It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games. I certainly wouldn't spend $200+ on a video card and then limit myself in my game selection by refusing to spend an extra $100 on the OS.
Personally, I've never actually been able to get Linux to run properly on arbitrary hardware that I happened to own. I'm sure you could put together a machine with specific hardware that is known to work well with Linux, but if you just pick random parts off the shelf based on performance needs, odds are you'll run into some difficulties trying to get everything working under Linux. That time spent researching whether or not the parts will actually work with Linux is easily worth the cost of buying a Windows license and just knowing that everything will work as expected.
I'm not saying that the hardware doesn't work at all, but rather that it doesn't work as expected. This article is the perfect example. Sure the $550 Radeon card will work, but it won't work as one expects it to work. This has been the same in most of my experiences. There will be video drivers that work fine for the desktop, but as soon as you try to do something like a game, they either won't work or will run much slower than they would on Windows. I've also had problems getting certain wireless chipse
Wireless and graphics are the two pieces of hardware Linux has occasional problems with, and that's become much more of a rarity in the past several years. Many wireless chips require a non-free firmware package to be installed, so if you run a "pure" os like Debian, you'll have to manually tell it to do that. Older and Intel graphics cards just work. The issue has always been getting good performance out of newer ATI and Nvidia cards.
Speaking as someone who uses Linux on my home machine, the most annoying p
Took less than an hour. Everything works wonderfully. I disabled all the telemetry and tracking/location garbage during install. Seems to boot a little slower than windows 7, but everything else is much faster. No driver issues, all my previously installed games and software all just work. Interesting.
I don't have a direct reference point, as I installed Windows 10 on a new machine, but personally my boot time is spectacular with Windows 10. From the time the BIOS beeps, to the time I see the login screen it's 10 seconds. It's also completely responsive from the time I hit the login screen. No lag at all upon log in.
If all you care about is gaming, get a gaming console.
Linux is (mostly) free, so nobody bothers to write good drivers for consumer oriented devices. Linux is too good for "regular people" so it is artificially made bad so greedy monopolists can stay in business.
Sure, there are volunteers who put a lot of work in the opensource drivers, but without cooperation from the GPU makers this process is a rather tedious one. And the GPU makers are keeping a tight lid on their proprietary tech, so as much as voluntee
If all you care about is gaming, get a gaming console.
From whom? Sony removes features after release, and in general as a company behaves pretty scuzzily. Microsoft's not any better (especially with its ad-laden consoles). Nintendo has abandoned the core gamer demographic that the Playstation and Xbox cater to, especially during the last couple of generations.
Linux is (mostly) free, so nobody bothers to write good drivers for consumer oriented devices. Linux is too good for "regular people" so it is artificially made bad so greedy monopolists can stay in business.
That's just goofy. Windows is all most people know, and it's dead simple for normal uses. Linux is better than it was 15 years ago, and it's a great system for a technically-oriented user, but hardware co
"It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games."
Times are changing. If you don't pay attention, you may miss what's happening. Currently, 22.5% of Steam's catalog works under Linux; 1346 games and those are not the 1346 crappiest Indie games either. There really are more than enough great games on Steam to justify buying a $200+ video card just for Linux gaming - I've done it and don't regret doing it. "Very small subset" simply no longer applies. Linux support for g
I've never actually been able to get Linux to run properly on arbitrary hardware that I happened to own.
I, on the other hand, have run into one thing that Linux didn't work with. I have a collection of accumulated 'stuff' and just last night Frankensteined a PC together. I don't even know the model number of most of the parts. It's an Nvidia 8600 (something) video card, and a Soundblaster Live, I know that much. Worked just fine, no issues. (Streams PC games from Steam pretty well to the TV upstairs, too.)
For reasons I will not go into, I needed to Install Skype for Windows, and use a Webcam that works fine on ALL of my Linux systems. But after 30 minutes of trying, I could not find drivers for this Logitec camera that is detected automatically on Linux. I had a similar experience with some older scanners.
I've got a ThinkCentre that I was loaned a while back. I installed Linux on it, off it went. Everything just worked.
I later needed to install Windows on it, so I did.
It took me about 4 days to find most of the drivers, and I'm still missing a few. I had to download the network driver, copy it over by USB, and then load it on the system by hand, only to find out it was the wrong driver masquerading as the correct one.
