Would you abandon Windows in favor of Linux for gaming?

The Mad Rapper said:
What a load of crap. Ubuntu is miles easier to use than Windows, all the advanced settings are available from the GUI exactly the same as Windows. It also 'just works' from a default install - you really can't make it any more retard friendly than that :p

You don't have to use the Terminal at all if you don't want to.
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I've used Ubuntu on my PC and it didn't 'just work'; my wireless adapter constantly crashed and after searching everywhere for a driver (including trying to get ndiswrapper to work), I gave up because nobody had a solution.

Fortunately it did work properly on my netbook, but I was still forced to use the command line far more than I've ever had to for Windows because so many options or actions weren't available through the GUI. That's not too much of an issue in itself, but like I said, most people/places just assume you're proficient with terminal. Doesn't make it very easy for someone who's learning the OS.

It's nice for the advanced user that the command line is so functional, but most people don't really care. They want the most simple solution, and Linux doesn't always like to provide that. The problem is that it almost becomes easier to just use the command line rather than battle with some of the GUI stuff instead. The Add/Remove Programs/Synaptic thing is one good example, it's a nightmare at times.
 
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tbh I've never had an issue with wireless adaptors but then I normally buy one that's compatible with linux.
you wouldn't buy an adaptor that wasn't windows compatible then moan that it didn't work in XP!
 
VeNT said:
tbh I've never had an issue with wireless adaptors but then I normally buy one that's compatible with linux.
you wouldn't buy an adaptor that wasn't windows compatible then moan that it didn't work in XP!
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It's integrated to my motherboard so I didn't really have a choice in the matter. I can understand that Linux won't have drivers for everything, but it throws the "just works" idea out the window nonetheless. It's not like it's a specialist piece of equipment or anything.
 
manic_man said:
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LOL - Sudoku is installed by default, certainly in the latest version of Ubuntu. There is no need to use the Terminal, you can use the GUI package installer.

I accept Linux is different to Windows in the way it works, but I cannot accept that it is more difficult to use in practice. There is a GUI alternative to the Terminal for almost every need.

I accept your point about the graphics drivers from the perspective of Linux being used as a gaming system. I suppose the companies concerned could do a lot more to make easily installable graphics drivers under Linux.
 
TheVoice said:
I've used Ubuntu on my PC and it didn't 'just work'; my wireless adapter constantly crashed and after searching everywhere for a driver (including trying to get ndiswrapper to work), I gave up because nobody had a solution.

Fortunately it did work properly on my netbook, but I was still forced to use the command line far more than I've ever had to for Windows because so many options or actions weren't available through the GUI. That's not too much of an issue in itself, but like I said, most people/places just assume you're proficient with terminal. Doesn't make it very easy for someone who's learning the OS.

It's nice for the advanced user that the command line is so functional, but most people don't really care. They want the most simple solution, and Linux doesn't always like to provide that. The problem is that it almost becomes easier to just use the command line rather than battle with some of the GUI stuff instead. The Add/Remove Programs/Synaptic thing is one good example, it's a nightmare at times.
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With respect, you clearly have a crap generic wireless adapter than. I have never had an issue using quality branded adapters. Even the Intel versions built into laptop motherboards have worked flawlessly.

I do remember that a French chap has a web site where he makes drivers he has written for generic wireless adapters available for free d/l. I can't recall the address, but I read about it in an issue of Linux Format, perhaps Google may help?
 
The Mad Rapper said:
With respect, you clearly have a crap generic wireless adapter than. I have never had an issue using quality branded adapters. Even the Intel versions built into laptop motherboards have worked flawlessly.

I do remember that a French chap has a web site where he makes drivers he has written for generic wireless adapters available for free d/l. I can't recall the address, but I read about it in an issue of Linux Format, perhaps Google may help?
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Surely to a certain extent it does highlight the ongoing nature of Linux. That being one of a decentralised and 'hobby-ist' support structure. At least with a commercial OS there is the centralised support point (however lacklustre it seems to be at times...)
 
SteveOBHave said:
Surely to a certain extent it does highlight the ongoing nature of Linux. That being one of a decentralised and 'hobby-ist' support structure. At least with a commercial OS there is the centralised support point (however lacklustre it seems to be at times...)
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It actually highlights the lack of support by hardware manufacturers and distributors. The battle of getting devices supported on Linux is purely a reverse engineering one, where vendors refuse to support it.
 
m4cc45 said:
The money they are paying is for Server versions normally I'm pretty sure you can get red Hat, SuSEm etc. for nothing.
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Nope. They are paying for support services. Not product licenses.

