| An interview with TransGaming founder Gavriel State |
by Jill Ratkevic (Mar. 3, 2003)
DesktopLinux.com discovers Linux has games in this interview with TransGaming Technologies founder and CEO Gavriel State. State believes that the greater availability of games for Linux will play a significant factor in broad adoption of the upstart operating system. The interview discusses the history of TransGaming, the state of Linux gaming, and how to gain the desktop . . .
DesktopLinux.com: Briefly, what is the story behind TransGaming Technologies? How do you incorporate open source into your business?
Gavriel State: TransGaming got its start when I left Corel, shortly after the release of Corel's Linux OS and WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux suite. Having led the teams that ported Corel’s products to the Mac and Linux platforms, I started TransGaming after realizing that there was a tremendous opportunity for a software portability solution that would bring more software to Linux desktops and beyond. Games have been a key factor in the acceptance of new Operating Systems in the past, and we believe that the availability of more games for Linux will be a decisive factor influencing the broad adoption of Linux in a number of different areas.
Being passionate about the prospects for Linux on the desktop, Vikas Gupta (TransGaming’s President and COO) and I also conceived and facilitated the spin-off of Corel’s Linux division and the formation of Xandros. We brought investors to the table, introduced them to the Corel management team, wrote the initial business plans for the company and facilitated the financial and strategic negotiations. We’re extremely pleased to see similar plans to what we architected now being executed by companies like Lindows. We refocused our business efforts on TransGaming in the summer of 2001 once the Xandros spinout was well under way and as the tremendous potential of what we could offer through TransGaming became clearer.
In October 2001, TransGaming launched a subscription service with the first availability of our unique technology, WineX, supporting a total of six games; simultaneously TransGaming released a Linux-specific version of Electronic Arts’ The Sims, the world’s most popular video game ever. Today, TransGaming’s WineX supports over 200 of the most popular games.
Like many other companies, we make use of Open Source in a number of different ways. Not only do we participate and contribute to the Wine and ReWind projects, we also make use of open source software for our business architecture. All of our servers and infrastructure heavily rely on Open Source software such as Apache, Perl, PHP, MySQL, etc.
DesktopLinux.com: Many Linux fans have had to use Microsoft Windows when they want to play the latest games. But increasingly, catalogs are being readied for Linux. TransGaming brought the Kohan series of real-time strategy games just last summer. Can you describe how TransGaming decides to work on supporting for a specific game? What is the process and how can Gamers influence what games TransGaming works on next?
Gavriel State: One of the primary benefits of becoming a TransGamer (a TransGaming subscriber) is that it allows you to have a direct impact on the games that our development team works on. While in some cases we have a strong relationship with developers such as TimeGate Studios, Electronic Arts and Maxis, and access to their source codes, in other cases we have less to work with and must ration our development time more carefully. We do this through the use of subscriber polls whereby subscribers can vote on where they would like to see TransGaming focus our development efforts. This voting process, in conjunction with the strategic relationships we are continually negotiating, influence the games we work on.
DesktopLinux.com: TransGaming offers a software portability layer that allows an end user to play games on cross platform systems. Can you describe how this works? Is the implementation for even a new Linux user?
Gavriel State: TransGaming has developed an alternative implementation of Microsoft's Win32 Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which form the basis of all Windows software, from spreadsheets to video games. The Win32 APIs themselves are extremely broad, covering thousands of functions including graphics, window management, memory, file and disk access, communications, and so on. By migrating the APIs to alternate platforms and mapping hardware accelerated DirectX calls to these platforms, TransGaming's portability solution achieves a unique compatibility that allows many Windows games to run directly out of the box, and without a significant performance penalty.
Using this approach of providing equivalent replacements for the Win32 APIs on each target platform, TransGaming circumvents the need to port applications through the traditional rewriting of large portions of code. TransGaming's portability technology implements the Win32 APIs on top of the existing platform's APIs, essentially providing a software shim that mediates between the different programming interfaces. This allows TransGaming to achieve outstanding efficiency in how a game or application runs on an alternate platform, in most cases without any performance degradation.
Upon subscribing to our service, a user can download the latest version of WineX in the packaged format appropriate for their Linux distribution. Once installed, they can run their games and other software directly from a standard Linux command line. We are currently working on a graphical front-end that will simplify the installation and configuration of new games for new users. What our users love the most about this method of enabling games on Linux is that our technology simply runs in the background without utilizing excessive hardware and software resources. Thus, the game-play experience that the user enjoys is fully optimized with outstanding performance.
While we have worked hard to ensure that the installation and configuration of our technology is relatively simple, WineX 3.0 will see a dramatic change with the new click-and-run oriented front-end GUI that we are adding. With this, users who don’t want to tinker with the behind the scenes aspect to Linux can simply point, click, and run their favorite games.
DesktopLinux.com: Can you describe the advantages of using WineX? How does the project differ from Wine?
