Windows and get comfortable with an alternate OS (he's looking into Suse) before he starts having problems with Vista in the future.

He's not the only one. I for one consider this to be a very smart move.

The main thing that's preventing them from switching is game support.

What kinds of games do they want to play? Most modern first-person shooter run in Linux (Unreal Tournament GOTY/2003/2004, Quake 1-4, Doom 1-3, Enemy Territory).

Also, still kind of on subject...my friend has also had a ton of trouble with wireless network card support. Is Suse pretty good at setting that up automatically?

This depends entirely on what chipset your wireless card uses. Some manufacturers are nice enough to either release Linux drivers or release their specs enough so that Linux drivers can be made. Unfortunately a couple of the most popular chipsets (Broadcom, among others) don't do this, meaning NDISWrapper is your best bet for those chipsets.

[josolanes]

Another reason my friend wants to switch to linux is because of the Digital Rights Management thing going on with (I believe) Vista. He wants to leave Windows and get comfortable with an alternate OS (he's looking into Suse) before he starts having problems with Vista in the future.

He's not the only one. I for one consider this to be a very smart move.

The main thing that's preventing them from switching is game support.

What kinds of games do they want to play? Most modern first-person shooter run in Linux (Unreal Tournament GOTY/2003/2004, Quake 1-4, Doom 1-3, Enemy Territory).

Also, still kind of on subject...my friend has also had a ton of trouble with wireless network card support. Is Suse pretty good at setting that up automatically?

This depends entirely on what chipset your wireless card uses. Some manufacturers are nice enough to either release Linux drivers or release their specs enough so that Linux drivers can be made. Unfortunately a couple of the most popular chipsets (Broadcom, among others) don't do this, meaning NDISWrapper is your best bet for those chipsets.

Thanks a lot for the replies

They do play mostly first-person shooters, but they've recently started trying different genres of games. My brother is now stuck on Black & White 2; while my friend is currently stuck on Civilization 4 (which Cedega supports) and Diablo II. He mentioned another game, but I don't remember what it was right now. Diablo II is supported by Wine (though I haven't tried it yet...but http://www.frankscorner.org shows that it's supported). They also play a lot of Unreal Tournament, but they've seen that run on my computer so they know that works .

I'll have to find out what chipset his wireless chip is...hopefully it'll work fairly easily. Maybe he'll try purchasing another to switch (I think he would be willing to)? Also, if it doesn't work out-of-the-box and he would rather not get another card, is ndiswrapper easier to install with a package manager? That has to be part of his problem...he tried installing it himself (which can only be done through source).

Once again, thanks for the reply

[techieMoe]

Also, if it doesn't work out-of-the-box and he would rather not get another card, is ndiswrapper easier to install with a package manager? That has to be part of his problem...he tried installing it himself (which can only be done through source).

Once again, thanks for the reply

In general, installing through a package manager (such as SuSE's YaST) is easier than compiling it yourself. I've not actually set up NDISWrapper myself so I can't say how well it works in SuSE. There's a tutorial on NDISWrapper here, in case you or your friend need one:

http://www.linuxforums.org/tutorials...ial-55961.html

[josolanes]

Also, if it doesn't work out-of-the-box and he would rather not get another card, is ndiswrapper easier to install with a package manager? That has to be part of his problem...he tried installing it himself (which can only be done through source).

Once again, thanks for the reply

In general, installing through a package manager (such as SuSE's YaST) is easier than compiling it yourself. I've not actually set up NDISWrapper myself so I can't say how well it works in SuSE. There's a tutorial on NDISWrapper here, in case you or your friend need one:

http://www.linuxforums.org/tutorials...ial-55961.html

Thanks again

I'll show him the tutorial and see if that will help him give linux another shot. He pretty busy now, but he said he'll probably try again in a week or so

[deek]

One comment...realize, it is the game developing companies that need to do some work on supporting linux in their games as well. Not that this helps in your situation, but at some point, enough linux users are going to have to support this viable gaming market, and when that time comes, then hopefully, much like console games are built for PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, we should be seeing more computer games compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux...

[josolanes]

One comment...realize, it is the game developing companies that need to do some work on supporting linux in their games as well. Not that this helps in your situation, but at some point, enough linux users are going to have to support this viable gaming market, and when that time comes, then hopefully, much like console games are built for PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, we should be seeing more computer games compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux...

I understand that....that's probably the biggest reason why there is a lack of games that are supported in linux. And I'm impressed with how well linux has been able to adapt to Windows games. I really think, once games are supported in linux as well as the other OS's, there will be a pretty big shift of people toward linux.