So I'm a Microsoft hater. Not really because Windows sucks, but because it's so "easy". Little annoying bubble popups telling me everything that I already know. The marketing strategy was obviously to convert non-computer-people into computer-people, and it's succeeded in this, but since I've always been a computer person, it's not for me. So I want to convert to Linux (Ubuntu probably.) The thing is I'm a pretty avid gamer. I use voice communication (ventrilo) and play a pile of games. I know for sure that most of this stuff isn't supported by Linux. I'm wondering if this is going to be a problem, or if there's emulator software and the like that will let me use it anyway. I have no problem going through the trouble to solve problems with Linux (that's the fun of it.) Just wondering whether it's worth switching. Anyone have experience that they want to share? (Edit: I just found the magazine article on this topic. Awesome.)
Lol it's good you found a magazine article, because I have no clue. XD I personally love windows vista. If you turn off user Account Control it gets rid of most of the annoying "installing new software could give you viruses, blah blah blah" and similar pop-ups.
I use (Ubuntu) Linux as my main OS. But, I'm definitely not a gamer, so I definitely can't give you advice re: that. I know there are some emulators out there (like Wine) to let you run Windows programs on Linux, but I'm not sure how well they'd work with more intensive programs likes games. What I might suggest doing is dual-booting both linux and Windows. That way, you can tinker around all you want with Linux, but if it ends up not working as well as you'd like, you can just switch back to Windows. And yeah, I've never been a fan of the pop-ups with Windows. Or having to restart every time something is installed/updated/uninstalled (i never realized how often i had to restart, until i started using Windows..). I might also try doing what Alex89 said and see how many popups you can disable.
If you turn off User Account Control (UAC) you are running everything with administrator privileges so the chances of something getting in and causing harm are much higher. For example if your browser is running with administrator privileges and you click a link that tries to install some spyware it will do that as administrator too. What UAC does is run everything as a normal user and prompts you when it needs to go to administrator privileges so you can decide whether that is OK or not. So if something tries to install that you don't want you will get the warning and can refuse it. So leaving UAC off is not a good idea. It's useful when you are installing a load of stuff as it stops you being nagged all the time, but once the software is installed and you are using the PC for normal stuff you should turn it back on again. For normal use of the PC you should rarely see the warnings.
if you wanna run games in linux, make sure your gfx card has drivers available. (mine doesn't ). then goto here and get yourself a copy. It has a vast games database. I tried it on my old PC and was playing WoW, EvE-Online, BF2 and a whole host of other, fairly recent games. There was only a very minimal slowdown, we're talking a couple of fps. I found that Ubuntu or OpenSUSE was good for particular hardware, and am about to try Sabayon. But, have a look around at compatibility tables. This is a good place to start. just remember to ensure you can get all the needed drivers first, and I'm sure someone here will be able to talk you through anything your not sure of. Here's a guide for installing Vent on Linux. Teamspeak has a linux native client.
PaulUK - Turning of UAC is fine for computer-literate people, which Words obviously is. =) I haven't had a single virus, spyware, worm or trojan (and I check with everything, believe me) since I've had my PC on vista for 8 months, and I'm on a college file-sharing network! Lol.
Awesome. Thanks everyone. I'm going to do a dual boot for now and hopefully fully convert in the future. I checked my graphics drivers and there is a linux version. (Radeon X800 Pro) I'll look into getting cedaga, and that vent installation guide is awesome. Thanks Skeleton.
To have the same security offered by Vista's UAC on XP machines, I'll frequently set the user account as limited access then either login as admin, or use "run as" when required. Since most security exploits deal with the web browser, where you can get an infection from no fault of the user, another option is to have a normal administrative account, then run the browser (firefox, or IE or whatever) as a limited access using the program "drop my rights" http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1848 Or in it's own sandbox where it can't damage ANY files on the computer http://www.sandboxie.com/ Personally I'd like to use Linux as a desktop operating system, and while better than older versions, I find it still isn't polished enough. If out of the box it runs great, but if you deviate too much you find yourself editing obscure .conf files. Without being as nitty-gritty as what would take you into the Windows registry. Plus I run some specialized apps for Windows that won't run under Linux, so that keeps pushing me towards Windows. And there is a HUGE variaty of quality freeware applications for Windows. Overall I found if properly used and maintained, Windows XP can be extremely robust. I have some beefs with Mac OS, even though it's one of the first truly polished *NIX based consumer OS. For starters some stuff is near impossible to change. For example there's little flexibility in customizing the appearance with factory or free tools. Sometimes it really takes over. I've heard a number of people complain that "iPhoto" keeps people from being able to move their photos from their camera as they want. iPhoto just takes over. And I detest that MacOS feels it can dump hidden configuration files on attached PC FORMATED USB drives. Older macs did this to PC formatted diskettes. Not to mention that Apple has a lot of invasive software and anti-trust practices that put Microsoft to shame.
Hey hey, Yeah duel booting is prob the best option but i've always found duel booting with linus is a bitch i gave up lol :-D Catch
I've never had any trouble with dual-booting. Ubuntu's Ubiquity installer will automatically install the GRUB bootloader without user intervention, and after that it's just selecting an option from a menu.
I guess that refers to the article I wrote for Full Spectrum 1.0. If you want, you can contact me anytime.
seeeing as I've dual booted about a gazillion times, I offer myself out as a sorta semi-pro at it. That includes installing drivers from a cmd prompt on windows or linux. As I do it on a laptop, that makes my gfx driver installing skills higher than a desktop user, or at leas I like to think so.