Linux Vs Windows

[Heoki]

I am currently using windows xp home edition. I am considering switching to linux to hopefully get and increase in proformence. Thing is i want to know if I will be able to use all my windows stuff on linux. I am looking forward to trying something to improve my system. Can anyone help me out?

[Devryn]

Can you use MAC software on your Windows system?

Linux is totally different operating system. It makes your PC as different as a Windows system is to a MAC system. Linux is also more complicated than Win. The first version of Linux I ever had it took me a week of research just to figure out how to get my damn CD ROM drive to register

My suggestion is that if you really want to experiment with Linux setup a dual boot system so it offers you the option as to what OS you want to run. You'll have to partition part of your HD though to run Linux and it's applications.

Linux is awesome but don't expect to play FFXI on it.

[diversereality]

Re: Linux Vs Windows

Originally posted by Heoki
I am currently using windows xp home edition. I am considering switching to linux to hopefully get and increase in proformence. Thing is i want to know if I will be able to use all my windows stuff on linux. I am looking forward to trying something to improve my system. Can anyone help me out?

Yes the performance will increase quite a bit. Not only is it more stable and secure, but alot smoother. It does take a little getting used to, but well worth it. Nothing that the average computer user can't handle.

No, FFXI does not run on Linux as of now. However in the future I am sure it will. Just not sure if it will still be popular then or not. Everything else you use will run in linux or has a better equivalent that will.

hm, don't think I'll rant. So, that just about does it.

[Siber]

This is quite a good question ^^ Both people above me bring up a good point, but it's all opinion and which distrobution you use. There is no one "Linux" OS unlike Windows. Heck, if u wanted to, you could create your own Linux OS at anytime. And there are different distros for different needs. Yes, you can run Windows programs on linux, but you have to be running WineX. Oh, and Mac, Windows, and the new Linux distros are not all that different. Mac is has a lot of Unix under it (Linux comes from Unix also) and I do believe the "Longhorn" version of Windows will be much more like Unix than any other former DOS/NT versions. Anyways, back to what I was saying. Depending on the Linux distro, the ease of use will change. If you pick Fedora (use to be RedHat until they went server only), SuSe, or Mandrake you will have a fairly easy time and each has a large enough fan base to help you get past any problems you may encounter. And because it is open source, there could be thousands of people working on a single problem that you might encounter at any point in time ^^. Now, once you get use to Linux, I suggest moving to a harder distro such as Gentoo. It allows for much more control and is harder to use (but it's fun haha). Now, one awesome thing about Linux is the usage of kernels. You can pick which one u want (either KDE or Gnome but i prefer KDE) and upgrade at any time also. There are many others to choose from, but those two are the main popular ones. A new linux kernel (the main underlying one) just recently came out, so you should make sure that it has 2.6.x (2.6.1 was just released today).

Ok, the main differences is that with Windows, you'll be able to play ALL games. Not all will work under WineX (most will). Also, you'll be at home w/ i think 90-95% of users by running Winddows. But Linux in general is faster, more secure, and cheaper (even though Bill Gates claims Windows is. But in a study he compared a Windows Server to a Linux Mainframe lol. But of course that whole mainframe detail was left out =)) But Windows is now more secure due to that SP2 that is going to be released which will beef up the firewall and fix many holes in the system. By using linux, you will learn much more about your computer too. I have 2 machines personally. I use my Windows one for gaming and I have a linux one for programming and other odds for. It is all just a matter of preference.

But yes, do try a dual boot to begin with unless you have a spare computer lying around. No, Linux is not too hard. Just make sure to research it before you decide to jump in. Oh, and to answer your original question lol, anything you have on windows (except games) you can find in open source for linux. Well not it exactly, but something very close. I.E.- I use Open Office instead of Microsoft Office because it's free lol. I also use Firebird over Internet Explorer because I like to be able to read the source code that runs my viewing engine. And if you're looking for chat clients, they are also plentiful. If you need anything else, just let me know and i'll help ya find it =). Also, nVidia currently offers the best support for linux drivers. But ATI is doing well to start doing it, so don't worry if you have a Radeon card. So yes, you can play FFXI on linux but only if running WineX first, and then FFXI through WineX. Sorry it was so long ^^

[Devryn]

Just a quick question. I haven't used Linux in a long time but I'm going to assume that Winex is an emulator for Windows. How well does FFXI work in Winex? Better or worse? Thanks in advance.

[Jroggy]

it would most likely be worse because it's being run in an emulator, so it needs to use memory for that. My guess it'll go slower then if you ran it in actual windows.

[Siber]

It will be a tiny bit worse, but not enough to make a real difference overall. Slower I am not really able to say. I (and friends of mine) have played first person shooters on the HL engine at 100 FPS (the max) through WineX and we're unable to tell a real difference between it and Windows. If you did benchmarks on it, you might see a difference but otherwise it'll be ok.

[Peppara]

FFXI will not work under WineX WineX only supports directx 8.1b or lower I do believe. Linux is a great OS I use it for all my email, internet chat, multimedia stuff. I have setup a dual boot so that if I want to play games I just boot to windows xp and when I am done I just boot back to linux. It works great for me like this. Just do be aware that Linux is very time consuming to get setup the way you want and I am sure you will get very frustrated at times. But its all part of the learning process.

