It is a week since I switched to Linux. It has been a pleasurable experience but I will keep these experiences for later. Last week, my article on switching to Ubuntu got dugg and the biggest complaint people had about Ubuntu was that games cannot work on Linux. Now, come on, if you are big gamer, you shouldn’t be complaining. Just switch to Linux because if you are a hardcore gamer, you shouldn’t be playing games on a PC at all. Just go get yourself a decent game console and switch to Linux.
Why shouldn’t you play games on a computer? Firstly, it costs too much. A good gamer PC is almost four times more pricey than a Xbox 360 or PS3. Secondly and most importantly, PC games do not have standards (different people have different PCs). Most PC games have very high system requirements and as time passes, these system requirements keep going up and you will have to constantly upgrade your computer. But if you buy a game console, everyone has the same model and so, games are made based on these standard system requirements. You will only have to buy new hardware once in three years or so (even if it means queing up outside a shop all night once in 3 years). Thus, instead of changing yourself for the game, you should let the games change for you.
Besides, there are also other advantages in using a game console such as a bigger screen, better controls, better sounds, etc. And now that you don’t play games on a PC, you might as well switch to Linux and quit being a Microsoft fanboy.
Updated
After this story was submitted to Digg, I read some of the comments. Someone said that a lot of games such as first person shooter games cannot be played on a console . Yes, it is indeed true that consoles do not support FPS games. Similarly, a lot of people say that Linux does not support games. But this is not true at all. Linux does support games. It is game developers who do not support Linux.
34 Comments
November 19, 2006 at 5:23 pm
“Linux does support games. It is game developers who do not support Linux.”
Well said!
November 19, 2006 at 7:14 pm
Well, there are very few Linux native games, that I admit. However, if you’re not afraid to experiment, you should get Cedega from Transgaming Technologies, which allows a LOT of Windows based games to be run on nearly all major Linux distributions.
November 20, 2006 at 11:58 pm
I just installed ubuntu and if i can get battlefield 2 neverwinter nights 2 and a few other awsome games running then i will totally ditch windows like a woman with herpies!
long live project Cedega
January 29, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Your semantic argument, although brilliant on one hand, is idiotic on the other.
Yes, game developers don’t support Linux. We see that.
Do I really care? Does it matter to me if it’s Linux that doesn’t like my game, or that my game doesn’t like my Linux?
I don’t. Stop whining at gamers because your pet OS doesn’t have game industry support…
February 6, 2007 at 11:04 pm
We’ll see better support for games on Linux in time. Projects such as wine, and Cedega are just developing, and as things such as quad core processors develop the task of running these games on Linux will become easier. Beauties such as my pet Photoshop are already easy to get running on Ubuntu, though I still dual boot with Windows XP…
March 17, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Besides games, ubuntu doesnt support design programs, inkscape is too basic, i need illustrator, indesign, dreamweaver, photoshop (without glitches), fireworks, flash. And those programs seems to only function in mac and pc. Im a PC gamer, and there a lot of cool games for pc, and not for xbox, “halflife 2, f.e.a.r., force commander, company of heroes, world of warcraft” and i u have a good pc, a lot of console games looks way better in the pc.
March 21, 2007 at 7:31 am
[...] reason to switch to Ubuntu [Wikipedia]—because if you’re that big of a gamer, you shouldn’t be playing on a PC anyway [Chimney blog]. But an Xbox360 or PS3 instead. Personally, I don’t know. As much as I love my [...]
April 11, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Don’t listen to this “shouldn’t” stuff. PC games have there advantages, along with their disadvantages, and I think it has a lot to do with what type of games you like. Such as first person shooters and real time strategy (like command and conquer type games) dominate on computer, since a mouse is far more accurate then a joystick. However sports and racing is better with a console controller.
Simply put, graphics are better on computers, and computers are faster then consoles. I’m speaking of a high end home computer, vs. the latest console. Computer games are also cheaper. Computer games have been a big part in making computers faster over the years since they are just about the most demanding thing people run on their computers, besides large servers.
I think console and PC can both be considered gaming machines, just a PC can do other things as well. I don’t think it’s very fair to compare them though, there like different breeds.
Oh and yes like someone already said you can get pc games running on Ubuntu. I have never tried this so I would like to know if the frame rates are still good.
May 10, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Mate you have got it so wrong about the cost of gaming on a PC. Just concidering the games i have emulators of every gen up to gamecube with litrally almost every game if that dosnt auto beat every console there much much more, i joined CVG got £12 a month and got access to over 150 games right there the list really does go on.
