Well, looks like Microsoft is ready to force gamers to upgrade their OS (and hardware) to Vista if they want to play the great Halo 2 on their PC's.

I found this to be just sad... I mean, come on, XP is still pretty usable for games (and everything else for that matter). I hope that MS shoots their own foot with Vista.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4698072.stm

How does this affect Linux users?

Oh right, it doesn't. I'll just keep going my merry way then. Carry on!

Sorry, I couldn't care less about Windows at this point. They can ship with the old "lilac" or "valentine" theme set as the default and I could not possibly care any less either way.

I have avoided MS games just because of that type of thing and I have a feeling they install more than just the game. I can imagine the MS game creators having access to parts of the OS that others dont.

@KimVette

It will affect Linux, from a gamer perspective. It won't be a big surprise either if Microsoft eventually drops support for DirectX on WinXP and 2K, forcing gamers to upgrade to their newer OS. While there are very few games that I love from MS, I still could live without them. But if every company out there developing games also starts to make Vista-Only games, that could lead into a problem. First, MS operating system aren't getting any cheaper nor light weight. Second, nearly every gamer will have to upgrade their system only to run the newest MS Operating system. And unless you are still running those P1 - 166 MHZ, upgrading hardware is expensive :\

@BajaNick

Your theory sounds very interesting and also makes a lot of sense. It's very uncommon to see Microsoft Games (and CO such as Bunggie) running under Cedega, like Halo itself or Flight Simulator, for example

Let's just ignore it. That's all I'm doing until this injustice is sorted out.

Count me on it peter_89. I'm not going to upgrade my "gaming" PC to Vista. I have nothing against Windows, but forcing peoples to upgrade for no apparent reason, as you put (and very well) is an injustice.

Actually they won't be dropping DirectX. What they are doing is crippling OpenGL in every way they possibly can to force vendors to use their inferior DirectX API.

A lot of game companies (other than Microsoft) still make games that are supported under Win 98. There's no practical benefit by running a game in an upgraded OS if the underlying API you use remains the same.

I think the latest version of DirectX is supported under Win 98, isn't it?

Totally right Harishankar. DirectX 9b is still supported by Windows 98, according to DirectX System Requirements:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/dir...qs/default.htm

A few games don't support Win98 though. Doom 3 doesn't, I think . Though, considering the great support ID software gives to Linux, I could care less if they offer support to MS operating systems . Other companies still make use of older DirectX versions also.

I really have the feeling that MS will get into trouble with Vista. At least, I hope they do

The beauty of linux - no-one forcing you to buy multiple hundreds of
dollars worth of upgrades just to play new games.

I have DirectX 9.0c in Windows 98 at the moment. Haven't looked beyond 98 because I just need games and a few basic apps in Windows...

Windows 98 does tend to have a few crashes here and there, but it is long-lasting...

I do not care about Windows XP,Vista and Microsoft in general.

Anything before Windows 2000 is a living hell.

In that case I prefer the known devil of Win98 to the unknown devil of Vista...

Those outrageous hardware specs you're talking about are required by Vista - not Halo. Hold onto your seats folks, because that class of hardware will be required just to run the OS!
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/09...hardware_reqs/