I May go Linux [Archive] - nV News Forums

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Mith192

12-22-05, 10:02 PM

whig

12-22-05, 11:56 PM

You can google those questions. Linux still has upgrades it's just they are cheaper, smaller and more frequent. For a beginner I suggest a live CD. It will give you a taste for a minimum of learning. For some distros there is plenty of learning while others strive to be simple and easy (ie they make the decisions).

As for games I'm pleased you have a nVidia card. The UTs/Dooms/Quakes will play native on it. The adventurous try windows emulation with cegeda. Ymmv.

Performance wise games might go just a tad slower. Nothing to worry about. Desktop apps go faster because windows is a memory hog and keeps on swapping.

64 and 32 bit apps can coexist on linux. And in different ways btw. I suggest you dual boot windows/linux for a while. Good luck.

nukem

12-23-05, 02:01 AM

Linux still has upgrades it's just they are cheaper, smaller and more frequent.

Every OS, infact every peice of software has upgrades, an OS has many more upgrades then anything else. What you have to remember though is when you do an update in Linux you are not only updating the OS but every app you have installed. Linux is a free OS unless you pay for mandrake or Linspire which only gives you support and maybe a few extra configuration apps to make life easier.

If you want to just try out Linux burn a copy of knoppix (http://www.knoppix.org/) and see how you like it. Dont try to play games on it because the nvidia drivers do not come with it(its kina like a vesa driver in windows but much better). There you can play around with Linux and see how you like it. The distro you choose really depends on how much you want to learn about Linux and how technical you already are. I prefer gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/) but this is a technical distro that requires you to have knowledge of Linux(or be willing to learn). fedora (fedora.redhat.com) or mandrake (www.mandrake.com) would probably be the best for someone starting out. Remember while making the transistion you can have Linux, Win, and any other OS you want installed at the same time.

As for games there are many native Linux games such as UT2k4, Quake 4, Doom3, etc for the games that arent you can pay for cedega (http://transgaming.com) which provides support and they tend to add features and supported games faster(look here (http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/)) or you can use the free wine (http://www.winehq.org)

Mith192

12-23-05, 04:20 PM

I didnt mean software upgrades i was refering to what the recomended vista hardware will be and realised i didnt like windows that much

12-23-05, 05:32 PM

I recommend using VMWare to get your feet wet. This way you can try countless distros to see which one suits you best. Ubuntu and Suse are good for newbs. Plus, you can do all your gaming right next to your virtual machine. Best of all, though, is the fact that you don't need to go off partitioning your drive a million times and deal with dual booting. Trust me, if you care about gaming at all you are going to want to boot Windows in some capacity making a dual boot a necessity if you are going to run Windows.

Sorry for not actually answering any of your questions. :D

a12ctic

12-23-05, 06:49 PM

I might stop useing windows and get Linux.

Why you might ask would a Windows fanboy switch to Linux?
Because I am tired of Windows forcing me to upgrade when a new version comes out(like Vista) i mean i will be upgrading any ways but i dont want to be upgrading on the whim of an OS.

The thing is I dont know where to start.

What version of Linux 64bit(needs to be free if it can) should I get

What do I need to get to run games (UT2004, FarCry, FEAR, Doom3, COD2, Starwars Battlefront 2 and so on) on Linux 64bit.

What do i need to run windows apps(needed becuase of NetZero software)

Also what kind of performance can i expect on Linux compaired to windows

Good idea....

Ubuntu, based on debain and great hardware support (ive been using debain sense 2001, and now ubuntu, its a great distro...)
UT04, Doom3 will run nativly just check iD's site and get the little installer, for the rest youll probobly need cedega... Get wine for Netzero... Gaming should be easy with cedega (i still have 4.4.3 so no GUI) It should go well...

Mith192

12-23-05, 07:29 PM

ok i have orderd my ubuntu disk

So Wine dosent work well for gaming?

Also is OpenOffice the best or is there a better office like program

As far as netzero goes it looks like they released a Linux version

gnutux

12-25-05, 12:55 AM

if you are using ADSL (NetZero), I really recommend you use SuSE instead because they have a really really easy ADSL configurator. Plus, it's free and open source ;). It's also built for 64-bit computers too and of course 32-bit...

http://www.opensuse.org

O, and Debian isn't really good for gaming. I had really bad experiences with Ubuntu/Kubuntu and any Debian based distribution.

OpenOffice is, IMO the best office system you can get and WINE by itself doesn't have disc protection decoders and it doesn't have a good enough DirectX implementation. Note that not all games work on Cedega. Most M$ made games will NOT work.

gnutux

nukem

12-25-05, 01:38 AM

Ive never configed ADSL but it should work in any distro, anyway isnt netzero dail-up? Current releases of wine have support for DirectX 9 and their support is getting better but, as others have said transgaming makes sure many games do work including copy protection(which many games have, the only way around with wine is a nocd crack).

gnutux

12-25-05, 11:55 AM

well, NetZero is both dial-up and ADSL. SuSE has great configurator, thanks to YaST2 ;)

gnutux

neo86

12-25-05, 02:01 PM

Tell us when you decide to come back to Windows. :-D

uOpt

12-25-05, 02:05 PM

You should never switch to Linux just because you don't like Windows.

