If you're a serious Windows gamer, Wine or Cedega?

[zodder]

Hi from N00bville. :) First off, I'm digging Ubuntu. This is the longest I've ever tried a distro, and to be honest with you, I don't see myself running anything but linux at home from now on. Everyday I learn something new, and as a Windows system admin, I like the challenge and I like expanding my resume to include linux. :)

I'm almost ready to give up WinXP completely, but like most of us when facing that choice, games are my main concern. I have WoW running flawlessly under Wine, but I'm not sure about current and upcoming FPS and RPG games. I'm looking to play F.E.A.R, CoD/CoD2, MoHAA multi, DS II, Fable and other upcoming RPGs. What do battle hardened linux gamers use for Windows games? Is there, or will there, be enough support from Wine to use that exclusively, or is it best to have Cedega and suck up the $5/month? I just want to make sure that I have the best option for gaming so I can finally lose XP and run linux exclusievly at home. TIA, folks. :)

[Protex]

Well there is CedegaCVS if you want a free version, there is a How-To in the forums somewhere.

As for your game list, those are cutting edge games and you might run into a bit of trouble running them well, or at all on Linux.

[bnutting]

Well, to be honest, if you want to play all the latest Windows games then your best bet is to dual boot and keep Windows around for the games. I have used Linux since '94 and I have yet to go 100% Linux. I still keep XP on my home system for several reasons and one of them is because of games.

I love Linux but let's face it the reality is that all the new cutting edge games are written for Windows. I'm not trying to start a flame war and I apologize to anyone that I may have offended, but this is *my* opinion.

So to make a long suggestion short, I would dual boot or have a gaming box.

[LordBug]

Agree with bnutting. If you're playing the newest Windows games a lot still, I would recommend keeping Windows around. WINE and Cedega are good, but not perfect.

[siorai]

Another vote for dual-booting. Cedega is pretty good, but it's simply not good enough yet. Especially for the latest and greatest games. Even on some older games it's still touchy...

[bnutting]

Yeah, I tell ya. If I could get rid of XP I would. But I play too many games and I don't want to fart around with Wine or WineX to try and get them to work. Even if I *can* get them to work, how good will they work? Hell that's why I run Ubuntu, because "It just works!"

So like I said I'll keep XP around for a while. I think that MS will slowly push people to alternatives with their strict licensing. Did you hear that they adjusted their licensing agreement to say that with OEM licences, if you swap motherboards you have to buy another licences? People will get fed up with this crap eventually and they will switch to alternatives. When MS starts to lose market share the gaming companies will start to offer native games for the *other* OSs.

Sorry for the random rambling :rolleyes:

[SuperMightyMo]

Hey

What's that all about buying a new Windows version for every computer, it think (and hope) that's true what you're saying. It would be great if people start using Linux in stead of Windows.

SuperMightyMo

[bnutting]

Yeah it pertains to the OEM version. I saw it on http://www.osnews.com today.

[GameGod]

Simple answer: I use both.

WINE's DirectX 7/8/9 support has been developing really rapidly, and every with every new release there's new DirectX features.
I also use Cedega through that CVSCedega script that's on the net somewhere. Sometimes Cedega plays nicer with games than WINE does, but the gap is closing...

(Also, best advice: To get the latest version of WINE, follow the Ubuntu/Debian APT instructions on the official site over here (http://www.winehq.org/site/download-deb)... By doing this, whenever there's a new release of WINE (every few weeks), it automatically pops up in Ubuntu's update notifier.) :)
Useful!