Running Windows games in Linux?

[mikeo01]

Hi everyone,

I know Linux is a great OS and apparently much smoother than Windows.

I want to get full potential out of my hardware without the hiccups and slowness of Windows opening up stuff.

Because I run games, do work I want something efficient and quick and something that won't think about how to use my hardware like Windows does.

I have heard a lot of good things about Linux and its kernel so was just wondering if anyone can explained why I should go to Linux or steer me away and tell me its easier to stay with Windows.

I will be installing Linux on the same hard drive as Windows. Also what Linux version would you suggest?

Its about the experience of a new OS, gaming on a new OS, and its performance.

I will be using it for:
General browsing
Tweaking it
Gaming
Work

The general everyday stuff Windows users does. I want a good reason to change to Linux

P.S obviously can someone explain how to run games on it too

[Flibb]

Much smoother?? Who told you that? Yes it offers something different to windows, and comes in many different flavors, but I wouldnt say it offers much for general day to day use or gaming over windows. If you have a prebuilt PC rig, best thing to do is install windows from scratch, that way you have control over the drivers, and can lose any of the rubbish that often comes preinstalled. By all means try the various flavors of Linux, but dont expect some amazing increase in available power.

[Peter Parker]

If you don't already have a good reason to switch to Linux, perhaps that's an indicator that you shouldn't.

I use it because it's similar to the production servers that I use for work, and I like not having to worry so much about viruses/trojans/loggers etc.

However, if you're keen to learn then good for you! Perhaps investigate a popular distribution like Ubuntu (fairly consumer friendly) or Fedora (more of a developer flavour). They have "Live" ISO images that you can burn to disk and boot from without trashing your existing Windows installation. Then you could split your hard-disk space and try dual-booting for a while to see if you could make the switch without a problem. I tried it for a year, before realising I no longer booted into Windows XP more than once a week.

If you want to run Windows games, you'll need to install the Wine program which will be installable directly from the Ubuntu/Fedora package manager program, so no complications with compiling. You'll also need to install the proprietary (Nvida or Ati) drivers to get a decent framerate. I only play a couple of games - Civ, X3, etc - and mostly they work but there's always some codec issues with video/audio that needs the winetweeks tool to fix it.

Soon as I could run Civ4 in Linux I ditched MS. Never really looked back but I'm not a massive gamer. YMMV

[directhex]

Consider the act of running Windows games on Linux akin to running Xbox 360 games on PS3 - it shoudn't work at all. That any games run like this is a minor miracle - but don't bank your career as a gamer on it.

[GeorgeStorm]

I far prefer Linux (atleast most of the distros I've tried) to Windows. On my laptop I've switched completely with no regrets, but due to the poor gaming performance, I'm stuck with Windows on my main pc (dislike dual booting)

I would agree with Peter Parker, Fedora is a really nice distro (what I've mainly used on both laptop and desktop), and wine is indeed the only way to play games on linux really (apart from the few games which will run natively, although more and more indy developers seem to be doing them)

[BobF64]

Much smoother?? Who told you that?

The usual source of such info is Microsoft haters, Linux uber-fans or OpenSource obsessives.

Not that theres anything wrong with Linux, just as theres nothing really wrong with Windows, and, if anything, its far easier to mess up Linux than Windows, but at least when it happens, its entirely your own fault.

I think, personally, that a lot of linux systems suffer less slowness than Windows is because it puts more focus on functionality than looks and fancy features.

[aidanjt]

its far easier to mess up Linux than Windows

Protip: When people say, type `sudo rm -Rf /`, that's just a joke. If you easily mess up a Linux install while using the Distro's package manager, then you have seriously bad luck.

[BobF64]

Protip: When people say, type `sudo rm -Rf /`, that's just a joke. If you easily mess up a Linux install while using the Distro's package manager, then you have seriously bad luck.

Oh true, as long as its available via packages, its usually fine, its when you need to install things yourself from a tarball that it can go horribly wrong.

*sigh* I miss the good old days.

