Would you abandon Windows in favor of Linux for gaming?

[sixty]

I'd switch at the drop of a hat if gaming was supported natively and properly under a *nix environment, or anything else for that matter; unfortunately 95% of games on the PC are produced for Windows platforms only.

 

[SteveOBHave]

If you're wanting to do some security testing, dedicated server hosting, file server hosting, web server hosting, coding, scripting etc, then Linux is a much better choice than Windows. I'd consider Linux to be a much more 'power user' freindly OS

Ah no I have quite a bit of experience with that sort of thing, in fact I use SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) every day at work but these are pre-packaged and custom made applications - they are designed to be part of the OS and the control is all through YAST! which makes life quite easy. Having not tried to do the same on a home machine I don't know how similar or dissimilar it is.

 

[m4cc45]

No. Been doing a lot at the command line and I absolutely hate it - I have to do it for some dragon boxes but the commands are completley intuitive.

i.e.

vi main.cf (fine opens a text editor)
try typing in there doesn't work because you're not in input mode. dd to delete a line rather than backspace, argggh why is it overly compicated for a fecken text editor!

The GUI's (i.e. Redhat) are just not intuitive enough - most people who use linux are very good at the command line. I remember trying to install an application (snort or nessus iirc) and the dependincies were a pain to get.

Due to the massive uptake from the windows community for W7 I don't think it's going anywhere. I'm very happy with Windows and will be staying with that.


M.

 

[rsatd]

*snip*

Yes, I did that in the past, basically dual booted my up until two winters ago, 950 amd duron was it? I forgot the chip already . But then I "upgraded" to a 2.3ghz dual core amd box, and some random video card, ati something or other. Anyway, it did the job ok while I spent many week-months attempting to get some games to work under linux. In the end I gave up with linux and games. It is just not worth the time and effort.

Then this summer I got into low power systems, and got myself that cute box. Put linux on it, seeing as it would never handle any games anyway, and never looked back. Honestly, I don't think it is worth it, my windows box is used only for flash videos mainly bbc iplayer top gear and zero punctuation and an odd game of something generally old.

I love using linux, there is always something you don't know how to do. Which is where the fun comes from me, the fact that most of the time, you don't need to use a bloated UI is what makes me love it so much.

 

[Keto]

I would, but I use Linux primarily anyway.

I think the talk of Linux being far more complicated than Windows to use is exaggerated quite a lot, there are certain distros which are just as easy to set up as a Windows install, and offer a GUI driven experience also.

People are mostly brought up on Windows, that's what they learn first and switching to anything different is going to be a bit of a challenge at first, it's the same with most things.

I've been trying Windows 7 lately and it's not bad actually, but it's still far too restrictive for my liking. The menu system, the way things in the control panel are set out in vaguely named categories, the lack of customization available, the file system, the process control, and especially the automated tasks.

I've had the automated "let me fix that for you" app installing drivers which ended up breaking things more so than they were before, and personally I find Linux easier to fix than Windows because most of the time you are actually given details on what is going wrong, unlike with Windows.

But saying that, for the normal user who isn't interested in highly customizing his system, Windows is still better. I see no reason to try and force people into Linux, or even claim that it's a better operating system for them, because for most people it's not.

Would it be nice to have proper Linux game support? Sure, it would be good for Windows users too since there would be a (slightly) greater PC market for game developers to aim at and that can only be a good thing.

But as it is now just having to reboot into Windows to play a modern game isn't much of a problem in my opinion, and I can't see it happening anytime soon either as long as companies like EA are still around.

 

[Glaucus]

LOL because that never goes on here does it

It does happen, but it's completely pointless and is why MS wouldn't waste there time. It is not needed and you would not see any real world benefits b crippling an OS.

I'll be surprised if linux takes off, even with game support. it's just to complicated for all but die hard users. If used linux before but I can not be bothered with it. I want something to just work, work will and importantly be easy. Which is windows. Yes playing about with things can be fun. But you don;t want to fiddle about with stuff just t get it to work.

 

[Dj_Jestar]

I think they are. Even if it is by coercion from the courts. I also read somewhere that XBOX is their primary income these days, so they are more willing to be flexible with OS/Software, instead of implementing questionable practices to 'protect' their income.

 

[Dup]

Windows is the platform for all my software and therefore using another OS for games is simply not viable for me. Having a dual OS system is something a power user would do and therefore not viable for developers.

There's more chance they could do without the OS and put hardware support directly into the game engines themselves.

 

[SteveOBHave]

I would, but I use Linux primarily anyway.

I think the talk of Linux being far more complicated than Windows to use is exaggerated quite a lot, there are certain distros which are just as easy to set up as a Windows install, and offer a GUI driven experience also.

People are mostly brought up on Windows, that's what they learn first and switching to anything different is going to be a bit of a challenge at first, it's the same with most things.

I agree to a certain extent - changing the way you are used to doing things, especially if they work for you already seems frivoulous. I'd change if it were an improvement over the process and I guess the question then is, is the Linux way of things actually better and easier than the current Windows way?

Would it be nice to have proper Linux game support? Sure, it would be good for Windows users too since there would be a (slightly) greater PC market for game developers to aim at and that can only be a good thing.

