Tech General

[Speaker to Animals]

Ok, I have zero experience with Linux/Unix/not-WindowsOrMac computing.

Is there an option that will be compatible with PC-based games? Or are we stuck with Windows?

Lots of games run on Linux. If you just do a straight *nix install on your hardware, you can run something like Wine to emulate windows and run games that won't run native in Linux.

I always just ran Linux in a VM. It let's you easily swap out distros and do all sorts of cool things. Then run your games in Windows. No need to partition drives either.

Download Oracle's VirtualBox and whatever Linux ISO you want. Open VirtualBox, select create new, and in the option that pops up, just enter in the ISO you want to load from. It will do the rest. No hassle.

You might want to get a book on bash scripting if you want to setup a decent development environment, though, if you have no experience with these things.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Ok, I have zero experience with Linux/Unix/not-WindowsOrMac computing.

Is there an option that will be compatible with PC-based games? Or are we stuck with Windows?

Lots of games run on Linux. If you just do a straight *nix install on your hardware, you can run something like Wine to emulate windows and run games that won't run native in Linux.

I always just ran Linux in a VM. It let's you easily swap out distros and do all sorts of cool things. Then run your games in Windows. No need to partition drives either.

Download Oracle's VirtualBox and whatever Linux ISO you want. Open VirtualBox, select create new, and in the option that pops up, just enter in the ISO you want to load from. It will do the rest. No hassle.

You might want to get a book on bash scripting if you want to setup a decent development environment, though, if you have no experience with these things.

I don't have any need for development or compiling. I just want to get out of the Windows "we know what's best" environment, and keep my ability to surf, play Steam games, and store pictures. No need for more on a home system, really.

I'll try the VMWare thing, to test it out.

[TheReal_ND]

Bash is a little different from whatever GNU uses from what I can tell. I tried bash on puppy and non of the commands I knew worked.

[Speaker to Animals]

Ok, I have zero experience with Linux/Unix/not-WindowsOrMac computing.

Is there an option that will be compatible with PC-based games? Or are we stuck with Windows?

Lots of games run on Linux. If you just do a straight *nix install on your hardware, you can run something like Wine to emulate windows and run games that won't run native in Linux.

I always just ran Linux in a VM. It let's you easily swap out distros and do all sorts of cool things. Then run your games in Windows. No need to partition drives either.

Download Oracle's VirtualBox and whatever Linux ISO you want. Open VirtualBox, select create new, and in the option that pops up, just enter in the ISO you want to load from. It will do the rest. No hassle.

You might want to get a book on bash scripting if you want to setup a decent development environment, though, if you have no experience with these things.

I don't have any need for development or compiling. I just want to get out of the Windows "we know what's best" environment, and keep my ability to surf, play Steam games, and store pictures. No need for more on a home system, really.

I'll try the VMWare thing, to test it out.

My best advice to you is to download VirtualBox and a few ISOs to play around with it. Get used to running in a virtual machine. If it gets to the point where you don't ever use the native windows environment, then just burn the ISO to a disc and install it.

Meanwhile, go to steam and look at the games that native to Linux to get an idea of what you can do there. Also look up what games you like to play that are not on that list to see if they run in Wine or Cygwin.

[Speaker to Animals]

Ok, I have zero experience with Linux/Unix/not-WindowsOrMac computing.

Is there an option that will be compatible with PC-based games? Or are we stuck with Windows?

Lots of games run on Linux. If you just do a straight *nix install on your hardware, you can run something like Wine to emulate windows and run games that won't run native in Linux.

I always just ran Linux in a VM. It let's you easily swap out distros and do all sorts of cool things. Then run your games in Windows. No need to partition drives either.

Download Oracle's VirtualBox and whatever Linux ISO you want. Open VirtualBox, select create new, and in the option that pops up, just enter in the ISO you want to load from. It will do the rest. No hassle.

You might want to get a book on bash scripting if you want to setup a decent development environment, though, if you have no experience with these things.

