Ashton Mills29 September 2006, 3:43 AM
The popular Linux distribution formerly known as Mandrake will be able to play Windows games straight out of the box with the inclusion of Transgaming's Cedega engine in its 2007 release.
The popular distribution formerly known as Mandrake, and with no Purple Rain to be seen, will include in its next 2007 release Transgaming's Cedega engine to play mainstream Windows gaming titles out of the box.
For those not familiar with Transgaming the company has worked for years on a WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) derivative to empower Linux users to run Windows games natively on the Linux desktop.
While over the years the success of Transgaming's technologies have at times been a hit and miss affair -- largely dependent on the games you try to play -- popular mainstream titles have usually been supported quite well, literally because that's where the most work is focused for demand.
Currently Transgaming boasts support for titles including Battlefield 2, World of Warcraft, Civilization IV, Guild Wars and the essential Half-Life 2, among other top rated Windows games.
Mandriva hopes the inclusion of Cedega in the install package will help push Linux as a desktop to the very market that usually wouldn't give it a second look -- the gamers.
Or, perhaps more accurately, the mainstream gamers as Linux has had its fair share of Linux based games over the years, but nothing that would come close to mainstream Windows titles. To tempt users of the possibilities a copy of FlatOut, a racing and smash-em-up game, will also be bundled for use with the included Cedega engine.
Also present in the next version of Mandriva Linux will be the latest Gnome 2.16, KDE 3.5.4, and the OpenGL accelerated 3D desktop XGL, marking yet another distribution making the move to include the Linux answer to Vista's swank eye-candy and snazzy effects. The 'gaming-enabled' edition of Mandriva 2007 bundling Cedega is scheduled to launch on October 2nd.
World of Warcraft on the Linux desktop. Source: Transgaming