We are excited to make the final preliminary announcement of Freedomware Gamefest 2007, a first international online event featuring a multitude of tournaments as part of a single happening and with games that are only Free Software.

I’m tired of people who are afraid to switch to Linux because of its so called “lack of games, or at least good ones.” What I think is they just want the games they like ported to Linux instead of trying new ones. Or maybe it’s because the games are free and that is already a sign the game is bad, but I’m beginning to think quite the opposite.

Linux might not have as much games as Windows (or game consoles) but people enjoying this wonderful open source operating system can have fun with games too, as there are a lot of free games for Linux available, even some huge commercial ones. Even Linux games are a niche market, Linux gaming has got a pretty colorful history so far. So what’s the state of Linux gaming?

If you’re interested in games for a Linux platform, then you know that game probably is open source, free from cost in most cases, and free to modify. The latter attribute is why Linux games are so popular…a developer can take a great game and make it even better, share it with the world, and become a hero. So, why waste your time and money on proprietary games when so many great Linux games are available?

Now Mac and Linux are often criticized for the lack of good games available under the two platforms compared to Windows. Perhaps Mac is moving in the right direction towards native big budget games however, Linux is not. We may have WINE ,which is something I will do a feature on, but it doesn’t replace the real game.

A recent article on 10 Advantages of Ubuntu over Vista drew ridicule because “Linux doesn’t support games”. While I knew this was only a half truth, I decided to blog about it myself. It is true that you can’t run to Walmart and buy a Linux version of the newest games; Yet there are plenty of games that are worth playing in Linux.

When people talk about computer gaming these days, they invariably mean commercial games running on a Windows platform. Few people realize that Linux can be more than just a very good Web or file server. Even fewer people are aware of the many open-source or otherwise freely available games available for Linux.

Alien Arena, Wormux and Crack Attack and a lot of other free cross-platform games will be found in this comprehensive list. Some games may not work on all operating systems but most of them surely will. There are also games in my list that aren’t true Open Source software, but most of them are and all the games are at least completely free to download and play.

One of the major disadvantages of Linux is that it won’t let you play most Windows games. On the other hand, lots of great free Linux games have been developed over the last couple of years. Here’s a list of some entertaining Linux games I’ve come across so far.