Help me build a computer

[locosway]

Wine and Cedega work great. I'd rather use Linux with my games along with these two programs that allow them to play.

If you don't like using Wine or Cedega then don't. But don't come on here spreading FUD about Linux not being able to game. If you want to pay for your OS every couple years instead of using something that's free then go ahead. No one is stopping you from doing this. I'm just trying to stop the spreading of FUD against Linux.

Linux is a capable OS in all areas. I've seen my share of Windows and Mac issues, so saying Linux is too hard to learn is FUD as well. If anything, Linux is easier once you unwrap your head from the current ideology.

[M198]

Wine and Cedega work great. I'd rather use Linux with my games along with these two programs that allow them to play.

If you don't like using Wine or Cedega then don't. But don't come on here spreading FUD about Linux not being able to game. If you want to pay for your OS every couple years instead of using something that's free then go ahead. No one is stopping you from doing this. I'm just trying to stop the spreading of FUD against Linux.

Linux is a capable OS in all areas. I've seen my share of Windows and Mac issues, so saying Linux is too hard to learn is FUD as well. If anything, Linux is easier once you unwrap your head from the current ideology.

You might honestly be the first people who has ever said that Linux is easier to learn to use than Mac or Windows. That's simply an outrageous statement. In the 10 year's I've been running Linux I have honestly never heard that statement anywhere. Seriously. Anywhere. Ever. Honestly. It's simply not true. Back to my original point, while I generally do like Linux just to be snobish and different( but not in that really snobish Mac way) and show my friends the cool Beryl effects, it's not much use for gaming. I'd gladly pay $100 every few years to run my games in windows. Cedega and crossover games are both pay applications/service. Neither of them can run new games at windows speeds on comparable hardware.(edit: both can run SOME games at almost windows speeds). WINE needs to be tweaked, hacked, tickled, and bribed to play some games and some games won't play at all. I'm not spreading FUD at all. The fact remains, if you are a PC gamer, get windows. If you are uncomfortable with having any control over your computer, get a Mac. If you want complete control and don't mind typing "sudo" (a lot) then go with with Linux. That's not FUD, it's solid advice.

[locosway]

If you sit someone down in front of a computer, a person who's never used a computer. Linux is usually the clear leader in usability with it's plethora of software and rock solid stability.

Cedega is very cheap if you go that route. However I've found that Wine works fine with all of the games I've tried. The only time I run into issues is with those value bargain games that are so intricately tied into the M$ system they won't play.

Microsoft has a fine product if that's what you're used to. My wife likes Windows and OSX better than Linux. Although that's what she's become accustomed to. I stopped trying to convert people to Linux a long time ago. Now I just go around and correct people when they're wrong.

Linux can play games just fine. If there's a brand new game that doesn't work, usually it's working within a few days or weeks. Why? Because developers refuse to release their games for Linux.

I'll use World of Warcraft as an example here. They use Linux clients internally for testing and development. They have a Linux backend too. However they will not release a Linux client yet, but are planning to sometime in the future. So, instead you can use Wine to run your game.

The OSS community is great, responsive, and responsible. I've yet to see a company match what the OSS community can do. For this very reason I support them whenever I can. For this reason I've become accustomed to running my games on Linux. Hell, I've even installed Steam and ran those games on here.

[M198]

If you sit someone down in front of a computer, a person who's never used a computer. Linux is usually the clear leader in usability with it's plethora of software and rock solid stability.

Cedega is very cheap if you go that route. However I've found that Wine works fine with all of the games I've tried. The only time I run into issues is with those value bargain games that are so intricately tied into the M$ system they won't play.

Microsoft has a fine product if that's what you're used to. My wife likes Windows and OSX better than Linux. Although that's what she's become accustomed to. I stopped trying to convert people to Linux a long time ago. Now I just go around and correct people when they're wrong.

Linux can play games just fine. If there's a brand new game that doesn't work, usually it's working within a few days or weeks. Why? Because developers refuse to release their games for Linux.

