Linux has game

To Linux or not to Linux, that is the question

Glider's thoughts
While it always was, and still is, against my principles to force somebody into using Linux, I also want to remain honest. It wasn't my intention at all to make everyone who reads this article to make the switch to Linux. It was however my intention to show to the gaming community Linux isn't out of the question.

A lot of current or semi-current games either just work, or work with minimum effort, on Linux. While it is true that some distros (like Gentoo, for instance) require some work to get up and running, this isn't a general rule. Ubuntu installs are arguably easier than Windows, and the fancy Vista Aero eye candy works with Beryl or Compiz on a low spec machine. So, why not give it a chance?

Brett's thoughts
I hope that Glider's summary has (at the very least) helped to illustrate that Linux can be a lot more than just some geeks sweating away at a console window. As far as gaming goes, the Linux scene is just as vibrant as any other OS. Sometimes it take a short while for programs like Cedega or Wine to catch up, but even then you're talking about a lag usually of weeks, not months or years.

On top of those programs, Linux has some great games that Windows just doesn't, and unlike the small-company programmers on Windows looking for $20 or $30 per game instead of $50, many games for Linux are open-source and free. And since a lot of programmers who are the geeks sweating away at the console window, many of them are better than what comes out on the Windows circuit. Often, Windows has games fall into one of two genres - highly professional, or shoestring. Linux games end up all over that spectrum, with many high-quality games like Saurbraten being free and often more efficiently coded than similar Windows counterparts.

Both major graphics companies offer some excellent driver support for Linux, and in fact about the only great disagreement with them is that they're not totally open-source (which is done to protect the designs of hardware they communicate with). All of the major technologies work as well as (if not a little better than) on Windows, since the operating system overhead is often better. Of course, they sometimes need a little tweaking, but what gamer doesn't do that on Windows anyway?

I hope this article gives you a little more incentive to give Linux a try. It seems that the Vista backlash is getting larger by the day, so why not try something different? As Glider mentions, it's easy to install Ubuntu, and it's totally free. There are also plenty of how-to guides for installing Ubuntu or Gentoo after XP, so there's little reason not to fire it up.

Of course, if you're not looking for gaming, we've got a couple other ideas coming up soon. Stay tuned for a couple how-to's of our own where we take your old, lower-spec hardware (the stuff you had to give away to run Vista, remember?) and turn it into a great whole-house data server and media center.