Which Linux?

[DM Sun Tzu_ns3]

I have a machine that I will be rebuilding in the near future that I plan on making into a Linux machine. Which Linux version should I use, since I plan on using it for gaming?

[TGPO_ns3]

Since your asking the question of which flavor of linux I'll assume that you have near to none experiance with linux.

For linux newbies I have taken to recommending Ubuntu or one of its derivatives like Kubuntu. Its very well documented online and with a little tweaking you can play just about any game you want to. Including World of Warcraft or nearly any other game that has never had a native linux port made for it.

If you want to start it up and think "HOLY CRAP this looks really familiar" Kubuntu is probably the direction you want to go. The nice thing is, you can download and burn the CD, reboot your computer, and boot right into the OS without actually having to install anything HD if you dont want to. Lets you kick the tires a bit before making the decision. It will be a bit slower this way, running an OS from the CD drive means you dont have the HD access times you are used to, but it does let you look at it first.

If you want to really strip things down and get the most horsepower out of your system that you possibly can, and have a lot of time for dinking and tweaking I can help walk you through a good majority of what you'll need to do. It can take awhile doing it that way though, but by the time your done you will know more about your system and how computers work than you ever thought possible.

My current record is 500 meg HD space that only uses 37 meg of system memory when completely booted up. And still capable of playing DVD's or playing whatever windows game I want to install. That configuration is definitly not newbie friendly though.

http://www.ubuntu.com

http://www.kubuntu.org/

[DM Sun Tzu_ns3]

Having been programming and doing system work for almost 40 years, I am familiar with OS's and installation issues. However, I have never installed any Linux systems, and when using them have almost always had a Red Hat system supplied. So I am not sure what the differences in the various flavors of Linux are.

I have heard a lot of good things about Ubuntu in recent months. If it will handle the games, then it sounds like the way to go.

[TGPO_ns3]

Just remember you'll be using wine to run the windoze games.

to install in ubuntu

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install wine wine-docs wine-utils

If I recall correctly those are the 3 you need. Otherwise sudo synaptic and search for wine.