World of Warcraft functionality on Linux
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- (computing) A free Unix-like operating system kernel created by Linus Torvalds based on previous Minix work from Andrew S. Tanenbaum and released under the GNU General Public License. - from Wiktionary
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General
World of Warcraft had a client for Linux while it was in the beta phase of development, but it was later dropped and never officially released[1]. Currently, WoW is run on Linux by use of Windows compatibility layers. Given that the World of Warcraft client is no longer officially developed to work in Linux, the installation of it on Linux is a somewhat more involved process than on Windows, which it is streamlined to install more easily on. However, with some careful research, and a bit of patience, it's very possible to do so.
Although WoW by default uses Microsofts proprietary and closed-source API, DirectX, for 3D rendering in Windows, when run under Linux it is best to use the free/libre and open-source OpenGL engine, which is also fully supported in the Windows client and the only 3D rendering API used by the officially released and supported Mac client (and the defunct Linux client). OpenGL is fully supported in Linux, but to make everything else in the game work one needs to use one of pieces of software listed on the bottom of this page.
Benefits
There are many reasons why people want to run WoW under Linux.
Security
Linux is a less frequent target of malicious software (viruses, adware, keyloggers) than Windows, meaning that it requires less effort and software to keep a Linux system more secure than a Windows one (Mac OS X also enjoys this advantage.) Linux is not a magical fix for security, however. A properly maintained Windows system (with anti-virus, kept up-to-date on security patches) is no more inherently vulnerable than Linux and a poorly-maintained Linux installation has its share of vulnerabilities. Always remember that the most important factor in a computer's security is its user(s)!
Tweakability and performance
An other major advantage of WoW on Linux is that Linux's degree of modularity means that in ideal conditions, for a user with the requisite knowledge to create a custom Linux system, little other than a kernel, Wine, and WoW itself need to be running. This means that the entire resources of a computer can be devoted to the game, rather than being slowed down by also running Windows in the background as is more usual. It should thus be possible to gain a degree of performance/hardware efficiency usually only associated with consoles, using PC hardware.
OpenGL, which most Linux users use for 3D rendering in WoW, offers marginally greater visual quality than DirectX, but with a correspondingly greater load on the system. In particular, OpenGL's performance is tied much more directly to the amount of rendered in-game distance that is visible to the player, and so those seeking to run WoW on Linux may find it advantageous to experiment with the numbers relating to drawdistance in WoW's Config.WTF file, in order to improve performance.
Networking
In addition, given its' closer ancestry from BSD UNIX, (which was the original development and host operating system for TCP/IP based networking) Linux's TCP/IP networking stack is almost certainly more soundly developed than that of Windows; marginally smaller ping times (on the order of 100-200 ms or so) have been observed within WoW under Linux when using a computer and network connection of the same speed as that used by a Windows install. This may be of interest to international WoW players, who seek to reduce problems associated with lag.
Blizzard's position on Linux
It should be strongly noted that use of World of Warcraft under Linux is not officially endorsed by Blizzard, and the company's position on doing so remains somewhat ambiguous. However, their recent work with Cedega in ensuring interoperability could be taken as evidence that the practice is at least tolerated, if not actually supported. The inherent degree of diversity and heterogeneity between the many Linux distributions means that officially supporting any commercial application for Linux as a whole, while including all possible usage scenarios, would be an enormous task, and oftentimes not financially viable, given the relatively few Linux user, and this is also very true for World of Warcraft.
Compatibility layers
Wine
Wine is a open-source project which aims to allow a PC running a Linux kernel based operating system to execute programs originally written for Microsoft Windows. DirectX support in Wine is still under critical development and unstable to say the least, but when run in OpenGL mode and after some configuration, it is possible to get WoW to perform equally under Wine as in native Windows. Running WoW in Wine gets a gold rating by the users at the moment.
- See Linux/Wine for further instructions.
- This was created to contain the mass of information wine really deserves for playing WoW. It was recently transitioned from the guide at the AppDB to here, in hopes that it would be better maintained. Enjoy!
Cedega
TransGaming's Cedega is a spin-off of Wine. They offer commercial support for running Windows games on Linux. It requires the user to pay a monthly fee.
The maintainer of Cedega, TransGaming, have reasonable relations with Blizzard, despite previous bumpy times. The Cedega World of Warcraft Forum has much information in it.
News: It should be noted that although for some time, Cedega was thought to be slightly better than stock wine for performance, it is not well maintained right now, and many users are finding stock wine actually easier and better to use. Transgaming has not addressed several issues, and the latest versions of Cedega have more trouble running WoW than earlier versions do.
CrossOver Linux
The official financial backers of the Wine project, CodeWeavers', also release their own for-profit version of Wine named CrossOver Linux. Unlike Cedega, CrossOver Linux specializes in running Microsoft Office on Linux. However, they have expanded to support other applications in recent years, and according to CodeWeavers' website, World of Warcraft is one of the supported applications. CodeWeavers employ several active wine developers, including the project lead, Alexandre Julliard, and host both the Bug tracking system and the application compatibility database webpage, because of this, and Transgaming's unwillingness to give any source code back to Wine, CrossOver is the commercial product of choice by most Wine supporters.
