Originally posted here.
Quake Live is a browser version of Quake 3 Arena. It’s Free To Play, but if you want to play extra maps and get to extra content you have to pay up. Which if you’re like me, just paying for Quake 3 Arena gives you more than enough. Still, quite a few people play Quake Live. Although with the latest transition planned by ID Software to take it out of the browser and make it a standalone, it may cause some issues. The reason? It will be Windows only.
Will there be Mac/Linux support?
We will be unable to support Mac and Linux clients with this transition. While we have reports from our testers that the game works through emulation or virtualization software, we are unable to support native Mac and Linux versions. If you’re using Mac and Linux and have a paid subscription, you will only be able to access the game using emulation or virtualization software.
The company who used to make Quake and Doom ports for all kinds of platforms is now restricting Quake Live to Windows. This leaves people like me asking why go this route? Seriously. iD used to be more open minded than this. They used to bring people together on all platforms, really? I mean I don’t play Quake Live, but everything leading up to Quake 4 had support on Windows, Linux and Mac. Then Rage came along which basically became John Carmack’s Daikatana in the eyes of hardcore PC Gamers. For being a revolutionary team back in the 90’s this just seems backwards.
But enough of that. You can still play Quake 3 on all platforms. Or if you want a more up to date version you can check out OpenArena, an Open Source alternative which is just as fun.