But as it is now just having to reboot into Windows to play a modern game isn't much of a problem in my opinion, and I can't see it happening anytime soon either as long as companies like EA are still around.

So from a gaming perspective you can't see Linux taking hold nor being overly attractive to the big games houses (let along the small ones) because it's too much effort for too little reward? Doesn't this then translate to the OS as a whole? If there is no real financial opportunity for software houses then surely it doesn't bode well for the home user Linux distros?

 

[Dj_Jestar]

Windows is the platform for all my software and therefore using another OS for games is simply not viable for me. Having a dual OS system is something a power user would do and therefore not viable for developers.

There's more chance they could do without the OS and put hardware support directly into the game engines themselves.

That's old school, and frankly, completely non-viable. As a developer you should appreciate the need to keep a common interface for hardware.

 

[SteveOBHave]

That's old school, and frankly, completely non-viable. As a developer you should appreciate the need to keep a common interface for hardware.

More so because it would then be down to the developer to continuously update the game everytime some new hardware came out. They're pretty average at patching games at the best of times...

 

[uv]

vi main.cf (fine opens a text editor)
try typing in there doesn't work because you're not in input mode. dd to delete a line rather than backspace, argggh why is it overly compicated for a fecken text editor!

Vi is an amazing editor, and once you learn all the keys, it all makes sense

The high learning curve that Vi presents isn't relational to the OS as a whole though - you can't base Linux solely on Vi

You could try using a different text editor - 'nano' and 'pico' for example are rather intuitive for Windows users.

 

[antran]

Probably not, I am so used to windows. Gonna be hard for me to convert to another OS.

 

[meghatronic]

**** no.

 

[Kriist]

Is this something that you see them continuing with or are you seeing a change? I for one was extremely p*ssed at MS when they released the 'new' standard of MS Office docs i.e. DOCX and XLSX etc. All of a sudden my entirely companies Office suites were semi redundant. That was a kick in the teeth if ever I saw one. Still there are lots of signs at the moment that MS are listening to the end user - if not from a gaming perspective then at least from an OS perspective.

ms released a program that lets older versions of office open these files...

 

[randal]

Interesting thread.

I would, provided the developers are 100% devoted to the OS.

Personally I think Apple would be better to lead the charge with OSX by making it cross platform compatible like Windows, then getting the buy in from some big names (EA, as much as I hate what they're doing to the games industry would probably be better as they've got "clout").

That said, being OS independent might be a better option. i.e To build a cross platform virtual machine that is Linux/OSX/Windows/etc... compatible then developers write their games for the VM.

Trouble is, who would build the VM? The OS dev, the game dev?

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

I'd switch if I could use Steam, Impulse, etc on Linux, as well as my work apps.

But I can't, so there's really no choice.

 

[Keto]

I agree to a certain extent - changing the way you are used to doing things, especially if they work for you already seems frivoulous. I'd change if it were an improvement over the process and I guess the question then is, is the Linux way of things actually better and easier than the current Windows way?

Depends what you mean by 'better', everyone is going to have a different opinion of what is better for them, it's personal preference. In the same way, I assume 'easier' means being able to install and start straight away without any need for configuration, which is great for most but not everyone requires that.

Although on that topic i'd personally say consoles offer much more of a pick up and go style experience than Windows if you're doing nothing but gaming.

So from a gaming perspective you can't see Linux taking hold nor being overly attractive to the big games houses (let along the small ones) because it's too much effort for too little reward? Doesn't this then translate to the OS as a whole? If there is no real financial opportunity for software houses then surely it doesn't bode well for the home user Linux distros?

At the end of the day they're out to make money, they will target whichever has the largest market, and I can't see Windows losing the market share, especally since Windows 7 seems to be pleasant enough for most people.

It would be nice to be able to game across any platform but I don't think Linux needs it, it does what it does well for power users wanting a secure, stable and highly customizable platform, and a free alternative for people who only need a computer for browsing, email and office work.

Many contributors to it are already putting in effort for little reward as you say (financially anyway), but some people enjoy it, gain experience from it and believe in the freedom of software.

They're aimed at two different audiences. Things such as Vi do have a much higher learning curve than other text editors, but it's meant to, it has the pay off of greater control and productivity once you have become accustomed to it.

Mac OS X would be a better choice for people wanting a simple GUI driven pick up and go OS if it had full native game support and it has a much better market share of users. Although like I said I still think for people wanting a no hassle gaming platform, consoles are the best answer.

 

[MotherMayI]

In a heartbeat. If the driver and game support was there, Id never look back. Back when I was just playing WoW I actually did it, as I realised that I was no longer using anything that I couldnt do in Linux. Ran solely linux for 2 years or so, until I started wanting to get in to other games again. My laptop is still 100% linux.

The only issue I had was Open Office for university work. It is good enough, but simply doesnt compare to MS Office. However, I made do and it never was a real issue.

 

[Slashiem]

I would happily ditch Windows for something like Ubuntu.

Only reason i do use windows is for gaming, i much prefer general computer usage in Linux but becomes a hassle having two different installs and everyone in our household knows how to use windows.