I posted this on another forum so copy/pasting it
Is Linux a bad choice for me? I hate bulky windows and how if I want to make it look nice I have to download skins which almost always cause a problem/take a bunch of resources. I love customizing my UI and making stuff look pleasing and simple - which is why I like the ideas behind Ubuntu and other Linux distros. Windows Explorer is fucking fail and it crashes all the god damned time, or at least is the most likely too. I tried Blackbox for windows, and it looked great but had the command line stuff I didn't understand, and I heard Ubuntu is easier to use and more graphic-based, less command-line based. I know there's ways to emulate games on Linux (WINE), but for older/current games (Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Diablo, Star Wars: KotOR, TF2, etc), would they run better/worse on Linux than Vista 64 bit or XP 32 bit? I found a website showing what works on Linux, and apparently Battle.net doesn't work, so that fucking sucks. Also, I heard drivers are a pain, but doable. Will I get lower performance from a high-end gaming-quality PC with Linux? Also, for games in the future (Warhammer Online, Assassin's Creed, Starcraft II, etc) will they run on Linux, and if they do, will they run better/worse? Can DX10 be attained on Linux, and if not can it be emulated? Also, Photoshop/Illustrator/Maya need to be able to run for me to use it.
I was thinking of having a 32 bit XP and 64 bit Vista (DX10), but if I can do everything both of those can on Linux, I'm down.
Full Version: Could use help deciding on Ubuntu(Linux)
Battle.net worked fine for me in Diablo II. Don't take my word for it, because with wine you will more likely than not run into problems, but it did work okay for me.
However, you probably shouldn't hope for modern game performance. I haven't really tried out Cedega, but I somehow doubt that you will be able to play much new stuff on current hardware. Maybe I'm wrong though, who knows.
I believe photoshop CS2 runs under wine now, not sure about others.
As for ubuntu, the driver support is actually pretty damn good, especially in comparison to most linux distros 5 years ago. Most things just worked on my laptop, though there were some things I had to do separate.
I would recommend dual booting Ubuntu to try it out, its easy enough to install. I switched a couple months ago because my Operating Systems class requires that I either use linux based software at home, or go to a computer lab, and by now I've made the switch completely. I very rarely boot to windows. I don't play games very often, but I imagine I would use windows more if I did. Its just more convenient.
However, you probably shouldn't hope for modern game performance. I haven't really tried out Cedega, but I somehow doubt that you will be able to play much new stuff on current hardware. Maybe I'm wrong though, who knows.
I believe photoshop CS2 runs under wine now, not sure about others.
As for ubuntu, the driver support is actually pretty damn good, especially in comparison to most linux distros 5 years ago. Most things just worked on my laptop, though there were some things I had to do separate.
I would recommend dual booting Ubuntu to try it out, its easy enough to install. I switched a couple months ago because my Operating Systems class requires that I either use linux based software at home, or go to a computer lab, and by now I've made the switch completely. I very rarely boot to windows. I don't play games very often, but I imagine I would use windows more if I did. Its just more convenient.
I can run WoW on Ubuntu with wine good frame rates and no real issues. It's not a very resource-intensive game, especially in comparison to modern games, but it's about the only game I regularly play on computers.
QUOTE(Jeff @ Oct 24 2007, 11:17 AM) 
Battle.net worked fine for me in Diablo II. Don't take my word for it, because with wine you will more likely than not run into problems, but it did work okay for me.
However, you probably shouldn't hope for modern game performance. I haven't really tried out Cedega, but I somehow doubt that you will be able to play much new stuff on current hardware. Maybe I'm wrong though, who knows.
I believe photoshop CS2 runs under wine now, not sure about others.
As for ubuntu, the driver support is actually pretty damn good, especially in comparison to most linux distros 5 years ago. Most things just worked on my laptop, though there were some things I had to do separate.
I would recommend dual booting Ubuntu to try it out, its easy enough to install. I switched a couple months ago because my Operating Systems class requires that I either use linux based software at home, or go to a computer lab, and by now I've made the switch completely. I very rarely boot to windows. I don't play games very often, but I imagine I would use windows more if I did. Its just more convenient.
Si in your opinion, what Windows should I use? I know 64 bit Vista has as much RAM as you want (above 3 which is good), and runs a lot faster than 32 bit. I was thinking 32 bit XP and 64 bit Vista (XP so I can run what doesn't run in 64).
I really haven't used vista to enough degree to tell you, but if you intend to run both vista and XP, I think 64 bit vista and 32 bit XP are the way to go. Any new DX10 games are going to support 64 bit vista, and anything else will probably run better in XP anyway.
if you plan on playing steam games then don't bother with linux.
Yeah steam is hard to get working on wine for whatever reason, I've yet to do it.
Trying to do serious gaming on Linux alone is a losing battle. I would dual boot Ubuntu and either XP or Vista (I would recommend XP, but Vista is unfortunately the future and support will only get worse for XP)
Ubuntu is very nice, it is a lot easier than some distros to use, but there is still a lot of tweaking you can do if you really want to. Don't believe people when they say you don't have to touch the command line, you will, probably to install something like wireless drivers. Drivers can be irritating, but a lot of time Ubuntu gets most of the drivers without any problems. Only videocards, soundcards, and wireless adaptors seem to cause problems, and even then if you can't find native Linux drivers you can use ndiswrapper for your wireless, which lets you use Windows wireless drivers on Linux.
Ubuntu is very nice, it is a lot easier than some distros to use, but there is still a lot of tweaking you can do if you really want to. Don't believe people when they say you don't have to touch the command line, you will, probably to install something like wireless drivers. Drivers can be irritating, but a lot of time Ubuntu gets most of the drivers without any problems. Only videocards, soundcards, and wireless adaptors seem to cause problems, and even then if you can't find native Linux drivers you can use ndiswrapper for your wireless, which lets you use Windows wireless drivers on Linux.
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