Hey all

[Saiki]

Well, after a seven month period of not having a computer (long story), I think I going to abandon Windows, and join the Linux community.The main reason is because I do not want to pay a few hundred dollars for xp, but I also want to learn linux.

I am fairly confident that I will go with Ubuntu 7.10, but my only concern is the compatibility with all the windows applications. I may have to somehow dual boot Ubuntu and Windows so I can play the games that are not available for Ubuntu. Of course, this will be extremely annoying restarting my computer every time I want to play Guild Wars, then stopping in 10 minutes and restarting my computer again.

Anyway, I am just letting everyone know I am joining, and will need serious help getting set up with Ubuntu (general configuration, wireless configuration, etc).

[Alaric]

Wine is probably the easiest solution, if it supports the games you want. Check here. Also... there is some chance that your video card won't be supported well enough under linux. What kind of video card do you have? If you're looking for a more advanced solution, vmware works wonders once you have it set up, but to set up a windows drive successfully without destroying your windows data at least once might be a bit of a challenge (can't say that I've tried it yet myself though). Good luck and welcome to a world of freedom

P.S., Once you get your Ubuntu system installed, you might want to look up Automatix, although some people won't recommend it. if I remember right this is due to some instabilities, but I've used it fairly frequently, and I have yet to hit any snags with it. It really is quite a time saver

[Cabhan]

Welcome to the forums, and to Linux in general!

Windows applications are not compatible with Linux except through some sort of "compatibility layer" (technically it works by emulating Windows system calls and DLLs, but all you need to know is that it runs some Windows programs). These are not flawless, but they do have lists of what they support. Wine is the most popular, and Cedega is an early fork of Wine with a specific mind towards gaming.

If you really want to game, I suggest looking into dual-booting. It's pretty easy to setup, and as long as you keep the Windows side pretty minimal, even the boot into Windows won't take too long. Some people become rather Naziesque when you mention Windows; this forum tends to not be like that. We tend to not like it for us, and tend to have problems with Microsoft's practices, but Windows does have better gaming support.

For most other applications, you can usually find a Linux application that will do what you need. There are lots of tables online that show comparable software. As long as you don't need a specific piece of software (for instance, if you need any sort of financial software, not ONLY Quicken 200, then you can usually find what you need.

In any case, we are a help forum, so please don't be afraid to ask any questions that you might have!

[Saiki]

First of all, I thank both of you for replying to my post.

I believe (do not have it with me) I have a 7800 nVidia GTX..or something like that..I just know it is 7800 nVidia. I looked into Automatix and it looks good. I think I can handle ~2 hours of waiting and perhaps some user input every now and then, instead of 5 days of hair-ripping frustration. xD

I was already planning on getting Wine, because I saw a video tutorial on using it to play some games that I plan on playing. Will using the emu slow down the gameplay of the game though? I would hardly consider playing with 30 fps "playing" at all..

As for dual booting; I think I will eventually because I REALLY do not feel like installing windows...(installing it + configuring).

Another thing I just thought of:
I am in the process of learning Perl. Will Ubuntu affect my self-tutelage at all?

[Alaric]

If you do decide to dual boot, I don't think you will need to reinstall windows to run it under vmware, all that it requires is some advanced tweaking like switching drivers over to virtual ones that take advantage of the pre-existing support from the linux operating system. However, both vmware and wine will probably have some noticeable slow down, but wine's should be much less as it isn't emulating the entire operating system. As for when you first install ubuntu, you should be given the option to repartition your drive and simply resize your windows partition so that you don't need to reinstall.

As for your card, from what I hear, nvidia is definitely the way to go, although amd's new driver for the ati cards (I'm hoping) will offer some major improvements tomorrow. When you're ready, if ubuntu doesn't auto-detect your card, this page looks promising. And from what I hear, the slowdown, although noticable, should still leave the games playable (I saw at least one report of 35 fps with hl2). Good luck

[Saiki]

Oh, I meant to say that my hdd was broken, and I am finally getting a new one. So it is not going to have an operating system on it yet. Sorry for the confusion.

As for the slowdown; on windows I average 99 frames per second for most first person shooters. So I suppose 35 IS playable, I may just have to stick to Windows for any/all games =(

[Alaric]

that was just for a single user with a random video card, not yours. If you're managing 99 frames per second on windows, then chances are that you'll have more than 35 fps through linux, though I can't make any guarantees. I guess all that you can do is try it. All it will cost you is the installation time of the games you want to try to play. good luck

[Saiki]

Oh ok, I thought that was specific for my video card. Ok well then yea, maybe I can eventually ditch windows!

[Cabhan]

I don't play FPSs, but I have played several smaller MMORPGs, Starcraft, Homeworld, Starcraft, Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft, and some other successfully under either Wine or Cedega. There may be some slowdown, but if the game works, it should be quite playable.

As for Perl, that's actually the reason I first switched to Linux. Perl is based heavily on Bash scripting, and has a very UNIX-like philosophy. Using Linux will, if anything, be a boon to learning Perl. If you meant Ubuntu, as compared to some other distro, then you will be fine. Any Linux application can be run on any Linux system. This includes the Perl parser .

[Saiki]

Ah ok..

Thanks for answering my questions all of you who did. I am currently downloading the .iso file for Ubuntu 7.10 and have a cd-rw at hand. I guess once everything is installed I will start asking questions elsewhere. Unless of course the installation does not go as planned.