So many linux versions

[jgigz]

im looking for a free version of linux that i can can play games on. only games i will play (not really worried about next gen games) CS, CS:S, diablo II, and starcraft. Only ones that im really concerned about working are CS and CS:S. Ive always used windows and im looking for somethign more customized to my needs rather than the general public and ive heard linux is the way to go. If you could recomend any versions that suport dx9 and play the games i mentioned it would be greatly appreciated. Thank in advance.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

DirectX 9 games aren't native to linux. You need to run a program like wine or cedega to be able to play those games. The way to setup wine or cedega won't really differ between distro. Do some research like maybe a test or just look at reviews for distros at distrowatch. My personal recommendation for you would be Ubuntu.

 

[jgigz]

Thanks, ill look into it when i get my test machine up but i have another question. How well does linux do with drivers? do manufacuters like ati and nvidia support linux drivers or do the winxp drivers work for linux as well?

Edit: I took the test it also recomended unbuntu

 

[xtknight]

Linux can not run anything made for Windows. It can run Windows simulators like WINE (Wine's Not An Emulator, yeah yeah), but they're not perfect and still have trouble with lots of Windows apps.

NVIDIA and ATI offer updated, non-free drivers for Linux. They are non-free in the sense you don't have access to the source code like GPL software but they are available free of charge and they're your only option to get full hardware OpenGL acceleration. There are no open source drivers that can offer that for NVIDIA and ATI. They are available in the repositories of many distributions.

I recommend you start at Ubuntu. The community's awesome and you should be able to find what you need (including installing NVIDIA/ATI drivers) quickly over at ubuntuforums.org.

Linux has the most included drivers of any OS, so lots of your hardware will be detected automatically, such as your sound card, NIC(s), some TV tuners/webcams and printers. You don't have to worry about "chipset drivers". That all comes automatically installed too. USB support is unparalleled. Practically every hub and key in existence is supported automatically. Like Windows, a fundamental video driver is installed at first. You can later download the accelerated NVIDIA/ATI drivers.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

The way drivers work in linux is most everything is supported by the kernel. The ones that aren't don't have manufacturer's support for linux or perhaps just release proprietary drivers. Nvidia and Ati fall in the proprietary drivers category. You generally can't use windows drivers in linux, but there are a few programs like ndiswrapper which run windows drivers through an api(s) to allow them to run in linux (ndiswrapper does this with wireless cards).

If you want to list any system specs (wireless cards, video cards, what motherboard you're running, etc) I'll be glad to tell you what to expect with them.

 

[jgigz]

Im runing an e6300 p5b vanilia 7600gt, gig of mushkin, i have a test machine that ill either put together with a p4 or am2 3800+ and a x800gto.

 

[GML3G0]

Ubuntu isn't bad, but Frugalware will be easier to set up. For example, it comes with most of the media related codecs preinstalled. With Ubuntu, you would have to edit your repositories and download all those codecs manually. The video card drivers are in the standard repositories, so again, no editing config files. For someone new to Linux, this is a big plus. Almost everything you need is preinstalled, but not to the point that it feels bloated. Plus, Frugalware's the fastest binary distribution.

 

[wpshooter]

If you are interested in playing games then, for right now, you had better stick to M/S windows !!!

 

[jgigz]

Originally posted by: wpshooter
If you are interested in playing games then, for right now, you had better stick to M/S windows !!!

Regardless of it being for games, i would like to run linux and become familiar with the os. I have enough spare parts that i need to be doing something with them rather than them gathering dust. I am sticking with windows until i feel comfortable enough with the OS to use it on my main computer. thanks for the input though

 

[jgigz]

Originally posted by: GML3G0
Ubuntu isn't bad, but Frugalware will be easier to set up. For example, it comes with most of the media related codecs preinstalled. With Ubuntu, you would have to edit your repositories and download all those codecs manually. The video card drivers are in the standard repositories, so again, no editing config files. For someone new to Linux, this is a big plus. Almost everything you need is preinstalled, but not to the point that it feels bloated. Plus, Frugalware's the fastest binary distribution.

looks like ill be partioning my hdd and dual booting them. either that or make a live cd

 

[cleverhandle]

Just download Ubuntu and get rolling, then. If you can put together the test machine and use that, it will simplify things by avoiding any dual-boot issues.

