Hey guys,
I just wanted to report that I have officially been running linux for 2 weeks, and have found that it is 1000000X times better than windows (after you get used it). I havnt used windows since I installed linux (I have a dual boot).
During this time I successfully installed the nvidia driver, learned to compile programs, and I am starting to get a hang of the file Hierarchy, and this is all thanks to the helpful people at linuxquestions.org. You guys have all been fast and extremely helpful so thanks for that.

I do have a question though:

I have just started trying to figure out wine, and have found it to be rather difficult. I have not been able to successfully run any windows programs, the only programs I want to run are games, such as Halflife ans starcraft. Does anyone know of a better program for this sort of thing?
Thanks again
Rob

google cedega linux
Hope this helps

www.transgaming.com/ - These guys have a heavily-modified Wine available. You can get the source CVS if you want to compile and configure it yourself or you can pay a small fee and get their nice packaged version that includes a GUI application installer.

In regards to Cedega, I strongly recommend paying for it. I've built it from CVS and forked out to see how much better their supplied package is and the difference wasn't comparable.

You mightn't even need it though, do you want to run Half-Life 1 or 2? If it's HL1, normal Wine will run it fine as it can use an OpenGL rendering engine. If it's HL2 then you'll need Cedega and if you want to play online, you'll need to upgrade the game with Steam and Valve seem to break support with Cedega once every few weeks so I'd suggest becoming a permanant subscriber so you have continuous access to Cedega updates

Actually, I'm one of the cheapos who rather bitch to the game creators to create native Linux versions or let an experienced team like LGP & Co. do it.
Buying Transgamings products will only make the companies less inclined to do so.

Greetings,
Benjamin

So next time a gaming shop ships a linux-installer.sh file on their release CD, you're the guy I send flowers and a box of chocolates to?

My address can be found in the whois of my domain (see signature)

I use VMware to use different versions of Windows and if I have enough space, I try other flavors of Linux distributions. Games does work in VMware but if you want 3D rendering use Vmware 5 or higher.

Running Starcraft in WINE does not display the battlenet interface. I think this is same for Cedega. Half-life 1 does work, but you will experience instant scene loading (no I am not joking) and decrease 3D performance. I think Half-life 2 is ported to Linux and probably Doom 3 too.

You have every right to complain to the game companies only if you have bought their product.

No way, me and a lot of others wish though.... Doom 3 has a native port. HL2 runs well on Cedega.

With 3D games, it all depends on the developers choice of rendering engines. OpenGL games are relatively easy to port compared to something that uses Direct3D. That is why HL1 will run in normal Wine but HL2 doesn't (without the directx patches). HL1 can use an OpenGL rendering engine which means Wine doesn't need to translate that part of the game, it already works. HL2 is 100% Direct3D and therefore needs a full DirectX API available for it to be playable.

I think that it will be too late at that moment. Because then they already have what they want: my money. And I don't think I'm complaining when I say:
You don't support the OS of my choice, you don't get my money.

Greetings,
Benjamin