Basic Linux Question

[Acoshi]

I got a newbie question. A REAL NEWBIE QUESTION.

I was wondering if it is worth it to reformat my Windows XP Pro computer and change it to a Linux OS.

And will I be able to play any new games like Half Life 2 and Doom 3? Because that is my main concern since I am a big gamer haha.

Besides that is Linux an overall better system than Windows?

 

[phisrow]

If you are primarily a gamer, I wouldn't recommend switching just yet. Getting back to where you were would be a bit of a pain. I would, however, encourage you to give Linux a go, and get some experience with it. Go with a LiveCD if you have to, dual boot if you can, and seperate computer(doesn't need to be recent or good) if you have access to one.

 

[bersl2]

I would encourage you to dual boot. If you really like it, but you absolutely positively need your new hotness game fix, just boot to WIndows for games, and boot back to Linux for everything else.

 

[Nothinman]

Doom3 has a Linux port, but HL2 doesn't (might run in WINE, not sure) and most other commercial games don't either. If all you want to do with your computer is play games, Linux isn't for you yet.

 

[drag]

Gaming is OK in Linux. Definately better then it is in Macs, but less then it is in Windows.

Doom3 is native to Linux. UT series of games have native versions.

Halflife 2, Steam, Counterstrike, etc Need 'Cedega' (formally WineX) to run, which is a subscription based software.. 5 bucks a month.

Same thing with World of Warcraft and many other games.

When running in wine/cedega these games tend to have a performance hit.. The code is not as optimized as DirectX is on Windows.

Also ATI drivers for Linux suck, very slow comared to Windows and a pain to install. Nvidia is much nicer, with performance comparable to Windows, even though they are still propriatory and need to be downloaded and installed seperately. (some distros have optional packages for it.)

Some Linux gaming links:
http://icculus.org/
http://www.linux-gamers.net/
http://www.linuxgames.com/
http://www.happypenguin.org/
http://icculus.org/lgfaq/gamelist.php


Generally you don't want to use Linux for Gaming, unless you use Linux for other reasons and you want to play games without dual booting or paying for Windows (or just putting up with windows).

Personally I feel that Linux operating systems are generally better. It's stable, respects your freedom, fairly secure, and very flexible (especially for technically-oriented users). I like the user enviroment more then Windows.

People sometimes find Linux a difficult adjustment. Stuff that they thought was easy in Windows can turn out to be difficult in Linux, especially for a newcomer. Documentation may be confusing and is sometimes hard to find.

I think that it's worth it personally.

If you want to try Linux out I suggest using a few of the many "Live CDs" that are aviable.
Live cds are OSes on a cdrom that you can use without having to install anything on your computer.

two worth trying out are
ubuntu offers a 'live cd'
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/download/

and Knoppix was one of the first popular live cds.
http://www.knoppix.org/

See also:
http://www.linuxiso.org/ for many more cd install images, and some live cds.
http://distrowatch.com/ for distro comparisions.

 

[Acoshi]

Thanks alot for the responses and I have another quick question. Will the performance downgrade in gaming be noticable? As well as the ATI driver problem, is that fixable?
Since I have a friend who recently installed Linux and loves the system that is kinda why I am thinking about switching myself.

 

[drag]

some games will be more noticable then others. Native games and games that even though you have to use Cedega/Wine to run, but are OpenGL will run with little to no penalty.

Games that depend on DirectX only to run will incure much more of a penatly. It will be noticable, but probably not horrid. Talk to your friend about it, if he games like that. The only game I play like this is the new Sid Meier's 'Pirates!' game. With certain settings it can be irritating and the cutscenes are a bit jerky, but mostly it's perfectly playable. Your milage will vary.

I play Doom3 on it and Ut2004. The performance of both is nice. Certain maps on Ut2004, especially custom ones, can slow it down quite a bit so that it makes it difficult to be competative. With the True Combat mod on Enemy Territory I have no problem kicking @ss.

I have a 2400+ AMD cpu, with 1gig 333mhz(ddr) ram and a Nvidia 5900 XT (the cheaper version of the 5900). I don't overclock it or anything, but I have played around with it in the past.. the ram, cpu, and video card are all overclockable (actually the RAM is 400ddr-speed underclocker currently) I think that sort of thing is mostly pointless nowadays, though.

The ATI drivers do actually work. They are just slow and sometimes difficult to get working. ATI is working on this and releases updated drivers time to time that are getting better. But right now the best way to fix it is to trade in your ATI card for a Nvidia. A cheap Nvidia card can outperform a fairly expensive ATI card pretty easily in Linux.

Anandtech did some benchmarks on this, I think. If not there are others out there.

With Nvidia you still have to go thru installing the drivers, which can be confusing, but at least they work fairly well.

 

[EmperorRob]

Originally posted by: drag
Also ATI drivers for Linux suck, very slow comared to Windows and a pain to install.

Let me just re-inforce that point. With a lot of help I did get 3D working. But there's apparently a bug in ati's drivers that kills doom3. Next machine I build will run an Nvidia for this reason alone.

I recommend the dual-boot approach b/c that's what I use and I've been pretty happy with it especially now that storage is so cheap.

 

[Nothinman]

Will the performance downgrade in gaming be noticable? As well as the ATI driver problem, is that fixable?

In some cases there is no performance downgrade and in others there's an increase, I know some people that play Warcraft 3 in WINE on Linux and get better FPS than they do in Windows. But most people that want to use 3D things in Linux steer away from ATI since their driver track record is so terrible and the only way to fix it is to get ATI to fix their drivers since they're closed source.

 

[Acoshi]

I was doing a little research and found that there are ATI drivers for RedHat Linux. My question is whether or not the ATI drivers for RedHat are buggy or if they are just not worth the download in general.

Also, is RedHat a good version of Linux?

 

[sourceninja]

I would not use ATI for any serious work on linux. If you do your asking for trouble. Their driver support sucks.

 

[newbiepcuser]

Originally posted by: Acoshi
I got a newbie question. A REAL NEWBIE QUESTION.

I was wondering if it is worth it to reformat my Windows XP Pro computer and change it to a Linux OS.

And will I be able to play any new games like Half Life 2 and Doom 3? Because that is my main concern since I am a big gamer haha.

Besides that is Linux an overall better system than Windows?

If gaming is your main concern stick to Windows.

 

[uOpt]

Treat the Linux kernel source code as a big text adventure.