I'll just put in another vote for the following..

1. Macromedia products such as Studio MX, HomeSite+, etc.
2. Adobe products such as Photoshop, Premiere, Pagemaker, etc.
3. Quake, Unreal Tournament, Black & White, Half Life, Tribes, etc.


Sure, there's Linux (near) equivalents for some, but it would be an important step forward to welcome these packages into the Linux world - ``One small step for man'' and you can imagine the rest.

There is Unreal Tournament for linux. For 2003/2004 it's even on the CD/DVD.

I know the thread is what programs would you like to see ported
but not which programs are substitutes
(so I will refrain myself in listing the alternatives to 1 & 2)

But Quake has been ported Quake 1 2 3
Unreal Tournament + Unreal Classic + Unreal Tournament 2003 & 2004 -
all have been nicely ported

Half Life I & II .. well - they won't port that - but you can play it by using Cedega (a Windows Games emulator)

Tribes .. well that has been ported - it quickly sold out - and now I can't find a CD anywhere in this wide world.
Alternatively you can play Legends - which is the next best thing, its free (and crashes like mad but don't tell anyone)

(check my siggy)

I´m aware of Unreal's ports, however they aren´t as install friendly as they should be. hence the call for it..
I don´t know how your experience was with installing Unreal, but mine ended up in the trash because it simply never got past the splash screen because of some dependancy error or missing link (of software that was in fact present on the system at that time), whatever I did to it. Never tried Unreal Tournament, but did specifically try Unreal 2003 because it was listed as compatible. I didn´t waste my money on 2004 because of the problems I encountered. once bitten twice shy I suppose? I´m not cheap, but my wallet just doesn´t stretch far enough to allow a game upgrade addiction, solely because of reasons like 'the new version does work'.

Quake, well.. similar story. had to find a package somewhere on the internet, but eventually it never ran. perhaps just the way my system was set up at that time limited my ability to properly run it, or the linux port wasn´t up to it at that time.. but it just didn´t cut it.

Tribes, why did it disappear? as far as I know, this is still a popular game.

those are hurdles a user shouldn´t have to encounter in my opinion, at least not 9 out of 10 times they try to install some game. hence why I put up my vote for those programs again. the demand is there, but not the will to meet it. Cedega is nice to hear about, and if it´s the absolute answer to gaming in Linux, then i´ll gladly invest my money in it. but if you want one particular game, and have to buy another software package to run it, you spend your money twice. the game itself, the developer of the game, should provide the ability to run it natively on a different OS.

have you every installed something using the source? Or howabout using the binaries?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't just take a recompile of the code on another system, (in this case linux)
This is true for Java, but what about the other languages?

titanium_geek

If they code it well, then a recompile might just suffice. Unfortunately, there is DirectX. I'm not sure how SDL works for this, but I've heard it is a wrapper for DirectInput commands. The game may also be optimized and it would be hard to just recompile. Another question: have you tried to recompile a linux program on windows ?

The truth is .. and now a very controversial post of mine (flame away!!)

Is that all previous Linux ports were pretty much extremely friendly.
Thanks to the highly dedicated but utterly mismanaged Loki team.

You will still find some very few apps that follow the friendliness of the past - such as enemy territory (search games-downloads)
Loki invented the "Loki-installer" (which is still open) and third parties like CrossOver Office take advantage of that open-source-code.

As the Linux Kernel progress and Library changed and Loki gone bust (for whatever mismanagerial reasons)
Those ported games had to be upgraded to accomodate some changes to the library.
In comes Tuxgames.

Well Tuxgames is an embarrasment for the Linux community in every sense of the word.
Crap support. Crap installers. Crap management. Crap website. Crap employees
(2 have left recently leaving a backlog of unanswered emails)

I have Unreal I and Unreal Tournament Classic - if you need help installing - just let me know ..
I struggled with it for over 6 weeks but finally managed to suss out how to have it installed.
I am glad I did - I enjoyed finishing both games thoroughly but am as wary as anyone to
purchase UT 2003 or UT 2004 from the mentioned company.

