What Linux Distribution is the Best for Games?

CodeGeekGuy asks: "I've been thinking of doing the big switcheroo from Windows to Linux. I have, in the past, had various levels of success using Linux, but I generally have to give up as soon as I feel like playing a game. I've done dual booting before, but find it a pain if you're waiting for something to finish and just want a quick game of Half Life 2 or WoW. I'm willing to give this another shot (as I hear that Cedega plays HL2 and WoW quite nicely). I've used Mandrake and Fedora Core and even Redhat, is there another distribution out there that is the best distro to use to get Cedega (and ultimately games) to work well? "

Gentoo

[ClassicG]

If you have the patience to set it up intially, I think Gentoo might be your best bet, as the flexibility of Gentoo and it's packaging system is second to none. Compiling the initial system shouldn't be a serious problem on any machine beefy enough to run modern games - my last stage-one complete rebuild from scratch took less than a day, including KDE.

There is no best Linux for games

[SPQRDecker]

As much as I hate to say it, if you want to play games that are designed for Windows, the best thing to do is boot into Windows. No matter how good Cedega gets, it will still be an attempt to imitate the environment that the game was designed for, and will always have some performane lag. Not only that, but if it is a graphically intensive video game, as most are, you will want the best possible video drivers for direct rendering and such, and in that respect, Linux is nowhere nere as adept as Windows yet. But, on the bright side, since the game is full screen, you won't have any of the annoying widgets like the 'start' menu around to remind you what OS you're in. If, however, you still want to play your game on Linux, I don't think that the distribution really matters. What does matter is that you are using the vendor supplied proprietary driver, either from nVidia or from ATI, rather than the open source equivalent, which is not nearly as good at demanding rendering tasks. Most distributions, including Fedora and Redhat, only include the open source version, so be sure to go to your video card maker's website and download their linux drivers.

Why are you considering Linux?

[ratboy666]

Let me put it this way:

You are buying a vehicle. You want something fun, fast and sporty. You go and buy a 3/4 ton pickup. Mistake!

Select your OS based on what you want to run. If what you are running is "Windows Games", examine the first word -- Windows -- and run them on that platform. If you want to run Linux, go and buy VMWARE, and run Linux on the same box. No big sweat, and no particular problem.

Or, use the money you would spend on VMWARE, and buy another box for Linux.

I am sure that you will get a lot of "Red Hat sucks", "Gentoo rules", "SuSe rules", "Mandrake is the schiznit" answers.

Ignore them. Again, pick a REASON as to why you want to use Linux -- is it a hobby? if so, Gentoo or "Linux from Scratch" may be suitable. Do you want to do real work? Red Hat/Fedora Core or SuSe. Whatever, its your choice.

If you *do* explore VMWARE, you may want to pick a VMWARE supported system.

Anyway, the OS is a commodity (at least in the Linux world, with Microsoft, it tends to be forced on you based on applications -- it's the platform). So don't sweat it.

Ratboy.

3 letter answer

[gothzilla]

KVM

Just get a KVM switch and hook it up to a linux box and a windows box. Problem solved.

Get a console

[fr0dicus]

Install Linux, get a console, and simplify. The Xbox has or is getting 75% of what's decent on the PC. Joypads take five minutes to learn unless you're mentally deficient.

Vidalinux or Ubuntu

[mushroom blue]

if you're wanting an OS to play games, I'd say try Gentoo [gentoo.org], and maybe check out Ubuntu [ubuntulinux.org] as well.

I'm a Gentoo guy, but I totally understand why people wouldn't want to go through the long install process. This is why VidaLinux [vidalinux.com] exists. VidaLinux is essentially a precompiled Gentoo (with Gnome 2.8, etc), installed with Redhat's Anaconda Installer. works amazingly well Full working Gentoo distribution up and running in under an hour.

don't want to compile future packages? that's allright. just check out Project Chinstrap [alternating.net], which has precompiled packages for Gentoo. Easy as pie.

Ubuntu has its share of issues, but overall, it's a top-notch choice as well. both should work amazingly well for games.

Re:None...

[brunson]

That's pretty untrue. Linux is as good a platform, if not better to write games for. The difference is market share, and that is all.

Re:None...

[mahdi13]

There more then a few people that support Transgaming's work, but the anti-wine groups tend to be louder.
I've been a subscriber for over 21 months and support their work, as it does NOT make companies not want to port to Linux. That is a decision usually made long before the product hits the shelves, ideally in the planning stage before any code is written.

Those that say company A won't port game B to Linux because it runs fine with Cedega are delusional and use that as an excuse. Transgaming is looked down on because they have "stolen the code" and "don't return their changes".

The GPL at the time of the WineX fork was completely within the rights and they do give back. They are also legally bound to not redistribute the copy protection code, other then that all the code of freely available in their CVS.

If you don't like it, don't use it as we don't need to hear the same hallow excuses over and over again.
All the 'proof' I've seen has been bogus and nothing but more ranting (someone with your same argument doesn't count as proof).

Re:Gentoo's manual install is arguably a -good- th

[ClassicG]

Um, no, no it doesn't. :)

But partitioning and formatting your HDs manually, building your own /etc/fstab, creating user accounts, and the other similar stuff that is needed to set up Gentoo -is- a good way to learn your way around some of the basic stuff that you might not know about otherwise. Plus, it also gives some insight into all the things that are running in the background on the system, because each of them was set up manually by hand, rather than being done invisibly by some automated setup program.

I'm not saying that an automated install is a bad thing, just that by doing it manually, one learns a lot more about what goes into the process than they would otherwise.

I'm confused . . .

[npsimons]

You ask "What Linux distribution is best for games?", but then you mention non-Linux games. If you want to play Windows games, install Windows. If you are really dedicated to switching to Linux, wipe Windows, throw out your Windows games and go to tuxgames.com. If the game(s) you want to play don't run under Linux, complain (loudly but rationally) to the companies that make those games. Don't try some half-assed "portability layer" which will only leave you bitter about Linux when the Next Great Thing won't run under it.

The only thing Cedega does is to dissuade publishers from making real Linux games and actually porting to something other than Windows.
Transgaming is almost as bad for open source as Microsoft is by itself.