Dumping XP

Smokey.Joe · n00b Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Posts: 17

Ok, I'm considering dumping Windows in favor of Gentoo. I've dual booted Gentoo and XP for a while now, and it seems that I use Windows less and less. However, before I go ahead with the install, I want to ask some questions.

1.) The main reason XP was/is still on my machine is for video games. I'm going to be switching over to playing UT2K4, and since it has a linux installer I won't need XP anymore. Will I be able to play some of my older windows games in Linux using WINE? The games would be SIM games like Pharaoh, or Ceaser 3.

2.) Video. I have lots and lots of video's on my computer. In Gentoo now, I can play and access all of them, minus WMA files. Since most of the stuff I have on my computer is in AVI or MPEG format, will I lose anything in the switch, (Not hard drive related, more quality related.)?

3.) Email and Newsgroups. I use Evolution and Pan. Pan isn't as stable as I would hope, but it works. Are there any better newsreaders out there? or are there any that intergrate with Evolution?

4.) GnuCash. I use this program in Linux to have a budget at my house. This is also one of the main reasons I installed Linux. Windows has programs simialr to this but at a cost.

5.) I have a digital camera. I know that I should be able to use it in Linux, but are there any hick-ups to getting it to work? It's a Coolpix 2100 with CF memory connected to PC with USB cable.

6.) There's not much else to ask, other then this, The above topics are what I mainly use my computer for. Would Linux be an acceptable OS to use, or should i just stick with XP?

I've been told that if I want to game, I should stick with Windows. If I want to view, download and/or make videos I should stick with Windows. The email and web surfing is really a no brainer. I hate IE and use Mozilla on all the machines I have to use, including at work. Again, I was thinking it wouldn't be too hard to get everything up and running in Gentoo, but it will take time, and I'm just wanting to know if it would be any better then an Xp box that rarely crashes. Gentoo has been stable when ever I run it, but I am thinking about ditching the whole Windows world for the lovely open soruce community of Linux.

Some other things that might help you before you give me your input. This isn't suppose to be a topic of Windows vs. Linux. I'm not a programmer, and any issues that arise with my install of Gentoo will lead me straight to here to look for the answers. I guess, I'm just asking, is it worth the time and effort, and yes the little quriks that will come up, to install Gentoo, and get it to run equally to, if not better then, my current XP install?

ASUS P4PE mobo
P4 2.4 GHz CPU
CD-Burner
512 megs RAM
80 gig HD and a 40 gig HD (currently XP is on the 80 and Gentoo on the 40)
Oh, and the digital Camera. (USB connection with a CF card for memory.)

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2004 5:09 pm Post subject:

Smokey.Joe,

It sounds like you are not quite ready to make the switch. Get all your hardare running under Linux, check out the games with WINE, then, when you are happy, delete XP.
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

Check out my screenshot. You'll see that I have quite a selection of games and I only use Wine for mIRC. Also, I can play WMA/WMV files just fine in Gentoo. Also, no quality will be lost unless somehow the magnetic stains that make up the bytes don't all copy which is basically impossible.

I use mplayer and xine for my video and XMMS for audio and they both play Windows Media format, so you might have to emerge mplayer or xine to get it going. Also, emerge -s is helpful too.

When I find games that aren't available for Linux I could care less no matter how good they look. Of course, I'm a person that enjoys playing SNES games in ZSNES more than the newer games so....

The digital camera will work fine as long as you compile support for USB file systems or whatnot. My Gravis Eliminator Aftershock works perfectly with the kernel HID drivers so I'm sure it will be fine.

The thing is, Linux is not neccessarily one way or another. You can use it for whatever you want to use it for and that sets it apart from Windows and other proprietary OSs. Mac is good for editing, Windows is good for solitaire, and Linux is good for whatever you want.

Smokey.Joe · n00b Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Posts: 17

Oh no, I'm very ready to delete windows, I just had a few questions and concerns since there have been more then a few people tell me that I should just stick with Windows. The only piece of hardware I haven't tried to install/run/use in linux is my dig camera. Everything else, NIC, Sound, Video, CD-burner, all work fine in Gentoo. What I am going to do is wipe my Gentoo Drive, and start all over again, installing form a stage1 tarball and using the 2.6 kernel. I was just hoping I could get some advice on what others thought I might do. I posted the majority of work I do in Windows, and 90% of it I can do in Linux. But, should I? I guess that's the major question.

EDIT:
Should I use the 2004.0 CD or the 2004.1 CD? There seems to be a lot of grumblings over the 2004.1 disc. I have the minimal disc of each.
/EDIT

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

If you like Linux then there's no reason not to do the work in Linux.

Aurora · l33t Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 658 Location: Classified

Malakin · Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 1:13 am Post subject:

1. You'll have to try out the games yourself and see.

2. I find either mplayer or xine is better then anything on windows. I can't imagine that you'll be missing anything.

3. I use pan every day, right now it's 0.14.2 and the current version has been completely stable, I download about 10,000 things with it every day and I've never seen the current version crash.

5. Shouldn't be a problem but you might as well test it out before making the move.

Nicom · Guru Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 380

I agree that you should test out your camera and games first, just in case.

