Posted on Wednesday 20th of December 2006 at 07:03 in Software

XP over Ubuntu over Vista

That's exactly how my options look over the coming months and I can't say i'm alone. I've said time and time again that the battle of the operating systems is looming and as we draw closer to the new year it's becoming increasingly apparent it's not going to be a battle at all.

I'm a native Windows user, having had it as my O/S since 3.1 I'm accustomed to the way it works, the way you do things and what can be done. This obviously made my steps into the Linux world a lot more daunting, but, clearly, I survived. There are problems with me making the full switch to Linux (along with some of my peers) in that - and yes this is correct - games don't support Linux - not the other way around. Therein lies my major problem. I enjoy gaming as much as the next person, it's my escapism and I really need to have the option to play (even if I actually game quite rarely). The rest of my needs are met reasonably well on Linux and Windows emulation is decent enough to allow my essential applications to make the leap with me. Games and their developers are the unchanging problem with the entire situation - it's almost as if they've been given a kickback from MS for ensuring that development for Windows is exclusive, with Mac editions being released late and Linux support be minimal.

ubuntu

XP Over Ubuntu
So XP comes over Ubuntu (or equivalent) for now because I'm utterly dependant on the gaming option. It's really not a case of not being able to do things in Linux because not only does it have an incredibly useful community it's also become a lot more point-and-click (Synaptic for example) it's really a case of developers not recognising it as an alternative platform and by extension not developing for it.

Although I must say I find it awfully ironic that I find it surprising game developers are reluctant to support a minority of people who believe in free software (and use it). What's the matter guys? Worried that we won't buy your games? You're probably right but whatever, it's the principle of the matter.

Over Vista
So that establishes why XP comes over Ubuntu, but Vista? Those who know me understand my apathy towards it, yet I've been realising that it will be unavoidable. Companies such as Dell will be delivering machines with Vista Home Basic, laptops will be delivered with it on, wherever I'm working will eventually be on Vista... The Microsoft monopoly looks to continue out of habit if nothing else and I see no way that things will change this way round.

Vista
Vista is my personal disappointment of the year (based off RC1 and feature lists) because I was looking to the horizon with a glimmer of hope in my eye, that this long awaited O/S would come along and solve all of my worldly problems. However, the result was a bloated resource whore who implemented visual effects because it could rather than should (much like the Matrix Reloaded movie). My conclusion was that it did nothing that XP couldn't do without 3rd party additions or minor tweaking.

My modest (cough tiny) bank balance and expired MSDN membership mean I'm unable to actually afford Vista (apart from Home Basic).

Home Basic is an interesting notion - a way of hiking prices by making an entry level package so basic that no one will want to buy it, safe in the knowledge that penny pinchers can't argue because they're opting to buy above the cheapest version. Naughty Microsoft.

Conclusion
Everywhere you look the most common reason for people not moving to Linux is gaming. However impressive the UI is becoming or how intuitive the experience if we can't do what we want we're not going to move. So this isn't a plea to the developers behind GNU/Linux, it's a plea to game developers to consider it as a platform worth developing for.

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Comments

Showing most recent 6 of 6 comments

i totally agree with you,but luckily for me i’m not a gamer so i’m using linux for my purposes other than games.
Many people will buy vista simply because it has a better look or it’s gonna be trendy.In linux i already have that look and even better.
I tryed Vista on my machine (has the label windows vista capable) and it doesn’t do anything that XP cannot do,except the fact that eats a lot of resources and not all the software works on it,and also it didn’t have all the drivers for my machine (linux did).linux ditros are evolving rapidly,it’s just a matter of time to overpass windows.don’t worry time it’s on linux’s side ;)
my conclusion: linux rules!!!

my opinion :)

Re: Corporate/educational/government deployment

Installing a system over 1000000 (identical) computers is as easy as installing it on the first. You have good control over the hardware, you know what’s going to explode and your user-support is constant.

In the wild, with PCs being so organic, things are infinitely harder to diagnose and troubleshoot.

