"This week's release of Ubuntu 7.10 is a significant win for the free software community. Not only does this release incorporate an updated package set - most notably with the Linux 2.6.22 kernel and GNOME 2.20, but it also delivers on new desktop innovations from BulletProofX and displayconfig-gtk to Compiz Fusion being enabled by default on supported systems. However, for those business professionals and gamers that remain dependent on some Windows-only binary applications, the WINE project has been making some excellent headway into supporting Windows applications on the Linux desktop. With Ubuntu 7.10 and WINE 0.9.46 in hand, we had set out to compare the performance between Windows XP and Gutsy Gibbon with WINE on two popular DirectX benchmarks."
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Member since:2006-05-29
Member since:2005-07-12
Member since:2005-11-11
It may be that long before we can rull all 2007 games reliably without thinking about it, but plenty of such games run now. Command and Conquer 3 is working great. STALKER is almost there. Slightly older stuff like Far Cry, Prey, Grand Theft Auto: SA, Warcraft 3, WoW etc all run fine.
Heck, I can even join a game in the Crysis beta and see my surroundings. It's basically unplayable (as per your point) but this game is a graphical beast, and it sorta runs without even being released yet.
I think Wine is slowly getting there. Even more so with regular apps. WinMX, WinRAR, TMPGenc, Deep Exploration, etc etc. I can run almost any app from my old programs directory and it works, getting better with each release.
Sure, native apps are the way to go, and Wine will bever get there (in terms of being "done") but it isn't as bad as all that.
And besides, games from 2000 aren't all that bad 
Deus Ex (which runs just fine) is still my favorite game ever. I'm quite happy being able to play it even if I can't play Lost Planet or whatever blingfest came out last week.
Member since:2005-07-24
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I believe you are misunderstanding the meaning of the post. Considering that we are talking Windows games, optimized for "real" Windows, being benchmarked on an OSS platform which has not received any assistance from MS or the game vendors, I'd say the results are, well, perhaps not mindblowing, but impressive. Years ago, (pre-Unreal Tournament) I got the original "Unreal" going under the (then current) version of wine. It ran perfectly. I played the game through twice, which represents *many* hours of play, and I believe I had *one* crash during that whole time. I did not do formal benchmarks, as I have not run Windows in years, but comparing my results with those of Voodoo3 owners on comparable hardware and Win98, my numbers actually came out about the same or slightly *better*.
But then, you were not really wanting a reasoned response, were you, your provocatively worded post having little constructive value?
Member since:
2005-07-12
Ubuntu + wine comes nowhere near the performance of windows, and you call that mind blowing?
Because:
a) This benchmark is done using 3D mark which is a windows application running on Linux through a 3rd party compatibility layer (not developed by Microsoft) which was eventually put together after years of hacking and reverse engineering. The simple fact that games do run is mind blowing all by itself. And then, as a final demonstration of supremacy, Linux even surpasses Windows XP in the CPU benchmarks. And all this running though a compatibility layer. Which leads to...
B) What if this benchmark had been done using a native Linux port of 3D Mark, running OpenGL instead of DirectX, and the drivers available on Linux where given the same amount of polish and care as the ones found Windows. What then? World domination?