[Akumajin]

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. I tried Blackbox for windows, and it looked great but had the command line stuff I didn't understand. I know there's ways to emulate games on Linux, 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? Also, I heard drivers are a pain, but doable. Will I get lower performance from a high-end gaming-quality PC with Linux?

[eyeCpc]

How about a 1993 dos game called Duke Nukem running on a 32bit version of Vista? That can be done with DOSBox there to actually hear that old game through 5.1 speakers rather then the one found on the board!

Many even older Windows games like Soldier of Fortune I+II, Return to CastleWofenstein, and perhaps others seem to run well on Vista, And those games are about 6-7yrs. old and run better there then on XP.

[zmatt]

Well as far as the gui goes linux is much more customizable and looks a lot nicer. Just google image search linux screen shots and take a look.

[eyeCpc]

Is that KDE or Gnome? The obvious preference by many is for the KDE. Certianly the gadgets seen in Vista like the side bar and cpu meters are nothing more then eye candy seen there just to sell the new version. But the surprise was seeing the older 2000-02 games running better on the 32bit Home Premium then the Home and Pro versions of XP.

Metal of Honor: Allied Assault a 2005 game won't even install on Vista. With any new version of Windows you would expect some things needing replacement anyways. Yet an old 8bit dos game and it's sequel also 8bit can run through a virtual dos window. http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5...returnsxj4.jpg

Newer distros also see Windows loaded while running a VM there. That followed seeing Linux distros loaded while having Windows running through a tool like Virtual PC now a free download.

[Greg]

If you want to play games then dual boot. Use Windows for games only and Linux for everything else, I wouldn't bother messing with getting your games to work under Linux. It's just not worth it.

[eyeCpc]

For games like those Steam driven you wouldn't be able to anyways since IE not FireFox is required there. I assume the TF2 is Team Fortress 2? That would fall into that catagory right there. Now there are other concerns about Linux being stressed in Congress to consider since it is now being labeled a what? cancer! Governments should ban Linux | Samizdata.net