I'll use World of Warcraft as an example here. They use Linux clients internally for testing and development. They have a Linux backend too. However they will not release a Linux client yet, but are planning to sometime in the future. So, instead you can use Wine to run your game.

The OSS community is great, responsive, and responsible. I've yet to see a company match what the OSS community can do. For this very reason I support them whenever I can. For this reason I've become accustomed to running my games on Linux. Hell, I've even installed Steam and ran those games on here.

Like I said earlier, I don't believe most people would agree that recompiling code and running programs from command lines are user friendly, but we can agree to disagree. I happen to think that Macs are by far the easiest OS to use and that's why I hate it so much. It's an OS wrapped in bubble wrap. Nothing goes wrong with it because you couldn't break it if you tried. The reason there aren't a lot of virus written for Mac is because only 10% of computers run it. Linux is at about 1 - 2%. Back to the original point, windows is better for gamers. All you have to do to run WoW is add -opengl to the command line and you're golden, but a lot of games are not so easy and require a lot of fairly involved editing to get wine to work with them. The fact remains that using WINE to run the game means that it doesn't run "just fine". I stand by my statement that PC Gamers should use windows.

[locosway]

Like I said earlier, I don't believe most people would agree that recompiling code and running programs from command lines are user friendly, but we can agree to disagree. I happen to think that Macs are by far the easiest OS to use and that's why I hate it so much. It's an OS wrapped in bubble wrap. Nothing goes wrong with it because you couldn't break it if you tried. The reason there aren't a lot of virus written for Mac is because only 10% of computers run it. Linux is at about 1 - 2%. Back to the original point, windows is better for gamers. All you have to do to run WoW is add -opengl to the command line and you're golden, but a lot of games are not so easy and require a lot of fairly involved editing to get wine to work with them. The fact remains that using WINE to run the game means that it doesn't run "just fine". I stand by my statement that PC Gamers should use windows.

Wait, you say Linux is hard because you have to type archaic commands in a terminal. Yet OSX is easy. Wait, these two OSes are 98% the same!

Have you used a Linux distro lately? I haven't had to compile anything in a long time. Even my 7 year old knows how to use Synaptic to install software. Most Linux distro's are point, click, done.

[M198]

Wait, you say Linux is hard because you have to type archaic commands in a terminal. Yet OSX is easy. Wait, these two OSes are 98% the same!

Have you used a Linux distro lately? I haven't had to compile anything in a long time. Even my 7 year old knows how to use Synaptic to install software. Most Linux distro's are point, click, done.

I'll say it again, I dual boot with Ubuntu and Vista. I've been using it for over 10 years, how about you? I also do a lot of gaming and use both practically every day. Take it from someone who knows both OS (obviously you don't), windows is better for gaming. BTW, I also have an old Mac Book that I inherited and haven't used in a long time. If you haven't had to complie anything in a long time, you are obviously not playing games in WINE.

Edit System Specs.

Case - Generic minitower
CPU - e7500 @ 3533.0 MHz = 11.00 x 321.2 MHz @ 1.2875 V
Memory - 4G Patriot PC 6400 @ 900 MHz
MB - MSI G45M Digital
GPU - 9800x2
OS - Ubuntu 9.04 - Vista SP2 32bit (PS3 - yellowdog 6.1)
PSU - Antec EA750 750W
Misc - Partridge in a pear tree.

[locosway]

I've used Linux for 10 years as well. I've also been a Linux Administrator for 6 years. However, I'm sure you understand the intricacies of Linux far better than I.

Bed time...

[1JimMarch]

I'll comment on Linux, ease-of-use and games below. But first let's illustrate what's "wrong" with Linux.

The deal with Flash64 is you have to install it manually. This is due to politics: Adobe has a rock-solid flash64 player but since they haven't shipped 64bit flavors for Windows or Mac yet, they refuse to admit the Linux Flash64 exists.

