Linux

[Unidentified Ninja]

Hi

I really miss Orbiter, as it no longer runs on my PC. You know the story, old computer running on an increasingly bloated microsoft OS.
So, I am wondering if Orbiter can run on the Linux OS. The reason is that I have become somewhat averse toward microsoft and all the problems that come with their OS, and as I shall soon be replacing the Dell museum exhibit with something, well, less archaic, I don't want a bloated, bling OS clogging up RAM and processors with it's need for protection against cyber threats and its own superfluous cosmetic code.
I am aware the Linux OS is not good for gaming, although there is WINE, an emulator that tricks software into thinking that its running on MS.
My question is; Is there a Linux version of Orbiter? if not, Will it run successfully on the MS emulator? Or, will I have to keep MS and Dual boot the PC and using MS just for gaming.
I must add that I have no experience of Linux at all, only Windows and Symbian. Symbian I used for everything, as it was fast and reliable and never had a single virus in ten years of heavy use. I miss my Psion too.
At present I use Windows XP for everything, argh, what a mess, its so bad that I only ever switch the PC on if I really must use it and have no choice in the matter, like now!

 

[Jarvitä]

Orbiter doesn't work in Wine, works with heavy graphical problems in virtualisation. It's one of the very few reasons why I keep an old copy of windows tinyXP (locked down and safely disconnected from any kind of network) installed. I even install new addons to the orbiter folder from my one of my Linux installs.

 

[RisingFury]

WINE = Wine Is Not Emulation
Recursive acronym... just like GNU.


Some people have reported getting Orbiter working over Wine, but at way lower FPS then they got on XP. 100 FPS turned to 25 or something like that.

I tried and the most I could do was get it to load and start the simulation, but it never moved beyond the first frame.

You can try messing around, but the most I can say is good luck.

 

[garyw]

Symbian? That must have been interesting as Symbian is a smartphone OS. The GUI on top is up to the smartphone company, e.g. Nokia use S60 and Sony Ericsson use UIQ. I know Symbian very well.

 

[Enjo]

Orbiter 2006 works poorly under Wine, that's true, but Artlav is working on OGLA (OpenGL Orbiter graphics client). OpenGL is being rendered natively under Wine, so there are less slowdowns than in the DX7 (Orbiter 2006) version.

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=4348

OGLA depends on the Orbiter beta, and we'll still need to wait for Orbiter 2008... I mean 2009, but the Future is Linux.

 

[RisingFury]

OGLA depends on the Orbiter beta, and we'll still need to wait for Orbiter 2008... I mean 2009, but the Future is Linux.

Man... I wish game developers started making games for Linux. That would probably bring a quick death to Windows... or at least a real blow.

Unfortunately, I don't see it happening in the foreseeable future.

 

[Unidentified Ninja]

Thanx everyone, just as I thought, and with lots more expert advice than I expected in such a short time. Seems like lots of you are also tired of Messy Software.
Its nice to know some are doing what they can to make possible the functionality of Orbiter on Linux (Artlav). Wine doesn't seem any worse than what I have now on XP. Orbiter loads just fine after about 15 minutes, you are viewing your ship from outside as smoke trails from its exhaust vents, to the accompanying soundtrack of wind. Sounds fine? Well, thats it folks, hope you enjoyed the ride. I'd be lucky to get more than 10 frames per minute, followed by "The Program has experienced a problem and must close". Its a "She canna take any more Captn" kind of thing.
Oh, as Messy Soft's OS was Windows, so, Symbian's OS WAS EPOC and ran on a variety of handheld PCs, sorry garyw, I should not have referred to the developer of the OS. When MS expressed an intrest in PDAs, Psion ran away to hide in some dark corner and Symbian then concentrated on mobile phones.
If Psion had had a little bit more courage back then, then Symbian would still be developing the best OS for handheld PCs without any updates for ten years (EPOC).
Again, thanx to all who replied.

 

[garyw]

Symbian OS is actually developed from EPOC. It was branched just over 10 years ago when Symbian was formed by the shareholders who also happen to be the major Smartphone Vendors although Nokia have since decided to buy out the rest of the company. Approval is expected in the next 3 weeks.

You might be interested to know that 9.6 of the Symbian OS will be going open source in March 09 although the first delivery of code into the still to be formed Symbian Foundation probably won't be until 2010.

 

[RisingFury]

Seems like lots of you are also tired of Messy Software.

As Linus Torvalds put it: The operating system is a program the user should never see or interact with. All it does is distribute resources to other programs.

Anyone see any similarities between that statement and Vista?


One more thing: Microsoft has tried for 10 years to push the console and the simple language out of it's "operating system". And now it's come up for some scripting language or something for their server and they're branding it as a revolutionary new thing.

 

[garyw]

One more thing: Microsoft has tried for 10 years to push the console and the simple language out of it's "operating system". And now it's come up for some scripting language or something for their server and they're branding it as a revolutionary new thing.

I think you are reffering to powershell. It is quite powerfull but it's a shame they never stuck with a single thing (e.g. VBS) and developed that. Instead they bring in a whole new thing to learn........

 

[RisingFury]

I think you are reffering to powershell. It is quite powerfull but it's a shame they never stuck with a single thing (e.g. VBS) and developed that. Instead they bring in a whole new thing to learn........

Well, that's kinda typical

 

[Enjo]

Man... I wish game developers started making games for Linux. That would probably bring a quick death to Windows... or at least a real blow.

Unfortunately, I don't see it happening in the foreseeable future.

I think that it depends on the maturity of Linux users, and their will to actually buy the games when they are ported. I'm not hoping for Windows users to switch. Generally people are stupid and lazy.

Here's a very good, and quite a historical read about Loki Games close down. A once very famous Linux games porting company. There are a lots of comments, as usual on Slashdot, but some of them are very valuable. There's even a story from a real Linux porting professional, James Sellman from Hyperion Entertainment (AmigaOS guys). He says a true story about problems with porting games, not-so-good cooperation with nVidia, and about usability of their drivers from a developer point of view. On a side note, it looks that the nVidia drivers aren't that good under Linux, despite the popular opinion (note the date though – 2002).

Take the following story with a grain of salt, because it's a second hand story, which my friend told me:
There was a game which was ported to Linux (the owning company had to agree for this), which stopped working on Windows XP when the OS came out. My friend called tech support and they told him that he needs to download a patch. He asked why it was needed, and the tech guy replied that MS punished them for letting the game be ported to Linux, by making some changes in the OS which rendered the game unusable. I wish I heard this for my own ears, because I have 50/50 belief in it, but it's the monopolists that rule and in my opinion saying that you are aware of everything that is happening is simply being ignorant.

Well. Loki Games went down, but we have Tux Games, Rune Soft, and Linux Game Publishing still operating... so stand up and fight to reduce the monopolist's strength. It's YOUR chance to save the world!
(ah yeah, I forgot... It's Life....)

 

[Hielor]

... MS punished them for letting the game be ported to Linux, by making some changes in the OS which rendered the game unusable. I wish I heard this for my own ears, because I have 50/50 belief in it, but it's the monopolists that rule and in my opinion saying that you are aware of everything that is happening is simply being ignorant.

Bull. Plenty of changes happen between versions of windows. Moreover, a gigantic company like MS isn't going to to go out of their way to punish a game developer.

Starting with WinXP, the "Compatibility Mode" allows you to run programs as if you're on an older version of Windows. That solves most problems.