Gavriel State: WineX is specifically optimized to run the world’s hottest games. It includes highly-tuned support for not only the multimedia APIs used by games, but also things like game installers and copy protection software. The Wine project, by contrast, has a much more general focus, targeting everything from Internet browsers to office software. By concentrating exclusively on games, TransGaming can deliver a better overall experience for Linux gamers.
DesktopLinux.com: October 2002 marked TransGaming's first year of a subscription-based service program. During that time support has grown from just six games on Linux in October 2001, to over 150 titles today. Can you talk about the milestone and how this business model has benefited from open source?
Gavriel State: We’ve already discussed some of this in the first question. However, to specifically address the impact of open source on our business model we should really look at the tremendous need in the industry that TransGaming is responding to. Traditionally, large developers and publishers have had no interest in developing games for the Linux platform despite the tremendous momentum behind open source and Linux. Other companies who were developing or porting to Linux have come and gone because their business model simply didn’t make sense in this industry. We’ve taken a unique approach to gaming on Linux; by getting the open source community somewhat involved in what we do, by allowing them to direct our development efforts, and by providing a forum dedicated to gaming, both the Linux community and TransGaming have benefited from the broad availability of tier one titles on Linux. Thus, we see our support for so many games on Linux as a tremendous milestone that should be celebrated by TransGaming and our customers and a demonstration of the mutual benefit that can be derived through open source-related collaboration.
DesktopLinux.com: There has been dramatic improvements in the speed and realism in computer games. Accelerator functions and "4D video port functions" should logically be available in the Linux kernel for maximum "hardware compatibility", "ease of programming/debugging/support", and high performance. Can you talk about some of the key areas of advancement that have found their way into Linux? Also, what are your views about integration of technology support into the main Linux kernel and libraries?
Gavriel State: The Linux Kernel developers have obviously been doing an excellent job of integrating a wide variety of improvements to the system as a whole. The DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure) work being done by the Kernel and XFree86 teams is of course very important to support 3D gaming on a wide variety of different graphics hardware. We are also quite excited by some of the more technical areas of Kernel development, such as support for very fast IPC mechanisms. These will play an increasingly important role for TransGaming, as games increasingly rely on multithreading to balance the load between graphics, sound, and AI support.
DesktopLinux.com: Some of the latest innovations that are being developed for gaming are also being tapped for other applications and vertical markets such as medical imaging, set-top boxes and other end user products. Can you give us some examples? Is TransGaming involved in any development in non-gaming areas that you can discuss further? What are TransGaming's plans in non-gaming markets?
Gavriel State: TransGaming is keenly aware of the other opportunities available for our technology in non-gaming markets, but we are not quite ready to talk in more detail about our plans there. However, keep watching our website, , for the latest and greatest news about what we’re working on. We do have some very exciting announcements coming out soon.
DesktopLinux.com: Is there a plan to bring a subscription based Linux gaming network similar to Xbox Live to the public? The technologies to do this are presumably available in Linux now for such a service, do you know of any plans to implement this into a commercially deployed network?
Gavriel State: Many Linux games already support networking right out of the box, as do many of the Windows games that are available to Linux users through WineX. These include everything from real-time strategy games such as TimeGate Studios’ Kohan series, to massive-multiplayer games such as Sony Online Entertainment’s EverQuest. We love networked games, as do many of our TransGamers, and we think that they will continue to be an important segment of the market.
As far as the XBox goes, it is actually possible to play some XBox games online via a Linux networking tool, even without subscribing to the XBox Live system. This is a great example of both the flexibility of the technology as well as an interesting realization about the synergies between the Linux and console gaming world.
DesktopLinux.com: TiVO and other set-top box platforms are finding their way into the mainstream at a record pace as end users want to have more control over their entertainment content. These end users don't even know Linux is inside in most instances, nor do they care - which is the hallmark of a good implementation. Interactive content and broadband has been a barrier to adoption. Can you discuss how that market serves as example of both best and worst case scenarios?
Gavriel State: You’re right, TiVo and other devices are great examples of platforms that use Linux transparently where the end user neither knows nor cares about the actual operating system inside. TransGaming’s solutions are similar in that we are developing transparent compatibility solutions that allow games and applications to simply run on the user’s preferred device. This is the ultimate objective for everyone: a seamless and transparent user experience that gives the user access to the services they want without ever worrying about the complexities of how to get software running on their platforms.
DesktopLinux.com: There are a few development projects that have been spawned specifically to port Linux to the Microsoft Xbox or Sony PlayStation that have received much attention. Can you explain this approach and the challenges it presents?
Gavriel State: We think that bringing Linux to these console platforms is great, for a number of reasons. On the PlayStation 2 side, having the Linux kit available has helped Sony introduce the PlayStation 2 programming model to programmers who might never have thought that they could get into the console gaming world.
And while there are interesting, practical implications of being able to turn a low-cost XBox into a Linux server, or even a desktop box, at the core, it is a great reflection of the spirit of the Linux community. Getting Linux running on a closed system like the XBox is quite simply a great hack. And it is wholly appropriate to be able to run the software you want on the hardware you have purchased.
