Gaming Considering Ubuntu, is it worth it?

[airpirate545]

As the topic states, I'm considering dual booting XP and Ubuntu 8.04 laptop edition. Just got a couple of questions to ask first.
Whats so awesome about it?
Is it well supported or have options for different things I can do on XP(programs for all the stuff I can do on windows)?
Skinnable?
Any other things I should know?

 

[podunk1269]

I should be getting that second place prize I won from Bob, it was a lower version eee pc and I am ubuntuing that, I will give you a review then

 

[arctic_flame]

As the topic states, I'm considering dual booting XP and Ubuntu 8.04 laptop edition. Just got a couple of questions to ask first.
Whats so awesome about it?
Is it well supported or have options for different things I can do on XP(programs for all the stuff I can do on windows)?
Skinnable?
Any other things I should know?

Firstly, Laptop edition?

Anyway, it's awesome because it's just so usable (note: does require some brain cells)
It's better supported (security updates and such) than commercial operating systems. There's probably FOSS (free and open source software) that can replace nearly any windows application, and WINE allows almost any windows executables that don't use .NET to run

Skinnable? Look at http://gnome-look.org/

Things to know: It might take 30 minutes or so after installation to get all the restricted software (mp3 codecs, flash player, etc) up and running. Google for "Just installed Ubuntu" or something to get a few guides

 

[AshuraZro]

Damnit, double posted again!
DELETE ME!

 

[AshuraZro]

If you are uneasy about working with Ubuntu or Linux in general, keep in mind that this distribution's main install CD is also Live CD. Just boot from the CD and play around with the operating system!

 

[arctic_flame]

If you are uneasy about working with Ubuntu or Linux in general, keep in mind that this distribution's main install CD is also Live CD. Just boot from the CD and play around with the operating system!

Just remember it's very much slower running from cd than running of the hdd.

 

[bazzi_h]

You could also try using Wubi so that installs in the windows partition and can be uninstalled through add/remove programs in windows.

Although like running through CD the performance is lower than fully installing it to a HDD

 

[DrKupo]

It's pointless. It offers me nothing that OSX doesnt, while not offering me things like final cut.

 

[rhyguy]

It's pointless. It offers me nothing that OSX doesnt, while not offering me things like final cut.

OP doesnt have a mac

I used ubuntu fir a while, but then i went back to vista, as i missed my games

its good on a terrible/under average computer though

 

[AshuraZro]

You could also try using Wubi so that installs in the windows partition and can be uninstalled through add/remove programs in windows.

Although like running through CD the performance is lower than fully installing it to a HDD

If it works. I could not get it Kubuntu 8.04 to boot on my friend's laptop with Wubi. That is after several crashes during install and having to employ a workaround or two just to get the fucking installer to finish.

 

[matriculated]

Is it worth it? It's free.

I'd say, if you still do a lot of gaming on Windows don't bother - when I was a PC gamer I found dual booting a bit of a nuisance. Now that I have less time to game I put Ubuntu on full time because I just use my PC to browse sites, torrent files and store my music, photos and movies. I do some web site design between this machine and my Macbook (whatever happens to be convenient) but that's about it. I don't have to have software running to look for viruses, worms or spyware.

What sets Ubuntu apart from other distros (and there's other good distros) is that the community is pretty friendly and willing to help, the add/remove programs menu makes it easy to search and install programs and in general, it's got a lot of polish and ease of use.

 

[Jiggah]

The only good thing about it is that it's a beginner Linux OS for those migrating from Windows. It has easy install features to allow you to easy install programs that you might need. It also has one of the better supports for devices. Those are its highlights. However, when compared to other Linux OSes, it's considered bloated. Much like XP in order to achieve high compatibility, it's loaded with tons of drivers and software that you won't ever use.

My recommendation is to try out Ubuntu LiveCD, if you like that then an actual install. Once you've gotten use to the Linux nature and want something specific or light, try other distributions.

 

[bazzi_h]

You could also try using Wubi so that installs in the windows partition and can be uninstalled through add/remove programs in windows.

Although like running through CD the performance is lower than fully installing it to a HDD

If it works. I could not get it Kubuntu 8.04 to boot on my friend's laptop with Wubi. That is after several crashes during install and having to employ a workaround or two just to get the fucking installer to finish.

Yea I had the same problem when I tried it with Kubuntu but it works perfetcly with Ubuntu 8.04 on my 4 year old acer laptop and my father's Dell Inspiron 1540.

P.S: IMO OpenSUSE has a somewhat better support and is slightly faster. That's just my opinion though.

 

[juggernaut911]

its good, but no games (wine sux for DX games)

 

[arctic_flame]

While wine won't run crysis, it does run HL2 (Source) based games

 

[Urza]

 

[juggernaut911]

lol, nice pic


ubuntu looks WAY better than vista

 

[FAST6191]

If you are considering linux can I suggest linux mint as it is based on debian/ubuntu meaning all the packages should still work (it has its own anyhow) but more importantly it comes with the "restricted drivers" and for the most part dodges the whole the whole give me FOSS/some random nonsense about patents or give me death approach that other distros get caught up in.
It lacks a 64 bit version last time I checked however if you are considering that route but it does have a very nice liveCD.

As for whether to use it in the first place I would say go it for everyday stuff but for video editing (playback is fine) and games wait on Wine/cedaga or that free version of windows people are developing:
http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

 

[notnarb]

It's pointless. It offers me nothing that OSX doesnt, while not offering me things like final cut.

It's pointless. It offers my nothing Linux doesn't, while still costing a lot of money and requiring proprietary hardware.

Linux is certainly a different beast altogether, if you don't tend to run that many games on your laptop, it's great. If you have to restart your computer a lot, you'll soon realize it isn't really worth the trouble, as XP is still a great OS. Also: Do not go over the edge and have compiz always running and use some sort of black theme. Compiz looks great but it can slow your computer to a crawl, and black themes look great, but they make most web pages out there unreadable.

 

[Hooya]

I recently switched to Ubuntu and keep a dual boot of Vista going for windows programs. I haven't booted Windows for about a week, and that was nothing that was vital, it was just to check on something.

Hardcore Linux people seem anti-Ubuntu because Ubuntu is actually ready for the desktop, meaning that you can use it easily. For some reason old school Linux users think Linux should be elite and hardcore, almost like they don't want other people to use their type of OS in order so that they stand out. This seems against what many *nix users say that they want more people to adopt open source software. Whatever, Ubuntu works, and I don't have the time to build my own distro from scratch or use something unnecessarily complicated when something simple like Ubuntu works right out.

It takes some getting used to, but the 64-bit version is flying on my desktop, and the 32-bit version flies on a Celeron 2.4Ghz lappy that I had; yeah, a current OS flies on a 6 year old laptop with less than 1GB of RAM. I'm having a better experience on Ubuntu than I had on Vista, and I didn't dislike Vista. Vista was still prettier though.