i have mandrake linux 10 installed on my laptop...i want to run games (like nfsu2, hl2, cs:s, far cry, doom) what program would be best for running thse games ? i have heard of wine - one of the programs that came with red hat linux fedora core 2 (also have - just not installed) but i never could get it to run games very well...even my little games like jnes (nintendo emulator)

also would the program be able to run apps like acohol 120 or winamp as well as the games ? and how many of the windows programs can you have opened at once ?

Dear ebbinger_413,

You talked about "wine".
This is the Linux application that is needed
to run programs written for Microsoft Windows.
What this "wine" does, is offer the API's
(Application-Program-Interface) for Windows32.
So, when the original program calls a function
that resides inside one of the MS Windows DLL's
(Dynamic-Load-Libraries) the "wine" equivalent
of these DLL's takes over, and translates the
original code to the one that the Linux environment
offer.

Concerning games however, the majority of the
API's that are used by games written for the
Microsoft Windows platform, use the DirectX API's,
which were written by Microsoft specifically for
the games industry. The "wine" application is not
written to translate the DirectX API's. You will need
"TransGaming WineX" for games.
This is not free, however...

WineX has changed to cedega and you can get it at transgaming.com but it does cost $5 a month. But it's by far the best for gaming. For the emulators, like jnes, I'd recommend using an emulator written for linux, there's plenty out there and you'll get much better performance that way. For applications like alcohol 120 and winamp I would again suggest using an application written specifically for linux. Some popular media players are xmms, beep-media-player and there's others out there. I recommend beep-media-player. For cd authoring software, k3b is good and the other popular one is xcdroast. Xcdroast is a little confusing, most people use k3b, it looks and feels very similar to nero. Hope some of this info helps you out. Eventually you will have to break you dependency on windows apps, I'd suggest you try and get used to linux software quickly if you plan on using it for an extended period of time.

There are Linux versions of Doom through to doom 3 available nativly for Linux.

not too long ago, Cedeger was reported to be working together with Valve to get Half Life-2 and CS:S working well under linux, im not sure hpw porgres is going, maybe its finished, see the cedeger homepage.

As for other programs, Try to learn the linux equivelants rather than emulating.
if you dont have time to learn, or cant find a replacement, then dual boot, or run windows98 in an x86 virtual_machine on linux, this needs a real version of windows98, but will emulate any software perfectly, unlike wine.

You can use VMWare and install a Windows Virtual Machine. Then you simply run Windows thru Linux and do your job. See my post at Alternative Operating Systems and check http://www.vmware.com/

You can try Codeweaver's Crossover Office
With Crossover Office you can install and run Microsoft Office, Visio and Internet Explorer under Linux. But also Photoshop, Framemaker and others. There's a list of supported applications on the website, but many more programs do work, you just have to give it a try!

GreetingZ

If your a cheapo like me.. (one of the many reasons im using Linux ) Then try wine.. you can get build for all sorts of distros from winhq.org or updates from your distro.. try googling around for "wine config" and you can prolly find some good configs for wine that will allow you to use the more common apps and games... like CS, UT, DOOM 3, etc... Wine is CONSTANTLY being updated so if your app doesn't work right now.. chances are they are workin on it.

Also be sure to check out their application db.. it has many reviews and lots of helpful advice for getting any perticular app up and running... (e.g. internet explorer, kazaa, to name a few)

I definatley would not recommend VMware for any 3d gaming unless you like 1 fps ... It can be slow, and often works well only with business oriented apps.

And lastly of course you can try Codeweavers or Transgamings variants for a bit of mula... Good luck!

I generally only use older programs, so plaint vanilla WINE works for me...

I mainly use it to run old windows 3.1 strategy games.

I do think some of the games you mentioned work natively under Linux. Either directly by an installer on the CD-ROM or by downloading one from the games' website. I think this is true for Doom 3, I'm not sure for the others.
I don't think Wine allready has full support for DirectX yet, so I don't think Wine is an option. I only have experience running Wolfenstein: ET and Quake III on a linux box (natively)...

thats what i do on my desktop computer, i run slackware. its perfect if you have the ram to spare. in my opinion, it beats the hell out of wine.