What Made You Switch To Linux?

I first tried Linux a few years ago, not because I was completely against Windows or anything like that, but just because I had some free time on my hands. I started off with Mandrake 9.0 which was very user friendly and Windows-like. After reading through a bunch of message boards and learning which distros are good for what, I soon realized my current distro was great for Linux noobs. So then I decided to try something a little more advanced like Slackware which I knew had a steep learning curve.

Since then I've been using Slackware as my main OS and couldn't be happier. Of course somethings are a pain in the *bottom* to configure, but that;s Slack for you. If it ain't hard, then you won't learn anything from it.

That's my story, I basically started to learn Linux because I was bored.

Two of the four computers in my house run Linux. The first was my laptop, which I put Kubuntu on. I switched mainly because I wanted to see what Linux was all about, and I liked the idea of everything being free, in both senses of the word. I pretty much stuck with Kubuntu until 7.10 came out, which failed miserably to upgrade, so I replaced it with the KDE version of Linux Mint. It's based on Ubuntu, but has some different packages available and a few bugfixes.

The second computer is an ancient desktop (around 8 years old now) that recently had the hard disc die. As I didn't have a Windows CD to hand, and didn't feel like buying one, I put Kubuntu on there. That computer is used mainly by my parents, and they say that it is much easier to use than XP, runs much faster, looks much better, and the software is a lot more stable. They are not computer-literate at all. Things they wouldn't have had a hope of doing in XP (ripping audio CDs, downloading updates, even installing new software) they can now do with ease.

Do we really need any other reason to switch to linux

Games would be nice. Well, more of them, at least.

Replying to dre

I agree that games would be nice in Linux. Games like Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell would be nice on Linux.

-reply by Devon Day a.K.A. Madkid

I too kind of started playing with linux out of boredom and sheer curiosity... I started years back, with Red Hat 6.0, then 7.2, then made a little pause in linuxes I then tried Ubuntu 5.04, then another pause, then 6.06, and now I'm a happy user of Ubuntu 7.10... Since most of what I do is programming, linux is a great OS for me, stable, and has everything you need on your hands... If you know how to find it

In reply to games... There are a ton of games for linux, mostly FPS, based on Unreal engine, and some others... Linux was more of a pro user OS, and as such, doesn't have a great variety of games to choose from, but the list is rather big... I just finished downloading Americas Army game for linux, and will try it on... There are also RPG's, Strategies, and other games... What I noticed lacking are driving simulation games, but hey, nothing is perfect.... And there's always wine I hear that the lates version can run pretty much anything windows you put into it...

BF2 still crashes for me, but I wouldn't mind playing some recent games. I realize there's loads of games that are free for linux out there, but they just don't really fit my style. I tried out Truecombat: Elite the other day, not very noob friendly, got pwnd with a 1-21 or so k/d, but it's one of the few games that I can stand playing more than 15 mins. that's free.

This post has been edited by dre: Apr 3 2008, 10:03 PM

I started to play around with Linux because I was bored one day. So the genius osknockout decided to install Slackware as his n00b distribution. Wasn't the greatest idea in the world and I stopped using Linux again for like two years. Then came across a copy of Knoppix, decided linux was cool again, installed mepis (debian/ubuntu derivative) and gentoo then sabayon (gentoo derivative). Now I have a very modified ubuntu system.

Games in linux.
I see one of three possibilities:
1. Linux gets native Direct X support
2. Some avenging Microsoft ex-programmer puts Direct X support in wine.
3. Everyone finally realizes that Direct X's API is inferior to OpenGL's and starts coding in it.

I don't see any of that happening soon, so I'm going to have to say that the majority of the cool games that use direct x won't be coming too well for linux soon.

Switching to linux has many reasons. I first tried Ubuntu Breezy Badger ( that's Ver 5 if I'm not wrong). It was some 3 years back. Now I've both Linux & Win XP on my box. It really suits me. When I need to Network related stuff I switch to Linux & whiler playing games I'm in win. I also hope that Direct X Api s get incorporated soon within wine. Linux gives it's users a great level of Customizability. Also it can run directly from CD in case of Some Live Versions. I think Gaming in Linux will grow in very near future cause many noobs are getting extremely interested in Linux. As a result I hope someo0ne will code the API for Linux as well and we have our vwery old wine which will do Win emulation for us in Linux. Currently I'm using Fedora Core 8. It's great & also runs faster than any other Linux Versions. It also installs very fast on my PC. While Redhat 9 took sopmething around 2 hrs to install the Core 8 installed and was up and running with all settings modified to my needs and with my day to day neeeded softs in just a few over 30 mins.

Well, the stuff I hear about wine were not quite true, possibly because of DirectX... I attempted to play 3 games, a logical ones, that probably use DX, and wound up with nothing... So, until I try to install DX on wine, and then try those games, I guess it's a bust... The lates version of wine, the one I installed, supposedly has support for native windows api, meaning you can put a dll in wine's virtual directory, and the software should work... We'll see

As for games, I see that FPS's are most dominant for linux... And so, I wound up playing Americas Army, that runs pretty smoothly and nicely with OpenGL... Too bad they halted development for linux...

Hopefully, we won't have wine one day, as windtendo won't exist anymore