I’m not sure where I’m going with that but there it is. I’ve said it.

Oli

Firstly I didn’t realise Cedega was free over CVS... That sounds quite interesting.

As Seo and I have documented over "n" many article and blog posts, linux is good but it’s also a nightmare in places where Windows just zips through. This is often none of linux’s fault. Most hardware problems stem from lazy vendors just as games do.

That’s the whole problem with Linux. There is so much commercial (to borrow seo’s word from above) apathy towards linux. Game & hardware vendors see it purely as a "geeks hacking around" platform. They don’t see the market in making decent drivers for enthusiasts or making games for Linux. Perhaps that’s the problem... Games makers are waiting for graphics hardware devs to write the drivers and vice-versa.

But the no-no for linux for me at the moment is Ubuntu’s total disregard for my computer hardware. There are drivers out there for "softraid" hardware raid but they’re not enabled. 5 hours of hacking around trying to get them to work, didn’t help either. If you do run into a problem like this in Linux, it’s often a game-stopper. Not being able to install was mine but not being able to install the crappy graphics drivers may be it for someone else.

In one line, THINGS NEED TO BE SIMPLER!

I’m sure I’ll get a lot of people saying "how noobish do you want this?!" and my rebuke would be: "as easy, if not easier than Windows". That’s who lnux is taking market share from. That should be the target simplicity... not just for "how pretty the installer is" or "how good the partition manager is" but EVERYTHING. At the moment lots of parts are easier whereas lots of parts can mean several (sometimes infinite) hours buggering around on an unfamiliar platform.

I think this message is getting through to the devs but they have to remember that they’ve had a LOT more time playing around in Linux than a new user.

concerning games:
actually, there is a move in the game developer community that starts making games for Linux.

Quake4, UT2004 where both natively linux from start, AFAIK, Quake 3 Arena was successfully ported (that’s actually the game I play the most), so where some other games (Alpha Centauri, etc - check out Loki in Google).

Enemy Territory, Savage and some more are full-featured Linux games, which are actually free (as in beer, not speech). they’re being actively developed all the time and work like a charm on my box (Kubuntu 6.06), though they do lack single-player mode. But who cares?

if you *really* need to play your windows games, there’s Cedega - free from CVS and $5/month if you want the pre-packaged version and support. just count how many months of cedega is it for a single Home Basic Vista license... ;)

That’s my 4th year on Linux now and I must say I see some changes in the Real World - Linux-related stuff in the mainstream computer magazines, commercial Linux games showing up (finally!), commercial apps being ported to Linux (flash 9 beta on my Kubuntu - w00t and the sound in swf finally works ;) ). 4 years in IT is a whole era, and as M$ didn’t do much during those years (yes, it’s *more* than 4 years since the XP came out). Methinks the potentate is going to have a *really* hard time.

Especially when you see the whole picture - New York installing Linux in schools, Brazil and France embracing Linux and OpenSource (Firefox, OpenOffice, etc) in their government administration, Munich installing Linux on their municipal office boxen, India, Spain, Denmark, Massachusetts, Gdansk, etc, etc...

besides, Windows never had - nor will have - such a great community. it’s impossible to understand it while you’re not part of it, but it’s a fascinating experience once you are.

hope to see you on #ubuntu some time
rysiek aka mike

rysiek

Vince - that’s exactly how I feel. I have plenty of games consoles (Xbox, PS2, Megadrive, Gamecube, N64, Snes, Gameboy and soon... a Wii) but I still value my PC gaming too much.

FPS should only be on a PC - fact. Same with things like sim city and the like, the console gaming situation just doesn’t cope with the Half Life 2’s of this world and therein lies it’s biggest problem - it leaves a massive genre only suitable for the PC.

Seopher

I totally agree. Which is why I bought a gamecube to replace my PC for games, and installed Ubuntu. I didn’t do much gaming on the PC anyway. Now I’ve just got to work out how to get my GPS software working, WINE doesn’t want to know...

Vince

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XP over Ubuntu over Vista