So off I went, downloaded another one that worked.
It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games. I certainly wouldn't spend $200+ on a video card and then limit myself in my game selection by refusing to spend an extra $100 on the OS.
It is not about the money. I do have Windows 7 installed on a partition.
I play games on Linux and it is a custom built computer with parts that were grabbed off the shelf without regards to Linux compatibility.
I have a GTX980, a 28 inch 4k monitor, an i7 4770, etc. Not the most expensive but certainly not cheap.
I still choose to play on Linux.
Apparently, according to Steam I am less than.01% of all gamers out there, but I do exist.
Why? I am tired of my devices doing things behind my back. Some devices give
It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games.
Actually, about a third of the games I own now have an official linux port. And those are not just some indie games, but rather large ones, like Witcher 3, Metro: Last Light, all the Valve games, etc.
It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games. I certainly wouldn't spend $200+ on a video card and then limit myself in my game selection by refusing to spend an extra $100 on the OS.
Personally, I've never actually been able to get Linux to run properly on arbitrary hardware that I happened to own. I'm sure you could put together a machine with specific hardware that is known to work well with Linux, but if you just pick random parts off the shelf based on performance needs, odds are you'll run into some difficulties trying to get everything working under Linux.
Counter-point: I just spent $500 on a graphics card, and my gaming system is single-boot Linux. Now to be fair, I do play quite a few games through WINE (though fewer than I used to), but the proportion of games which are Windows only and unplayable in WINE isn't as high as it used to be. I did get an Nvidia card (GTX 970) though, mainly because AMD's drivers have such a poor reputation under Linux.
That time spent researching whether or not the parts will actually work with Linux is easily worth the cost of buying a Windows license and just knowing that everything will work as expected.
There's plenty of hardware that doesn't work well under Windows too, either because of driver bugs or because
HOST SYSTEM NOT RESPONDING, PROBABLY DOWN. DO YOU WANT TO WAIT? (Y/N)
Here's what I heard: (Score:2)
Linux+Nvidia is cheaper than Windows+anything.
Re:Here's what I heard: (Score:5, Interesting)
It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games. I certainly wouldn't spend $200+ on a video card and then limit myself in my game selection by refusing to spend an extra $100 on the OS.
Personally, I've never actually been able to get Linux to run properly on arbitrary hardware that I happened to own. I'm sure you could put together a machine with specific hardware that is known to work well with Linux, but if you just pick random parts off the shelf based on performance needs, odds are you'll run into some difficulties trying to get everything working under Linux. That time spent researching whether or not the parts will actually work with Linux is easily worth the cost of buying a Windows license and just knowing that everything will work as expected.
Re: Here's what I heard: (Score:0)
This might have been true in the early 2000s but I have yet to encounter hardware that doesn't work at all in the last six years.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not saying that the hardware doesn't work at all, but rather that it doesn't work as expected. This article is the perfect example. Sure the $550 Radeon card will work, but it won't work as one expects it to work. This has been the same in most of my experiences. There will be video drivers that work fine for the desktop, but as soon as you try to do something like a game, they either won't work or will run much slower than they would on Windows. I've also had problems getting certain wireless chipse
Re: (Score:3)
Wireless and graphics are the two pieces of hardware Linux has occasional problems with, and that's become much more of a rarity in the past several years.
Many wireless chips require a non-free firmware package to be installed, so if you run a "pure" os like Debian, you'll have to manually tell it to do that.
Older and Intel graphics cards just work. The issue has always been getting good performance out of newer ATI and Nvidia cards.
Speaking as someone who uses Linux on my home machine, the most annoying p
Re: (Score:0)
Hopefully the steam OS, since it is being built for gaming, will have proper support for gaming peripherals.
Re: (Score:2)
... knowing that everything will work as expected.
Enjoy that free Win10 upgrade. I hope nothing goes wrong...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:0)
Just wait for your first round of 'mandatory' updates and patches.
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Re: (Score:2)
I don't have a direct reference point, as I installed Windows 10 on a new machine, but personally my boot time is spectacular with Windows 10. From the time the BIOS beeps, to the time I see the login screen it's 10 seconds. It's also completely responsive from the time I hit the login screen. No lag at all upon log in.
