ok where are my computer peeps?

[Yonaton]

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Out of curiosity, when was the last time (distro and version) you used Linux? You do know that on the Microslop forums and newsgroups people are told all the time to RTFM, tweak this or that in the registry, and are always frustrated, right?

My 70 year old mom has been using SuSE linux for the past 3 years and couldn't be happier. She almost hates Microslop, I mean Microsoft...as much as me. I've been using Linux since '00, exclusively. I only dual-booted for one year - from '99 to '00, then trashed anything 'M$' on my computers.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

Last one I played with was Ubuntu about 2 months ago. I've also played with Red Hat, Suse, Mandrake as well as a few others.

Let's keep in mind the CONTEXT of the original post. The context is a GAMING SYSTEM. That is the key word.

I highly doubt your 70 year old granny is playing UT3, Need for Speed, F.E.A.R, etc. So Linux is just fine for her needs; email, internet, openoffice, etc. Then again, so would windows 3.1

Now if you want to have the argument about out of the box operating system hardware support Linux (of any flavor) will lose every time. Hence one of the reasons it's more stable. It's not loaded up with all that extra garbage that M$ puts in there to support the masses.

Vista out of the box installed with no tweaking, no downloading of anything on to my Dell Precision (2400 I think) without any issues. The only thing I had to do was configure the settings the way I like them (allow?).

Now Ubuntu on the other hand... Nope, had to go find the sound card driver, the video driver, the nic driver and then tweak them to get them to work. And that was with normal every day hardware.

What about the poor saps who buy the 20$ video card at fry's from a made in china shop who's only in business for a week? Then you gotta search all the linux forums for somebody who's compiled a driver for who knows who made it hardware. I suppose finding drivers by FCCID number is fun?

Linux is leaps and bounds better than it was in the Red Hat 5.1 days when I first started playing with it, but it's still got a long way to go for folks who want to do more than the "basics".

As far as windows reliability? I cant remember the last time any of my systems have "crashed" and they run 24x7x7. (I have 10 systems running everything from Win 98 - Vista)

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

I will dual boot XP and linux unbuntu. I would like to play COD 4 on my PC. I do have a playstation 3 though so I can get UT3 fo that

 

[FutureChickenMan]

UT3 for PC is available.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/unrealtournament2007/index.html

Runs on XP or Vista.. doh no linux version. awww.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Yeah but I rather get it for PS3. I dont have no games for the PS3 except warhawk and lair.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

ah.. I like games better on the PC becasue the controls are easier for me, plus the graphics on the PC are usually much better than consoles. I have PS2 as well, but still prefer games on the PC. Especially "hand to hand" combat games. But there's some games that are only on the consoles.. Like one of my fav's God of War.

 

[PurpleChicken]

A well outfitted PC running XP Pro is my only choice for gaming, period.
Nothing, in my opinion, comes close to a PC, including Xbox 360 (ya I know
it is a PC) or PS3.

From reading your post I have some questions. Are you buying a PC to play
just one game or are there several you wan't to play? Have you ever
been a real PC gamer? I ask this because the experience is SO different from
a console.

Right now we are seeing dramatic changes in the gaming market. PC's, because
of Vista, have lost their superior abilities and they have also lost support
of producers. There aren't that many good PC games out there anymore.
The consoles have seriously caught up, especially with HDTV and online play
being readily available.

PC gaming has really become a niche. A high end gaming machine can cost
$2000 or more. That will get you a lot of XBox 360 games.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

If you can figure out how to put a keyboard and mouse on a PS3 or Xbox and map the keys accrodingly, I'd convert to console only.. but uh.. cant do that yet. LOL. But yeah, for years the PC gaming market mopped the floor with consoles especially on the graphics side of the house. I remember the first time I said "woah" when playing a PC game. That was when I bought my first "gaming" video card (Voodoo II) and a new game called "Prince of Persia". The lighting effects in that game were stunning (for the time, we're talking about 1999-ish). Then Nvidia came on the scene with the GeForce 256 introducing Transform and Lighting engines and holy moly it just took off from there. The PC games will probably lull for 'till about fall '08.. then it should pick up again as companies get on the Vista wagon. The real pick up will be when M$ releases SP1 for Vista.

But to be fair, the release version of Vista is soooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than the RC3 (release candidate 3). Man RC3 was a DOG! And really, you can tweak Vista to look just like XP if you hate the new look and feel. I've found the stuff I've put on Vista works fine, but then I'm not one to buy those $10 programs off the shelf at CompUSA.

 

[Royicus]

Quote:
Give me some funding, and I'll gladly come up with a solution for this for you

But yes, controls are the reason why I stick with PC gaming. Keyboard and mouse pwns all in all games, FPS, MMORPG, RTS, etc.