The real problem in gaming is consoles they hold us back technologically with there own special hard ware that only works with that console and game tittles that only come out on that platform (wipeout – only reason i wanted a PS2 but who wants to game at that resolution i have been gaming at 720i + with AA for years ) Wii motes so what i got a game pad that has that sensing abillity for ages and 3D glasses etc PS3 is stuck as dx9.
Any way, i am going to try ubuntu as i enjoy trying to get things working almost as much as using them and heck theres got to be somthing the windows its so unevolved even vista with all its bangs and whisltes leaves me wanting.
June 4, 2007 at 4:36 am
it doesn’t matter wheather developer support or not .. as an end user i only know that rise of nation, commando and age of empires like games are not available in linux. but still i love linux, so i have dual boot. if u know of any strategic big game run on ubuntu then do inform me on my mail. thanx in advance
June 17, 2007 at 6:00 pm
It’s best just to dual boot with 2 seperate hard drives. 1 HDD for Windows and the other for Ubuntu (or Fedora or SUSE, etc).
If you build (or buy) a good PC, it will last atleast 6 years. I bought a Gateway back in 2001 and it just NOW became outdated. When I got it, I made sure I had top of the line VGA, CPU, and plenty of room for more RAM. It plays Half-Life 2: Episode One without any trouble at all. Episode Two probably won’t run on it. Besides, I’d rather have 1 $1800 machine play ALL games for 6 years, rather than have 1 machine for $400 play 1/4 of the games for 3 years. Considering that most console games are available for both their select console and PC anymore.
August 26, 2007 at 3:11 am
One word, CEDEGA
http://www.cedega.com/
September 1, 2007 at 12:51 pm
‘Game edvelopers dont support linux’ This is so true. Lunux has no fallbacks in my opinion, exept that the mainstream windows programs (Photoshop, DirectX, Flash, Dreamveraver…) wont work on it. Ubuntu llinux has full OpenGL support, so i dont understand what all this fuss is about.
December 8, 2007 at 2:51 am
Everybody is saying to use Cedega, but its a subscription, they say “Register and get Cedega for free!!!”, when it freaking costs money to register, and you have to pay a monthly fee on top of it, I mean WTF?! I’m not going to pay a freaking monthly fee for a third party program that MIGHT let me play the games I want. I wouldnt even pay for it if it DID garantee to work with the games I want.
December 16, 2007 at 6:05 am
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
January 19, 2008 at 6:38 am
Use WINE if u hate Cedega all that much !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 3, 2008 at 5:00 am
microsoft strategic commander windows vista
yes indeed…
March 10, 2008 at 1:22 pm
You don’t need cedega (or wine)! I found a bunch of really HOT games that don’t need wine, and I think a couple (at least) are better than windows supported ones. Here’s one example: http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/top-12-best-games-for-ubuntu-linux-10-rtcw-enemy-territory/
March 24, 2008 at 6:55 am
what about lan gaming
March 24, 2008 at 7:02 am
is there something better than playing a round of cs with friends.u r trying 2 say that a console can give u that.if u put ubuntu forget cs & other lan & internet multiplayer games in a pc.there is nothing like playing a fps or rts via lan or the internet in multiplayer mode.multiplayrers in consoles r rubbish.
March 24, 2008 at 11:34 pm
bala: CounterStrike (*shudder*) runs just fine with cedega on my laptop. It actually gets somewhat higher framerates with details turned down.
ahem.. u r compltly re-digulos: cedege can run cs on linux if u put cedege and cs on linux.there u hav it. ps. consoles r not rubbis @ multiplayrers. There are a great many games that are absolutely phenomenal in multiplayrers-mode.
April 12, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I get most games going with Wine (free proggy). I like FPS’s and theres a number of them made for linux (doom, quake and unreal. Yes there are linux versions of these games). I love savage and savage 2. Blinding games!
For MMO / Chatroom stuff i sort of play Second Life. Im not big on it but i can dip into it when i want to stop beating the snot out of people. Theres also linux clients for Eve and Dofus (Dofus is one of the top subscribed to MMO’s).
