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Anybody here using any linux distro?

I miss nothing. Most of the software that I need has alternatives. Gaming is getting pretty damn good as well. I no longer buy games that aren't cross-platform.

I really dislike using Windows. Most things are unnecessarily kludgy (scripting is awful). Unfortunately, I have to use it for work but that may be changing in the future. At home, everything is Linux.
 
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Dogs said:
Not very many. Of my Steam account (I have somewhere around 200 games), only a small fraction of my games are playable on Linux, and most of those are just humble bundle games.
Click to expand...

I don't want to side track the conversation too much, but hopefully if I explain it further it may be beneficial to everyone.

If you install steam natively in Linux, you will end up with only a handful of games. I have 5 that will let me install directly in Linux. The trick to getting your entire library available is to go into your package manager and downloading a piece of software called "Play on Linux". This software is simply a front end to WINE and makes it a lot easier to setup and configure windows software so it can run on Linux. Once you install and launch PoL there is an install button inside the software that you will click on. After you clicked on install do a search for steam and install it. This installs the windows version of steam instead of the Linux one. After it's installed simply run steam and you will have the ability to install and play anything in your library. I will say that not everything is going to work flawlessly out of the box so it may take some work to get a specific game to run right, but you should be able to play some of your games that weren't available before.

Keep in mind that proprietary drivers seem to work best for this so you'll want to figure out how to get them installed on your OS. In mint it's as simple as clicking on Menu > administration > driver manager and choosing the correct driver.
 
It's been 3 months since I moved to Linux as my primary OS.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1789703

Started with Mint, but have settles on Manjaro.
Former Gentoo/Suse user from years ago, but past few years just kept Ubuntu in a VM.

Pros:
For my needs, working in Linux couldn't be a better solution. The development tools I use run so much easier in a Linux environment than on Windows, bash/tmux/fish using Node, Ruby, Python, various JVM stuff. I'm a vim user, so working directly with my files in terminal is so natural, tmux lets me keep various windows open running tools/servers that I can seamlessly navigate around. I've even started learning Emacs to get more well rounded.
I still use VMWare (which has a con, I'll get to in a second) for various Windows installs for my .NET work, which is still a primary focus of stuff I do and Remmina lets me remote into client machines with ease. I would go so far as to say VMWare is faster in Linux than when I was using it in Win7 or Win8.

Cons:
1:
When something doesn't work, it can suck. VMWare can be incredibly bitchy about this.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VMware
It mentions a patch that sounds like it should fix most issues, but you still have to go in and edit some config files in a silly manner to get it working. I could see someone new to Linux blowing the whole thing off because of this. If you upgrade your Linux Headers, you'll need to remember to rerun a few commands. Every restart I have to run the USBArbitrartor start command to get USB working in VMs. I haven't tried VirtualBox yet, maybe that is easier, but I don't have the time right now to convert all my VMs over or risk borking my system for a couple of days to fix more issues.
2:
WebEx doesn't recognize my Audio devices, nor does screen sharing appear to work. I can't just say screw it and Join.me just yet as WebEx is simply what my clients like to use, so I have to open a VM and use WebEx that way.

Those are really the only 2 pieces of software that have caused me any sort of headache using them in Linux. I don't play PC games anymore, so I could see how that could be a deal killer for people. Plus, I really like that I can keep all my configs in dotfiles and even if I switch OS or do a new install, everything is back up and running fairly smoothly pretty quick.
 
Meeho said:
How does that work with DirectX only games?
Click to expand...

What it really ends up being is one giant case of the adapter pattern. It 'implements' a DirectX interface by translating DirectX calls into OpenGL ones, for example. Think like any other adapter you can think of. You have a hole for the thing you're adapting to plug into and a plug to plug into whatever you're adapting. It isn't specific to DirectX, though, as it also has to translate the Windows API calls. Where this likely gets tricky is with things like threading, since the model for threading in the Windows API is somewhat different from the POSIX threading model (pthreads) that Linux uses. But since most applications seem to work reasonably well, they clearly have been sufficiently innovative about the tricky parts.

My experience has been that it works, to a point, but it's not perfect. Then again, I haven't used it in a year or two.

What I think will be the more popular solution, at least for people like me, is the streaming capabilities of Steam. I already have a Windows PC that can run all my games...I just need to keep it on and use a Linux PC near my TV for Streaming.
 