It's not logically different in places. I can't give examples now because it's too long since I used it - but I remember thinking how hard can it be and the answer was very.
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You can't give examples because there are none. There is no differences from Gentoo to Ubuntu, to Mandriva to Slackware. They are all Linux, and a device that is compatible with Linux will run on all distributions of linux.
If I'm a fan boy because I would pay for an operating system that I genuinely enjoy using and does everything I require it to do then, yes, I plead guilty. With regards to open source, why do people rebadge it then? I'm talking about people who actually charge for it (Red Hat and SuSE did a while back)? Isn't that against the entire nature of it?


M.
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No, you're a fan boy because you assume that something must have a price for it to be viable and successful, and simply fall back to that as an argument of "Windows costs money, so must be better!".

P.S. I remember apps like Nessus being free at the time as well - now they are paid for. Interesting isn't it that when somethings popular people have to pay for it. I'd guarantee that is how it would go if there was a really popular vairiant of it.
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Cedega is another example. Originally it was free (and the project it was forked from still is, Wine.) However the guys maintaining it are now spending all of their time on it, and must earn a living, so have a subscription fee to maintain their income. It is simply unfair to expect someone to work on a project full time and not earn something from it.
 
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seeing as most games are made for DirectX which is microsoft technology, which microsoft creates with software houses and hardware manufacturers theres no way any developer would turn their back on windows/microsoft directX.

the OS is just a launch platform at the end of the day its the underlaying Games environment DirectX that holds the key. this is why microsoft created it back in the early windows day to get a common set of tools/api's/standard for developers to use on their OS platform and hardware that has a common standard, this is when. When PC gaming took off big time in the win95 era
 
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Definitely, if it worked. I have had so many problems with Vista that I would happily dump windows forever if there was an alternative.
 
The Mad Rapper said:
With respect, you clearly have a crap generic wireless adapter than. I have never had an issue using quality branded adapters. Even the Intel versions built into laptop motherboards have worked flawlessly.

I do remember that a French chap has a web site where he makes drivers he has written for generic wireless adapters available for free d/l. I can't recall the address, but I read about it in an issue of Linux Format, perhaps Google may help?
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It's a Realtek-based one, I've never had a problem with it regarding signal quality, and Windows 7 picks it up fine, so it can't be that bad. I'm not blaming Ubuntu for not having the driver, but considering I searched for quite a while to find a way to make it work and found nothing except people in the same position as myself, it was rather annoying.
 
SteveOBHave said:
Surely to a certain extent it does highlight the ongoing nature of Linux. That being one of a decentralised and 'hobby-ist' support structure. At least with a commercial OS there is the centralised support point (however lacklustre it seems to be at times...)
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have you EVER called up MS support?
drivers are provided by the manufacturer, not MS.
 
I don't think I could ever switch to Linux. Have tried numerous distros and releases over the years, and I still find it awkward to use. Great if you're happy with the defaults and using the package manager supplied, not so great if you like to [easily] customise stuff and get the latest versions of apps without being at the mercy of your distro provider updating their repository.

Also, seeing as the type of game I play most is the FPS genre, I got pretty damn fedup from the outset when I couldn't get my mouse setup how I liked. No option to turn off mouse acceleration (just a slider to adjust it), no way to adjust how many lines the mouse wheel scrolls, and no easy way to configure the side mouse buttons? God sake. I shouldn't need to be arsing about with the command line or editing configuration files by hand for something I can accomplish with ease in Windows.

Having said that, I do enjoy using Windows in general anyway, so there's pretty much no reason for me to change.
 
m4cc45 said:
I do use IE and much prefer it to Chrome / Firefox but thats a personal opinion. At least Microsoft are lightning fast to fix vulnerabilities.
Edit: Doh beaten to it.
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Microsoft might be fast, but I think Chrome has the right idea about its background updates, most people can't be bothered to update their software and so do not update it.
 
VeNT said:
have you EVER called up MS support?
drivers are provided by the manufacturer, not MS.
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MS Support is great, in my last job we had an on going problem which lasted about 10weeks, in the end MS support wrote a piece of code just for us to fix the problem ..
 
Bhamid said:
Microsoft might be fast, but I think Chrome has the right idea about its background updates, most people can't be bothered to update their software and so do not update it.
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Well Windows Updates are on by default so it's up to you if you turn them off. Internet Explorer will then keep itself up to date.

I would prefer to see when a product is updating than have it update and then potentially break something. With Chrome to use in a business you'd have to turn off all the updates and have to be very selective with the ones you applied in case they break something. With IE it's very quick and easy to do that.



M.
 
m4cc45 said:
Well Windows Updates are on by default so it's up to you if you turn them off. Internet Explorer will then keep itself up to date.

I would prefer to see when a product is updating than have it update and then potentially break something. With Chrome to use in a business you'd have to turn off all the updates and have to be very selective with the ones you applied in case they break something. With IE it's very quick and easy to do that.



M.
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IE updates are intrusive and demand that it should be restarted etc. I'm talking about consumers, not businesses who probably use IE anyway.
 
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