Gaming on Linux?

[Noxina]

Hey guys

I got a problem, as a poor student I cant afford a copy of Windows 7 (Running on a pirated version atm, and keep getting that pop up.. Wish I could afford a real version.. but thats not how it is at the moment.)
So my question is; How is Linux (or some other program, that is free) for gaming? I play all the CoD games, WoW, some CS, and a bunch of other games I bought over the time on Steam..

I got a pretty decent desktop computer
(Setup
i5-2500k @3.7ghz (Thinking about clocking it a bit more, but as I got no problems in any games atm I dont see the reason)
HD Radeon 6870
8gb ram
And I guess thats the important specs (If they are important at all, read somewhere that Linux works slower with some gpu's..)


I ONLY use this desktop for gaming, nothing else (Except Vent/mumble/skype and Spotify in the background)

And I'm no computer pro, so do I need to know how to work with software to make it work, or is it any "finish made mods"?


Thanks in advance

[Noxina]

I'll remove it from the post, thank you: )

[lockblock]

You mention being a student so its possible you could get a cheap copy from school. Other option would be to install the consumer preview of windows 8 and get that for cheap when its released next month.

[Noxina]

You mention being a student so its possible you could get a cheap copy from school. Other option would be to install the consumer preview of windows 8 and get that for cheap when its released next month.

I havn't heard anything anything good about windows 8.. But yeah, I can hear with the people on the office at my school if they got something cheap

But I am interested in Linux, heard so much about it. And my curiousity(well, that word wasnt easy!) draws me towards it x]

[geekx]

Linux with Wine will run a decent amount of games with good or better performance, since your not completely tech savy you will want to use ubuntu it is the most idiot proof distro with wide support. As for driver support i dont know how well AMD/ATI keeps up with linux since i haven't used one of their cards in years but Nvidia just announced that they will show linux allot more love.

I suggest you review the compatibility list for Wine here http://appdb.winehq.org/

Steam has also professed its love for linux and they are working to support it with their product

Edit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu<

I would suggest turning off unity for a more windows/OSX feel


Also Ventrilo DOES NOT have an official supported client for linux but there is an open source client out there on the ubuntu network called Mangler.

[lockblock]

I havn't heard anything anything good about windows 8.. But yeah, I can hear with the people on the office at my school if they got something cheap

Win8 definitely has its quirks or as some put it retarded features and lack of existing features. However windows 8 does load faster and seems to load certain programs faster. Last time I tried it firefox actually felt just as responsive as chrome while on win8. I'm not sure if that will be enough to get me to switch but it seems like a viable option for yourself since it will be relatively cheap.

[Cyanotical]

yes you can game on linux, but it is not easy, i've been using linux off and on for about 5 years and i still dont think it's up to par with windows for gaming and general user use, if you are good with linux it's a great OS, but trying to run a windows based game in wine can give even a linux programmer a headache

you have to ask yourself if you are willing to put up with having to jump through hoops and give up a decent amount of playability/graphics for every game you try to install, WoW doesn't even run that well on linux, despite being constantly updated on wine, for example, with a new patch or expansion, you may have to wait 2-3 weeks before wine is updated and running stable with the new version of WoW

Windows 8 is not bad, the desktop and background portions are definitely better than windows 7, but the main start menu is pretty much for children

[adendum]

with a new patch or expansion, you may have to wait 2-3 weeks before wine is updated and running stable with the new version of WoW

Never happened to me in 3 years.
Wow runs great with wine (not perfect). Skype has a native client. Dont know about the other.

[Noxina]

Win8 definitely has its quirks or as some put it retarded features and lack of existing features. However windows 8 does load faster and seems to load certain programs faster. Last time I tried it firefox actually felt just as responsive as chrome while on win8. I'm not sure if that will be enough to get me to switch but it seems like a viable option for yourself since it will be relatively cheap.

So what you're saying is that win8 works fine if I'm only gonna use it for gaming? And then I get it cheap if I try it out first, or beta test or what ever?

[Keller]

Linux is fairly alright at games but you'll get bad performance compared to the windows versions of said games. some games do not work as a dependancy cannot be installed, i cant recall which exactly but im pretty sure it's Net framework. Linux is generally something you want to avoid when gaming..

AMD's driver support for linux is horrible.

Windows 8 is something you might want to give a shot, if you install the RTM / Pro / Enterprise version you'll get popups every few hours and a watermark. If you install the consumer preview you'll just get a watermark. It'll work until release and a 90 day grace period after that.

[vesseblah]

I ONLY use this desktop for gaming, nothing else (Except Vent/mumble/skype and Spotify in the background)

Do yourself a favor and forget linux. You'll be flipping a coin with every new game if it's gonna work or not.

I got a problem, as a poor student I cant afford a copy of Windows 7

Students get Windows very cheap, maybe even free (through MSDNAA program). Check out how the software discounts and free software downloads work at your school and stop being a stinkin' pirate.

[Noxina]

Do yourself a favor and forget linux. You'll be flipping a coin with every new game if it's gonna work or not.


Students get Windows very cheap, maybe even free (through MSDNAA program). Check out how the software discounts and free software downloads work at your school and stop being a stinkin' pirate.

Well ok, I'll let Linux slip then ^^

And yes - that's what I want, stop being a pirate! So I gonna ask on my school tomorrow if it's any special offers for students

[Codyak]

Perhaps when Windows 8 comes out, Windows 7 prices will drop enough into your price range. I've tried the Linux route, the idea behind it is nice, but gaming wise it's just a hassle and as someone else said, really hit or miss as to whether the game will work at all.