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I suppose there is quite a performance hit even when it works.

Has there been any talk about Mantle on Linux? That looks like something that could really help gaming on Linux.
 
At home I only boot into windows to play games. I much prefer the desktop environment on my Arch installs to anything windows has to offer. The AUR is also amazing. I've always had a linux server, but only in the past couple of years switched to it full-time for my desktop and laptop needs. At work we use windows and I rely on cygwin quite a bit.
 
PornoSatan said:
Does Linux still have power consumption issues when running on battery?
Click to expand...

This really depends. On my old kick around Thinkpad t61 it's as good if not better than on windows 7. Of course Thinkpads as a whole play really well with Linux down to the fingerprint readers etc. It's hit or miss on most brands (dells do pretty well usually) but I can say my rMBP does much better on OSX than Linux or Windows for that matter which shouldn't be much of a shock. As a whole I'd say Linux battery life is lower than Windows save for the Thinkpad series and obviously something like a Sputnik or a system 76. If your thinking of trying it out just google around for what specific hardware you have and see if it's a go on whatever distro you have your eyes on. Some things flat out won't work but the more Intel specific your laptop is (i.e. wifi, chipset, gpu etc.) the better your results will be.
 
Meeho said:
I suppose there is quite a performance hit even when it works.

Has there been any talk about Mantle on Linux? That looks like something that could really help gaming on Linux.
Click to expand...


Should have multiquoted but meh. It's pretty game specific. My kids and wife play some WoW, which has a GL client so it runs flawlessly in Wine and if there is a difference between the DX version in speed I can't tell. This assumes your running a vendor driver. My kids desktop pulls slightly higher framerates in GL than in DX and my main desktop is the opposite. I'm talking really small differences of a frame or two per second though either way. Some games in wine play almost as fast, some considerably slower.

check here WineHQ for your games and see what works and what doesn't.
 
Ghettobox said:
This really depends. On my old kick around Thinkpad t61 it's as good if not better than on windows 7. Of course Thinkpads as a whole play really well with Linux down to the fingerprint readers etc. It's hit or miss on most brands (dells do pretty well usually) but I can say my rMBP does much better on OSX than Linux or Windows for that matter which shouldn't be much of a shock. As a whole I'd say Linux battery life is lower than Windows save for the Thinkpad series and obviously something like a Sputnik or a system 76. If your thinking of trying it out just google around for what specific hardware you have and see if it's a go on whatever distro you have your eyes on. Some things flat out won't work but the more Intel specific your laptop is (i.e. wifi, chipset, gpu etc.) the better your results will be.
Click to expand...

There have been numerous power regression issues in Linux recently. Here's a list with a few of them.
 
Ghettobox said:
Should have multiquoted but meh. It's pretty game specific. My kids and wife play some WoW, which has a GL client so it runs flawlessly in Wine and if there is a difference between the DX version in speed I can't tell. This assumes your running a vendor driver. My kids desktop pulls slightly higher framerates in GL than in DX and my main desktop is the opposite. I'm talking really small differences of a frame or two per second though either way. Some games in wine play almost as fast, some considerably slower.

check here WineHQ for your games and see what works and what doesn't.
Click to expand...

I'm on AMD GPU and I haven't seen a single game yet that would run without huge glitches and/or performance problems on wine. The ratings on winehq are totally fake, a gold rated game can have show stopping problems or work only in selected hardware as advertised.
 
B00nie said:
I'm on AMD GPU and I haven't seen a single game yet that would run without huge glitches and/or performance problems on wine. The ratings on winehq are totally fake, a gold rated game can have show stopping problems or work only in selected hardware as advertised.
Click to expand...

That's true. But it's widely known that Wine really only works well with NVIDIA GPUs.

Well, actually... AMD drivers aren't up to snuff for any Linux games, native or not.
 
B00nie said:
I'm on AMD GPU and I haven't seen a single game yet that would run without huge glitches and/or performance problems on wine. The ratings on winehq are totally fake, a gold rated game can have show stopping problems or work only in selected hardware as advertised.
Click to expand...

Responses like this I why I don't tell anyone to use Linux anymore unless they actually are capable of researching what they need, and what they are willing to do to use Linux. The guys/gals who make Wine do it out of the goodness of their heart. They don't charge a red cent for their labors. The fact they make an incredibly difficult task easy for people is pretty awesome in my opinion. For those who know what they are getting into and plan appropriately Wine is a fantastic piece of software that does wonders for users who need certain functionality.

