I've noticed in all of my searches to find out whether you can or cannot run games supported by windows in ubuntu that there is a lot of hostility from the linux community towards the video game industry, and not a whole lot of answers. Also, I've noticed that linux users tend to have this extremely condescending "better than thou" attitude towards us who... GASP... BUY our operating systems... oh no! I gave money to the man!!! what am I going to do?! Wait... should there be "open-source" Chiropractors too? That way you'd never have to pay for an adjustment again! oh wait, then.. I'd be screwed and out of a career... Sometimes it is o.k. to pay for things guys... especially for a operating system for your computer which works with all of the programs you want to run... And yes, I do use some open source programs (like openoffice for example! Lovely program!) Yea, a perfect world would have it be that everyone gives everything away for free in equal measure out of the goodness of their hearts, but we're not even close to being there. (even though some in the government seem to think that it's their job to force us to get to their version as fast as possible.... *shudder)
Anyway, the focus of this post is my general frustration with the computer world. I do play video games. I like video games. They are one way I de-stress and relieve pent up tension. The video games I like the most are actually slightly older video games (not old old retro games, but 1995 on) One of my favorites is barely supported by my computer anymore (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D: relased 1998) it crashes after every mission... But after doing some research, I discovered that this is because the game designers were morons. Complete morons. Ok, maybe that's a touch harsh... but they designed the game in such a way where if your processor is over 1Ghz, the game freaks out and crashes. Now, I guess they couldn't forsee the day when you'd have afforably available multi-core processors running at well over 1Ghz, but at least make a patch, please? Just because you made a game over ten years ago, it doesn't mean no one is playing anymore... Blizzard gets that... there's still support for Starcraft (also released in 1998.)

The next facet of my frustration is the big push to move to the next OS, which I get. Seriously, I do. My XP home operating system doesn't even see my RAM all the way (I have two 2GB sticks, I have 3.5GB recognized by windows, just under 3GB available.) XP just isn't good enough for my rig... and it's getting less and less so as I upgrade my internals. But... I'd love to shell out $150 for 7... but they don't support my older games! Why?! It's not like Microsoft didn't design the XP OS in the first place... yea, I understand that 7 is based on completely different architecture and all... but seriously... if you can design a new architecture for a new OS, the least you can do is make it completely backwards compatible, even if it just means building in a XP emulator that works... I mean, it's not like i'm getting it for free... oh... oops... so, now that I've done a touch more research... heh... 7 is compatible... with XP mode they claim you can run ALL of you XP compatible programs as if on a XP machine, but with the power that 7 brings you... ok, now I feel like one of those stupid "I'm a PC, and windows 7 was my idea..." commercials... ok. yea, now I'll start saving my pennies to buy 7 pro... Unfortunately for Linux, Windows 7 adding this nice feature makes them obsolete in my search. Sorry Ubuntu, I am willing to shell out the dough for full compatability.

Thank You, Come Again!
Brian