One solution is the Wine / Wine X (sorry, Cedega) approach which is aimed at trying to get Direct X games to run using the Apple and GNU/Linux OS's. (Transgaming port Direct X games to Apple machines as well as Linux) Whilst this is a useful approach which will suit some people, there are other possibilities which bear mentioning.
The first, looking at the issue from a GNU/Linux perspective, is to develop a distro specifically designed for playing games.
It would need to have 3D acceleration activated by default for all the modern graphics cards in the way that Libranet, for example, offers the user the option of turning on 3D acceleration if it detects an Nvidia card during the install process. This would also need to apply to ATI cards, even though that companies support for Linux drivers is not as developed as that of Nvidia. Support for temperature sensing devices and fan speed readings would need to be built in and comprehensive so that overclockers can keep track of what is happening to their hardware. Better multiplayer online gaming support and detailed and clear instructions on how to set up and change firewall settings would help gamers to lower their ping rates and minimize lag, connect to other gamers and so on.
There are a whole host of things that can be done to make the GNU/Linux OS more acceptable and usable for gamers. Instead of gamers dual booting between GNU/Linux (used for their general computing activities) and Windows (used for their gaming habit) they could dual boot between their normal Linux distro and the gaming distro. Of course, the changes made in the gaming distro could be used in any other distro to improve it's suitability for gaming, if that was thought necessary.
And indeed a recent Gentoo based distro named Jollix has made a start at creating a games/multimedia based distro which looks promising.
Another suggestion is to try and persuade a major game developer(s) to make the Linux version of their OpenGL game open source.This would mean that the open source programmers who are interested could use the code to create new and hopefully better games, to create mods for the original game and learn how to build GNU/Linux applications and software that would make GNU/Linux distros more familiar and usable for youngsters and older gamers.
This would grow the market for all open source software and make it more likely that game developers who currently only produce Direct X games also produce a version for the open source world. There is also the advantage that it would encourage young gamers who are interested in modding and programming to get involved in the open source scene, either as employees or creators of open source companies, and to contribute to open source software.
A related third option is for a number of GNU/Linux programmers to work together a la the Debian project and create a high level, up to date open source game engine which modders and game developers could use to create games with. An open source company could hire experienced game developers to help build such an engine and then sell the engine and games in the same way that Redhat, Suse etc market their products.
In summary, improving GNU/Linux as a gaming platform could have many positive benefits for all who work in and contribute to the community. Many of the same reasons apply to Apple of course.
About the author:
Ian McKenzie is an old gamer whose brain and reflexes are more attuned to Freecell than most of the modern games which excite so much attention.
