Linux - Good match for me?
| Author | Topic: Linux - Good match for me? |
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Shaper
Member # 73
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written Wednesday, June 20 2007 13:06
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Eventually my XP machines will die, and I'll be forced to get a different OS. I don't really like the idea of "upgrading" to Vista though. I might try Linux instead. A few questions about Linux though: 1) What are the drawbacks of Wine? I want to be able to run my programs (Audacity, Anvil Studio, Creative MP3 player programs, some AIM-compatible IM program) and especially my games (ranging from DOS programs like Museum Madness and Windows 3.0-compatible games to things like Doom 3). Would I be able to use those with reasonable ease? Wikipedia is kind of vague on this issue. 2) Are there any good Linux distributions that feature a decent GUI? It doesn't have to be anything really flashy, but I'd prefer to be able to access things without remembering where everything is and clicking five million times (i.e. something like Windows's Start menu, where I can put shortcuts) 3)Are there any free media players that will play WAV, MP3, and (preferably, but I'm assuming not) WMA? I might even poke around Linux before my current computers die, using my old 40GB hard drive that isn't hooked up right now, if I think it would be worthwhile. It would be nice not to have to pay ridiculous prices for everything and deal with Microsoft spying on me all the time. -------------------- My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database BoE Webring - Self explanatory Polaris - Free porn here Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too) They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance -------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 2759
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written Wednesday, June 20 2007 13:35
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To be honest, I would stick with Windows, as Linux is something of a time-sink. 1. It's a long time since I used wine (at which point it was pretty useless) so I'll leave others to answer this 2./3. Yes. The mainstream Linux distros include fully functional GUIs and media players. See linux.org for a list. -------------------- "Blink and you're dead... Don't turn your back, don't look away and don't blink." Geneforge 4 stuff. Also, everything I know about Avernum | Avernum 2 | Avernum 3 | Avernum 4 Posts: 1104 | Registered: Monday, March 10 2003 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6489
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written Wednesday, June 20 2007 17:46
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1. According to the Wine Application Database, Audacity runs without any problems whatsoever, but Anvil Studio does not. I know I saw somewhere that somebody had written a Creative Zen driver for Linux, but I can't remember where I saw that now. For both Anvil Studio and your Creative player, you'd probably be better off installing virtualization software, such as Parallels Workstation or VMware Player (which is free), to run a virtual Windows installation. Most DOS games should be fine using DOSBox, and the ones that aren't should work in a virtualized MS-DOS or Windows 9x run in one of the above programs. Games are hit or miss. Many of them will not work correctly, but will have workarounds. The WADB is great for this. Doom 3 apparently has to be copied over from a Windows installation, and a NO-CD patch must be applied before playing it in Wine. 2. Just about all of them. I use Fedora 7, and I find the interface to be very simple and easy to use. 3. VLC Media Player is best known as a video player, but it also plays most audio content, including WMA, MP3, WAV, OGG, and ACC. [ Wednesday, June 20, 2007 17:48: Message edited by: Tyranicus ] -------------------- "You're drinking liquor because you're thirsty? How nasty is your freaking water?" —Lazarus Spiderweb Chat Room Avernum RP • Summaries • OoC • Roster Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 1556 | Registered: Sunday, November 20 2005 08:00 |
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Master
Member # 5977
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written Thursday, June 21 2007 01:22
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1) Never used Wine, sorry. 2) As Tyran said: about all of them. I would recommend Ubuntu, as it has the reputation of being the easiest to use and understand of all of the distros. 3) Unlike what many people seem to think, Linux distros always come with built in apps, much like Mac OS X does. You get a music/video player, openoffice, DVD creator, image editor etc. It's actually quite good stuff. -------------------- Play and rate my scenarios: Where the rivers meet View my upcoming scenario: The Nephil Search: Escape. Give us your drek! Posts: 3029 | Registered: Saturday, June 18 2005 07:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
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written Thursday, June 21 2007 01:45
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quote:WinE has the same drawbacks as any other emulator. It's persnickety, sometimes it doesn't emulate things quite right, and it'll only emulate things for which its basic files (which you have to provide - so no throwing out your Windows CD just yet) are suited. You'd still need the Linux equivalent of DosBox to run stuff like Museum Madness. And Doom 3 might just be out of the question - WinE isn't a great game emulator and most people with an interest in high-level gaming typically run a partition with the relevant OS installed for the rainy day on which a game they like doesn't work with their emulator of choice. quote:Your distro can be two of free, convenient, and functional. A free, functional distro will necessitate you spending most of your time making sweet love to the command line; a free, convenient distro will likely be only slightly more (and quite probably significantly less) stable than Windows; and a convenient, functional distro will set you back money just like Windows or any other real OS. quote:More than you'd have any idea what to do with, although the drawback is that none of them are very good. This is equally true of Windows and Mac, so no real biggie here. quote:If you're gonna use it at all, find a distro that works for you before you make the plunge all the way. Otherwise, you'll have a crippled computer for however long it takes you to format and start over. quote:And it's evidently great for manufacturing and publishing long-winded, incomprehensible rants about "neurotypicals", too. Perhaps you should create a Wiki and see what the marketplace of ideas has to tell you!!!!** **In all likelihood, Pikachu with three penisesPosts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6489
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written Thursday, June 21 2007 05:02
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quote:My above post tells him how to run Doom 3 in Wine. :P -------------------- "You're drinking liquor because you're thirsty? How nasty is your freaking water?" —Lazarus Spiderweb Chat Room Avernum RP • Summaries • OoC • Roster Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 1556 | Registered: Sunday, November 20 2005 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 6670
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written Thursday, June 21 2007 06:35
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And what, precisely, is wrong with "making sweet love to the command line"? ;) -------------------- My house is on the median strip of a highway. You don't really notice, except I have to leave the driveway doing 60 MPH. - Steven Wright Posts: 1509 | Registered: Tuesday, January 10 2006 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Thursday, June 21 2007 10:13
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quote:Exactly. Like I always say, desktops are for wusses. I'm actually submitting this post via telnet to port 80. Well, okay, kidding. But I did do that once. :P -------------------- Encyclopaedia • Archives • Members • RSS [Topic / Forum] • Blog • Polaris • NaNoWriMo Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. I have a love of woodwind instruments. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 9061
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written Saturday, June 23 2007 16:34
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Just a suggestion, but many distributions of Linux have live CDs to let you test drive them. So, its the price of a single CD versus the time of formatting a hard drive twice, partitioning twice, etc. Personally, I'd recommend the Kubuntu version of Ubuntu, since I prefer KDE to GNOME. Thats the only real difference between Kubuntu and the regular Ubuntu. Good luck and have fun. Posts: 1 | Registered: Saturday, June 23 2007 07:00 |