Linux Vs Windows!!!

[Pr0d1gy]

I am piecing together my new PC which will be aimed primarily at gaming, but will also be used to watch/burn movies, listen to music, surf the web, etc etc. I have read a fair amount on linux, and have been using Windows forever like most. Now the obvious question is what OS is better for me? I am willing to learn Linux if it saves me $90 and even more so if it makes my PC less vulnerable to spyware, viruses, trojan man, wtc.

From what I have read, games have alot of problems with Linux. Now I personally find it hard to believe there isn't a version of Linux that kicks @ss in gaming, but please let me know about this since it will be a gaming machine. I can't have Quake4 crapping out on me because I am not using Windows. Also, how does Linux do with other apps that I mentioned? Are there any benefits to it I may not know about?

Sounds like I am looking for a reason not to buy Windows, huh? Well, you're right...lol
I like penguins too..lol

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Anyone?

 

[aceO07]

I've used slackware before. I haven't played games on it though. Mainly because I've installed it on laptops. Mozilla Firefox, Gaim and Openoffice are pretty much the main applications I'd need on a regular basis. Also, tv tuner and media player. I don't play games so I can't comment on that.

If I didn't discover counterstrike, I might have gone back to linux for a bit longer. I've never really worried too much about viruses or spyware with Windows. I use zonealarm for firewall and firefox for browsing. I don't even have antivirus installed.

 

[phisrow]

Linux gaming is somewhat hit or miss. Assuming you have an Nvidia card, you should be able to get a reasonably high performance acellerated OpenGL environment running pretty easily. Some people have succeeded in getting Newer Radeons to work; but it is an ugly scene(older Radeons, up to 9200 I think, are supported quite well by open drivers, they are a good option for Linux; but probably not for a new gaming box). Some games these days actually have native binaries. Id is well loved for their aggressive support of Linux, and native use of OpenGL, I think Epic has also released at least their newer stuff. Give Tuxgames.com and Linuxgames.com a look. There is also a decent selection of homegrown OSS games, and pretty much all the DOS classics will work under dosbox(free and OSS). For newer games that are unsupported by Linux, there is Cedega. I don't have much personal experience(a nongamer on a laptop with a Radeon card, here); but some people have good luck with them. They aren't as good as Windows, for Windows compatibility; but there are reports of a decent percentage of new games playing just fine.

Edit: if you can give us a more detailed picture of what you plan to build, and what you plan to play, we may be able to give you more specifics on how well it is likely to work.

 

[drag]

With gaming hardware is important to get it to work properly. Switching to 64bit native is probably not going to help either, since all your games are going to be 32bit.

So for a gaming rig your looking at AMD64 proccessor, Via-based chipset. Something nice. Ram that is tested by the motherboard manufacturer to work on your motherboard and a Nvidia video card. Also a nice sound card is a must. Audigy is nice and safe choice.

Gaming on Linux is limited compared to Windows, but it's better then what you'd get if you go thru OS X.

The only reason you'd want gaming for Linux over Windows is if you use Linux for other purposes and don't want to waste your harddrive space on Windows. Email, browsing, work well in Linux. Serving media files, transcoding media files and such is arguably better in Linux then Windows.

Ubuntu Linux seems like a hot ticket right now. Try that and check out it's FAQ to setup the system to play DVD's and mp3's and such (there are weird legal and licensing issues that make doing such things in linux slightly legally 'gray'. It's a non-issue for home users though once you get it setup.)

Quake4 will probably be Linux-native. It's based on Doom3 and that's linux native, but the developers who are making Quake4 have released games based on Quake3 that don't have Linux versions. So it's about a 30-40% chance that they won't have a linux version.

Personally I feel that it's a bad idea to switch to Linux just to save 90 bucks. But there are lots of other very good reasons.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

OK, thanks for the honest & forthright responses guys. I have an x800xt so I don't think Linux will work. Luckily I have 275gb of hdd's so i could get it & toy around with it on my 200gb WD.

 

[drag]

Trade your card with somebody.


Get one of those SLI boards or whatever so you can double up your video cards. Get one nvidia now, and then get another one later when they are cheaper.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: Pr0d1gy
OK, thanks for the honest & forthright responses guys. I have an x800xt so I don't think Linux will work. Luckily I have 275gb of hdd's so i could get it & toy around with it on my 200gb WD.

With the newer ATI Linux driver releases, support is much better. I know there are issues with kernel 2.6.10, but 2.6.9 works fine. You can get 2.6.10 to work with some patching, you may have difficulty with this as a new Linux user. ATI didn't rewrite their configuration utility to work with X.org... it's still an easy fix if you know what to do. You have the card, I recommend you try to get it working properly as it's a good learning experience!

If you really don't know what you're doing, Livna has a patched up package (2.6.10 compatible) for Fedora users.

For even more support with ATI hardware and Linux, Rage3D's Forums is a good resource.

 

[Zelmo3]

Yeah, don't ditch Linux just over your video card. I've had an ATI card running without any trouble since I bought it over a year ago. Granted, I'd like to upgrade to a newer nVidia card for better performance and tried-and-true Linux functionality, but in the meantime I'm doing fine with ATI.

 

[D1gger]

It is not just the hardware support for video cards that can be a problem with Linux. Many games will not run under linux natively, so you have to run them under an emulator such was Winex, and the emulator does not support all games either.

Best bet at this time is to run a dual boot system and learn Linux and find out which games work, and which don't.

 

[Aenslead]

I suggest you DO NOT install Linux on your primary computer.

Maybe a forgoten-pieces-built-pc would be ok, just so you tried it out. If you haven't used Linux before, and have no one you can actually call and ask for directions, then DO NOT install it as your main computer.

Everything now-a-days is built over Windows. Windows is very stable (if you know which drivers to use, and use a good anti virii and anti-spyware) and most certainly anything you find on stores and on 70% of the internet is meant for Win enviroment.

Linux is good. I have it runing on my secondary computer (P4 @ 1.6Ghz, 384Mb RAMBUST, 40Gb HDD, Dell), and its pretty much ok, but you do need a certain degree of knowledge in order to get it working properly (like installing packages and geting used to use TERM and the ./ command).

Good luck and have lots of fun.

 

[KoolDrew]

If your PC is meant for gaming stick with Windows. If you want to try out linux distros wthough I reccomend VMware sdo you can run the linux distro while in Windows. For a gaming machine you should have 1GB of RAM anyway for newer games so running VMware won't be a problem.

 

[karstenanderson]

well i just made the switch, and i'm loving it. i cringe when i have to boot back to XP, it's so damn factory-looking, you can't customize anything, it's ridiculous compared to linux.

BTW, i decided to install Suse 9.2 Professional, developed by Novell, and available for free from http://www.suse.com for a while. It's an awesome package, since i've installed it i've configured just about everything you can and i'm really getting the hang of it.

there's definately a learning curve for linux, but there's PLENTY of info out there on the web. you can do it.

Dual-boot is easy as pie with windows, just read around or ask for help, you really won't lose anything if you're careful. once you get linux running you have a sense of accomplishment almost cuz of alll the sweat that goes into it. try out Suse 9.2, i bet you'll like it.

gaming: cedega. winex. many games work on them, $5/month subscription. older/unstable versions for free. good luck, have fun.

 

[imported_brad]

It sounds like you need a dual boot system (or 2 machines with a KVM switch).

Im in my infancy learning linux and its alot to take in from being brought up windows. I do know that most games arent made compatible with linux, and that you may come accross some hardware problems depending on your distro.