 

[jgigz]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle
Just download Ubuntu and get rolling, then. If you can put together the test machine and use that, it will simplify things by avoiding any dual-boot issues.

I was going to dual boot the test machine with frugalware and unbuntu

 

[cleverhandle]

I can't say I've ever heard of Frugalware, but it could be fine. What I can say is that lots of people on this forum use Ubuntu, so it will be easier to get help if you need it. Personally, I'd suggest just sticking to one OS on the box and installing Ubuntu. You'll most likely end up reinstalling later anyway, just to play around with different distros and setups. That's why it's nice to have a test box.

But whatever... in the end, it's your machine and you're already on a test box, so nothing's going to get damaged. Dive in, stop listening to us.

 

[jgigz]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle
I can't say I've ever heard of Frugalware, but it could be fine. What I can say is that lots of people on this forum use Ubuntu, so it will be easier to get help if you need it. Personally, I'd suggest just sticking to one OS on the box and installing Ubuntu. You'll most likely end up reinstalling later anyway, just to play around with different distros and setups. That's why it's nice to have a test box.

But whatever... in the end, it's your machine and you're already on a test box, so nothing's going to get damaged. Dive in, stop listening to us.

Will do as soon as i find where i put my extra case:roll:

 

[Nothinman]

Linux can not run anything made for Windows. It can run Windows simulators like WINE (Wine's Not An Emulator, yeah yeah), but they're not perfect and still have trouble with lots of Windows apps.

Just a nit-pick but it's not a simulator either, it's a (hopefully one day) full Win32 implementation on Linux like OpenGL, XLib, etc.

Ubuntu isn't bad, but Frugalware will be easier to set up. For example, it comes with most of the media related codecs preinstalled. With Ubuntu, you would have to edit your repositories and download all those codecs manually.

Ubuntu doesn't come with them because they're not free. They either require a license to use like MP3 or aren't legally redistributable without some special agreement with the owner and Ubuntu isn't going to help people doing crap like that by distributing their software.

The video card drivers are in the standard repositories, so again, no editing config files. For someone new to Linux, this is a big plus.

The video drivers are another mess altogether, a lot of Linux people consider them incompatible with the GPL so that means that you can't distribute them with the kernel and that's probably why FC, Ubuntu, etc don't include them. And anyway, it's not like opening Synaptic, enabling non-free and clicking update is terribly hard.

Plus, Frugalware's the fastest binary distribution.

I would love to see your proof of this.

 

[xtknight]

I'm confused at what WINE is exactly. It can 'use' binary blob Windows DLLs, yet it seems to include an open-source implementation of DLLs too (I guess that's how they keep it under the GPL license). So what's a one-word or phrase you would refer to it as?

Frugalware? Interesting, I've never heard of it, and I've heard of the weirdest stuff. What's its claim to fame?

 

[Nothinman]

I'm confused at what WINE is exactly. It can 'use' binary blob Windows DLLs, yet it seems to include an open-source implementation of DLLs too (I guess that's how they keep it under the GPL license). So what's a one-word or phrase you would refer to it as?

WINE supporting PE DLLs is no different than ld-linux supporting all of the binary shared libraries on your system, something has to know how to parse the files and execute them. WINE is a collection of different pieces of software, but on the whole it could be described as an OSS Win32 implementation.

 

[jgigz]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I'm confused at what WINE is exactly. It can 'use' binary blob Windows DLLs, yet it seems to include an open-source implementation of DLLs too (I guess that's how they keep it under the GPL license). So what's a one-word or phrase you would refer to it as?

WINE supporting PE DLLs is no different than ld-linux supporting all of the binary shared libraries on your system, something has to know how to parse the files and execute them. WINE is a collection of different pieces of software, but on the whole it could be described as an OSS Win32 implementation.

ugh my head hurts now...