The fact you use an AMD based card and they write horrible, buggy, broken ass, shit drivers on an almost daily basis for Linux isn't the makers of Wine or WineHQ problem. The fact Intel, Nvidia, Gigabyte, Lenovo and Dell just to name a few can write drivers that work on Linux should tell you it's up to AMD to remove their head from their ass and write some drivers that don't puke on themselves anytime you attempt to use 3d functionality. When shitty drivers cause problems in the windows world do you complain to Microsoft? Or the makers of your favorite game/program?
 
jwcalla said:
That's true. But it's widely known that Wine really only works well with NVIDIA GPUs.

Well, actually... AMD drivers aren't up to snuff for any Linux games, native or not.
Click to expand...

For the record, I ran Metro LL in linux with my 7970 with no problems. However, I have no idea what settings it defaulted to because there is are no graphics options to configure in the linux version lol. Not all games run poorly, but some do.
 
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One fellow has tested quite a few games in Linux. A good forum for that is here.
If you're specifically interested in Skyrim.

I've run Skyrim, Mass Effect 2, Neverwinter, Drakensang and Age of Conan on Mint 15 and 16.
I've also run them on Ubuntu 13.10. I used PlayOnLinux. I've a GTX 660. I used the optional nVidia drivers.
I'm using 319.32 on Mint 16.

If you're using something like Mint or Ubuntu I highly advise:

sudo apt-get install indicator-cpufreq

Manually set your CPU to performance before you game. It helps a lot with titles like Skyrim. It makes cities with
Ultra settings very smooth. It will prevent your CPU from dropping its clock at inopportune times.

As far as DE go, I've done fine with Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce on Mint. Unity was fine with Ubuntu. I've never been
able to get KDE to "grab" or "capture" the mouse consistently in Skyrim. Sometimes it will drift off to the desktop
even in full screen mode. So that borks turning. Yes, I know what settings to use, they work in other DE.
 
Ghettobox said:
Responses like this I why I don't tell anyone to use Linux anymore unless they actually are capable of researching what they need, and what they are willing to do to use Linux. The guys/gals who make Wine do it out of the goodness of their heart. They don't charge a red cent for their labors. The fact they make an incredibly difficult task easy for people is pretty awesome in my opinion. For those who know what they are getting into and plan appropriately Wine is a fantastic piece of software that does wonders for users who need certain functionality.

The fact you use an AMD based card and they write horrible, buggy, broken ass, shit drivers on an almost daily basis for Linux isn't the makers of Wine or WineHQ problem. The fact Intel, Nvidia, Gigabyte, Lenovo and Dell just to name a few can write drivers that work on Linux should tell you it's up to AMD to remove their head from their ass and write some drivers that don't puke on themselves anytime you attempt to use 3d functionality. When shitty drivers cause problems in the windows world do you complain to Microsoft? Or the makers of your favorite game/program?
Click to expand...

Then why don't WineHQ maintainers simply state that the ratings are good only for Nvidia drivers and perhaps even for selected set of drivers/hardware.

If it doesn't work it doesn't work and no amount of sympathy for the developers is going to change the fact. Imagine what a negative impact it makes to users trying linux to give false hopes just to have the whole thing blow on their face.
 
I put ubuntu 13.10 on my sons pc and everything worked after a fresh install. He mostly plays minecraft or surfs the web. we only have amd gpus.

Ive been playing with ubuntu and bamt myself and im thinking about switching all my computers except my laptop to linux.
 
I tried Kubuntu in virtualbox but I couldn't get it to display at my native screen resolution. I guess I gave up too easily, but yeah.
 
Snoflo said:
I tried Kubuntu in virtualbox but I couldn't get it to display at my native screen resolution. I guess I gave up too easily, but yeah.
Click to expand...

Did you install the Virtualbox guest additions?
 
Home Server - Debian 7
Work - Mint Mate 16 just works.
2 VPS - Debian 7 on both.

On Mint Mate 16 I have 2 monitors - including one of the ghetto Korean 27" ones with broken EDID info. They work fine.

I've previously used various Ubuntu iterations and stuff like Crunchbang, but I like Mint Mate a lot.