It is of course a very challenging endeavor – that’s part of what makes it fun. While some developers have banded together to attempt to crack the XBox’s private key (required to encrypt any code that runs on the system) directly, the math suggests that approach will not be terribly fruitful for the next few hundred years or more. I think that other approaches – involving finding security flaws such as buffer overrun issues in built-in XBox software – are more likely to succeed.
DesktopLinux.com: In all of these examples - security, encryption and the legal issues all come up. Can you talk about some of the issues and your views of the issues? Any predictions?
Gavriel State: With all the publishers we talk to, security and copy protection are major concerns. And the vast majority of the Windows games that we support on Linux use one copy protection scheme or another. As such, we have had to work hard to ensure that WineX can run that copy protection code so that TransGamers can play their games.
Publishers are still adamant that they protect their core software assets in any way possible and we, as a partner of these publishers, must respect and abide by their guidelines. However, as online games become increasingly popular and prevalent, the security issues will also begin to change since the value associated with these titles is the ability to play games online. In such an instance, the more users the better, since each user generates a continual and recurring revenue stream by paying for online access. This radically changes the nature of such protection systems away from copy prevention and more to the comparatively simpler task of credit card verification. Really, it takes us back to the days of the stand up arcade, but at $9.95 per month instead of a quarter per play, where users derive greater value.
DesktopLinux.com: What is your vision/expectation for the opportunity of Linux on the desktop? As it applies to gaming? What distributions are you working with to bring gaming to Linux?
Gavriel State: We think that there are several very strong companies working towards getting Linux more accepted on the desktop, including TransGaming. Getting there involves a number of factors – traction in the consumer market is coming from companies selling Linux bundled with very low cost computers; traction in the corporate desktop market is there due to the lower costs involved in deploying Linux desktop solutions as compared with the alternative; in both cases the general availability of applications is a significant factor in overall adoption.
We believe that the availability of high-demand games will be a key catalyst in bringing Linux additional success on the consumer side. This will happen not only through direct uptake of Linux as an OS, but also through the use of Linux based technology in set top boxes and other kinds of embedded systems.
TransGaming has great relationships with just about every Linux distributor out there – both with direct partnerships with companies such as Mandrake and Lycoris, as well as other distributions who are great allies.
DesktopLinux.com: In your opinion, what are the main barriers to the success of Linux on the desktop, and what are the key things that can be done to maximize the success of Linux in the Desktop Market?
Gavriel State: Oh, it’s really all about the games. Really, which would you rather be doing, playing the latest EA or Blizzard mega-hit, or writing up reports on your word processor or spreadsheet program. 8-)
DesktopLinux.com: Thanks!
Talk back! Do you have comments or questions about this story? talkback here
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
Approaching the Linux Desktop
The purpose of this paper is to help organizations evaluate the Linux desktop against their own enterprise needs and discover what benefits the Linux desktop might bring to their organizations.
Migrating To Linux: Application Challenges and Solutions
Several solutions exist to help organizations migrate in an orderly fashion from Windows to Linux desktops. This paper establishes the characteristics of an ideal cross-platform solution and reviews these alternatives in light of this ideal standard. The paper takes a closer look at the pros and cons of various solutions and outlines the business benefits that can be achieved.
Linux Advantages: Publicly Available Information on Linux Software
This paper offers a brief summary of readily-available Linux information to help businesses sort out this widely misunderstood operating system.
Top 5 Strategies for Managing Linux
Despite continuous evolution in the manageability of Linux, a 2006 survey cited manageability concerns as a top reason why organizations are hesitating to adopt Linux. Levanta believes Linux can be as manageable, if not more so, than other operating systems by following key strategies. These strategic recommendations were developed from experiences in numerous customer environments, both large and small.
Why Choose Novell for Linux?
This paper outlines the benefits of switching to the Linux platform and choosing Novell as a high-performance, enterprise solution.
Enterprise Linux Selection Guide
Considering moving your enterprise to the Linux operating system? Since there are so many similar versions, choosing the right one can be tough. This paper offers a clear process to help you make an informed decision and get the features, support, and cost that are right for your business and technical needs.
Overcoming Challenges in Managing Linux
Levanta has created a new administration model with innovative technology that breaks down the barriers to making the most of Linux systems. This paper will provide an in-depth look at the workings of Levanta’s product, the first Linux appliance of its kind.
SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 for Retail Businesses
Discover why major retailers have switched to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop in the back office. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is a low-cost desktop that offers a complete set of productivity applications and interoperates seamlessly with the other Windows, Macintosh and UNIX desktops in your store.
Moving to a Linux Desktop
Migrating from Windows to Linux on the desktop can be a substantial undertaking because it has the potential for touching -- and perhaps disrupting -- every user in your organization. Unlike a data center (server and infrastructure) migration that is largely transparent to users, the cultural and administrative transitions and environment readiness required to support a Linux desktop migration are extensive.
Seven Good Reasons to Exchange Exchange
This paper describes seven compelling reasons why you should switch from Exchange to Scalix.
|
|
|
|
|
news feed
