Thinking of giving Linux a go again, but I want to GAME damnit

[nsafreak]

Ok folks I'm no stranger to Linux at all when it comes to the server end of things or the desktop end of things. Matter of fact I run it exclusively on all my home based servers and the ones I administer across the internet. My main problem has been playing games on it from a desktop perspective. I would love to drop Windows XP as the majority of the applications that I use have very good Linux substitutes but the gaming side keeps me back. Well that and the driver support for my video card. I've heard Cedega has been improving but I don't know by how much. So I'm going to start with two things, a list of games I want to play and the hardware that I'm looking to run it on. I'm more likely than not going to go with the latest stable build of Sarge unless there is some compelling reason not to do so.

Games I want to play

BattleField 2
Half Life 2 & its mods (mainly Counter-Strike: Source)
World of WarCraft
Guild Wars

Hardware I want to play it on

P4 3.0Ghz HT (Northwood)
1GB RAM
80GB ATA/133 HD (secondary drive)
SB Audigy 2
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro

 

[xcript]

AFAIK the linux ATI driver situation still isn't great.

HL2, WoW & GW are all supported by the latest version of Cedega (4.4), but
getting them to work with your 9800 Pro could be a real hassle if it's possible
at all.

I've tried WoW under Cedega and it ran VERY well, but I have an FX5900 XT.

 

[Nothinman]

I've never had much luck with Cedega personally, sometimes it just works and sometimes it doesn't and I never felt like putting the time into researching why. I do know a few people have gotten WoW to run and have heard the performance is on par or better than running it in Windows. Stop in #linux on irc.arstechnica.com, there'll probably be someone there with a decent amount of wine/cedega knowledge.

 

[Andres3605]

why dont you run dual boot?, with windows xp just for games

 

[Nothinman]

dual-booting sucks.

 

[nsafreak]

Originally posted by: Andres3605
why dont you run dual boot?, with windows xp just for games

Because I frequently game and dual booting would just suck for me. Every hour or so I'd be rebooting the computer just to run a game or to go back to my regular application enviroment.

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: nsafreak

Originally posted by: Andres3605
why dont you run dual boot?, with windows xp just for games

Because I frequently game and dual booting would just suck for me. Every hour or so I'd be rebooting the computer just to run a game or to go back to my regular application enviroment.

Why don't you just run Windows

 

[drag]

All the games you listed will work in Linux except for Battlefront 2.

That game will probably get working in a couple months, but I can't say for certain.


Cedega can be a bit of a hassle. Personally I install the Point2Play thing and use that to manage different cedega versions and to install and handle games.

I've played Warcraft III on it and that was fine. The latest game I've played on it was Sid Meier's Pirates! and that worked just fine.

Right now I am trying to get GTA: San Andreas to install, which is currently a pain in the rear. First my DVD drive is dead so I had to use a friend's laptop to use dd to make a image of the dvd, then I copied the DVD image over to my desktop, then mount it at /media/cdrom0 as a loop back iso9660 filing system. (of course this part, if I was using Windows I couldn't do, I'd just have to go buy a new dvd drive)

Then I couldn't install with the latest cedega version, It would die with a error. So I used point2play to get a earlier version and it's now installing. I expect it to work ok.

The ATI stuff is going to cause problems, though. If you can trade a freind for a Nvidia card, even if it's slightly older, or sell it and buy a nvidia card it'll make things go easier in Linux.

If I had a copy of Windows floating around, then I'd may or may not dual boot. I don't know... but it's not worth it to me to actually spend a 100-300 bucks on it, especially if it's just a home edition.

 

[Nothinman]

Why don't you just run Windows

Running Windows all of the time would stuck more than dual-booting :/

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Why don't you just run Windows

Running Windows all of the time would suck more than dual-booting :/

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: Stefan

Originally posted by: nsafreak

Originally posted by: Andres3605
why dont you run dual boot?, with windows xp just for games

Because I frequently game and dual booting would just suck for me. Every hour or so I'd be rebooting the computer just to run a game or to go back to my regular application enviroment.

Why don't you just run Windows

I know, Why don't you just have TWO computers one with Windows for Gaming and one for Linux and real computing? One Monitor Mouse and Keyboard and a KVM switch between them. Run them both 24/7. No rebooting and a simple keystroke between Linux and Windows.

Its so simple a caveman could do it.

By the way this is how I'm set-up.

pcgeek11

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: nsafreak

Originally posted by: Andres3605
why dont you run dual boot?, with windows xp just for games

Because I frequently game and dual booting would just suck for me. Every hour or so I'd be rebooting the computer just to run a game or to go back to my regular application enviroment.

rebooting the computer is too much work...sheesh and I thought I was lazy???
duel booting is a piece of cake if you set up on 2 hd's but then you would still have to reboot to go into alternate os though .......sighhhh
guess your left with choosing the one that works best for your needs overall if its 50-50 then toss a coin or write a program that randomly chooses your OS.

 

[sourceninja]

I play all the games you listed but battlefield 2 on linux via cedega with no issues. I do have a fairly high end pc. Some of my friends with smaller video cards and less ram have issues though.