But remember if you don't like a game and you don't get support - it is within your right to get your money back.
That is when paying by credit card pays off .. usually a dispute (almost always) falls in favour towards the customer.
You would get your money back - unless you leave it way too late : either contacting your credit-card company or
sending them the dispute-form after you've received it (you have 30 days to fill it in)

Alternatively you can try out the demos - UT 2003 and/or UT 2004 and keep close to the many Linux gamining community
to ask for help and advice: http://www.happypenguin.org and http://www.linuxgames.com

Quake 1 and 2 same thing here - I never managed to get it installed - and gave up too easily in trying .. its a game I've completed many times before .. so yeah not worth a 6 weeks effort.

Tribes disappeared because Sierra?? (Vivendi?) now owns all the rights.
That is my belief (not the official version).
Only a limited number of CDs was ported - and only a limited number of keys was produced.
The batch was limited .. and when it run out - for whatever reasons the mega-corps with all the suing powers in the world
shunned the idea of producing more Linux keys or letting anyone burn the CDs with Linux binaries
(Windows is OK - they give out Keys and download for free - but not Linux - that platform is shunned)

Cedega attracts a lot abuse from the open-source zealots and the native-port purists.
But where will the gaming people go to? There is no more Loki and TuxGames is a joke.
As far as I am aware Cedega has a better support (despite them having to deal with rude emails daily)
and have managed to achieve a few of people's wishes like making Half-Life 2 work emulated.
Theirs is not a perfect solution, their business model may attract revulsion to the said purists but to this day
is the only outlet people have in playing some decent Windows-only games.

Of course very few game companies release binaries for Linux - like Doom 3 and Savage on the CD
People say you shouldn't buy from retails stores as that counts as a Windows purchase - not Linux
I say don't risk 6 weeks of headache - poor support or very late delivery.
If a Linux penguin is there on the box - chances are it will run without a glitch (if you have Nvidia).

Its a despicable situation - Linux gaming ... and those Linux-friendly mega-corps (IBM,Novell,HP) just simply don't get it.
If they really want Linux to succeed in popularity on the family desktop - they ought to sponsor the many
struggling multi-platform games companies and porting-enthusiasts.

Nice post. mileages do vary, for you apparently it worked (with 6 weeks of work) and for me it didn't, and I don't remember much of what I did to try and get it work, apart from thoroughly breaking a good linux machine which is now no longer in my posession.. I can't say I gave up too easily since I actually broke a machine trying. that said, I currently don't have access to a machine running linux that is capable of gaming (oh the joys of sharing your computer and never getting to use it anymore), so while I appreciate your offer to help I can't accept it, it would be a waste of your time. perhaps some other time.
You got Unreal from what vendor? Lacking the creditcard my only options are local toy stores that only offer refunds within 24h for unopened packages, and besides, what I have is several years old already. all my games came from a regular toy store game section, of which 100% was (and still is) MS Windows cd-rom based games. The Unreal Tournament GOTY Edition pack I have is 100% Windows only, and the Unreal Tournament 2003 pack doesn't even speak of linux anywhere on the box or in the manual yet the (broken?) installer for Linux is on the UT2003 disc. both are legal boxed versions by the way.

I got it from Tuxgames.
Which is where I thought before was were you got it from.
And so bashing at them (oops!) lol

They are the only reseller (that I know of) that have a license to sell specifically ported Linux games.

If you buy Unreal Classic and Unreal Tournament on its own it will *not* install on Linux
You will need a porting wrapper which is what Lokigames used to provide
and now Tuxgames uses that and their own extra updating wrapper.

While nowadays it is possible to run Unreal and Unreal Tournament straight from Wine
or better still CrossOver Office.
the rendering is poor - unless you really know how to tweak it proper.

In the past - I too would break a perfect Linux machine trying to run a game not coded for it.

But Wine evolved a lot since then.

Unless a penguin shows in a box or
Unless you have Cedega *and* the game shows on their Database
- trying to make it work on Linux is not advised.

For UT2003 with the Linux installer you'd have had to seek help from Epic Games at the time.
They have a good support forum which is still active.

just the pc games

What about Maple or Mathematica ? Or are there open source equivalents already?

Oops. I should have checked first. Both are available for a wide range of platforms already.

Sorry.

Ian.

Macromedia Shockwave Player

Not many people use it...

That may be your opinion, but it may not be true for others. I think the player is definately useful, not just for regular desktop use but also for webpage development.