No Windows? Use Linux, Intel Macs for PC Gaming with CrossOver

Bootcamp has nothing to do with Wine (CrossOver). Wine is an actual implementation of the Win32 lib/system interface for non-windows operating systems. Its not emulation. Its not dual booting.

There was another one of these. I forget the name.

There's also the Cider engine/wrapper thats also based off Wine. All the EA Mac games use that, and people (like me) have gotten it to work with other games. Crossover works great for CS:S and TF2.

Ah but which Windows? I've found OSX runs mutliplatform apps (lol) better because I don't have a 64bit version of Windows. Also XP isn't too great with multicore CPUs. Or at least not as good as OSX and some Linux flavours, dunno about Vista it just ate too much resources for me to viable use it LOL!

I'd gladly pay $40 for a program that did all the configuration for me though. Unfortunately, Crossover just doesn't support enough games yet.

Not really. Even the iMac has a Radeon 2400 XT by default, which is not too bad. Everything but the basic MacBook, MacBook Air and Mac mini would give you more than enough power to run newer games.

Just look at the specs of the Mac and you can tell if it runs the game or not. Same as you would with a PC.

My MacBook Pro has a 256MB GeForce 8600M GT in it. Hardly top of the line, but it can run Unreal Tournament III with full settings at 1440x900.

The MacBook and Mac mini have anemic graphics capabilities, but everything else isn't half bad.

I can play WarCraft III well on my MacBook, but I wouldn't consider something a bit more demanding. Plus, that things heats up very quickly and the exhaust fan is noisy at high RPMs. After about two minutes of gaming it would sound like a 747 on the tarmac.

Well, if you want to pay for a Windows licence, then go ahead. This is for those that don't want to do that.

What? Any new Mac can run Windows or Linux...

Sure. That's why I support Windows users with their problems all day and then go home to my Macs.

Try another argument, Sluggo.

If it is running Windows or Linux, its not a Mac, it is a PC built by Apple. Also, I love the argument that you can use Windows on you Apple machine. Why do you need OSX then? You may like it better, but if you need to run Windows, whats the point of getting a Mac.

It's shiny and expensive and makes me sleep better at night knowing that I'm different :)

(I'm not being sarcastic btw I actually have a MBP[seexxxyyy *licks*] )

I'm with Crumble on this one. I never got the whole "Pay more money for less power and the mac software and than run Windows on it." Just seems strange to me.

That would be 0.9.59.

Get the latest 1.0RC2 from winehq.org and you'll receive a LOT of bugfixes.

Sure you could just use Wine for free, but if you want to support the Wine project and help it improve, buying CrossOver is the best way to do that. CodeWeavers is the biggest contributor to the Wine project.

I have been considering getting a Linux partition so that I can torrent all day in relative safety from viruses and the like - do they still mess with the Windows part of your system if you accidentally get one while on Ubuntu?

@Haggard, your Windows system should be safe as the viruses shouldn't be able to run while in Ubuntu.

Hey fellow KDE4 fan, KDE4.1 will rock.

more of a gnome fan myself....but you're so right on linux being better in just about every way shape and form. As long as I can install Portal with Wine (which I discovered I can) its all good.
I just need to repartition since I haven't been using it that long and when I first tried it out I didn't think I was gonna end up using it permanently. I only have a few gigs of free space and need to cut some from my windows side.

Of course, with linux you get the joy of spending two solid weeks debugging why your sound randomly drops off and requires a reboot or why your wireless keyboard suddenly stops working until you drop out of your session and restart X11.

As much as I love my linux systems (which either run window manager-less or use XFCE or KDE), I prefer the reliability and stability of my OSX systems where I know things are just going to work and I don't have to spend three days just overcoming a glitch before carrying on with the actual work I originally intended. That was fine when I was 17 and had plenty of spare time, but I'm 30 now and days wasted to config issues and incompatibilities and glitches are days I could have spent being productive. And I know I'm not alone. Walk through any of out campuses (I work for the company that makes the most popular brand of UNIX derivative). We aren't carrying Thinkpads with linux. We're not carrying machines with Windows XP. We're carrying macs.

The only real negative I have with OSX is that it has a package management system (Fink) that is a little less than optimal (it's certainly no apt). And worse, the default file system is a NON-CASE-SENSITIVE HFS+. Sure, theres' a case-sensitive alternative, but you can't run it as your boot/OS, because a ton of apps croak on case-sensitivity.

For an OS that is heavily used by developers and web designers, you would think there would be a lot more focus on making the environment a lot more linux/unix like which is where many or most developers will end up deploying what they're developing in the first place.

Cedega is based on an extremely old version of Wine.

Cedega is nice, except it has some performance problems. Or did when I used it a year ago. Granted, I run on a rig with very high resolution, but the difference between what i got in raw XP versus Cedega on linux on the same box was massive. To the point that the audio would experience "tearing" while the rest of the engine tried to keep up.

I also don't understand why projects like Cedega/WINE/etc have to apparently be retooled per-game. What is it that they have to change that otherwise means a game today isn't going to run until they've specifically added code or something for it six months down the road?

Until people can play games on their preferred OS on the same date of release as Windows, it's going to be a hard sell.

Unless after 20 years of hardcore PC gaming, like me, you just give up and take your preferred OS for working on stuff and stick to consoles for your gaming.

*sigh*