Linux Questions

Rexhasta

Rexhasta

New Member
I have three questions about Linux Operating Questions, feel free to answer as few or as many as you want. Any help is appreciated.

1) What is the best overall distribution of Linux (including non-free ones)?

2) Is Linux a good OS to play games on?

3) Can Linux play games that are meant for PC/Windows?

4) If you can play games on Linux, can you play mutliplayer with other gamers using Windows?



I don't have the most experience with Linux, but I plan to build a gaming computer soon and I would prefer to have Linux (but if Windows is better for games, I don't have a problem with using it).
 
1. there are many distros for different things and different people. you will have to decide which is best for you yourself. I am a SuSE user and i beleve that it is a great all round os, and is quite user friendly. if you are new to linux you should stick to the most popular distros because there would be a larger user base and therefore you will be able to find help more easily.
see here http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

2. i have played a few linux games and they ran as good as any windows game, but please take note of my specs in my sig below.

3. no you cant realy play windows games on linux, though there is an emulator (cedega) that make play possible and i've heard it works quite well. but i prefer to simply run my windows games on windows.

4.i have never done this, and surely it can be done but probably not without some tweeking.

many people say linux is not game friendly, but it is the games that are not linux friendly. game developers just dont port their games to linux. why? because windows holds approximately 95% of the desktop and it may not be profitable for them to port it to linux.

i use both linux and windows on the same computer. windows for games and linux for everything else.
 
1) All of the linux distro are good in there own way. http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/ is a quiz that tells you which distro is best suit for you.

2) www.linuxgames.com/ is a great site that has linux games

3) The platform for the PC games are usually windows, so NO you can't play windows games. LIke geese said there are emulators, so it could work. But the majority of the time it crash (on me).

4) Yes you can, I try that once with one of my friend (I had linux and he had windows)

If your a heavy gamer, I suggest you use windows, only because all the good games and be mutli - played, while for linux only a handful can "intercross" with a windows computer.
 
Actually, Cedega is pretty darn good (games run better on my brother's Linux partition than on his XP partition...we're talkin' about a 10-15 FPS difference using the same settings. He also regularly games through a network with a couple of other computers that run XP). Problem is, Cedega requires a subscription, which'll run (if memory serves) five bucks a month. Linux is also much more stable and secure, but it does, usually, require some knowledge of console operation.

Suse Linux is a great distro (I'm actually going to switch to Suse as my primary OS in a couple days). Linux is pretty easy to learn when you dive right in, but I don't recommend immediately commiting yourself to a Linux distro, or Linux in general; you may find that you prefer Windows.
 
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My favourite distro of linux has to be Meppis, as it is the only one i have ever been able to install, it runs pretty quick and has a fool-proof install system. Plus itcan be used as a live CD, and i am considering switching to it permanently. The only thing putting me off at the moment is that fact that i can;t use any software i have, and i think the only thing i would miss is the Macromedia suite, as i use it a lot. But i am prepared to sacrifice it for a far better os. [i think] :D
 
Okay, I will probably just run Windows then (and maybe get a second HD to play around with Linux). Thanks for the help.
 
Rexhasta, I recon in your case you should go for Windows xp Pro. Its much more compatible (with a lot fo the software and hardware out there) and suitable for you as you admitted to not having much experience with Linux.
I have SuSe Linux and I guess that if you are really certain you want Linux then SuSe would suit your gaming machine best.
 
Hello Rexhasta and welcome to computer forum. I'll answer as many of your questions to the best of my ability but as I'm not dedicating myself to reading all other posts i'm sorry if they repeat others :).

1) What is the best overall distribution of Linux (including non-free ones)?
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Not really sure but I have used both Mandrake and Suse and they are both great. I suggest Suse out of the 2 as I had better luck with compatability of hardware (digital camera etc.) right out of the box. Also I think all distros have a free version.

2) Is Linux a good OS to play games on?
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I would have to answer NO to this question as there are just many games that are never released on Linux. As for the ones that are, I'd imaging they run just as fine as the Windows variants.

3) Can Linux play games that are meant for PC/Windows?
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I'd imaging that you could run the Odd windows game using somthing like Wine. I've succesfully installed an Older version of Dreamweaver and Macromedia flash that ran and worked. I succesfully installed Quake2 for windows with a couple of free patch files off the net and it worked (this was without Wine or any such program). Just dont count on running too many Windows games succesfully as I dont think many would run.

4) If you can play games on Linux, can you play mutliplayer with other gamers using Windows?
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Yes i'm pretty sure you can. I've played against Linux users on my Windows PC playing Quake 3. I raelly dont see why you could not with all games. Heck allot of servers hosting these websites are Linux. And Linux can be Networked in a Home Network eviroment fairly easy. No reason that I can think of that would stop you from playing against windows based pcs.

Use Windows If you like to play lots of games. Try linux for awhile on a seperate partition or HD. In time you'll know what you want to stick too.
 
I'll probably just run Windows XP then, but I might try Suse since it seems to be the best for gaming out of the Linux's. Thanks for the help.
 
I'm currently running SuSe, and I'm actually, with a surprising measure of success, converting my Linux drive to my gaming drive. Cedega, with only the occasional (and inconsequential) glitch, actually runs my games faster and with more stability than XP. I definitely encourage at least trying SuSe on a secondary partition/drive. I will warn, however, SuSe does NOT play nice with SATA. To install it ("it" being SuSe 9.2) on my SATA drive I would have had to wipe all data off, which, needless to say, I was not cool with. I got a 9 gig secondary drive, which works well, but I also have problems booting into XP while the Linux drive is attached (another problem with SATA). I don't know if these problems have been fixed in more recent versions, but if you have SATA you may want to double check how newer versions of SuSe handle it first (or a different distro, depending on what you go with, if you go that route).
 
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