And it forces you to update on a constant basis, too. It might be less painless, but still.

a12ctic

12-26-05, 12:24 AM

Tell us when you decide to come back to Windows. :-D
The first couple of weeks are hard but after that its awsome

supra

12-26-05, 05:48 AM

You should never switch to Linux just because you don't like Windows.

I agree. Alot of people switch to linux as an alternative to windows and then crap on about how it sux because they are too used to using windows.

Switch to linux because you love linux not because you hate windows.

Salamandar

12-26-05, 04:05 PM

I might stop useing windows and get Linux.

Why you might ask would a Windows fanboy switch to Linux?
Because I am tired of Windows forcing me to upgrade when a new version comes out(like Vista) i mean i will be upgrading any ways but i dont want to be upgrading on the whim of an OS.

The thing is I dont know where to start.

What version of Linux 64bit(needs to be free if it can) should I get

What do I need to get to run games (UT2004, FarCry, FEAR, Doom3, COD2, Starwars Battlefront 2 and so on) on Linux 64bit.

What do i need to run windows apps(needed becuase of NetZero software)

Also what kind of performance can i expect on Linux compaired to windows

Good luck, I'll give you max. of 7 days before switching back.

nemecb

12-27-05, 11:35 AM

Switch to linux because you love linux not because you hate windows.
But you can't learn to love Linux unless you try it.(xmasmile)

Actually, if you can it might be best to try a Live CD first and get a feel for how things work in Linux. It does take some getting used to, as does any new OS. I started out with a SuSE Live CD and I was so impressed in the first weekend that I repartitioned my hard drive and did a full install within three days. Even the Live CD was running almost as fast as XP on my hard drive, and it had to load everything from the disk (YMMV, not everything in Linux is going to be as fast as Windows).

supra

12-27-05, 08:16 PM

[QUOTE=nemecb]But you can't learn to love Linux unless you try it.(xmasmile) QUOTE]

true true, However, I loved linux wayy before I actually installed it. All the reading, screenshots, comments on forums about it made me love it instantly. (xmasgrin)

But just saying dont switch to linux just because you dont like windows, Its not for everyone.

If you have an old pc (i dunno a pentium II 200mhz or something). You could bring it out of the closet & install linux on it. Linux will run on the crappiest machine you can find (wish I could say the same for windows ;)). LiveCDs are good but its not quite the same as a proper linux install.

philcostin

12-29-05, 05:04 PM

My experience with Linux began 6 years ago when I was 15. It was an alternative to Windows ME for me (dual boot) so it was pretty good. In the end I got bored with it and installed Windows 2000. Once Windows 2000 finally peed me off for the final time, I formatted the whole disk and installed Mandrake 9.0

5-6 years later and I'm still using a pure Linux installation on this, my main rig. In the same way as frustrated first-time Linux users go back to windows for a few months, I can't use Windows now, it just irritates me to the core.

It's my computer, so I choose the software, not Mr $$$(xmasgrin)

I'm glad NVidia support us.

I use cedega for Steam games but that's about it, Quake 4, UT2004, UT etc all work. There are other games available too like Serious Sam 2 but I don't have that yet :P

Mith192

01-07-06, 07:51 PM

i will be dual booting windows and ubuntu
i need to learn to use Linux better any ways

MPiece

01-12-06, 01:29 AM

I highly recommend kanotix (derived from knoppix - but faster!). It runs like a finetuned german sportscar, and the comparison is valid, because a german guy made it. It runs from a liveCD and will easily install to your harddrive. It's optimized for 586, but when you learn to recompile and optimize your kernel, you can make it boot almost as fast as windows XP.

EDIT: - but better. I've been using linux for a bout a year now. And I can never go back to windows. The learning curve in linux is steeper, but it's definetly woth it.
http://kanotix.com/Downloads.html

MP

Mith192

01-17-06, 01:35 AM

nemecb

01-17-06, 01:39 AM

Either would be fine. If you're okay with Ubuntu then you might as well keep using it. For DVD software Xine works well, but you may need to find a way to install libdvdcss (which is illegal according to the DMCA so it can't be included in most Linux distributions. Terrific).

feeyo

01-18-06, 12:05 PM

ok right now i am trying to decide bettween Ubuntu 5.1 and Fedora Core 3

which one will performe better and which is more user friendly

right now i am using Ubuntu but am willing to switch to FC3

also what DVD play back software works the best

DVD Play back software? can be a pain ;)
try mplayer http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/news.html

I think FC3 will be alot more friendlier for a linux beginner :)
I use SuSE 10.0 64-bit i think its a great linux dist.

Goodluck!

siorai

01-18-06, 02:23 PM

ok right now i am trying to decide bettween Ubuntu 5.1 and Fedora Core 3

which one will performe better and which is more user friendly

right now i am using Ubuntu but am willing to switch to FC3

also what DVD play back software works the best

If you're using Ubuntu, check the Ubuntu forums for Automatix. It will install variuos things for you, including the proper codecs for DVD playback. Sure, it's cheating and you don't learn anything by using it, but at least you can get some of the more annoying things up and running right away.

uOpt

01-19-06, 05:39 PM

FC3 is obsolete and support will stop in a few weeks.