News for Linux Gamers

[Ritho]

Ran across this news about CEDEGA over on the OMG Ubuntu site. Aparently it will no longer be commercial, but still not open source. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/01/c...ee-linux-born/

[wdhpr]

Hello Ritho

In your opinion how much better did CEDEGA work with Windows games compared to PlayonLinux?
It appears CEDEGA used a good deal of the Wine code and then used the creation commercially.

I know Wine updated their license since the the development of CEDEGA. Its just a sad example of the misuse of open source software or a capitalistic financial success or lack there of depending on ones view.

What do you know about Steam and is it any good?

Cheers
Wdhpr

[kendall.a]

I have used Steam. However, my son lives on Steam. He uses it daily. Steam delivers games directly via it's interface. You don't download or install the game in a traditional sense. It is all via Steam.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I much prefer to download a game file and save it on my external HD or buy the CD/DVD and have the actual game. With Steam, they all reside within Steam.

I guess the good part is that you can log into Steam (your account) on any computer and have access to all your Steam games.

[Jeff91]

I've heard this question asked so many times I've written an article about it

http://jeffhoogland.blogspot.com/201...s-vanilla.html

Have any other questions after reading that let me know.

~Jeff

[Sope]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

What do you know about Steam and is it any good?

I use Steam a lot.
Usually I buy games during their frequently sales when you can make substantial savings!

Pro's
It's very easy to install and use (at least under Windows it is, I can't comment how it is under Wine)
It keeps all you games up to date with the latest patches automatically installed.
Offers a huge choice of games.
Provides an easy way of communicating and playing with friends.
No need to have a disc in the drive when playing, in fact no worry regarding storage, loss or damage of game discs at all.
Your games are always available to reinstall should you suffer data loss.

Con's
You need decent bandwidth to be able to download games in a reasonable time frame (some games can be over 15GB!)
Depending on your view point it is a form of DRM though personally I have no problem with this.
After sales support could be better though I've had no issues.
There is maybe a very minimal risk of your account being hijacked or lost in some way though this is highly unlikely with common sense precautions.

Edit:
There are a few free games available on Steam if you wanted to try it out without actually buying anything.
(You would have to create an account but you won't need to supply credit card details or the like).
e.g. Americas Army 3, Alien Swarm, Peggle Extreme (plus some other possibilities listed here).

[wdhpr]

Thanks for the info.
I will check it out