Technology as a way of life

First of all i would like to say I've been using Linux (Ubuntu more specific) since March 2006 and have been really impressed by it. Some of the major "problems" an everyday user has in switching operating systems is the "fear" of new things and not knowing how they work (or just getting used to specific ones and not really interested trying something diff if it can do the same thing).

Wine is a software application which allows programs specially built for Microsoft Windows to run on Linux/Unix distributions. This is a project which started 15 years ago and on the 19th of June 2008 reached it's first "stable" version 1.0 (3 days ago Wine 1.1.0 was released including more bugfixes and improvements). Many windows applications and games have been working for quite a while with Wine but since Ubuntu 8.04 and Wine 1.0 were launched, they brought gaming to a new level. Too check the compatibility of Wine with any application you can take a quick look here Wine Application Database

To mention just a few Top Used applications that run almost as Windows versions (maybe a bit slower):

• Photoshop CS2
• Office 2003 (although that OpenOffice comes preinstalled with Ubuntu and it has the same functionality as Office2003/2007 maybe even more nice tweaks)
• 3Dmark
• Autocad (not the 2008 version)
  

As for games go (cause we are talking about the future of gaming with Wine) many games showed us that gaming IS possible:

• World of Warcraft
• EVE Online
• Guild Wars
• GTA: San Andreas
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
• Supreme Commander
• Counter-Strike: Source
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (a few graphic bugs)
• Half-Life 2
• Silkroad Online
• Team Fortress 2
• Battlefield 2
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : Shadow of Chernobyl
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• Broken Sword
• Quake 4
• Unreal Tournament 3
  
• etc etc

In terms of performance applications don't suffer from any noticeable loss bur there might be a 10-20% performance drop in linux gaming (because of the "emulation" (although virtualization might be a better term for it) but on today's constantly improving hardware you won't even notice it cause it will still be playable at over 30FPS.

Sidenote: some games have been reported as working better on Linux than Windows, these include:

• WoW (any version)
  
• SecondLife
  
• Quake (any version)
  
• Unreal Tournament (any version)
  

You should try downloading Ubuntu and install it in Windows... yes u heard me right "INSIDE WINDOWS" using the integrated Wubi installer. Just burn or mount your Ubuntu 8.04 cd/dvd and press install. When your computer boots you will have a menu where you can choose between Ubuntu or Windows. And if u don't like it, simply go into Windows, Add-Remove and uninstall it... it's THAT SIMPLE!

You might wanna take a look (or even download it) from the official UBUNTU page.

Sidenote: Linux is no longer that "geek's only" territory. It's a user-friendly operating system waiting to show-off its functions and looks, because you may be using Vista right now and think "hey my vista is looking very damn nice, Ubuntu can't look any way better than my Aero look"... well i have some news for you... just look at this little video: Windows Vista vs Ubuntu + Beryl (i bet you will change your mind) hehehehe...