[ikonia]

Honest answer - you want to play games, don't use Linux, directhex's example is the best advice you can get.

[Fraz]

If you want to play around with Linux, either do it as people have suggested (live CD), or use Wubi (installs Ubuntu within Windows), or if you want to try a number of different Linux distros I suggest you install VirtualBox (or some such), and just create as many Linux virtual machines as you like.

[Bagnaj97]

The short answer about whether you can run Windows apps (including games) on Linux is no, you can't. Windows and Linux are different operating systems with different underlying architectures. It's the same thing as Android vs iPhone and Mac vs Windows.

The long answer is that yes, you can run some apps and games using a compatability layer known as Wine. Some apps run fine, some run with a few broken features, some run after a lot of fiddling and configuring and some flat out refuse to work.

My suggestion would be to stick with Windows, but if you're feeling adventurous you could install Linux on another partition/disk and try it out.

[mikeo01]

I wil probably install it along with Windows. I suppose you're right I will keep Windows for gaming and install Linux for something a bit different. Probably go for Ubuntu.

Also, bit off topic, but how widely used is Linux for servers? As I primarly want to go into networking, how useful would it be to learn Linux?

I will install it to learn Linux, something different because its a horrible site having Windows everyday.

I build my own computer, so Windows has only the drivers and programs I want, but it still has problems.

What caught my eye about Ubuntu is the live install as some of you stated.

I am not a massive gamer either, but do want a different experience to Windows. Is Wine available on Ubuntu? Its mainly the experience I want.

To install packages is this ALL done in the manager? Just like say Linuxs own little app store? Because that is another feature which caught my eye, being able to install packages and tweak Linux and have things on it the way you want it.

Windows is OK, but its support isn't all that good, it does have some problems.

But yeah, I think from what you have all said I will keep Windows for some gaming, have Linux on the side to play around with and learn and decide later on when I am more experienced with Linux. Also hopefully it'll help me in the future of networking because I know some servers have Linux installed.

By the way do you have to use Wubi? Or can you just create a separate partition for Ubuntu? I know you can do it with Windows operating systems but obviously Linux is a bit different. Not sure if I would have to create boot files back for dual boot?

Would be handy having computing experience with Linux rather than Windows

Thanks for everyones help and getting me an incite into Linux

[Domestic_Ginger]

Try the wine compatability database for any games you are planning to play. I use my laptop (with intel onboard (yeah the really poor old one which struggles with flash)) to play old windows games in linux.

Great learning experience using Linux.

[BobF64]

Windows is OK, but its support isn't all that good, it does have some problems.

Thats one of perspective.

Why do you say the support isnt that good? Because Microsoft dont help you?

But the only real difference is that with Linux you, or anyone else, could probably fix the bugs yourself, whilst on Windows youre limited to the support provided by the supplier.

Being mostly open source, Linux "problems" do tend to get fixed a lot faster than Windows ones.

[Bagnaj97]

Rather than installing to a disk Wubi creates a file on your Windows partition and treats it as a virtual disk. This is simpler from a users point of view, but slows down disk performance in Ubuntu. It means that once installed Ubuntu shows as an app in Windows control panel for easy uninstalling and you don't need to mess around with partitions.

Disk performance will be better with a standard install, but you have to partition your hard drives first or during the install. The simplest way to do this is with a Windows partition/disk and a Linux partition/disk, however if you're happy playing around with partitions there are (imho) better ways of doing it. I would recommend 3 partitions; 1 for Windows, 1 for your root filesystem (12gb is fine) and 1 for your /home folder (this doesn't need to be large if you keep most of your files on the Windows partition). If you want to use hibernate you'll also need a swap partition that is slightly larger than your amount of RAM. /home is roughly equivalent to your documents folder on Windows, having it on a separate partition means you can reinstall as much as you like without losing your data.

[directhex]

Also, bit off topic, but how widely used is Linux for servers?

Best estimates say Linux & other UNIXes account for about 63% of all web servers