Linux Questions...

Jammer

I just got an AMD64, and want to try out a 64bit OS, and while i'm at it i want to try something which isnt Windows. I dont know if this is a good idea though, as i play games alot so graphics drivers and all that are important.

I have Windows installed on hardware RAID0, would a dual boot be a problem?

Is it possible to play games on linux?

My only other use for the computer is internet/minor web development. What linux would be best for my needs?

Fenster

Well I'm still getting to use Linux. There's a well-known program for Linux called Wine (Wine is Not an Emulator) which is basically a Windows emulator (in function, I don't really care what goes on underneath the hood ) if you can get the bloody thing to work.

You can play most programs and games that you could in Windows, but for a lot of programs there's also Linux equivalents. I'm not sure what's good for web development as I tend to stay clear of it, but there are packages out there.

For gaming specifically, there's a version of Wine called Cedega (again, if you can get the bloody thing to work ) that will run nearly any modern game, even most MMOGs, which are notoriously cranky beasts.

Jammer

what linux are you running? I like to look of suse 9.1, although admittedly don't really know the difference between the linux flavours!

Fenster

Well its a case of to each their own when it comes to Linux. Every distro is different, each has its own feel and features. Suse is aimed at newbies to Linux and I'd say to give it a try first off-You can install Wine off the disc. Suse does a good job, I think, of hiding away the command line side of Linux at first, but giving you the same amount of options. However, I found several features to be broken or missing-There's no c++ compiler that I could find, for starters (if someone thinks I'm wrong, feel free to correct me), so you can't compile source code, which is the form many Linux programs come in. On the upside, Suse supports NTFS reading out of the box, which means you can access your XP partition (but not save files there).

After Suse, I tried Redha Fedora and here I've stayed. Its nowhere near as accessible as Suse for a complete starter. If you want to do anything you'll spend more time staring at a command line than fiddling with your desktop.

There's also a real "bare bones" feel to it, which is something I always like in programs.

Lastly from me, there's Mandrake, which I haven't used, but comes highly recommended from a lot of people as its supposed to be very "inclusive". Its a three disc, 2gb total download, which means I haven't had the urge to download it.

nadir

I have Windows installed on hardware RAID0, would a dual boot be a problem?

nope

edit: unless there are some wierd partitionaing problems im not aware of: ive never used winxp so Ill back track a little on my difinitve answer incase some of the nurds decide to butcher me.

Is it possible to play games on linux?

yes and no.
there is limited support for games, some games have linux ports like quake and UT, and soon DOOM3. You can use wine like mentioned before, to try to 'emulate' windows gaming, the performance tends to be worse, as in lower fps and not all games will work, some work fine like cs, hl etc. Have a look at linux-gamers.org for a list of supported games. It sould be noted that wine isnt really all that good, there are bugs and it can take ages to get some games working, wine itself doesnt support directx and you need a commerial version 'winex' for games that use directx9. So basically it can be painful.
So if you are a serious windoze gamer, id say stick to windoze.
On the other hand the native ports are great.
Id say use gentoo for a desktop/gaming machine, they also have a 64 bit version available which ought to suit you.
Gentoo uses a ports system for package managment (portage).
So applications are catagorised, for example in games-fps there are a whole load of fps shooters, including quake3-osp, americas-army, ut2004 . and ill be expecting to see DOOM3 in ther soon Its handy when all the linux games available are supported by the distro. So once you have yor hardware configured you can just emerge americas-army, sorted
you can have a look at all the applications supported here http://gentoo-portage.com/browse-portage.php

Gentoo may seem a bit intimidating at first, you install it on the command line, so you are basically diving straight in, but the documentation is excellent, it gives step by step instructions. If you do decide to go for it id advise a stage 3 install, its the fastest and is just as good as the longer install. Some people have other issues with gentoo , mainly that the package system installs everything from source, this takes time, but then again it allows you to custom build everything in a v. safe way, especially with a monster chip like and amd 64. I wont go into it all now, we've done it to death many times before, but ive been using it for nearly 2 years now, no probs, and I game alot.

My only other use for the computer is internet/minor web development.

well any linux distro ought to be fine for that.

Jammer

Thanks lads.

I've read good things about Gentoo, and reading the link above and the fact its 64 bit, i'm gonna give that ago. Any chance someone could fish out the main distro link, i cant seem to find it?

tomk

???

Did you try http://www.gentoo.org?!