Typically, when anyone hears the term Linux, it gets associated with web server, web hosting, and running server based applications like My SQL, Apache and Perl programming language. Using Linux as a gaming platform has not been really a popular choice amongst tech savvy gaming fans. Although, most of the games are designed to run on Windows, Linux has not gain immense success as an online gaming operating system.

However, over the past years, given a dramatic rise of Linux users throughout the world, many companies have focused their attention from developing Windows based games to developing Linux based games and introducing emulators for many Windows based games to run on Linux OS. This rise in Linux popularity has led to various meetings and international conferences. One such is a tremendous successful Selinux Symposium 2005 conference with a specific agenda of highlighting advantages of Linux over other Operating Systems.

Linux, a better alternative for online gaming

Recent studies, and paper written on Linux, at the Selinux Symposium have shown that Linux in fact can be a better alternative for online gaming as compared with other OS. Linux provides maximum hardware efficiency resulting in smoother games. Most of the games developed for Linux are open-source based and free. Using emulators like Wine and CrossOver, the possibility of online gaming with Linux has been increased proving a large number of Windows based games to install and run error free on Linux OS. Linux is best used for server based applications and networking.

Since online gaming is all about networking, Linux can be a great platform to play games online. Many games have specifically been designed for Linux OS including America’s Army, Tremulous, Tux Racer, Nexuiz, Alien Arena 2007, TrueCombat: Elite, The Open Racing Car Simulator, Frets on Fire, Scorched 3D, and ManiaDrive. All of these games have been top rated for Linux and developed in various categories like Racing, First Person Shooter and Strategy based games.