[Siber]

Why won't FFXI work under it? FFXI is DirectX 8.1 lol so it should work in all seriousness

[Doppelganger]

maybe it has other limitations other than dx8.1 (i do believe that b is the same as the no suffix dx8.1), such as useable video ram (like mac's virtual pc supports only 4mb of video ram)

that or i could just be that your comp is screwy:sweat:

[ZeroRadius]

This is why the computer god's created partitions people, use them

-Zero out

(P.S GO WINDOWS!)

[Jroggy]

Originally posted by ZeroRadius
(P.S GO WINDOWS!)

wow i've never seen anyone say THAT before,lol i mean people say it's not that bad, it can run alot of things and so on. Usually they hate it for some reason, so they're not that enthuastic. i myself, i guess i'm one of those people, will kinda defend it but i still dislike it for various reasons.

[Peppara]

I could swear that ffxi uses dx 9. I mean dx9 has been out for quite a while and ffxi was just released like 3 months ago or whatever. I know for a fact though that ffxi doesnt work on winex I saw so on the winex forums.

[Jroggy]

i'm pretty sure ffxi uses directx 8/8.1(whatever) there may be some other problem why it doesn't run on winex.

[Aniedi]

No.
None of your windows stuff will work in Linux, for the most part.
FFXI won't work in linux for sure.

The performance will increase, is kind of misleading. You have to ask yourself:

The performance of WHAT?

You have the real use of linux backwards. Linux is not "will this windows stuff work on Linux?" Linux is "I want to use linux to do this and it is free."
Otherwise, as a home OS, Linux is basically a hobby. You tinker with it all the time. Sometimes just running a new program is tinkering.

See, Windows has these magical things called *.dll. *.dll's are backward compatible, meaning if you have programs that use bob.dll and you get a new program that comes with an updated bob.dll, every program still works great.

Linux is the exact opposite. Unless you wait for official distro versions/upgrades of the programs you want, you download the source or a prebuilt binary of the linux program and try to run it. You then will get a cryptic message sometimes like "needs lib.so.billysmith19 to run. " So then you get that lib, but find that if you install it, you break dependancies of 120 other programs you currently use. Sometimes you can do lil backwards tricks like make a symbollic link from the new or old programs to one or the other lib, renaming it so to speak, but sometimes this won't work still.

Often you find yourself spending a couple hours, to get a new program to work then everything else working okay after that. You never have to do this in windows XP. By comparision, windows XP is insanely easy to use. Everyone tells those stupid windows crashing stories, but I've never had problems with 95, 98 or XP once I set them up right. Meanwhile, I've crashed Linux trying to use something new several times.

Its kind of subjective as to whether it really "runs better" also. If you really want to experience linux, one of the first things you do is get Xwindows running in 3d acceleration with some really great looking window manager. Essentially, it looks like the normal view in a windows operating system sort of, except window borders and such can look millions of possible ways due to having a particular window manager and setting it up a particular way.
You might run sawfish underneath Gnome, or maybe you run KDE.

So linux isn't that hard anymore, if you get a distro like the new SuSE which more or less sets itself up, but its hard if you try to actually LEARN it beyond just using it like Windows. Its hard when you get the source of a program and compile it for the first time, asking it to make. Its hard when you do that and you get errors. Its hard and its a great adventure you'll either like or hate.

What it ISN'T is the ability to just download and install any old program and have it work right away, as you can with windows XP. The reason is that there is no "Linux." There is red hat linux, or SuSE linux, Mandrake or Debian (which I'm not even sure is a linux) and then something different than linux per se which is Free BSD.

Its like if you go back to when we were first playing games in DOS and you had to monkey with the config.sys and autoexec.bat sometimes to get them to work. If you take the techyness of that and multiply it by about 10,000,000, you have a unix operating system.

Even if a game works under WineX, like EQ, its going to run worse than it would on the same system if you booted to XP.

Its kind of shame because linux seems made to be a thin, networked client which could possibly mean for the game which was made right you could really harness the full power of your PC without even having to go into a windowing system. It just never happens, though. Game companies that do come up for linux, such as Lokisoft which did ports, eventually die since they don't make much money.

What Linux really needs is an EQ. It needs that kind of defining mmorpg which will make people want to actually bother with linux, just to play it, because it would ONLY run under linux. No one will take that gamble, though.

Meanwhile, linux's strong suit is that its a great server platform which is free.

XP kind of made me a windows fan again. XP Pro is pretty darn good and if you turn off all the services you don't need, it runs fairly thin. Its also quite stable and secure, once it is patched up.

Finally, don't base a comparison of Half Life with how well FFXI would run in an emulator. Half Life runs well because its Open Gl, so it uses the native open GL of linux/xwindows whatever. Its not using direct X in an emulator. Basically with halfling life wine is more or less just kind of starting it up. Its not really being truely emulated. Meanwhile, everquest has to be truely emulated since it isn't open GL. This causes a performance hit while Half Life would seem almost native to linux.

Linux is insanely cool for being free, but the whole dependancies thing with libraries not ALWAYS being backwards compatible mucks it up. Because of this, unless that changes, it will never be a preference of the average home user. My aunt has trouble downloading a *.exe file, double clicking and following the instructions. I'd never want to explain making dep to her and waiting for the program to compile, then fixing any dependancies, making clean if it all goes to crap, etc. I can't figure out why they'd have it work that way, you'd think fixing convoluted stuff like that would be at the top of their list.