You can't deny that Linux is getting more popular. I myself rarely use windows.

"But," I don't hear you say, "what about Jazz 2? And JCS? And xjj2? And tileset creation?"



WINE is the answer to many problems. I can run Jazz 2 (slowly, but then I do have a 133MHz processor). I can run JCS (but am unable to load levels). I am porting Palette Suite 2 to Linux, and you will of course be able to use it in associaton with the excellent GIMP.



So, what do you think of Jazz's future in Linux? What are your WINE success/failure stories? Feel free to post screenshots, WINE configuration files, etc.

I have runned JCS using Wine in linux. Worked smoothly. I shall post a screenshot pretty soon.



I've also runned Jazz, but I didn't get any farther than the Epic movie yet.

I have now managed to load levels! So it seems everything's working fine now. I even built a tileset.



Tips on running JJ2: In windows, SET JJ2 TO 16 BIT COLOUR MODE! It may not actually be in 16 bit when you play under Linux, but I still had to set it to 16 bit.

Hey, I just joined and hosted internet games! That's Windows out the window.

This topic is half-JCS half-JJ2.. do you think I should send it to General JJ2?

Sure.

Not to get right off the Jazz subject, but I've sorta been going to Linux from the opposite direction. As I now regularly use GIMP, Apache, and MySQL on my windows machine

The reason I haven't fully gone over to Linux yet is because of all the Windows apps I use. Being able to run the battle server is one of those reasons, but the main thing that's keeping me is Internet Explorer. I think it's a great browser, and also I need to use it to make sure my web sites work properly.



Oh well, that was sort of a pointless post.

I'm afraid Jazz's future in Linux doesn't look all that bright, except via emulation... Jazz2 was made with a LOT of dependencies on DirectX, as I've heard from Epic in the past. Plus, Epic themselves said before that they're planning their future around DirectX and anything else Microsoft pulls... despite the fact the computer industry's future is moving away from Microsoft...



Plus, there's one other problem, the good ol' chicken and the egg problem... if you take a look at the Linux gaming industry, it's in a rather sad state, money-wise. There's quite a few good free games out there, but when companies tried to release games on Linux AND Windoze at once (i.e. Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena), the Linux-specific sales were a bit dismal. No company's gonna publish games for Linux right away because the industry isn't quite there for games yet, except if nobody makes games for Linux, there'll NEVER be an industry... a tricky paradox, to be sure.



I've never messed with Wine yet (I kinda don't wanna pull funky things on my main server... I want a toy box I can hammer on for that. ), but I've heard they're getting QUITE a bit better with the thing... mebbe in the end, we won't have to care whether or not Epic's gonna make Jazz games for Linux, we'll be able to emulate them perfectly anyhoo.



Gotta love free software, huh?

I am not a Toxic Bunny fan.

GO Jazz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Err. This ain't about ToxicBunny. But anyway, Toxic Bunny would be more Linux proof since the source code is available on the official site.

I was just going to post up a topic about this very same thing, ironically enough, until i found this topic. Hope it's not reviving it too much. ;p



But I just felt like trying WINE out on lots of my windoze programs just to see how they run, and i'll have to say that it's gotten a *whole* lot better. Jazz runs just about perfectly (except i don't seem to get any sound...maybe just a random bug in my version of WINE) the speed is also pretty good, even comparable to windoze.



As for you, Monolith, Microsoft should die ;p. How can you actually trust windoze to run stuff like a webserver? Crazy. ;p



But if you really need you windoze apps, there's a couple of wars, commercial and not, to get them. I think if you really need IE and simple, non graphical programs in windoze, there's one that's extremely fast and works pretty well. It's called Win4Lin by Netraverse. I also used version 2, but apparently version 3 is out, so it might've gotten even better. The really interesting part about this prog is that you actually install windoze into a virtual drive (a file) and when you run the program, it's like you're actually in windoze itself, and it has all the cheeseyness and crappiness you need in a resize-able window. ;p



WINE, of course, would probably be used for something more graphical that win4lin can't emulate. It's been getting a whole lot better, but of course, it can only do a few games, and prolly most of them 2D.



VMWare is commercial, and i've heard that it emulates everything perfectly, but at half speed. Basically, if you have an 800MHz, it'll run like a 400MHz. At least that's what they claim, but at the time i ran it, my PC was so slow i couldn't really tell if that was half-speed or not ;p. I've never tried games with it, although it'd be interesting to see what 3D does in it.



But most importantly, the *ONLY* reason you'd need winblows is for the game market; there's not too much else they have. For browsers, sure we have a less then adaquate Netscape, and a medicore Mozilla, but if anyone's ever tried Konqueror, it's pretty good. It does a lot of the stuff IE does, and just the look and feel reminds me of IE.



~cheeze

I'm pretty moch sold on Linux already. All I need now is an extra computer to put it on. (if anybody want's to donate anything...



I read the book In the Beginning Was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson, in which he talks about the concept of an operating system (and how stupid it is to sell one for a profit).

I'll stick with my Windoze rather than Linsux. I like GUIs. =P

You can always do i dual boot and have winblows and linux on the same box. I do that so that i can play a game here and there that needs windows. But there's lots of cool games for linux. Tuxracer, anyone? ;-P



And linux can be pleanty gui, and definately easier to use than windoze. ;p



~cheeze

Linux's GUIs are FAR more configurable than Windows's... er... one GUI. Unless you're using something like LiteStep, which... um... was kinda ported from UNIX anyhoo...



Frankly, I find the Windows GUI a bit clunky. I like being able to diddle with config files and make something work a bit more what I want it to, clean up the display a bit, and make it what I want. And multiple desktops are very nice...



Tuxracer, Cheese? Heh... how about some FreeCiv? Or Nethack (one of my personal favorites)?

I've tried FreeCiv once and could never get the hang of it. Although i've never heard of NetHack...i should take a look at that. ;p



Oh, and an update on my views of the Windows emulators: WINE is still great, especially for games, but it's still not perfect. Win4Lin has lost my apprieciation for it because of how it, well, doesn't work anymore ;p. VMware works actually quite nice, and i'm liking it.



~cheeze