Im just wondering what type of programs wont run on linux... im a hardcore gamer myself and so i want to know if most of the top games will run on Linux.

Im going to be getting a alienware gaming laptop soon and im thinking of putting linux on it but im not sure if i will be able to run all the games

The short answer:- most programs won't run.

have a look at this list:-
http://www.playonlinux.com/repository/

or this list:-
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames/

you can do 'hardcore gaming' on a linux box,
But - You Must Know the limitations of your system
& realise that most games are purpose designed for the world of M$ .. . ..

Autocad and every other windows program Ive ever wanted to run hasn't run to actually be usable.
I ve never seen a game run as good on linux as it does on windows either to be honest not that I'm much of a gamer. Have used wine play on linux

Stop right there. Walk away slowly

No, none of the top games will run on Linux. In fact its only been in the last two years or so that we are starting to get some professional quality indie releases (like Braid). Save that AlienWare machine for Windows with Steam!

I have an AlienWare m14x gaming laptop rig and its the only machine in the house with Windows.

I tried to run my games on Linux with wine, and after fiddling with it for quite some time I gave up and made a small partition with Vista for my games. It takes the fun out of the games when some things aren't working or it crashes (what it will do of course in critical parts of the game, greetings from Murphy).
So it is like that for me: I use Linux for everything, except when I want to play a game without native Linux version. The i reboot to start my Windows.

You can hardly call yourself hardcore if you are not playing DOS games in DOSBOX, FreeDos, or under wine. The ones that fail to run under Linux and dosbox are likely written for MS-WINDOWS, and thus crippled.

Frankly, there are some native Linux games that are killer. I have not had time to try them all, but you might want to visit www.linuxgames.com, happypenguin.org, live.linux-gamers.net, the nearly dead http://tuxgamers.altervista.org.
Or check these pages for OSS games: http://freegamer.blogspot.com/2009/0...to-revive.html, http://planet.freegamedev.net/, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_gaming.

Alas, I can find no clone or emulator for TROLL HOLL that ran on the Interact model J computers. (It came on digital tape.)

Depends what you want to play really. I consider myself a PC gamer, and I try to play mostly in Linux+wine. It's much much easier to game in Windows though.

For example, I can play Rift, WoW and SC2 pretty well perfectly in Wine. I am very confident about Diablo 3 in Wine as well.

If I want to play SWTOR or Skyrim I have to reboot into my Windows partition.

there are a lot of major games in linux though am not necessarily refering to games from triple A developers.

these are all major games and all work on mine [a acer ferrari one,which is the power of a half decent laptop with the size of a netbook] and they work on this/dads PC to which is an old bog standard MESH rig.
woud strongly recommend them-
assault cube-
http://assault.cubers.net/

open arena-
http://openarena.ws

PRboom [uses the original doom source and improves it whilst still staying true to its oldskool roots] -
http://prboom.sourceforge.net/

open BVE-
http://trainsimframework.org/

tremulous-
http://tremulous.net/
http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=6163.0 <--single player bot.

yofrankie-
http://www.yofrankie.org/

alien arena-
http://red.planetarena.org/


theres a ton more major games-super realistic flight simulators for example.
have just gotten back into pc gaming,but got totaly rid of windows this week,if theres anything triple A am desperate for will just get it on the 'three sixty and use it at dads.