Windows gaming on Linux & Macs made easy

/bonk

I play (played) World of Warcraft on Linux, with a dual boot machine (XP, Nvida). My frame-rates actually went UP using Wine (the free version). My wife agreed to switch to Linux so her laptop would actually play WoW.

Yes, in windows it was nearly un-play-able but in Linux w/Wine it was enjoyably play-able (higher frame rates, and could bump up the view range and detail).

It's not emulation, it's more "translation" and if your base-OS (and the spyware anti-virus etc) isn't gobbling up your resources you can use them all for the game.

FURTHERMORE, with a little hack-fu you can drop the desktop manager (GUI) from that resource demand and load only the game.

Not all games work, but for the N-million folks who play WoW, Linux will give you performance INCREASES!

Not all versions of Quicken will run...

Newer versions of Quicken don't work, because .NET support under is only beginning to work well. And yes, help functionality has always been a bit dicey.

As for World of Warcraft, though, I'm surprised at the issues you're having. I played WoW under Ubuntu for months and months and it ran flawlessly. If you're a customer, you're certainly welcome to put in a support ticket on these issues.

Best Wishes,

-jon parshall-
COO
www.codeweavers.com

You don't get it, do you?

Crossover and Wine are both emulators. In 25 years, I've never seen an emulator that really works in all environments. You just can't test and properly certify one to run as well as the original operating system.

Not only that, but any support must come from the emulator writer. No vendor will ever support their product on an emulator. Just too much hassle and too many variables.

I find it interesting though that you admit that Quicken doesn't work when the web site specifically stated that it did. Here's another reason while I'll never rely on an emulator for my primary computing environment.

It also shows the typical attitude of Linux folks. Run it all in Linux. Crash your financials, it doesn't matter, you are doing it on something other than MS.

Hating microsoft only gets you so far. Eventually people (the vast majority of normal humans that is) need to get a job done. The computer is a tool and only a tool. The Operating System is really immaterial. The only purpose of a computer is to assist them to get the job done.

I don't have time to waste with service tickets for WoW or Quicken. If it doesn't work when the manufacturer claims it does, I don't have time to do their trouble shooting for them.

It's got to work first time every time or Windows wins.

Normal people don't thrive on fixing computer problems. Geeks do, but normal people have lives outside of a computer.

The name 'Wine' derives from

The name 'Wine' derives from the recursive acronym Wine Is Not an Emulator.

You might need to do a bit

You might need to do a bit more research rather than giving up.

Wine is not an emulator. It converts calls to the windows stack into syscalls on linux (or posix systems, someone else can correct me).

Not all DLL functionality works, so you may need winetricks to get "supported" applications to work.

Check the wine appdb first for tricks to get things to work.

Ahh, but theres the rub

Crossover and Cedega are indeed wonderful products - much moreso Crossover that directly supports WINE. Life is just ducky so long as your game is fully supported and is patched upstream whenever the game gets patched. If this is not the case, or if you are using just plain jane WINE, then whenever the game patches as with WoW or WAR, then often you are left holding the now broken bag, and are left to your own devices to get it working again. This means having enough know how with both WINE mechanics and the games internal systems just to be able to figure these problems out. It can be many many days that you are out of service while this is going on.

EVE Online thus far was the only MMO game that went in cahoots with Cedega (unfortunately), to create a "linux" client that CCP (the makers of EVE) themselves supported. This effort fell through mainly due to Cedega's issues, but they still continue to actively work with the Linux crowd. Blizzard and EA/Mythic have not lifted even a pinky finger to work with the Linux community, and because WoW is so popular and patches often, those are the lions share of the, "My WoW install now fails to work on Linux!! HELP ME!!!" posts that you see proliferating most Distro support forums.

Dont kid yourselves into thinking that gaming is low profile in the new generation of Linux enthusiats - ie. those that still have hair, teeth, and don't need diapers - because gaming is what keeps the lions share of home computer users firmly rooted to Windows.

I have been using Crossover

I have been using Crossover Linux pro on Archlinux for months now. I have had no problems installing Office 2003 professional, Photoshop 7, Photoshop cs2 (minor issues but usable), Dreamweaver 8, and for my gaming fix Oblivion (under crossover pro...not games). I haven't used windows xp for much more than autocad 2008 since installing crossover.

To help fend off the whole "update broke my install" scenario, use the included bottle functionality to archive your bottles before updating that windows app. If something goes wrong, delete the updated bottle and restore the backup. I also have used my archived bottles to restore a windows application to a fresh install of Linux after buying a new computer.

I definitely give Crossover Linux and CodeWeavers 2 thumbs up.