New To Linux

[Wizardskills]

Hi Guys

I have just made a new comp (In Sig) and i only have one OS (XP Pro). Now to keep running my old pc i would have to change OS to keep it all legal . This posed a bit of a problem as i didn't really want to fork out around £300 for Vista. So i thought to myself, why not try Linux. I have used it for some of my coursework at uni to make Lex scripts and i knew that there were windows like GUI version of it around.

So i thought, I'll try Linux on my old PC and see if it is any good. I found a version called Freespire 2.0.0 and i now have it running. It's not running to fast but that can be expected from a 1 Ghz Athlon with 128Mb of RAM, however from my first impressions i am very impressed. The first time i booted put my system i found that there was a multitude of programs that would have taken me a couple of hours to get installed on windows already there (OpenOffice, Instant Messaging, Image Editing etc).

I am seriously considering putting my new PC onto Linux (possibly a different distribution). However i would appreciate some advice/information before hand from people that have a lot more experience with it than me.

First and for most i will be using my new PC mainly for gaming with the new and upcoming games (Crysis, UT3, CSS, Bioshock etc), however i know Linux does not support DirectX as standard. Now most of these new games will be using Microsoft's DirectX 10. Are there any Linux programs that will allow these games to work in DirectX 10 or a Linux equivalent. I am aware that there is a program called WINE that can run games in DirectX however i am unsure of how well this works and i am not really in the position to test this with the limited specs of my test comp. Are there any programs that will allow games to be played with DirectX 10 or even 9 in Linux?

Secondly, i do a fair bit of programming in Java in a SDK called Eclipse and would like to keep doing so if i were to swap over to Linux. I see from the eclipse website that there is a version of for Linux however, does java work ok on Linux based systems. I can see no problem as to why it wouldn't work but any experience you have in this are would be appreciated.

Thirdly, i also do quite a bit of 3D work in a program called Cinema 4D and i don't believe that they have a Linux based version of this software. Is there a way to get this software to work within the Linux environment?

I really would appreciate your input as i really don't want to spend more money of my money on a OS that i don't feel 100% comfortable with.

Many Thanks

Wiz

 

[BillytheImpaler]

The first thing to remember is that Linux is not Windows. It won't behave the same all the time and the sooner you accept that the sooner you'll enjoy your experience.

As far as gaming is concerned the Linux gaming scene is rather dire. DirectX is a proprietary Miscrosft-only system so games for Linux or the Mac OS are always programmed for OpenGL. Some games have native versions, a few popular FPS games come to mind. Others can run (rather more slowly) though emulation with WINE or Cedega. The latter two are not really good solutions though.

As far as programming is concerned Linux is a programmer's dream OS. Java runs nicely on Linux as does Eclipse and a variety of other SDKs. A compiler comes built into the OS and it's all very flexible.

The main 3D program on Linux is Blender. You might want to check it out to see if it can do the work you need. It would certainly be easier than hacking away to get a Windows program to run outside of a Windows environment. If not you could try getting your current software to run on Linux. I can't say for sure whether or not it would get along since I don't know much about the software.

 

[mattgaunt]

Billytheimpaler got it spot with everything, just an extra lil note, you could, dual boot with linux and windows - What i do at the moment with xp, vista and linux.

And another route that might be worth exploring is a virtual server (I Think, virtual something) Where you can launch windows in linux i.e. windows will launch in a program window. The only drawback is that the windows in the virtual server will only have drivers and work for what ever works in linux.

- Also you mentioned thinkin about gettin vista - try out beryl - Add some amazing effects to you desktop

 

[.walls]

First and for most i will be using my new PC mainly for gaming with the new and upcoming games (Crysis, UT3, CSS, Bioshock etc), however i know Linux does not support DirectX as standard. Now most of these new games will be using Microsoft's DirectX 10. Are there any Linux programs that will allow these games to work in DirectX 10 or a Linux equivalent. I am aware that there is a program called WINE that can run games in DirectX however i am unsure of how well this works and i am not really in the position to test this with the limited specs of my test comp. Are there any programs that will allow games to be played with DirectX 10 or even 9 in Linux?

Wine emulates DX7, I believe, however, Cedega does a very good job of emulating DX9. DX10 will probably not be available on linux for a while - as it will have to be reverse engineered and a compatibility layer added to the wine / cedega engines.

I currently run all my windows games in Cedega and don't have a problem with it in the slightest (I find the performance hit is only slight) - although, if you want the maximum fps, you'll need to be running them natively.

 

[.walls]

And another route that might be worth exploring is a virtual server (I Think, virtual something) Where you can launch windows in linux i.e. windows will launch in a program window. The only drawback is that the windows in the virtual server will only have drivers and work for what ever works in linux.

As far as I'm aware, you can't get 3d acceleration in a virtual box - so it's only good for apps.

 

[Edward78]

The first thing to remember is that Linux is not Windows. It won't behave the same all the time and the sooner you accept that the sooner you'll enjoy your experience.

Yes, it is a lot more stable & secure.

As for games, the only 1 I know of with a linux version is UT2004. I think quake3 might have 1 to, not sure though.

 

[Wizardskills]

Firstly, thanks for all of your comments, they have been very helpful .

The first thing to remember is that Linux is not Windows. It won't behave the same all the time and the sooner you accept that the sooner you'll enjoy your experience.

Secondly, i am aware that Linux is not like windows at all and wasn't expecting it to be

From all of your posts it seem that Linux is unable to play games to the same level as windows and as this is what i will be using my new comp for this has basically ruled it out as being the main OS on it. Also with the only 3D program that will natively run on Linux being Blender, this has not helped its cause as blender is quite basic compared to C4D.

As for programing it would seem that Linux is much better, and for this reason i may be installing a version of Linux as a secondary OS.

With this in mind are there and distributions of Linux that are built for programing (mainly Java)?

Many thanks for all of you posts

Wiz

 

[SiriusB]

How much time do you spend gaming and using Cinema 4D?

If it is all the time, then Linux may not be much use on your main computer. If it is only a few hours a day then there is no reason why Linux can't be your main OS, and you just dip into Windows when you need to.

I am trying harder to avoid going into Windows on my main machine and so far it only gaming I haven't solved. I don't game that often anymore anyway, so probably isn't a problem anymore!

All Linux distros will have SOME programming apps. If you want others, just add them.

 

[Shoseki]

"Programming app" is a bit vague.

If you want to program C++ or Java on linux, I'd ask whether you want to use an IDE or not. I'd recommend Eclipse.

Personally, I code using gedit and the gcc compiler, and autotools, but its not for everyone as it is not the simplest system to "get".

 

[Cake]

Eclipse is a nice IDE. It's Java based and has a lot of in-built facilities for Java programming. It also supports other languages (some you may need to add support for using plugins - another nifty feature of Eclipse). You can create your own plugins as well as download readymade ones.

vi and gcc for me all the way though

 

[Shoseki]

vi and gcc for me all the way though

vi? leet

I can't stand editors with non-standard shortcuts in a shell environment. But my friends swear by it...

At least you can still work even when there *is* no desktop...

 

[Cake]

vi? leet

I can't stand editors with non-standard shortcuts in a shell environment. But my friends swear by it...

At least you can still work even when there *is* no desktop...

Exactly. Comes in very handy when working remotely.