April 25, 2008 at 7:44 pm
As Devourer said, it is unfair to compare PCs to Consoles because they are in different classes. That is completely true and the best comparison I can come up with is to say that a PC is like a Sedan while a console is like a sports car (Take a BMW vs a Corvette). While the Corvette is very fast and capable of going at high speeds, the BMW is as well and the BMW also can do other things. It can carry things and take passengers and multiple jobs of that sort. With this being the case, The PC is like the BMW in that it has a large amount of usability, you can word process, surf the internet, talk to people online and much more. The Console is like the Corvette in that you can only drive really fast. With this comparison, I’ll take the BMW anyday
May 17, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Well you’re right althought there are games in linux they arn’t as numerous as windoz
and you’re right people should stop complaining about games lack on linux
linux isn’t another corporate made OS, you din’t pay for it so shut-up. it was made by a community so if you like games then made one and share it with other people.
and we don’t need lazy whining selfish consumer peoples, we have seen how much they harmed other sharing communities, the community is better without them.
fo those who want a ncie strategy rpg oriented game check battle for Wesnoth
also there are hundreds of games out there you just have to search (if you don’t want to make effort then go back to windoz and spend money on software!!).
June 16, 2008 at 3:59 pm
So immature. Just use Crossover and you’ll be able to play many Windows native games.
October 22, 2008 at 12:45 pm
just a thought but will ubuntu support vm ware of virtual box?if so would it be possible to use windows to play games that way??!just a thought
October 30, 2008 at 6:40 pm
as someone above stated you have a point of argument to which i disagree. i am an ubuntu and linux mint user, for games i rather have an xp partition. no console for me. i like to play on my pc turn about and write a letter, or see a video by booting into linux. and no one can make me believe (for example) that only hardcore users find gimp to be easy or practical. lets be real it is and issue (perhaps he numero uno with linux) and i am not crying about i am using the best of both worlds, on one bad ass machine. i find your point to be just a point. and i got call of duty running on my machine under l. mint but only online as there is (i have not found a crack for no cd/dvd for version 1.3 in german.) no single player use. that said ubu 4ever. but do not arguee the issue by saying get a console that is not a valid solution.
and if developers do not make linux version well i guess it is the money, and the preassure from windows not to. quite simple now tha no one can argue.
October 30, 2008 at 7:19 pm
ps. i looked at the games ie. the 12 best games for ub.
and compare that please to call of duty 4 etc. i am sorry.
its a long way to go.
one can say , hey they are well done and free.
but one cannot arguee they are better even if they cost a lot of money.
indeed some people will favor them to mainstream top of the line games.
but thrust me they are a very very small minority even within the linux community.
reality says we have a long way to go.
and i ahve contributed money to the linux project so i am not just blowing wind here.
get a console come on …….
the more i think about it , the more i think of how we should contribute to progs like wine to get better, and for linux to get to the masses.
ps. i do know not all can afford pc games and not even windows thus linux is the way. but how many people in poor (usa for example know anything about free ubu, linux mint or any other distro that can run on older machines??
few i tell you few…
January 13, 2009 at 8:19 pm
u r deep shit, pc games are free u can download them except multiplaer games that require monthly subscription
second its not about playing some fxxing game on xbox but spending more time in linux environment even if it means to play a game.
FYI: pc games are cheeper and quality is better over the console games
February 12, 2009 at 2:23 am
‘Linux does support games. It is game developers who do not support Linux’. Whilst i believe that statement is absolutely true i think we should also recognise the slight shift in games developers strategies that has occured in the recent years i.e. They would prefer to design for consoles over any type of PC. Piracy is a huge problem for developers and it is rife amongst the PC community and i believe that would be true whatever operating system it is designed for. Hopefully once developers solely concentrate on consoles (i’m probably dreaming here) we will likely see better games and more money for the industry, and then you dont need to worry what OS you have installed whether it be Linus, Windows or OSX.
March 8, 2009 at 1:51 pm
linux has not bad support games now and most of the games run faster than the windows ones… ie. unreal tournament
March 11, 2009 at 5:24 am
you are all a bunch of muppets!!!!
linux sucks ballas!!
“Linux does support games. It is game developers who do not support Linux.”
-what is this? like the god damn lamest thing on earth.
GET REAL
April 6, 2009 at 3:35 pm
i just installed ubuntu n i wnted to know that either ubuntu support wwe games
May 2, 2009 at 10:45 am
Ill dualboot for steamgames like teamfortress but play Quake4 in Linux native.
Some game developers do support linux, mostly quake engine, unreal tournament, doom etc. and there are some Linux native games too..
Why won’t gamedevelopers write for Linux OS?
Cause writing for OpenGL is much more difficult than to write for DirectX, hence more time consuming and less profits. Shame!
Adobe won’t port their software to Linux. A lot of companies in the Graphic Industry would switch immediately to a Linux Distro and that would cost MS and Apple lots of money…
Adobe holds the patent on color management like CMYK, therefore Linux developers can’t do crap about it.
It is also scary how many PC users are afraid to let go of Windows. It’s not bad, but there are too many viruses written for it
Hooray for Linux.