I am having serious problems with windows XP (boot up/start up) at the moment and considering Linux or another good recomendation for OS.

Basicly all I do is Play games, download music & listen to mp3's, photoshop and get on the IE.


(I'd like to re-install WinXP, but I can't find my CD for it)

www.knoppix.net (http://www.knoppix.net)

If ya like it, use the hard disk install option and reconfigure the passwords.

Kad

fedora.redhat.com/ (http://fedora.redhat.com/)

Those are all things better done on PC's.

I know a little unix. It drives me insane. I'd never try to run a game on it.

My flavor of choice is slackware (http://www.slackware.com). Linux runs games good, but if your goal is to run EQ, I'd recommend sticking with windows.

I've played EQ under linux with WineX (http://www.transgaming.com) the general problem with it is that it has to render everything twice. Which makes it slow, even with all models turned off.

Another problem with Linux is - if you don't know much about computers, coding, scripting, etc. then there is a pretty good chance you'll screw something up. Unless of course you go with a flavor like Mandrake or Redhat - who are moving more towards the "end user" style of windows.

I'd definitely still use Win XP if you play games and that sort of stuff, 'cause more games are supported on that platform. GNU/Linux still has a lot to go before becoming a truly multimedia platform; if you just want to write papers, listen to MP3s, etc, you could probably get Linux to work. I've tried Winex, etc, but DirectX games still work best on Windows XP.

Slackware... ...for people who hate RPMs. :)

...anyway, if you have to ASK which one to use, let me save you some trouble, you're not ready for Linux. Is Linux good? Sure, for a lot of things. Redhat Linux makes a better platform for me to run VMWare instances of Windows 2000 on at work, but it doesn't make a great platform to play games and listen to music from. Sure, mplayer is nearly as good as the Windows alternatives, but, mostly, you're just going to end up beating your head against the wall when new-codec-x comes out and you're stuck not playing the piece of media you want because you aren't ready to ./configure && make && make install something every time you want to make a system change.

Here's what *I'd* suggest doing. Fix your XP setup. XP and 2000 are both pretty damned stable OSs. Don't let people tell you otherwise. Take care of them and don't feed them crap from untrusted sources and they're pretty damned rock solid.

Go download VMWare workstation. It's free to play with. Get it HERE (http://www.vmware.com/download/workstation.html). Then go HERE (http://www.linuxiso.org/) and pick out a Linux distribution that you want. People are going to tell you to pick their favorite -- and by "their favorite" they mean they one that they played with once and thus is "their favorite." Anyway, go with Redhat, SUSE, or, for kicks, Knoppix. Redhat and SUSE are pretty much your "corporate" desktop Linuxes. Expect Novel to be a BIG player with SUSE in the next year or two. Anyway, install Redhat or SUSE *under VMWware!* and then try it out. Redhat 8 and up work nicely under VMWare, and so do newer versions of SUSE.

Keep what you're using, and TRY Linux in the safest environment possible.

Oh, and to follow-up, Knoppix is one of several "live" Linux distributions. You can get a number of pre-packaged read-to-run-from-CD Linux distributions that let you put the CD in, boot your PC, and be running completely from the CD.

I suggest one from Gentoo Games (http://www.gentoogames.com/), but they're seemingly down tonight. America's Army and RTCW on bootable CDs...

Search for "Live Linux CDs (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=live+linux+cds)" on google if you want a million more examples.

I use win 2K pro, it runs like a swiss watch. I never have any problems.

might want to drop back to an earlier version of windows if you dont feel like playing around with a linux distribution. 98/95/2000 all work really well, and have no where near the bug count that XP has.

Gentoo, because packaged deals are for pussies. And as far as running EQ under linux, ive managed to get a great setup for a friend a while ago with a test 2.6 kernel and patched 2.4 nvidia drivers (now they have regular 2.6 out). It ran almost as smooth as windows, minus the fact that it took a tad bit longer to start up the game (pre-character screen it takes a few seconds longer to load all the stuff into memory).

The key is correct setup, and with gentoo, since everying you install, you compile it (best choice), everything is optimized and tailored to your system, unless you use their precompiled stuff on the livecd.

Use alsa for sound, because OSS is outdated, and uhm..openoffice instead of msoffice. And gimp vs photoshop. Overall you gotta get used to things, but in the long run its much more stable. Try running a windows box with heavy daily use for a month without reboots. After a while, with linux, you tend to forget how to reboot.

Waitaminnit . Did someone just recommend that he downgrade to 95 instead of running XP? Hah.

Gentoo, because packaged deals are for pussies. And as far as running EQ under linux, ive managed to get a great setup for a friend a while ago with a test 2.6 kernel and patched 2.4 nvidia drivers (now they have regular 2.6 out). It ran almost as smooth as windows, minus the fact that it took a tad bit longer to start up the game (pre-character screen it takes a few seconds longer to load all the stuff into memory).This sums up EXACTLY why Linux is not ready for the primetime.

