Gaming/Graphics Performance Prospects for Linux Mint

[lakehousetech]

I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in many previous suggestion posts, but I couldn't find any while searching so here ya go. I've been a Linux Mint user since the release of Bea, and have been very pleased with the stability and wide software base that it provides. The art design and 'Mint' tools are also great. I could rant on and on about how great Mint is, but let me get to the point. I do a little gaming on the side...some MOH, Half Life 2,....etc. Although I have been able to get games to run under WINE with little trouble it is obvious that the performance of each is hurting. So up to this point I have a dual boot setup with XP.

I know that the facts stand that games designed for Windows OS are going to perform better under those surroundings. I know that it is likely that with newer releases of WINE and proprietary Linux video hardware drivers (which have become more available recently) we can hope to see a performance increase. What I am curious about is whether the Linux Mint development team would consider focusing some energy on an integration of sorts...perhaps developing it's own API for Windows-based games that could be superior to WINE in that it could be integrated much deeper into the OS itself? I would be willing to put time and effort into making this a reality if it is feasible. Thanks in advance for your time reading through my rantings. I would also love to hear any other recommendations related to this topic.

[lakehousetech]

Anyone have any comments? I guess I expected more of a response from the community? Anyone there?

[Rob Loach]

... developing it's own API for Windows-based games that could be superior to WINE...

This is an extremely bad idea. WINE has been around for a long time, the developers behind it are already busy at work, the project is not going to be stopping soon, and it is already in high use by the community. Opening an entirely new project to do the same thing goes completely against the ideology of open source and the idea behind the GPL. You might like to take a look the Wine Doors project (http://www.wine-doors.org), which means to make using WINE and installing certain applications supported by WINE easier.

So, taking that into consideration, one thing that Linux Mint could do is give more support for WINE in the operating system.

[lakehousetech]

I don't want WINE to be imitated in Mint, but rather integrated better with it. Either way you have a good point. Gaming will take forever to come to fruition on Linux. Too bad.