My "home" machine is windows 8.1 which is better for gaming. Mint is better for productivity. Guake alone is worth it to SSH through a real terminal instead of *yuck* Putty.


I came from a purely windows .Net world before this and man, the open source world from both a server and dev perspective just sucks so much less for web environments.
 
bman212121 said:
I don't want to side track the conversation too much, but hopefully if I explain it further it may be beneficial to everyone.

If you install steam natively in Linux, you will end up with only a handful of games. I have 5 that will let me install directly in Linux. The trick to getting your entire library available is to go into your package manager and downloading a piece of software called "Play on Linux". This software is simply a front end to WINE and makes it a lot easier to setup and configure windows software so it can run on Linux. Once you install and launch PoL there is an install button inside the software that you will click on. After you clicked on install do a search for steam and install it. This installs the windows version of steam instead of the Linux one. After it's installed simply run steam and you will have the ability to install and play anything in your library. I will say that not everything is going to work flawlessly out of the box so it may take some work to get a specific game to run right, but you should be able to play some of your games that weren't available before.

Keep in mind that proprietary drivers seem to work best for this so you'll want to figure out how to get them installed on your OS. In mint it's as simple as clicking on Menu > administration > driver manager and choosing the correct driver.
Click to expand...

I tihnk something like 50-60 of my games are playable on Linux in steam, natively. I believe there are probably another 20-30 in Free2Play that are available as well.

No shortage really.

Sure not every game works on Linux, same as not every game works on Windows....
 
I've been messing around with Ubuntu 13.10. I was missing Cinnamon but I didn't want to have to install Mint again so I just dropped it on Ubuntu. It works fine. I'm using Ubuntu's colors with it and humanity dark. I also moved up to the 3.13 kernel without issue. I had already installed the restricted extras and all apps I like. I can't tell a difference between them now save the colors.

If you have Ubuntu 13.10 and want to do the above:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon

Then log out and select Cinnamon. If you like Ubuntu's colors use ambiance and humanity-dark. Glass shell isn't a bad one either if you want a more transparent menu etc.
 
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ezno_matrix said:
It is not meant for cry babies or people who just "give up".
Click to expand...

I agree. I usually tell people "linux is not for those who are indifferent or really don't like computers" And really this weeds out about 90% of people.
Because if that is the case they will not apply themselves to adopting the OS.

I have been Linux only for productivity since about 2009. I have gone from Ubuntu to Kubuntu and now I'm on Xubuntu.
Every new version of a distro gets a bit better, but also for certain hardware it may take a step backwards.
And this goes back to the worst aspect of being a linux person and that is spotty hardware support. Worst offender AMD. Some of their cards work great, some poorly, some OK, some won't even boot to a GUI. And the reasons why are hard to ascertain because they all -should- work.
And recently I took stock of my linux experiences to date. The only real hang ups I have had along the way these past several years have been directly related to piss poor AMD video support. So, it is time to jump ship. I'm going to buy my first Nvidia card since the Voodoo II. :eek:
But I see clear sailing ahead.

I'm probably the only linux user in the company I work for. I often get the question "Why linux?"
There are really a number of reason personally, but the most compelling is the fact you can accomplish certain tasks with Linux you cannot with windows without it costing you some money. With windows you are locked into the MS ecosystem where you are usually stuck "paying the man" for certain functionality.
With Linux, all that is at no cost accept for your determination to master it.
 
At home I run Mint with XFCE as an extra desktop in a VM along with RHEL and CentOS for playing around and testing things out in VMs.

I don't see Linux becoming a mainstream OS for a bit. Having support from Steam helps but to be honest, I've got plenty of games that are still Windows-only that will probably keep me on Windows for quite some time. For the foreseeable future, Linux remains a VM at home I fire up or a massive quantity of servers I support at work.
 
serpretetsky said:
err.. the voodoo 2 wasn't an nvidia card. Did you mean tnt2 or geforce2? :p
Click to expand...

Nope. The VooDoo II I had a pair in SLI mode. (back then it was scan line interleave)
Later Nvidia bought 3Dfx out.
BUT, technically you are right. The competing card from Nvidia was the Riva 128.
 
I stoped using Nvidia around those times due to their piss poor RF filtering. Watching my spanking new monitor get all fuzzy drove me nuts.
 
I have my system dual booting Kubuntu and Win7. Have Debian Wheezy in guest OS and Raspbian on my Pi.
 
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