[Tonyctattoo]

Drivers for video cards are pretty bad on Linux but nvidia is way better than amd. I can run both wow and gw2 on my 2 core 2.6ghz with 2 gig ram and older video card. So yeah it works but like people said you have to jump through hoops but sometimes it's what you gotta do..

[Cyanotical]

Never happened to me in 3 years.
Wow runs great with wine (not perfect). Skype has a native client. Dont know about the other.

i had this happen with every patch in BC, and wrath took about 4 weeks before you could play it, i went back to windows because of this, although i imagine the new streaming launcher fixes that problem, but that's not to say you wont have the same problem with other games

AMD's driver support for linux is horrible.

Drivers for video cards are pretty bad on Linux but nvidia is way better than amd.

it's actually the otherway around atm, nvidia drivers are terrible compared to AMD

prior to the AMD take over of ATi, the only red drivers for linux were community made ones, and Nvidia was much better

Nvidia has let this slip, and it has cost them over 500 million dollars, they are finally getting back into making linux drivers because of pressure from Valve

[Meleti]

I havn't heard anything anything good about windows 8..

People complain about stupid things. You don't have to use the Windows RT / Metro because W8 still supports the legacy desktop. There will be absolutely no reason to buy W7 keys once W8 ships, unless you find them really cheap or something.

Definitely check the school. Mine sells x64 Professional licenses for $15.

RE: your original question. Gaming on Linux is not good. WINE exists, but it's inefficient and generally speaking running on Windows is going to be easier. OpenGL is mostly ignored by devs because the APIs take some getting used to and DX arguably has better support.

[Cyanotical]

one thing i want to add, gaming on linux is coming, but maybe not for another year, it will need both Blizzard and Valve to make the push, Valve wants all games on steam to have working linux clients by the end of 2013/early 2014, and one the lead developers for WoW said they are starting to weigh the option because of concern over the app store in windows 8

personally i think this is a step in the right direction, compared to the old days of assigning IRQ/DMA addresses modern computer gaming is pretty console-ish and hassle free, but thats probably just the part of me that likes problem solving and complex problems

I do think it would be cool though to list your custom compiled distro and UI along with your hardware in a gaming build list

[Tonyctattoo]

Hmm I don't personally know because I don't have both kinds of cards but I know on the wine and Ubuntu forums the general opinion leans the other way after the nightmare of getting gw2 to work on Linux. But either way i can run both wow and gw2 on Ubuntu.. Granted getting the mouse direct input to work on gw2 was a massive undertaking but it's doable.

[vesseblah]

one thing i want to add, gaming on linux is coming, but maybe not for another year, it will need both Blizzard and Valve to make the push, Valve wants all games on steam to have working linux clients by the end of 2013/early 2014,

Blizzard is minor player in PC gaming. EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Microsoft and probably few other companies I've forgotten are closer to the top of the list. Valve is probably making their own DRM enabled Steambuntu distro to battle Microsoft's app store instead of enabling gaming on generic linux. It's fools errand to even dream of plain vanilla linux as a viable gaming platform because there are too many flavors of it.

and one the lead developers for WoW said they are starting to weigh the option because of concern over the app store in windows 8

Any source of that? Every single official Blizzard comment I've seen so far says the same: they try to make sure their games work with wine, but they wont publish linux version because they'd have to support it too.

Granted getting the mouse direct input to work on gw2 was a massive undertaking but it's doable.

And this is why Blizzard does not want to officially support anything on linux.

[Cyanotical]

Blizzard is minor player in PC gaming. EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Microsoft and probably few other companies I've forgotten are closer to the top of the list. Valve is probably making their own DRM enabled Steambuntu distro to battle Microsoft's app store instead of enabling gaming on generic linux. It's fools errand to even dream of plain vanilla linux as a viable gaming platform because there are too many flavors of it.



Any source of that? Every single official Blizzard comment I've seen so far says the same: they try to make sure their games work with wine, but they wont publish linux version because they'd have to support it too.



And this is why Blizzard does not want to officially support anything on linux.

I would disagree, most of the other companies make generic games for all platforms, Blizzard tends to make only PC games, as well WoW, Diablo, and Starcraft are iconic PC games

the source is from a twitter statement made by Rob Pardo, he doesn't actually say anything about linux, but agreed with Gabe Newell that W8 is bad for game developers, the main concern comes from the app store, there is a very justified concern that MS will lock down W8 and future versions of windows to only allow approved software purchased through the app store to be installed, and following the apple model, MS would get a 30% cut of every game sale

the lack of linux support currently is due to the multitude of distros, but iirc Valve is doing current development with ubuntu 12.04 lts, and that would have to be the way to go, pick one main distro to officially support, and then tell everyone else they are on their own, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, most linux users use ubuntu, or an ubuntu derivative anyway, those who use gentoo, arch, red hat, etc generally will have the knowledge to run a program and troubleshoot it themselves or with the help of a distro specific community

but if it comes down to it, i think blizzard would be able to make a fully functional openGL client, and considering that valve is now matching performance numbers of W7/DX in linux, it very well could be a huge market for game publishers, porting console games is a bit easier as well, the PS3 runs a custom linux firmware, and its widely expected that the rumored steam console will run linux