Linux for games or how to entertain yourself on a platform for programmers

Linux is perceived by the majority, as a system for developers and "geeks". Something terrible, without the interface and the possibility of "normal", with comfort to use. The gaming industry also bypassed the system by virtue of the fact that its audience was very specific and limited. As time goes by, today Linux has a new, beautiful and friendly face.

Linux for games. Is it possible?

Already Yes. If we consider the system in the context of the gaming industry, then Linux is clearly inferior (in principle, to this day is inferior) platform from Microsoft and game consoles. It was impossible to find even a little bit worthy project. The system itself was extremely unfriendly, because even with the advent of graphical interfaces it was not clear how to install the game. Linux was merciless to those who did not want to understand it.

The situation changed greatly in the mid-00's. Then one of the most important stages of "humanizing" Linux was the release of Ubuntu. The system had a "combed" and accessible interface, as well as a store (conditionally) applications, in which it was possible to find many games. Third-party developers have tightened up, began to appear cross-platform graphics engines and the like. Users have become available free games for Linux, which included all kinds of small casual projects. Later, more significant ones began to appear, such as Heroes of Newereth or Oil Rush.

The appearance of Steam

The next confident step in the development of Linux as a gaming platform was the adaptation of the Steam playground. Gabe Newell said that Linux for games is more than suitable, and he is ready to work on it. Already, there are a huge number of projects ported to Linux. Valve in the first place rewritten their legendary games. These included the famous Half-Life 2, conquered the hearts of millions of players around the world, the continuation of which is expected even by people far from the world of games. Newer games are also available: Linux users can easily compete with Zombie in modern Left 4 Dead 2 and many others.

All the features of the Steam platform are also available on Linux distributions, no difference, with the exception of the games catalog. The assortment differs in comparison with what is available on Windows or even on a Mac, but this is a matter of time. It seems that such a company as Valve would not trust the system without the potential.

Wine and Playonlinux

To be frank, the Linux gaming platform could have grown significantly earlier thanks to emulation and the Wine project. Yes, the developers did not waste time and were looking for ways to run the .exe files and the Windows libraries on free distributions, because many were horribly short of Microsoft Office and other exclusive utilities. The solution was found, uncanny, of course, what is popularly called a "crutch", but it worked and was suitable for playing. Linux for games became a reality at that moment.

With the help of Wine with a grief in half it was possible to run certain games, something worked, something was failing, mostly problems were with advanced and modern games, they simply lacked power.

The situation began to be corrected with optimization. New versions of the Wine utility have been sharpened for certain games. For example, popular World of Warcraft works great on modern distributions thanks to this emulator.

Then the process of optimizing games was undertaken by other developers, creating a project called Playonlinux, based on Wine. It included the best games. Linux finally became more like a full-fledged game system. Playonlinux worked the same way as Wine, the difference was that this program immediately offered a list of well-running games and automated part of the processes for their installation and configuration, unlike Wine, where manual configuration is necessary. Powerful computers with adapted graphics cards coped with the launch of new products without problems and continue to do this to this day.

Results

Linux for games exists. Thanks to the support of Valve and the work of independent developers, the result was achieved, and now free, open distributions are even closer to people. To be sure that you can play by installing Linux, check to see if any of your games are compatible with Wine and Playonlinux. Also, get a powerful computer, preferably with a video card Nvidia. By itself, Linux is very undemanding, but the games will make the system and components sweat, and if you consider that they are run in the emulator, the task of the video card and the processor becomes more complicated. Well, finally, do not forget to update all the drivers, in recent years there have been a lot of solutions from Nvidia (that's why it's worth buying a video card of this manufacturer).

Otherwise, there should not be any difficulties, just install Playonlinux and Steam.