a slight problem :(

[smokey]

Windows (at the moment) is really PISSING me off. Explorer.exe crashes at least 20 times a day and the computer (after 5 days) needs a complete restart because my sound is fnarked and the system is really unstable.

I am currently looking at RedHat 8.0 as a good distro of linux to try out but I have one slight problem - games. Westwood being the unskilled company they are provide no support for linux. I don't really like dual booting because I like to spontaneously play maybe one game of something and then return to work.

I can't shell out any more money and I would really like to dump windows.

Any advice on these matters would be greatly appreciated.

[Calum]

McPot, my advice is, you can't have your cake and eat it. linux has a shitload of good games, and a lot of them are free, and newer and/or better than their windows couterparts. It all depends on your preferences of course.

Choose your platform. dual/triple/quintuple boot if you want, what's the harm? but if you use windows, sorry, but you signed the EULA saying you would put up with the bullshit, the spyware and the forced upgrades!  

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by Calum & his insidious little spies:
McPot, my advice is, you can't have your cake and eat it. linux has a shitload of good games, and a lot of them are free, and newer and/or better than their windows couterparts. It all depends on your preferences of course.

Choose your platform. dual/triple/quintuple boot if you want, what's the harm? but if you use windows, sorry, but you signed the EULA saying you would put up with the bullshit, the spyware and the forced upgrades!    

The game thing has been a primary bitch from a lot of people who SAY they want to use Linux.  Linux does have its own native games, but if you require all the flash & crash that Win games have, run Win.  Linux will eventually have Windows games ported to it, but it won't happen overnight; there was a company that wrote native-app games for Linux, but no one bought their product; "Hey, it's Linux- this game must be free!!"  I was really sorry to see Loki software go under, not because I'm a gamer, but because it was a defeat for Linux.  Your post reflects that attitude; "I can't afford Windows games, but Linux games are free, right?"  REAL wrong!!  The people who write software have to eat, have a place to live, and just generally exist.  Linux isn't just a bunch of hackers who volunteer their time to write games (BIG exception; Debian maintainers- Bless'em).
I guess you have to make a choice: Linux and "crappy" games or Windows and no stability, but the games are COOL (and EXPENSIVE!!)

[Calum]

what about linux and expensive cool games, or windows and crappy free games? those are two distinct choices too. Also, i hope my post doesn't reflect that since i just finished telling zombie90210 in another thread that all that 'it's linux, it must be free' stuff was a load of old horsewallop!

sorry if i misrepresented myself, i just meant that if people expect linux to be windows, they will be mistaken. All too often, windows users fail to give credit to linux for being linux. only windows should even be expected to be windows, and quite frankly if other systems stopped trying to be windows, the world would be a better place.

[TheQuirk]

quote:Originally posted by Ex Eleven / b0b 2.1:
Fuck windows, i doubt ill ever be using it again..

Why the fuck would anyone care?

[on topic]
Try downloading the evaluation copy of VMWare and try running your games. It'll work for thirty days, and then you could maybe try WineX and... And pay for it (it's only about fifteen bucks!)

[rtgwbmsr]

quote:Originally posted by smokey mcp0t / b0b:
Windows (at the moment) is really PISSING me off. Explorer.exe crashes at least 20 times a day and the computer (after 5 days) needs a complete restart because my sound is fnarked and the system is really unstable.

I am currently looking at RedHat 8.0 as a good distro of linux to try out but I have one slight problem - games. Westwood being the unskilled company they are provide no support for linux. I don't really like dual booting because I like to spontaneously play maybe one game of something and then return to work.

I can't shell out any more money and I would really like to dump windows.

Any advice on these matters would be greatly appreciated.

Red Alert and Red Altert 2 work fairly well in WineX. A full list of games (the ones with 4s and 5s are good and entirely playable)
http://www.transgaming.com/dogamesearch.php?order=working&showall=1

[rtgwbmsr]

quote:Originally posted by smokey mcp0t / b0b:
Windows (at the moment) is really PISSING me off. Explorer.exe crashes at least 20 times a day and the computer (after 5 days) needs a complete restart because my sound is fnarked and the system is really unstable.

I am currently looking at RedHat 8.0 as a good distro of linux to try out but I have one slight problem - games. Westwood being the unskilled company they are provide no support for linux. I don't really like dual booting because I like to spontaneously play maybe one game of something and then return to work.

I can't shell out any more money and I would really like to dump windows.

Any advice on these matters would be greatly appreciated.

Red Alert and Red Altert 2 work fairly well in WineX. A full list of games (the ones with 4s and 5s are good and entirely playable)
http://www.transgaming.com/dogamesearch.php?order=working&showall=1

Deus Ex and Anachronox crash less in WineX than in Windows.

[dishawjp]

I have to admit that I am a gamer, and computer games are what got me to see computers as something I enjoyed rather than just worked with.  I still have a couple of DOS computers that I don't use for much other than gaming and one Windows computer that still occasionally gets booted for gaming.  One fairly current game I like is "Cossacks Art of War" and it can't be played on Linux at all that I know of.  But last week I was on vacation.  I think I booted my Win98 box once the whole week, and that was to play a bit of Cossacks.  I have my two of my DOS computers null- modemed together and a buddy of mine stopped over.  We had played some WarCraft 2 and some Red Alert on them.  But I must have spent at least 15 hrs. on my Linux box.  Maybe more.

You might want to check out some of the following sites for Linux games.  You won't find every game but probably some that interest you.  And it doesn't hurt to keep a Windows box kicking around for the occasions you may actually need or want to use it.

http://www.linuxgames.com

http://www.happypenguin.org

http://www.tuxgames.com

Also, look up Tux Racer.  It looks like it might be fun... if it's your style.  And if you like the Civ. games, I understand that Free Civ comes with RH 8.  

You don't have to give up gaming to take up Linux.

Jim

[rtgwbmsr]

Tux racer is awesome!

Possibly the best game native to Linux next to Frozen Bubble. Who needs to shoot people all day?

[smokey]

Thank you all for all of the positive replies   . I like the sound of WineX but the $15us is a slight problem - that is $27au which I don't have and I also have no way of getting the money into the US. Being 15 has its ups and downs and unfortunately for me this is not very good. I do have a possibility - I can recompile the source code and I also have access to windows machines for files it might need.

[Zombie9920]

quote:Originally posted by smokey mcp0t / b0b:
Thank you all for all of the positive replies    . I like the sound of WineX but the $15us is a slight problem - that is $27au which I don't have and I also have no way of getting the money into the US. Being 15 has its ups and downs and unfortunately for me this is not very good. I do have a possibility - I can recompile the source code and I also have access to windows machines for files it might need.

I'm sure you could find a free copy of WineX over P2P, IRC or through FTP searches(like oth.net). WineX is open source and is under GPL(I think so don't hold me to this) so it would be perfectly legal to download a free copy of it(even though you aren't obtaining it from the author obviously). It isn't warez if it is GPLed. ;P

[Calum]

winex is not open source, neither is it GPL. thank you for your input, zombie, however it is 100% wrong. winex is the proprietary (and suspiciously so) augmented version of the wine project, which does directx emulation in addition to the normal wine stuff. wine on its own is gpl, and is open source, not only that, it's free.

[Master of Reality]

i'm pretty sure WineX is open source, though it may not be GPL.

[Calum]

open source can mean anything though.

[Master of Reality]

you get the source code for it by downloading the cvs for free or when you buy/suscribe for it you shall recieve a tarball with the source code in it.