Cedega 5.2 review

[Valour]

It's been said many times in many forums, blog posts, mailing lists, and comment sections: GNU/Linux won't really go far as a desktop operating system unless it can play the same games that Microsoft Windows can. For years, TransGaming has tried to make the dream of running Windows games in GNU/Linux into reality, and to a small extent it has succeeded with its Cedega product (formerly known as WineX). Since development moves so quickly, it doesn't make sense to review each individual point release, so this review will take a look at the state of Cedega circa version 5.2.7.

Cedega 5.2 review

[J.F.]

Nice review. You could mention that most of the fixes in Cedega eventually work their way back to WINE, and that if you're really good with linux, you can compile Cedega (the main program at least) yourself for free. You don't get the installer or a couple other ancillary programs, but the main portion - the WineX portion - is what you most need.

Back before id released the linux client for DOOM3, I compiled Cedega so I could run it until the linux client was released. For a while there, Cedega ran DOOM3 on 64bit systems better than the official linux client.

[01soft]

read this review, who know how to install World of Warcraft under Cedega?

[Valour]

Originally Posted by 01soft

read this review, who know how to install World of Warcraft under Cedega?

There are instructions on the Cedega site.

[JoeLinux]

Good review. I liked some games like Last Express, and The Dig from Lucas arts. I feel game play is the issue that really holds Linux back from becoming fully main stream. My kids still run computers with Windows 98 because of their interest in games. They realize Linux is a better OS, but suffer it out with Windows because of their love of games. I have a new nVida card in a sealed box sitting on the floor next to my computer, but don't want to go through the hassle of installing the drivers for it. Linux can be installed on my Biostar all-in-one motherboard by the brain dead. Since my wife uses her HD in the machine, I'm afraid if I put the nVida card in the box, it would give her problems. I don't own any games, but could play the ones my kids have. So far it just never seems worth the effort. I'm more interested in having Band in the Box run on Linux.

[Valour]

Originally Posted by JoeLinux

Good review. I liked some games like Last Express, and The Dig from Lucas arts. I feel game play is the issue that really holds Linux back from becoming fully main stream. My kids still run computers with Windows 98 because of their interest in games. They realize Linux is a better OS, but suffer it out with Windows because of their love of games. I have a new nVida card in a sealed box sitting on the floor next to my computer, but don't want to go through the hassle of installing the drivers for it. Linux can be installed on my Biostar all-in-one motherboard by the brain dead. Since my wife uses her HD in the machine, I'm afraid if I put the nVida card in the box, it would give her problems. I don't own any games, but could play the ones my kids have. So far it just never seems worth the effort. I'm more interested in having Band in the Box run on Linux.

You should try a commercial distro. You don't even have to think about Nvidia drivers in Xandros or Mandriva (the commercial versions, not the free ones).

[J.F.]

The nvidia-x11 package maintained for Fedora Core by FreshRPMS is also really good. All you do is use your favorite package manager (SmartPM in my case) to install it, reboot (technically, you don't HAVE to reboot, but that's the easiest thing to do), and you're all set. If you ever change kernels, it even recompiles the kernel interface automatically, so there's nothing to worry about.

So even free distros are getting much better with nvidia support. It's certainly no more hassle than nvidia in Windows.