I'm looking to maybe build a new gaming rig next year as mine is aging. $2000 for a new gaming computer sounds about right, though I'll salvage parts and try to do this for around $1000.

 

[Yonaton]

Quote:
Those games will run perfectly fine on any one of the virtualization apps for linux, and it's not the linux makers who are at fault - if the Game makers would make the games play on *any* platform, they would make that much more money...too many CEO's are far too short-sighted though to think about that (though that's changing, slowly, but changing. More games are now able to also run on Linux machines.). I agree that a 'gaming system', 99.9% of the time, will mean it 'has Microslop on it', but it doesn't *have* to be true.

Also remember, that apps like OpenOffice or M$ Office are things that are used very often by professionals who spend many months or years learning how to use *all* the parts of them to the limits - that means knowing how to make professional presentations, how to use the writer as, say,to create a professional novel or a secretary needs to know how to use it for all kinds of things. OpenOffice does all those just fine *and* is compatible with all the M$ Office stuff...M$ Office can't even say that about itself being compatible with a version 3 years old of itself.

It's probably safe to say that at least 70% of computer users are just plain ol' Joe's, who only need "email, internet, openoffice, etc.", so why did M$ think it had to do anything with Windows 3.1 if it was all *most* people needed?

Quote:
You can't say that is an 'absolute'. I've seen just as many M$ systems *not* have drivers for hardware and it had to be found on the 'net. Linux (at least SuSE (I'm not familiar with too many other distros)), has not had one hiccup already having drivers for 'most' hardware already in the kernel (which *all* the linux distros use). Granted, nVidia drivers need to be downloaded from their site, but they're making drivers *just for* linux now also. Other than that, I've not had to look for drivers for any piece of hardware on 7 literally completely different machines, all containing no same piece of hardware internally or externally.

As for stability, those same 7 machines have never had to power down or crash except during power outages. I personally had my system run for 128 days straight without having to power down or crash (it was a power outage that lasted longer than my UPS could hold out for). My moms computer has never crashed, and two other of the computers have never crashed. The extra garbage M$ puts on systems is exactly what makes it *UNstable*...that and having such a mess-up as a 'registry' (ugh!).

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I believe that would be considered 'tweaking'. How is "configuring the settings" any different on a Linux system?

I just got an e-mail from a lady friend who works on computers for a small town. A person had just bought a 'Vista Ready' machine and after 9 days the person who bought the machine was at the point of almost throwing it out the window - literally. My lady friend installed XPee on it and the owner is (sorta) happier. (My lady friend wants me to come and visit her as a friend and to show her where to download SUSE and make sure she installs it correctly on her system, by the way, heh)

My best friend just got a system with Vista on it about 3 months ago. When I was finally able to go see him (and his new system) 2 weeks ago, he wanted to know if I wanted to help take the thing out back and use it as target practice with his shotgun. I talked him into downloading and installing SUSE 10.3, I stood by as *he* installed it (dual-boot), and watched as it picked up *ALL* his hardware, including the printer and onboard nVidia graphics *AND* his satellite internet connection modem, and in an hour he was reading e-mails and doing all kinds of things...all that *without* having to worry about downloading and installing (and praying it will work) - anti-virus apps, anti-cookie this, anti-whatever this and that, ad nauseum.

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And that's 'Ubuntu'. That doesn't mean every distro will be like that. I personally don't believe a sound card driver nor a video card driver were needed (unless you wanted 3d capabilities for video).

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That works *exactly* the same for windows. There is absolutely no difference between the two OS's in that context.

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Absolutely incorrect. I do and have shown *everyone* I know or meet who owns a computer with an M$ OS on it that I can do literally anything they can do, and do it without worrying about viruses and all the other garbage M$ users have to put up with. Even for the heck of it, I tried a video and sound app that allowed me to converse with someone else on another computer (I tried it with someone in the Phillipines)...it worked fine except that I'm on dial-up and of course the video feed and sound coming 'to' me was extremely choppy (I hate dial-up and can't afford satellite and can't get dsl out here in the country <sigh> ).

Plus, at least 90% of all the apps one can find and use on linux are *free*. Some I admit aren't all snazzy with lights and bells and whistles in the GUI, but they do have a GUI and are *practical* and *work*. I've gotten hardware (in this instance a webcam that *came bundled* with the computer and the driver/software GUI CD for it) that wouldn't work on my W98 or WinME, nor W2k systems I tried it on (the W98 was mine, the WinME was Dad's, the W2k was a system of an admin I know). The webcam ended up collecting dust for a few months as I kept trying everything I could think of to get it to work, and I finally just tossed it in the garbage.

Quote:
Same here, 24x7x7...I do get one absolute over on M$ though - I don't have to reboot after installing an app or driver (other than the nVidia driver).