Windows' Days are numbered on my PC....

Like many other Linux enthusiasts, I kept Windows around on a dual-boot machine for the games. There aren't a lot of Linux native games right now. Without getting into the long, old explanation of that, I'll just say that Winbloze finally pissed me off to the point where I paid for a Transgaming subscription so I could download Cedega, to allow me to run my Windows games on Linux. I had been forced to install Windows Server on my Windows partition for my Win2k Server class for college. After trying to remove the Active Directory and demote the server to a standalone non-AD server, I learned what veterans all know. DCpromo is a joke, you really need to reinstall Windows Server to demote a server. Screw dat, I'm not reinstalling Windows. Again. But now Warcraft III locks up solid after a mere 20 seconds of running. So, my main reason for keeping Windows around is turning out to be non-existant.

Which brings me back to Cedega, the latest name of what used to be called WineX, which was a port of the Wine (Wine is not an emulator) project. WineX focused on running games on Linux. So after downloading & emerging it (that's installing it in Gentoo speak), I happily popped in my Warcraft III Cd. Rubbing my hands together, I contemplated finally freeing my PC from Windows, and having absurdly long uptimes.

The good news is that the install went great. The bad news is that the graphics are too choppy and the game keeps crashing before I can get video settings that work with the display. So last night I went to bed unhappy with ATI and my Radeon 9500.

This morning, there is more good news. Searching the Net for possible solutions, I find some options.
1 - Use a 2.4 kernel. But but... I got a 2.6 working and I love the efficiency. I don't want to resort to this unless I have to
2 - Sell the ATI and get an NVidia. Nope, not going to give up that quickly.
3 - Update the ATI drivers. Apparently, after years of mere lip service, ATI went and hired a bunch of developers for their Linux drivers. They have *gasp* actually been updating their Linux drivers on a semi-regular basis. In this thread on the Gentoo forums there is talk of a driver version 8.10.19 released this month on the 16th. IIRC, not being in front of the good old home PC at the moment, that's newer than the version I had upgraded to just a few weeks ago.

From the release notes, which you can see in the Gentoo thread above, it looks like they are doing some serious bug fixing and design work. Yay! I don't know that if, presented with the choice today, this would convince me to get another ATI vs. Nvidia or something like the XGI Volari series. But it at least makes me feel better about the card I have right now and the possibility of getting Warcraft III going in the near future.

As soon as the games are running stable, Windows, you are gone for good.