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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 3:42 pm
by Gambler
With vista coming out, it's a good time for switching to linux. $200? I'm not even going to pirate vista for free.
Currently I'm using Gentoo linux and FreeBSD. But Gentoo would be hard to install for someone who've never worked with Linux, and FreeBSD is a bit too Unix-like. People say Ubntoo is quite user-friendly.
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 6:14 pm
by shiznatix
Gambler wrote:People say Ubntoo is quite user-friendly.
first and last post in this thread:
I enjoy Ubuntu and recommend it to friends. It was a bit hard to get reaaally running on my laptop but with some help from some people *ahem d11wtq* I have no problems. I then installed it on my desktop and play CS on it. I have a dual boot to XP on my laptop but I havn't booted it more than once since I installed Ubuntu.
But before you run off formatting everything remember that I almost never play CS and the only other games I play are random flash games.
If you do install Ubuntu, there is this setup thing (please, if someone knows what it is called post it) but it goes though and is like 'you should install ...........these things' and you check what you want and it just works. I cant remember what it was but it was a beautiful thing when I installed ubuntu on my desktop.
</ubuntu rave>
Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:14 pm
by d3ad1ysp0rk
Hockey wrote:Maugrim_The_Reaper wrote:You can't defy tradition...
Problem is that you may need Windows if in any way into PC gaming, otherwise Linux can handle most other things outside a few areas where an application is commonly used in an area... I actually suggest starting simple with Linux, like with Ubuntu or another user friendly distro which won't overload the menu with a dozen applications for viewing images and which has a nice update system like debian's apt.
Isn't that what Wine is for?
You're obviously new to linux..

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:27 pm
by Todd_Z
I believe shiznatix is talking about
Automatix - which is a GUI for installing common junk onto ubuntu.
I've used gentoo, archlinux, and now ubuntu.
I doubt I will ever be convinced to leave ubuntu unless I build my own distro, which is not anytime soon.
I'm really excited for the new ubuntu release [6.06] which is planned for june 06. Should be good => lots of laptop utilities, including network managers.
One of the most annoying things about ubuntu however is that all the wireless cards that cingular/verizon come with are very difficult to configure, and even if you succeed, you aren't getting close to the maximum capabilities of the card.
Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:36 pm
by alex.barylski
d3ad1ysp0rk wrote:Hockey wrote:Maugrim_The_Reaper wrote:You can't defy tradition...
Problem is that you may need Windows if in any way into PC gaming, otherwise Linux can handle most other things outside a few areas where an application is commonly used in an area... I actually suggest starting simple with Linux, like with Ubuntu or another user friendly distro which won't overload the menu with a dozen applications for viewing images and which has a nice update system like debian's apt.
Isn't that what Wine is for?
You're obviously new to linux..

Depends on your definition...
I have limited hands on experience, but I am familiar with alot about Linux...IMHO anyways...
I know that most games developed are for Windows and therefore capitalize on the technologies of DirectX, which isn't availble on *nix directly supported from M$ anyways...
Cross platform games usually rely on openGL...
Windows games also utilize generic Windows windows, so that means calls like: CreateWindow() in Win32 API are common in games as well...
Wine, offers a wrapper around the Win32 API for functions such as CreateWindow() as far as I can tell...
So all thats missing is a wrapper around the Windoes DirectX API...
Which is availble here:
http://www.techimo.com/newsapp/i744.html
WineX...
So explain, what am I missing?
Cheers

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:43 pm
by AKA Panama Jack
What he is trying to say is this...
Playing the vast majority of windows games on linux using Wine is like trying to force an elephant through a keyhole.
You can do it but it will take a long time and what you get out the other side won't resemble the elephant anymore.
Wine is good for desktop applications but pretty slow for 3d games of any stripe.
Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:01 pm
by alex.barylski
AKA Panama Jack wrote:What he is trying to say is this...
Playing the vast majority of windows games on linux using Wine is like trying to force an elephant through a keyhole.
You can do it but it will take a long time and what you get out the other side won't resemble the elephant anymore.
Wine is good for desktop applications but pretty slow for 3d games of any stripe.
Fare enough
However in my defense, isn't that obvious? I mean any kind of wrapper or abstraction layer, etc is overhead...which will slow a systems performance...
Cheers

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:07 pm
by evilmonkey
I don't like gnome...i'm surprised nobody mentioned kubuntu...or failing that, SuSE. IMO, apt > rpm.