OS

[Caldazar]

Im buying my very own computer for the first time after the summer, and I was wondering if anyone know of free, or very cheap OS that is compatible with most programs and games. Basically a cheap windows (yeah right, like thats ever going to happen..).

[hook]

oh great! another OS war!!

well, the closest you\'ll get to a free, stable OS is either linux or freeBSD. but in both don\'t expect to play every game you can get in win* ...PS, vendetta and other games are linux-native, and there\'s tons of ports, also there\'s the win* game emulator, but you\'ll still lack a few games. but if you look for a great, stable, nice looking (check some screenshots!!), highly configurable free OS, then linux could be the OS of your choice
...also PS runs better in linux :] ...no really, since you compile it from source, it\'s really fast (comparing to the (win*) precompile version!)

about other programs support: well, you don\'t usually run natively some apps (M$Office, Photoshop, Maya...) but there are either great open-source alternatives (OpenOffice.org (or even CrossOverOffice which 100% supports M$Office), theGIMP, blender...), ports (photoshop has an older port), or you can run them in an win* emulator ...let\'s just say that i haven\'t used windows in more then a year and i don\'t lack anything :]

check http://www.happypenguin.org for latest news on linux-native games
and http://www.transgaming.com for latest news on the win* gaming emulator and a full (=large!!) list of games it supports

for gentoo (my distribution of linux) check: http://www.gentoo.org
for a very simple to install distribution (mandrake) check: http://www.mandrake.org (or .com)

[Caldazar]

A quick question: I always thought that you had to know everything about coding, jam etc. to be able to use Linux.. is this true?

[Rulzern]

Not true at all, some linux distros are very easy to install and maintain (think windows, but simplified). I\'ve seen people who doesn\'t know what a scroll wheel is (on a mouse) install linux, so that shouldn\'t be a problem.

Also, JAM isn\'t mainstream at all, make is however.

[Caldazar]

pardon me for being n00bish but, is it free?

Oh, and about transgaming, does it support betagames like frozen throne, WoW etc.?

[Rulzern]

Yes, it\'s free :p
http://www.mandrake.com
http://www.redhat.com
http://www.debian.org
http://www.slackware.org
http://www.gentoo.org
are some normal distro\'s for home and office.

On the transgaming question: You quite simply just have to try, wine and winex aren\'t \"game-specific\", so just about any game might work, i think all the games that i play work in wine/winex (half-life+mods, GTA 3, GTA 3: vice city, morrowind, battlefield)

http://www.winehq.org and http://www.transgaming.com have each their own compatability list, look there first, might have some helpful pointers

[hook]

well, i do know a little bit about hacking some code, but i don\'t need to ...i use gentoo and the typical way of installing someting in gentoo is

emerge the_name_of_your_app

and that\'s it ...you wait untill it (and everything else it needs) is compiled, and happy using
...was a slackware user for around 4 and a half years before that,

linux is free, so are most distros (=different flavours of linux), there are also some commercial distros, but they\'re not better in anything

you might want to check out http://www.linux.com and http://www.linux.org (=different sites!!) for some basic info on linux and http://www.distrowatch.com for some (very) basic info on different ditributions (=distros, flavours) of linux

if i were you i\'d check out mandrake and gentoo as i already said.

about these games you mentioned ...the best way is to go to transgaming\'s site and search for info on the games there ...btw, they work on a user-demand system. there\'s a monthly (or weekly, or whatever) poll that asks you which technology, game etc. you would like to see work next ...and in these they put  the most effort

[Rulzern]

i\'ve totally fallen in love with apt, don\'t have enough time to use emerge, i need that time to play games :p

[Caldazar]

Ok, it has been decided.
*drumroll*
If I buy a new computer, I will use Linux, and perhaps install WinXP Pro aswell. You can run Linux and Win* on the same compunter right?
If I buy a used computer, I will use the OS that is on it.. hold your breath, until next episode of Caldazars Tales of Interest!

[hook]

yea, no problem with that ...it only gets \"a bit\" tricky to make dual-boot work if you have different OSs on different drives ...so buy a PC with only one big disk and then particionise it

[Caldazar]

Thats what I was going to do.

[hook]

Originally posted by Caldazar
Thats what I was going to do.

just making sure ...we have a few guys on gentoo forums that complain that they can\'t get dual-boot on different disks

well, don\'t forget to drop a line here, when you get the PC and when you finally decide which distro you\'ll use

[linuxknight]

Well, What An Interesting Topic!  Now I Can Flame About How Much LINUX Rox!  Planeshift Works Like Crap On Windows Machines.  I Tried It On My 32mb 768 MHz Celeron With 300mb Ram And Windows 2000 Professional.  This Is A No Brainer... If You Want Stability, Customizability, Lack Of Crashes Or Cash Payments, Go To Linux.  But If You Like Paying A Stinky Dork Named Bill Gates, Be My Guest.

Here\'s My Linux Machine\'s Setup:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
VIA 1.7 GHZ Pentium 4
512MB RAM
40X CD-RW
12X DVD-ROM
Geforce 2 MX/MX 400 Pci (64MB)
Redhat Linux 9 (Intel i386) Kernel Build 2.4.20-19.8
Nvidia Kernel & Glx 4363 (RPM)
VIA 8233x Sound (ALSA)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Caldazar]

Hmm... while we are on the subject of my computer.. Do you think this computer is worth 7900 swedish crowns? 1$ (US) is about 8.5 swedish crowns.

P4 1.9 Ghz
512 mb Pc800 Rambus
60 gb Ibm 7200
Asus Moderkort i845 chipset
Asus Geforce4 4400 Titanium 128mb Deluxe
Soundblaster Audigy Ljudkort
Intel 10/100
P4 Midi chassi
Creative 4.1 speakers
52x Cdrom
Sony 12/10/48 cd-burner
Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical
Standard keyboard

[Rulzern]

And Soon You Will Talk Like Linuxknight, Starting Every Word With A Capital, Talk About A Superior OS!