I just tried the current version of Aces High (2.24.4 as of May2011) with PcLinuxOS 2010 Minime, using the current, free version of Wine (Version 2.1.3-2-pclos2011).
Bottom line: it works.
However, I observed a framerate that was only about 25% of what I get under Windows on the same machine.
I was using a single-processor, Celeron 2.5 Ghz machine with an nVidia geForce 8400GS graphics card and 512MB of RAM. That's not a lot of computer for recent versions of Aces High II. Performance was barely adequate: frame rates between 14 and 22, with all graphic detail turned down to the minimum and with resolution diminished to 1024x768. (I even tried diminishing the resolution down to 800x600, but the frame rate didn't improve measurably.)
I also confirmed success with 2 of my favorite old versions of Aces High: 1.11.4 "classic" and 2.12.4. Both suffered from low framerates, about 25% of what I've come to expect when running each of them native under Microsoft Windows.
Although the frame rate was disappointing, I am encouraged overall. All of my prior experiments with Aces High II required purchase of the commercial "Cedega" Windows emulator. Although WINE could support Aces High I, it never worked with AH2 for me prior to this, and it's always suffered from a lower framerate than Cedega or Windows.
In this case, my successful WINE configuration was "plain vanilla". I didn't tweak anything at all in the Wine Configurator after the sound system defaulted to the "ALSA" option as usual. I was able to map all of the axes and buttons of my Logitech Extreme 3dPro joystick with the exception of the throttle lever. I don't know why that didn't work, but it didn't. I'll fiddle with it some more and report back here if I learn anything.
The sound quality was pretty good, but doppler effects were missing.
I was able to map all of the keyboard controls according to my own (rather radical) preferences. The default keyboard and joystick control mappings (including the joystick's "hat" switch) matched up very well with the general, standard expectations of the AH community before I changed them.
After I got everything working as described, I updated the LINUX Kernel and all standard applications in the PcLinuxOs 2010 Minime distribution to the latest, greatest version as of 01Jun2011, and everything continued to work as before.
Conclusion: The latest version of PcLinuxOs supports Aces High 2.24.4 with the free "WINE" Windows emulator, but the frame rate is only about 25% as fast as when running the same version of Aces High 2 under Windows XP. In my opinion, it isn't yet competitive for online flight unless you have a VERY powerful processor and graphics card. LINUX and WINE continue to make progress, but haven't yet caught up with the LINUX/Cedega combination, or with native Windows.