Oh, the day is coming, and you'd be a fool to think it's not; but that day is not today.

This sums up EXACTLY why Linux is not ready for the primetime.

I'm sure it's not because a powerful company is pushing its software into hardware providers laps. I'm sure it's not because a lot of people love the software. I'm sure it's not the name recognition, it's because everquest takes a few seconds longer to load...

Anyway if all you are doing is browsing regular web sites, gaming and doing regular work and you get all this shit, then don't expect an OS to solve your problems.

I have a static IP address, computer is always on, I am using dsl, no firewall, no virus scanner, and have not lost any data in a loooong time nor have I had any problems with XP.

I loaded xp on a p3 400 with 128mb ram and it runs better than 98SE and detected all the things on the fly.

So I guess I am saying try to learn what you are doing wrong and fix it. Ie don't open mails from "stacy" @ I want your cock.com or from random people. don't download every attachment your friend sends you w/o scanning it. Get windows updates whenever possible.. don't open hilton.sex.mpg.exe etc =]

I think Palimax is refering to all the kernel compiles and complex procedure to make EQ (or the like) work under Linux. Not the fact that it may run/load slower.

The end user just wants it to work and the end user is the biggest percentage of all computer users.

I agree with him that Linux will overtake Windows. It's made great strides, but it is not ready for the desktop.

Hell, if SCO has their way, all the Linux users will be in cuffs anyway. :p

No doubt it is a ton more overhead for a typical user to go with linux. But if you can stick it out and learn from man pages and howtos, in the long run it would benefit a bunch.

I agree its not ready for primetime, and i totally agree that a ton of people are just end users though.

Someday, just someday, some distro will be as easy as windows itself, not to mention winex gets more mature every release.

Its ashame direct x isnt open source, for linux to use, instead of ugly hacks and guesses for software hooks in order to make windows games work :( No doubt a good strategy from microsoft though.

It really sucks that xfree86 fucked up their license, now people say its not GPL compatible and they are looking for a new standard without a crappy license. That will definatelly gimp up the progress of making a desktop more friendly.

Oh well! All software is good, as long as whoever uses it has a use for it and likes it.

~Niacin

All someone has to do is take the initiative like Apple did with OS X. I'm not an Apple fan, but the OS is nothing short of extrordinary.

Someone will nail it down, then Microsoft will go all RIAA/SCO on everyone.

I'm not saying that Linux will overtake Windows. I'm saying that in the next few years you're going to see more and more Linux-as-our-preferred-desktop shops out there. There is a tremendous move in the business world towards open-source and ESPECIALLY open-standards. Several large companies have adoped Linuxes and even offered indemnification from SCO (http://www.novell.com/linux/which_linux.html).

If I was building a computing environment from the GROUND UP, and wasn't locked into a Windows specific app (because it made the most sense to have a Windows-needy backend), I would *consider* using Linux on the desktop; but then I'd still have to weight it against a plethora of negatives.

Hell, I'm already busy moving as many of my apps as possible back to the Citrix servers. Sooner or later I won't give a crap what the client OS is. :)

Bone up on your Linux. Do it in VMWare. Run 2000 or XP if you plan on using or need to use the same software as everyone else.

I think you're missing the point of the original post. He said he'd consider using Linux but wasnt sure which distribution to start with. If you are that class of user and want to experiment without making permanent decisions, a live cd like Knoppix or whatever is the perfect place to start.

As for recommending Slack, on one hand you have to admit that its stability cannot be beat, on the other, if you are seriously recommending that an XP user choose slack as his first Linux experience you are doing Linux a disservice. =)

I dont have any experience with Gentoo so I cant comment there. I didnt have any experience with Debian before I tried Knoppix either tho, and that was eye opening.

Kad

Well, I stand by my suggestions of SUSE and Redhat. If you're going to immerse yourself in Linux, you might as well pick one that has a future.

I run Win 98 currently, and with the phase out of this system, i'm being forced to choose. I'm seriously looking at Lindows OS.

Sig too large 450 X 150 and under 50k please

I havent used Lindows but I havent heard many good things either. They've got some weird subscription plan that they want you to use to get packages that you can snag for free for most other distributions.

Check out
www.distrowatch.org/ (http://www.distrowatch.org/)

particularly:
www.distrowatch.org/table...on=lindows (http://www.distrowatch.org/table.php?distribution=lindows)
www.newsforge.com/article...&pagenum=2 (http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/01/04/1640249&mode=thread&pagenum=2)
www.extremetech.com/artic...574,00.asp (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1134574,00.asp)

Since its Debian based you can do the same thing using apt tho, so i dunno...

Kad