It's inevitable.

[Pitbull_Raven]

Like the title says... "It's inevitable". Sooner or later I'll have to drop MS Op systems all together. I have been back and forth, installing XP, some Linux flavour, Vista, always winding up back in XP because it's where I feel comfortable. It's like feeling at home, where you know and love everything. Vista on the other hand feels like that movie, The Island. Sure, it looks great, but it'll get you killed in the end. Linux... well Linux is just plain great! Stable, beautiful, getting more and more user friendly, but I never seem to be able to get it to work or do exactly like I want and can do with XP. I know, I know. That's because any way you slice or dice it, Linux is not XP and XP is not Linux. Some might say, "if it works for you, just stick to XP" and normally I'd agree. But something happened that's nagging me. DirectX 10! I won't lie. I am mostly a gamer at heart. Sure I use the PC for more productive things, but I love gaming. So much I plonked down a ton of cash on upgrades to my system. Installed my familiar and friendly XP as well as all drivers and then... found out there is no DX10 for XP and that I'd have to install Vista to take advantage of the DX10 features in games. NO FREAKIN' WAY!!! No way am I going to let MS strong-arm me into installing a crappy OS under the guise that they can't develop a DX10 for XP. Rather, they don't want to, so that more users will opt out of XP and into Vista.

So I decided maybe I should look for alternatives. And right now I think there is only one: Linux. I'll probably end up going with either Ubuntu or SuSe. My question is, how can I migrate to Linux and keep playing my games. Cedega seems to be a possibility, but will it let me take advantage of all my hardware power when gaming? What are the ups and downs? Can I run recent games like GTA 4 and FarCry 2 and stuff without issues?

Speak, Linux community! Show me your wisdom!

[oz]

So I decided maybe I should look for alternatives. And right now I think there is only one: Linux. I'll probably end up going with either Ubuntu or SuSe. My question is, how can I migrate to Linux and keep playing my games. Cedega seems to be a possibility, but will it let me take advantage of all my hardware power when gaming? What are the ups and downs? Can I run recent games like GTA 4 and FarCry 2 and stuff without issues?

Welcome to the forums!

Check the link in my signature for lots of good information on getting started with Linux.

WINE and Cedega are the only options that I know of for playing Windows games other than setting up a dual-boot (linux/windows) system, or perhaps some kind of virtualization option, and even then it might not always work the way you expect it to.

The dual-boot option is probably the most foolproof method to continue with all your Windows software, and still play with Linux.

Hope you have fun with it whichever route or operating system you should choose.

[rokytnji]

The dual-boot option is probably the most foolproof method

I agree with Ozar in this case. You are just getting your feet wet on linux. Dualbooting is a good way to learn how to scuba dive. That gives you the opportunity to learn the skills to get your games working in Linux and judge how well they perform in Linux.

[L4Linux]

Until the majority of new games is ported to Linux (that will take a while I guess...), dualboot is the best solution. Or a PS3/Wii!

[Pitbull_Raven]

The dual-boot option is probably the most foolproof method to continue with all your Windows software, and still play with Linux.

Dualbooting is a good way to learn how to scuba dive.

Thanks guys, but having to go through the hassle of dual-boot and having to restart my PC every time I want to go gaming or want to use applications... seems like an awful waste of time. I have tried the dual-boot scenario before but it got really old, really quick.

Until the majority of new games is ported to Linux (that will take a while I guess...), dualboot is the best solution. Or a PS3/Wii!

I think that's the bigger issue here. The fact that most game developers don't port to Linux is keeping many of us from making the jump. As for the console suggest, I have a XBOX360 but games for it are rather more expensive than for the PC.