LinuxLinks Review
(3/10/05)
By Kevin E. Glosser
Test Environment
First, let's discuss the testing environment. The
latest version, 4.2.1 released on January 11, 2005, was the subject of
our review. In addition to this TransGaming provides a nice graphical
front end to Cedega named Point2Play(P2P). We tested version 1.3.2 of
P2P.
Hardware used for this review was a modified Dell Dimension 8300. It has
a Pentium IV processor running at 3 GHz. The FrontSideBus runs at 800
Mhz. The memory is dual channel DDR 400, one gigabyte in total. The
original video card has long been removed and replaced by an admittedly
out of date one, by hardcore gaming standards. Although the ASUS GeForce
4 Ti4200 with 128 Mb of VRAM is a nice card, it simply can't compete
with the newer offerings from NVIDIA or ATI. Sound is provided by a
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 sound card.
The GNU/Linux distribution installed on this hardware is Fedora Core 3, which
is kept up to date with recent patches and kernels. At the time
of the review the 2.6.10-1.760 SMP kernel was used, installed via rpm.
The latest NVIDIA graphics driver, version 6629 is installed.
I wanted to be as fair as possible with the selection of games I chose
for testing Cedega. Yet, at the same time I wanted to pick games most
people would be playing. Two games stood out as obvious choices. Both
are advertised on TransGaming's website. They are, World of Warcraft from Blizzard
Entertainment, and Half-Life 2 from Valve Software. Each of these titles
has been claimed to be the best of their genre, some might argue they
are the best games currently available. Amongst gamers, there can't be
much disputing these choices.
In addition to two very recent titles, both coming out late last year, I
wanted to test a slightly older game that also pushes graphics
capabilities. I chose Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic from
BioWare which just so happened to be 2003 game of the year.
Initially, I considered testing additional games, but after three solid
titles I felt I had enough material to write my review. I did however,
make one final attempt. I decided to be unfair this time, and throw
Cedega a "curveball". Why not try to run a Windows application that
isn't a game? Sure, we're all curious, is Cedega really just for games?
Fortunately, my choice of what to try seems to forever answer that
question. I chose to install an obscure, not so mainstream program, the
Windows InternetChessClub (ICC) client. I downloaded and tested version
2.34, admittedly a program that hasn't been updated for three years.
The ICC is a sponsor of our site, however this was not a
factor in my selection. I've been a ICC member for over ten years, long
before they ever considered sponsoring our site.
Alright, enough with the details, let's install Cedega...
Installation
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