Get Windows. At least according to this amusing Extreme Tech article. My favorite quote:

“So where does all of this leave Linux gamers? One word: Windows. Yep, you read that right. If you're a gamer, do yourself a favor and just buy a copy of Windows and set up a dual-boot system. Why bother to torture yourself with the headaches presented by Linux gaming? Why should you continually not have the games you want to play? Why settle for half-assed solutions that might or might not run the games you crave so desperately?

Nobody is a bigger critic of Microsoft than me, but if you're a Linux gamer, it's time to go buy a copy of Windows.

When it comes to games, Windows rules, and Linux drools. It's sad but true, my friends.“

Yeah, I know I'll get hell for posting this since I work at Microsoft and I'm obviously biased, <fill in your own belief here>, and just plain evil. But I will say that there was a time when I played with Linux a great deal, dual-booting several machines at home and just hoping it would actually grow up into something usable by mere mortals. I gave up.

Frankly, if a piece of hardware wasn't automagically working after a fresh distribution install, it just wasn't worth the time to try and get it working. Whether you like Windows or not, the simple fact of its ubiquity makes the availability of drivers a non-issue, and at the end of the day it basically just works. Sure, XP has issues - go ahead and comment away about the random issues, crashes, and bugs you find. Not going to argue. Vista has taken some huge strides ahead as you'll all soon see, including a new focus on enabling it as a kickass gaming platform. I just don't see Linux catching up in the gaming space anytime in the future.

All that said, my current home laptop? The new Intel Core 2 Duo Powerbook Pro, running Parallels with a Vista virtual machine installed. And when I switch into Vista and go full-screen, you'd never know it wasn't an old-school black PC laptop running it. Best of both worlds in my opinion! (Sadly, women still do not swoon as I walk by with it in hand. Story of my life.)

Just wanted to share a quick post to share this link about Transgaming's Cider from Red Herring. Not a lot of information, but it appears Cider allows game developers to basically wrap their Windows game such that it can run on an Intel Mac. The key appears to be that a developer can use their existing source code base without a lot of changes. I'm sort of thinking of Cider as Parallels for gaming... which sort of leads me back to possible Apple strategies for gaming.

There are a few plays I can imagine, but I only have time to write up one now. That theory, in short, is that I can imagine Apple creating a Cider equivalent, but tied to OS X. I personally believe Boot Camp is a step on that continuum. As you probably know, Boot Camp allows you to dual-boot between different OSes. The next logical step has already been taken by Parallels, which enables virtualization (or allowing both Windows and Windows applications to run inside of OS X). Many people believe virtualization belongs in the OS directly, so it's not hard to imagine Apple working hard to enable this in the next version of OS X. And at that point, it's not that much more of a step to create an "Intel Mac Gaming SDK" that enables game developers to optimize what's basically their Windows game codebase and simply run on the Mac, just as Cider appears to allow. Heck, I could even see Apple shortcutting the whole process and just acquiring Transgaming and putting those guys to work on the OS directly.

This would be a huge step forward for Apple as it could resolve that nagging problem of not having enough games on the platform. It's probably of smaller benefit to the game industry as a whole since the total number of games being sold may not go up dramatically (after all, people are likely to buy only one copy for whichever system they want to play on). What it doesn't address is Apple's desire to expand iTunes reach into the living room and other devices... which I think leads to Apple's other potential gaming strategy. More on that later.

Rumors have been going around the web for years that Apple might get into the mobile phone market. Engadget just posted an article highlighting some interesting finds:

"Anyhow, in the June 28th iPod updater package, apparently if one were to analyza few particular files with a hex editor, one would produce some very peculiar and anomalous commands, like t_feature_app_PHONE_APP, kPhoneSignalStrength, clPhoneCallModel, clPhoneCallHistoryModel, prPhoneSettingsMenu, and so on. They're confirmed to have absolutely nothing to do with the Moto iTunes phone line, which makes sense, and we will concede that such a find seems highly unusual."

This struck me as interesting because there have also been a few rumors of Apple getting back into the gaming market. Apple's done a great job of reinvigorating their PC line with the shift to OS X and Intel Core Duo processors, and today your average consumer can get pretty much anything done on their Mac that they might do on the PC. Yes, there's a smaller selection of applications overall, but there tends to be at least some solution for almost every need... except gaming. No offense to Mac fans out there (of which I am also one), but the Macintosh gaming landscape is a bit of a wasteland. This is the one area Apple really needs to kickstart to be successful over time; after all, gaming is regularly listed as the second or third most important application people want to do with their PCs ("internet", or web-browsing and email being first).

Point is, I can see an Apple cell phone happening, if only because it would be a great extension device for iTunes - think iPod and cell phone combo. I'm sure Apple would have some fun negotiations with the cellular carriers on iTunes revenue sharing, but that's all solveable at the end of the day. Once you have an "iPhone" you've nailed two of the devices people are most likely to carry with them while away from home. What's the third? A portable gaming device like the PSP or DS. My gut is if a cell phone/iPod hybrid is coming down the line, a version that encompasses gaming isn't far behind.

Busy day today so I can't write more, but I'll try to gin up some better-formed thoughts this weekend on what Apple's gaming strategy might be. I don't have any special crystal ball here, but I do have some thoughts on what might be interesting plays for Apple. Hint: the Mac Mini just seems like an odd little device... today.

[Edit: Penny Arcade mentioned a product from Transgaming called Cider that appears to allow Windows games to run on Intel Macs pretty much seamlessly, albeit with some developer work. To quote Tycho:

"Transgaming's Cider product allows Windows games to run on Intel Macs without dual booting or costly and painful waxing. It isn't emulation exactly, and it does require some devloper cooperation. I've been expecting Apple to handle something like this themselves, and they may yet, but perhaps they believe that Boot Camp has it under control. I sometimes, even in our enlightened age, see snark merchants snickering about the dilapidated state of Mac gaming. This was in a post I was reading on my Mac, booted into Windows, right before I played the demo of Prey with no hitches the very day of its release. I don't know if there is this storehouse of tired-ass Mac jokes out there that have no defined use, or what, but we're way past the expiration date on that type of material."

Pretty cool - I'm actually not familiar with Cider directly but will obviously need to look into it.]

Saw a computerworld.com article about the latest build of Windows Vista that details how some of the rough spots are getting ironed out. I won't quote the whole thing, and just recommend you take a read if you have any interest in Vista.

I've been using Vista on my desktop machine at work for daily use for a couple of months now and have to say I really like it. May sound like heresy, but I'm a dual-platform guy - run both Macs and PCs at home for different purposes. In my opinion, Vista has done a great job of cleaning up a lot of the Windows UI, interface issues, and overall stability. There are a lot of nice little things that just "work" the way you'd expect they should - strongly reminds me of OS X in that way. What I'm most excited about is that in spite of all these changes, you still feel at home. The good parts of that PC heritage we've all grown up with are still there. You still have a File Explorer, but it's much cleaner and easier to use. You still have ways to connect to networks, but it's a lot more obvious what you're doing, and why. And you still have all of those Windows games to play (which is an unfortunate weakness of the Macintosh right now).

Anyway, check out the article if you're curious. I don't have any special insight into the Windows team and their schedule, but I can say the Vista builds we're using now are stable and very usable for day-to-day work. Feels like we're almost there!

Oh, and for the record, my current dream machine (and the next machine I'll be getting) will be the next revision of the MacBook Pro, running both Windows Vista and OS X Leopard (ideally virtualized, just as Parallels allows you to do).