Or rather, they've labeled good working code "alpha" (meaning pre-release unstable) when by all appearances, it ain't. Therefore, the major distros like Ubuntu won't ship it, therefore you have to manually install the Flash64 "alpha" if you can find it at all. See this thread for details:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1241313

And that's exactly the sort of thing that goes wrong.

Now, take a brand new user and set up Linux for them, INCLUDING all the normal "media tuning" like adding flash, MP3, quicktime support, etc...and they'll have a great experience. ESPECIALLY if they're not already wrapped around Windows-style thinking. (Mac users don't really "think" per se - seriously, they often have less of a clue than even Windows folk.)

Example: bit of a long story condensed but, my landlady had a temporary tenant in another unit who was just a kid age 15 up from Mexico briefly to study for a series of tests. So he was bored as hell, I helped throw together some parts for a "ghetto PC", low-grade P4, 512megs RAM, 60gig HD. Nothing special, certainly not "gamer class". But OK for web-surfing, music, even watching movies. Cost me all of $40 to build, landlady chipped some of that in. Ran XUbuntu on it, kid took to it like a duck to water. His last PC experience had been Win98 on something really horrid years ago in Mexico.

As to gaming. I'll say it: Windows is better for now. BUT, virtualization is getting better including video hardware pass-through. I run WinXP under Virtualbox and it now has "experimental" but working OpenGL support which some Windows games use instead of DirectX. DirectX 10-level support is being worked on. Given the incredible rate of progress by Virtualbox and VMWare, the "game gap" is going to shrink soon.

If you're a hard-core gamer, go the dual-boot route.

The nice part about virtualizing XP (or Vista/7) is that if anything goes wrong with the Windows build, you can just reload it from backup. The entire Windows image lives in a single file within the Linux disk structure. If the Windows "guest" operating system catches a bug, no sweat, literally one drag'n'drop copy fixes it...and the virus can't jump up into the "alien" Linux disk structure, it's fully "captured" within the guest OS image.

[bigmike82]

"If you think Linux can't be used for gaming then I don't know what to say. I've been using Linux to play my games for years without any more problems than a Windows computer."
*shakes head*
You can't honestly tell me that gaming on Linux is *as* good as it is on Windows.

Actually, Jim, I just read your other post, and I seem to have misinterpreted your statement. My apologies.

Look at the Wine app DB, and look at all the games that are gold and below. There are bugs when trying to play that game because you're trying to play it through a windows compatability layer. Some of these bugs are nothing more than annoyances, and some of them make the game wholly unplayable.

Right now, Windows has the clear advantage when it comes to gaming. Until Linux gets more support from the actual producers, this will not change.

"If you're a hard-core gamer, go the dual-boot route."
+1

[locosway]

I never said Windows wasn't better for gaming. Although, Windows isn't *better*, it's just the games are released under Windows.

My complaint was the complete dismissal that you can play games on Linux. This is untrue. I play games on Linux and have done so for a while now. Lets also not forget the number of free games for Linux as well.

[1JimMarch]

Lets also not forget the number of free games for Linux as well.

You ain't kiddin'. Battle for Wesnoth rocks if you're more into strategy than thumb-twitchin'.

For the record: the reason I'm on Linux is that in Sept. of 2006 I got hit by a nasty WinXP botnet virus of some sort. Spent three days chasing the damned thing with the tools available then, got FED UP when I realized even if I could kill it this could happen again, and downloaded Ubuntu (Dapper).

I've not booted Windows as my primary OS since. Not even once. I'll tolerate it as a virtual machine for those times I need Windows apps...

[locosway]

Warsow is a neat FPS. It's a lot like the game XIII and Quake 2 mixed together.

As for strategy, I love RTS. I grew up on RTS. I'm still waiting for a really good RTS for Linux. So far there isn't one, but there are a couple that are close and are really promising.

[bombadillo]

Still nothing yet, I have waited till windows 7 is out and now im going back and forth between cyberpowersystem and Dell. I can build a monster computer on cyberpower with a ton of cooling for around 1100 or so with dual drives and the whole bit, but dell makes it pretty easy. They sure charge a buttload for memory though.

[bombadillo]