Comment Its all about games (Score 1) 882
I'm sure this has been said a million times already, but I thought I would throw my $0.02 into the mix anyways:
- Ever since Windows XP came out I've started down the road of "I hate windows". But, I'm stuck with it because I love computer games.
- I decided to try out Linux to see where it is at and I wanted to throw out my observations from someone who is new to Linux, but not new to computers in general. This is what I noticed, what I liked, what I did not:
I Tried Red Hat first. I loved the install program, it blows away Windows, in its ease of use, I loved how it detected all my hardware, I was online (through DSL) without any work, my printer worked fine, everything was great. Everything was great until I started installing and uninstalling programs.
The rpm system was interesting, but not very effective. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they did not, I decided to try something else.
I then tried Mandrake 8.2? It installed ok, but it did not detect my printer, it had a few other detection problems with my video card, monitor. I decided I would move on to another dist.
I really wanted to try Suse, I heard it had a good install/uninstall program, but they decided to make the iso's unavailable, and instead you use this ftp setup to install. It was a pain to figure out right away so I decided to move on.
I heard about Debian and I really liked what I was reading about apt. Unfortunately, I was having trouble getting the CD's.
I then ran into knoppix, which is Debian Based, and fully installs (and runs) off a CD! Wow, it was impressive, it detected everything, even better then Red Hat, and the bonus was I could try out apt.
I figured out how to place this OS on my hard drive, and suddenly I had something impressive. I can't stress enough how awsome apt is for installing/getting/uninstalling/patching/updating programs. It absolutely blows away windows or rpms.
Now with that out of the way, what are the problems that Linux needs to work on to get me and the millions of Windows users like me to convert fully to Linux?
Simple: Get those Linux programmers to take off where winex (transgaming) has gone and get a fully functioning directx->Linux library going that would allow any Linux machine to *easily* install any windows game (since they all use Directx, I think this is the answer).
Transgaming (www.transgaming.com) has the right idea, the only problem is that they cost money. I think OpenOffice, and all the other great Linux apps will take care of 99% of the windows users on that front, BUT games is the big wall that is keeping a good portion of windows users from *fully* moving over.
Build a Linux compatible Directx system that would *easily* (read easy to install, some sort of graphical interface would be nice) store bought games that use windows/Directx.
Once this happens, a large number of gamers will be using Linux only. This will affect the market, causing a large number of future games to be built for both Windows and Linux.
With these libararies freely available for game developers I'm sure they can port over their games to windows and Linux with ease.
C
- Ever since Windows XP came out I've started down the road of "I hate windows". But, I'm stuck with it because I love computer games.
- I decided to try out Linux to see where it is at and I wanted to throw out my observations from someone who is new to Linux, but not new to computers in general. This is what I noticed, what I liked, what I did not:
I Tried Red Hat first. I loved the install program, it blows away Windows, in its ease of use, I loved how it detected all my hardware, I was online (through DSL) without any work, my printer worked fine, everything was great. Everything was great until I started installing and uninstalling programs.
The rpm system was interesting, but not very effective. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they did not, I decided to try something else.
I then tried Mandrake 8.2? It installed ok, but it did not detect my printer, it had a few other detection problems with my video card, monitor. I decided I would move on to another dist.
I really wanted to try Suse, I heard it had a good install/uninstall program, but they decided to make the iso's unavailable, and instead you use this ftp setup to install. It was a pain to figure out right away so I decided to move on.
I heard about Debian and I really liked what I was reading about apt. Unfortunately, I was having trouble getting the CD's.
I then ran into knoppix, which is Debian Based, and fully installs (and runs) off a CD! Wow, it was impressive, it detected everything, even better then Red Hat, and the bonus was I could try out apt.
I figured out how to place this OS on my hard drive, and suddenly I had something impressive. I can't stress enough how awsome apt is for installing/getting/uninstalling/patching/updating programs. It absolutely blows away windows or rpms.
Now with that out of the way, what are the problems that Linux needs to work on to get me and the millions of Windows users like me to convert fully to Linux?
Simple: Get those Linux programmers to take off where winex (transgaming) has gone and get a fully functioning directx->Linux library going that would allow any Linux machine to *easily* install any windows game (since they all use Directx, I think this is the answer).
Transgaming (www.transgaming.com) has the right idea, the only problem is that they cost money. I think OpenOffice, and all the other great Linux apps will take care of 99% of the windows users on that front, BUT games is the big wall that is keeping a good portion of windows users from *fully* moving over.
Build a Linux compatible Directx system that would *easily* (read easy to install, some sort of graphical interface would be nice) store bought games that use windows/Directx.
Once this happens, a large number of gamers will be using Linux only. This will affect the market, causing a large number of future games to be built for both Windows and Linux.
With these libararies freely available for game developers I'm sure they can port over their games to windows and Linux with ease.
C
