Gaming Thinking about changing my OS

[Luckkill4u]

Well I have a Compaq Presario v5000 laptop about 6 years old and its just starting to get slow.


Specs:

1GB DDR RAM
ATI RADEON™ XPRESS 200M 128 MB intergated
14.5 widescreen display
AMD Sempron processor

... Well lets just say it was okay six years ago and I want it to last a little bit longer.

My main question is: Should I stay on Windows XP or go to Linux Ubuntu?

Additional Stuff:

I have tried Ubuntu before on a dual boot.
Can it use iTunes?
Is Steam a possibility? (not big deal)
Is it user friendly for other users?
How good is Wine, can it do the stuff I need it to do?
Should I stop asking questions and just go staight to ubuntu?

 

[Elritha]

My main question is: Should I stay on Windows XP or go to Linux Ubuntu?

Additional Stuff:

I have tried Ubuntu before on a dual boot.
Can it use iTunes?
Is Steam a possibility? (not big deal)
Is it user friendly for other users?
How good is Wine, can it do the stuff I need it to do?
Should I stop asking questions and just go staight to ubuntu?

As far as I know you'd have to use Wine to get iTunes working. Thesame with Steam.
Ubuntu is quite user friendly in my opinion. Not quite there with Windows, but getting better.

Unless you're having problems with XP, I wouldn't change. Running programs under Wine will be slower, especially on your older cpu as you're not using the native executable files.

 

[naglaro00]

I suggest you stay with Windows XP.

Ubuntu is user-friendly but you'll sometimes get confused by it :S

 

[KDH]

1. iTunes won't work, but if you don't use the store there are other options for syncing.

2. According to recent news steam is coming to Linux natively, rumors say as soon as late summer/early fall (in the Northern Hemisphere). This doesn't mean the entire library will be getting Linux Ports immediately or even ever, but it's a start.

3. "User-Friendly" is a relative term, so I can't answer that. It's different. Read this to know what to expect, and possibly answer your major question ("Should I switch to Linux") definitively.

4. Well, since you didn't tell us what you need it to do, we can't answer that. It will run a good number of programs and games, not as well as running them natively on Windows, but still pretty good. See winehq.org for details and tips for getting various things working.

5. Again, I suggest reading the article linked to in #3, Linux is NOT Windows, before deciding. As to which specific distro, you should try a few before deciding.

Hope you find this helpful.

 

[Supercool330]

1. IMHO the closest open media player to iTunes is songbird, which works very well (on any OS). There are also several other very good media players (Amarok comes to mind). However, if you use the iTunes store, you will prolly be SOL.

2. Like KDH said, there are rumors that Steam will be coming to Linux, but until then, most source games work fairly well under wine.

3. Ubuntu is about as user friendly as Linux gets, and in a lot of ways it isn't as user friendly as windows. You should be comfortable with using a command line, and until you get used to Ubuntu, you will almost certainly spend a good deal of time reading forums and tutorials. That being said, Ubuntu is a much more versatile operating system, you can customize it however you want (literally, it is all open source so if you know C/C++ you can change anything), and once you learn how to use Linux, you will understand a lot more about using computers in general (IMO, it is worth the effort).

4. Wine work fairly well, but it isn't perfect (nowhere near actually). If there are particular programs you have questions about check out WineHQ. Also, most programs have a very good (if not better) open source equivalent (such as Photoshop->GIMP, Word->OOo, etc.). Open Source software is awesome as it is free (as in freedom, and usually as in bear). Essentially the only thing you might need to use wine for is gaming.

5. I'm not sure that making the switch right away is the right option for you. It depends on your level of computer knowledge, and what you want to be using the computer for. Ubuntu is definitely lighter-weight than windows, so you will almost certainly get better performance. If you really want the most out of your machine try Xubuntu (XFCE based Ubuntu) or the newer (and less stable) Lubuntu (LXDE based Ubuntu) which takes almost no hard drive or ram. You should definitely give it a try, as there are a lot of benefits of learning to use a real (non-proprietary) operating system, and Ubuntu is a good way to start.

 

[cobleman]

Why not go to Windows 7 you have enough ram already and it will run faster than XP ever will !!

 

[Supercool330]

Windows 7 costs money, and has a huge amount of memory and processor overhead (especially if you have Aero turned on, Compiz requires nothing by comparison). If he needs Windows, then ya 7 wouldn't be a bad choice (if the cost isn't a problem), but if he is willing to try GNU/Linux, he should give it a shot.

 

[Luckkill4u]

I stayed with windows xp with a system restore and I could really see a difference in speed. I was thinking about windows 7 but because I have a intergrated Graphics card I really only have 896 MB of RAM. As for Ubuntu i'm scared that other users are not as computer savvy as me and might mess it up or not like Ubuntu at all because its not windows.

 

[prowler]

If you don't know much about computers, go for Windows 7 if you want an OS change.
Try Tiny7, if it's working okay, stay with it. If not, go for the normal Windows 7 installation.

 

[67birdman]

Stick with XP..
I tried ubuntu, and its so confusing..

 

[The Catboy]

Go with Ubuntu. I have used Ubuntu for years and found it to be better than XP (personally)

 

[Zieg30CT]

Use Linux Mint over Ubuntu. Reason being they take the time to fix most of the things wrong with the abortions of a release Canonical has been pushing out lately. Eventually, if I were you (but of course I'm not), I'd switch over to pure ol' Debian (or give Gentoo a whirl when you're brave enough) and customize it to your needs so it will be what works for you and not what works for Canonical.

When using Wine go for the latest version available on their website instead of the older versions in the repositories offered by your distribution (unless of course you use a rolling release distribution in the future in which case most automatically have the latest of everything)