 

[Nothinman]

ugh my head hurts now...

Do a few shots and forget about it. All you really need to know is that WINE lets you run Windows programs and that some work better than others because the WINE people are still playing catchup with MS.

 

[GML3G0]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Plus, Frugalware's the fastest binary distribution.

I would love to see your proof of this.

I have used a ton of distributions. Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu, SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora just to name a few. I cut down the number of startup services on each setup so I only ran the ones I needed. Frugalware and Gentoo were the fastest at arriving at the desktop. They also felt the most responsive overall. However, Gentoo is a source based distribution, thus making Frugalware the fastest binary. I'm sure there were other factors involved, and I realize that there may be some other distribution out there I haven't tried that may be faster, but in my experience, Frugalware has been the fastest and most responsive binary based distribution.

 

[Nothinman]

I have used a ton of distributions. Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu, SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora just to name a few. I cut down the number of startup services on each setup so I only ran the ones I needed. Frugalware and Gentoo were the fastest at arriving at the desktop. They also felt the most responsive overall. However, Gentoo is a source based distribution, thus making Frugalware the fastest binary. I'm sure there were other factors involved, and I realize that there may be some other distribution out there I haven't tried that may be faster, but in my experience, Frugalware has been the fastest and most responsive binary based distribution.

Without any numbers that means absolutely nothing. You can't just run around saying "Software X is the absolute fastest out there because it feels like it to me", well you can but everyone will just snicker and look away.

 

[xtknight]

I just tried Frugalware under VMware. It doesn't look nearly as easy to install as Ubuntu for first-timers. Plus my net-install failed (after maybe downloading 200 packages it said "too many files open on http server"(?) or something). I would stick with Ubuntu. Get a LiveCD and use the install shortcut on the desktop. Easy as pie. I know that could have been just a rare error but the install program would be confusing for lots of people.

I'm still trying to get the FW LiveCD and I'll see how it is once it's installed. I might change my mind. I used the US mirror (www10) in the install instead of the one it gave me by default (ftp5).

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: GML3G0

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Plus, Frugalware's the fastest binary distribution.

I would love to see your proof of this.

I have used a ton of distributions. Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu, SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora just to name a few. I cut down the number of startup services on each setup so I only ran the ones I needed. Frugalware and Gentoo were the fastest at arriving at the desktop. They also felt the most responsive overall. However, Gentoo is a source based distribution, thus making Frugalware the fastest binary. I'm sure there were other factors involved, and I realize that there may be some other distribution out there I haven't tried that may be faster, but in my experience, Frugalware has been the fastest and most responsive binary based distribution.

Have you tried Vector linux, Arch linux, or running Damn Small Linux with the toram option passed in?

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Originally posted by: jgigz
Im runing an e6300 p5b vanilia 7600gt, gig of mushkin, i have a test machine that ill either put together with a p4 or am2 3800+ and a x800gto.

Sorry, was at work all day.

Ok you're running the p5b, doesn't that use the intel p965 express chipset? My brother runs off the same chipset (but its a gigabyte ds3) and apparently there's a huge issue with the jmicron ide controller from what I hear. It doesn't allow him to use his ide devices at all (pretty much his dvd drive cause he runs a sata hard drive). I'm not sure if its patched yet with the latest 2.6.18 kernel release either. He's tried a few distros like Ubuntu, but it still occurs. Give any current distro a try, but don't be surprised if you're not able to load anything. But do try.

The 7600GT might have an issue with the default nv driver perhaps. I know this occured with a 6600GT, my 6800GS, and my brother's 7800GT and Ubuntu 6.06. When I first booted up Ubuntu and it starts to load Gnome there are some lines on the screen and its completely garbled. The 7800GT just had slightly messed up graphics. Just boot with the "safe" mode or whatever when you first load Ubuntu. Its the second option.

Not sure about the X800GTO. Also never used the nforce 590 chipset (I assume that's what you're using in the second system since its an am2 board).