Re: (Score:0)
If all you care about is gaming, get a gaming console.
Linux is (mostly) free, so nobody bothers to write good drivers for consumer oriented devices. Linux is too good for "regular people" so it is artificially made bad so greedy monopolists can stay in business.
Sure, there are volunteers who put a lot of work in the opensource drivers, but without cooperation from the GPU makers this process is a rather tedious one. And the GPU makers are keeping a tight lid on their proprietary tech, so as much as voluntee
Re: (Score:0)
If all you care about is gaming, get a gaming console.
From whom? Sony removes features after release, and in general as a company behaves pretty scuzzily. Microsoft's not any better (especially with its ad-laden consoles). Nintendo has abandoned the core gamer demographic that the Playstation and Xbox cater to, especially during the last couple of generations.
Linux is (mostly) free, so nobody bothers to write good drivers for consumer oriented devices. Linux is too good for "regular people" so it is artificially made bad so greedy monopolists can stay in business.
That's just goofy. Windows is all most people know, and it's dead simple for normal uses. Linux is better than it was 15 years ago, and it's a great system for a technically-oriented user, but hardware co
Re: (Score:0)
"It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games."
Times are changing.
If you don't pay attention, you may miss what's happening.
Currently, 22.5% of Steam's catalog works under Linux; 1346 games and those are not the 1346 crappiest Indie games either.
There really are more than enough great games on Steam to justify buying a $200+ video card just for Linux gaming - I've done it and don't regret doing it.
"Very small subset" simply no longer applies. Linux support for g
Let's swap anecdotes! (Score:2)
I, on the other hand, have run into one thing that Linux didn't work with. I have a collection of accumulated 'stuff' and just last night Frankensteined a PC together. I don't even know the model number of most of the parts. It's an Nvidia 8600 (something) video card, and a Soundblaster Live, I know that much. Worked just fine, no issues. (Streams PC games from Steam pretty well to the TV upstairs, too.)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:0)
I've got a ThinkCentre that I was loaned a while back. I installed Linux on it, off it went. Everything just worked.
I later needed to install Windows on it, so I did.
It took me about 4 days to find most of the drivers, and I'm still missing a few. I had to download the network driver, copy it over by USB, and then load it on the system by hand, only to find out it was the wrong driver masquerading as the correct one.
So off I went, downloaded another one that worked.
Then I rebooted the system, and found v
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games. I certainly wouldn't spend $200+ on a video card and then limit myself in my game selection by refusing to spend an extra $100 on the OS.
It is not about the money. I do have Windows 7 installed on a partition.
I play games on Linux and it is a custom built computer with parts that were grabbed off the shelf without regards to Linux compatibility.
I have a GTX980, a 28 inch 4k monitor, an i7 4770, etc. Not the most expensive but certainly not cheap.
I still choose to play on Linux.
Apparently, according to Steam I am less than .01% of all gamers out there, but I do exist.
Why? I am tired of my devices doing things behind my back. Some devices give
Re: (Score:0)
It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games.
Actually, about a third of the games I own now have an official linux port. And those are not just some indie games, but rather large ones, like Witcher 3, Metro: Last Light, all the Valve games, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't matter which is cheaper if Linux can only play a very small subset of the games. I certainly wouldn't spend $200+ on a video card and then limit myself in my game selection by refusing to spend an extra $100 on the OS.
Personally, I've never actually been able to get Linux to run properly on arbitrary hardware that I happened to own. I'm sure you could put together a machine with specific hardware that is known to work well with Linux, but if you just pick random parts off the shelf based on performance needs, odds are you'll run into some difficulties trying to get everything working under Linux.
Counter-point: I just spent $500 on a graphics card, and my gaming system is single-boot Linux. Now to be fair, I do play quite a few games through WINE (though fewer than I used to), but the proportion of games which are Windows only and unplayable in WINE isn't as high as it used to be. I did get an Nvidia card (GTX 970) though, mainly because AMD's drivers have such a poor reputation under Linux.
That time spent researching whether or not the parts will actually work with Linux is easily worth the cost of buying a Windows license and just knowing that everything will work as expected.
There's plenty of hardware that doesn't work well under Windows too, either because of driver bugs or because