I don't have any need for development or compiling. I just want to get out of the Windows "we know what's best" environment, and keep my ability to surf, play Steam games, and store pictures. No need for more on a home system, really.

I'll try the VMWare thing, to test it out.

VMWare costs money, though. Just start with VirtualBox.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Lots of games run on Linux. If you just do a straight *nix install on your hardware, you can run something like Wine to emulate windows and run games that won't run native in Linux.

I always just ran Linux in a VM. It let's you easily swap out distros and do all sorts of cool things. Then run your games in Windows. No need to partition drives either.

Download Oracle's VirtualBox and whatever Linux ISO you want. Open VirtualBox, select create new, and in the option that pops up, just enter in the ISO you want to load from. It will do the rest. No hassle.

You might want to get a book on bash scripting if you want to setup a decent development environment, though, if you have no experience with these things.

I don't have any need for development or compiling. I just want to get out of the Windows "we know what's best" environment, and keep my ability to surf, play Steam games, and store pictures. No need for more on a home system, really.

I'll try the VMWare thing, to test it out.

My best advice to you is to download VirtualBox and a few ISOs to play around with it. Get used to running in a virtual machine. If it gets to the point where you don't ever use the native windows environment, then just burn the ISO to a disc and install it.

Meanwhile, go to steam and look at the games that native to Linux to get an idea of what you can do there. Also look up what games you like to play that are not on that list to see if they run in Wine or Cygwin.

Yeah, see that's where it's going to be a problem. There's no compatibility list. Even if there was, who knows what the future ones will be compatible with. Very frustrating.

I can guarantee that this is a huge part of why Linux isn't making an impact on Windows.

[Speaker to Animals]

I don't have any need for development or compiling. I just want to get out of the Windows "we know what's best" environment, and keep my ability to surf, play Steam games, and store pictures. No need for more on a home system, really.

I'll try the VMWare thing, to test it out.

My best advice to you is to download VirtualBox and a few ISOs to play around with it. Get used to running in a virtual machine. If it gets to the point where you don't ever use the native windows environment, then just burn the ISO to a disc and install it.

Meanwhile, go to steam and look at the games that native to Linux to get an idea of what you can do there. Also look up what games you like to play that are not on that list to see if they run in Wine or Cygwin.

Yeah, see that's where it's going to be a problem. There's no compatibility list. Even if there was, who knows what the future ones will be compatible with. Very frustrating.

I can guarantee that this is a huge part of why Linux isn't making an impact on Windows.

https://appdb.winehq.org

[TheReal_ND]

Just dual boot. Don't be a pussy. Download the image .iso and download something like universalbootdisk iirc. Some work better than others you might have to try a couple. Then burn the iso onto a USB stick and restart the computer, enter BIOS and choose boot from USB, run the image and partition the drive out if you want to install it. You can repartition later with disk partitioner if you want more space.

[SuburbanFarmer]

My best advice to you is to download VirtualBox and a few ISOs to play around with it. Get used to running in a virtual machine. If it gets to the point where you don't ever use the native windows environment, then just burn the ISO to a disc and install it.

Meanwhile, go to steam and look at the games that native to Linux to get an idea of what you can do there. Also look up what games you like to play that are not on that list to see if they run in Wine or Cygwin.

Yeah, see that's where it's going to be a problem. There's no compatibility list. Even if there was, who knows what the future ones will be compatible with. Very frustrating.

I can guarantee that this is a huge part of why Linux isn't making an impact on Windows.

https://appdb.winehq.org

No no, silly. I have 106 Steam games in my library right now. I expect them all to work flawlessly with Linux, along with future ones. If they figured this out, every PC gamer would switch tomorrow.

I have no idea what that would involve in the OS coding, but it needs to happen. Maybe it's a virtual environment, maybe they just hijack the code as it's executed, whatever. But you cannot piecemeal the gamer market like that, and expect any success. You either replace Windows, or you don't.

[Speaker to Animals]

They tell you which environments they run in inside the steam interface.