Which distro?

b34st · 9 Jul 2009 at 08:41

I have tried slackware in the past but never ran linux as a main operating system. I am wanting to run a linux os as my main os on my new rig but I have a couple of questions.

How much RAM does linux support? I hear that xp supports 2gb of ram, vista supports 4gb and windows 7 supports 8gb. is this the same for linux? if so which distro would i need to run 6gb?

Has linux improved compatibility wise? last time I ran a linux os it was hard/impossible to get some games/applications/drivers to work. I will be using the pc mainly for gaming and web development.

Which distro would be best suited to my needs?

craptakular · 9 Jul 2009 at 09:03

i think x64 bit versions can run as much as you want. 32bit versions are limited to 3.25gb.

Linux isn't great for gaming, do you want to run windows apps on linux? Maybe best to search for a linux native app first over messing with wine.

Which OS? Debian, ubuntu, opensuse, mepis, centos?

bledd · 9 Jul 2009 at 09:26

b34st said:
How much RAM does linux support? I hear that xp supports 2gb of ram, vista supports 4gb and windows 7 supports 8gb. is this the same for linux? if so which distro would i need to run 6gb?

you heard wrong.

32 bit operating systems support ~ 3.5gb
64 bit operating systems (ms ones) support ~128gb

XP64 = 128gb
Vista Business 64 = 128gb

64bit linux, guessing ~ 128gb

you can't simply 'run' exe's on linux, so it's not suitable as a development or gaming machine, unless there are linux specific apps that you can use for the development side, depends what you want to do

b34st · 9 Jul 2009 at 09:40

Ah thanks for clearing up my RAM query. I have got a copy of windows 7 so it wouldnt of been a problem anyway I just didnt know if linux was any different but apparently they both are.

The only windows apps or .exe I will want to run are games but from your comments I guess I will still need windows for this?

Juniper · 9 Jul 2009 at 10:39

Games that have the ability to use OpenGL are better candidates for running under Linux, but it's often a time consuming and frustrating process to get them running correctly. Stick with Windows for gaming.

.walls · 9 Jul 2009 at 17:01

b34st said:
The only windows apps or .exe I will want to run are games but from your comments I guess I will still need windows for this?

Depends what you want to play. Steam games run flawlessly in wine and are not that hard to set up - but there are quite a few that just don't, even after you've spent hours tweaking this setting and that setting.

If you want to play the newest games at the highest frame rates, then you'll still need Windows.

EDIT: Other than that - I heartily recommend Sabayon these days. It's basically Gentoo with a binary package manager and a few other cool features. Also... you'll probably like anything better than Slackware!

pingwing · 9 Jul 2009 at 17:10

To jump in late on the ram thing, theoretically 64bit linux can go to the theoretical limit of 64 bit ram (aka a lot) and 32bit linux can address something like 64 gig if you enable PAE in the kernel

(admitedly the only distro iv managed to set this on is gentoo where you get to build your own kernel but its possible to do on others)

For games wine is a fairly good free way of doing or you could give cedega a bash (its something like £4 a month with some more support and games orientated setup and so on)

.walls · 9 Jul 2009 at 17:19

pingwing said:
the only distro iv managed to set this on is gentoo where you get to build your own kernel but its possible to do on others

<pedantry> you get to build your own kernel on any distro - very few of my installs run stock kernels (for various reasons). </pedantry>

Also +1 for cedega

b34st · 9 Jul 2009 at 17:59

Well from your comments it sounds like I do need to keep windows meaning if I wanted to use linux aswell I would have to use dual boot? Is there any point in this? Y keep switching?

.walls · 9 Jul 2009 at 18:32

b34st said:
Well from your comments it sounds like I do need to keep windows meaning if I wanted to use linux aswell I would have to use dual boot? Is there any point in this? Y keep switching?

Dunno - I got bored of dual booting a few years ago and went with linux full time. Couldn't run a windows box at home any more!

If you just want to try it out - then I would recommend VirtualBox and run a few distros in VMs.

pingwing · 9 Jul 2009 at 19:11

.walls said:
<pedantry> you get to build your own kernel on any distro - very few of my installs run stock kernels (for various reasons). </pedantry>

Also +1 for cedega

Haha! yeah i was just using gentoo as the example of a distro that has a well documented guide to doing it...ish

But yeah apparently virtual box 3 can now emulate directx and opengl2, havn't tried them out yet as im in the middle of moving and all my games have already gone but it might be another good way to run some windows stuff in linux (and osx)

.walls · 9 Jul 2009 at 21:01

Yeah, I think VB 3 is still in beta, but it does dx9... which is pretty cool! I was reading up about it when it came out, a bit buggy - but hey: beta.

Been meaning to try it out myself - just don't really have a lot of spare time at the mo.

memyselfandi · 9 Jul 2009 at 21:13

.walls said:
Yeah, I think VB 3 is still in beta, but it does dx9... which is pretty cool! I was reading up about it when it came out, a bit buggy - but hey: beta.

Been meaning to try it out myself - just don't really have a lot of spare time at the mo.

VirtualBox 3.0 left beta earlier this week (I think) ... we've been playing with it at work running either Opensolaris June '09 release or RHEL 5.3 using storage over iSCSI provided by Openfiler over in box virtual networks (ok, we were bored)

.walls · 9 Jul 2009 at 21:20

memyselfandi said:
VirtualBox 3.0 left beta earlier this week (I think) ... we've been playing with it at work running either Opensolaris June '09 release or RHEL 5.3 using storage over iSCSI provided by Openfiler over in box virtual networks (ok, we were bored)

Heh - I was a bit bored last week... so built 4 quad core arch boxes on one of our R900 ESX boxes. Only got about a week out of it before I had to trash them though (host needed for something a bit more work related!).