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

Yeah, it's probably a good idea to do that. However, I know for certain that games run much faster in Linux because the other processes sleep and they get the most attention. I have UT2004 myself and with a high-end Windows PC they were getting load times for levels of over a minute with 512mb of RAM.

I have 768mb of RAM and not as fast of a processor and get load times of around ten seconds on all levels.

Using Wine to play games is a whole other story though.

Anime_Fan · Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 5:26 am Post subject: Re: Dumping XP

mallchin · Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 2:33 pm Post subject:

I made the switch over a year ago and haven't regretted a second.

Gentoo roxx. It really roxx. It eats bulls balls for breakfast and shits logs the size of sequoia's.

Delete Windows today.
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 6:06 pm Post subject:

Smokey.Joe,

A delete and reinstall is a bit OTT. If you want a 2.6 kernel, put it beside your current kernel.

Gentoo is a up to date as the last

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

What if it happens and the whole world finds out?

Malakai · Apprentice Joined: 24 Dec 2002 Posts: 299

My approach is this:

I left my winxp partition on my drive, but vowed that if I can not use it for 1-2 months, I will wipe it and use gentoo only.

Usually when I really tried but couldn't get something working (cd burning for instance), I would just boot to winxp and do it, and then boot back. But now, I'm almost 3 weeks in and haven't booted windows once. I tried and tried and tried to get cd burning WITHOUT SCSI EMULATION (I could always do it with, but I was focused on not using it anymore to keep the kernel cleaner), and now I have it working perfectly with xcdroast of cdrecord at the cmd line.
I play tfc, cs, and other half life mods just fine (I still can't get natural selection to install though), I'm also playing Tribes 2 and enemy terrritory. My ati cards drivers suck, I'm selling it (9800xt) and I'm just going to grab an FX5900xt and keep the extra cash for a new pc case.

I have one last hurdle, which will be solved with a separate file server, and then I will wipe winxp and sell the os to someone for 50 bux or so (a steal for xp pro non-upgrade).

I suggest taking it slow, and don't get to frustrated. You will know when you are ready, padawan

ASpott · n00b Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 33 Location: California

Hey man, I'm totally with you. I used to duel boot suse linux, but my brother discovered gentoo, and one day I just got fed up with windows and reformatted. Been using gentoo ever since...most of my games work (with effort) and those that dont...well thats one less game I'm addicted to. As for everything else...well it's all worth the effort. Windows blows. Gentoo is awesome...can't say the same for all the other distros, but gentoo is awesome. Do a full out reformat and get every piece of windows shit off your computer asap, you won't regret it.
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"Amidst the numerous processors and network cards I have sacrificed for their sake, why is that the computer gods still continue to hate me?"

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

Hmm... Quite an old topic. I would never use mIRC anymore and do not even use Wine or a fork of it. heh Heck, the starter of this topic might not use Windows anymore. I got rid of Windows a long time ago when I got my new motherboard and my one HDD would not boot in it. Then I used that HDD for my mom's computer which runs Gentoo(no, she is not tech savvy).

ASpott · n00b Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 33 Location: California

Erm, shit, I really gotta check the dates on these things when posting...
_________________
"Amidst the numerous processors and network cards I have sacrificed for their sake, why is that the computer gods still continue to hate me?"

John5788 · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:09 am Post subject:

feld · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 593 Location: WI, USA

i game just fine. (dual booter for my gf only; she plays sims2... ewwww...)

RTCW, RTCW:ET (free), Doom 3 (get the demo!), UT2004, have UT2003 but dont play it, Americas Army....

I get my game on juuuust fine.

-Feld

John5788 · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:10 am Post subject:

AA has got to be the best free game ever
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John5788

ChojinDSL · l33t Joined: 07 Jul 2003 Posts: 784

Just a few points Id like to add, some of which might have been mentioned before.

1. Videos.
Actually I think when it comes to playing videos, I feel like linux is the ueberbeast. Mplayer plays anything I throw at it, I absolutely love it. Of course if you've got a video thats encoded with some rare proprietary format (e.g. certain video tutorials for grafx programs) then your out of luck.
But other than that, the world is your oyster.

2. Games.
Linux might not be the best games platform at the moment, but its getting there, and certainly has heaps and bounds of potential.
As it stands, if your concerned about your unported windows games, wine or winex a.k.a cedega should keep you covered on the popular ones.
I think that the two that you mentioned should work fine. Of course, there is no guarantee, but chances are it will work often enough.

3. GFX card.
You mentioned that you wanted to get rid of your ATI and get the Nvidia Geforce FX5900xt. Good, nvidia is certainly better under linux than ati is. HOWEVER, I would suggest that you wait until the end of the month to get a new card. You might have heard about Nvidia's new 6800 and 6600 cards. Well the 6600 is currently only available for PCI-express ports, but a agp version should come out at the end of october. The price should be below 200euros, since the 6600GT will be available for 200-250 euros.
I've seen it on pre-order for 235euros or something.
I'm guessing if your gonna spend about 150-180 euros on a new grfx card, your gonna probably be really annoyed if a few weeks later a better one for the same money is out.
I know, usually this happens all the time, but from what I gather, the 6600/6600GT should really be worth the wait.