Any Linux advocates out there?

Retro Wolf · Mon 12/05/2014 20:17:33

I've got an old desktop that I rarely use, I'm thinking of turning it into a media/emulation station.
It runs XP, since this is no longer supported by Microsoft; I figured I might try Linux.

Is anyone here a Linux user? Do you run into many compatibility problems trying to run software?
I'd consider making a full switch (Vista laptop) but I doubt I'd be able to run GM:Studio, not so sure how well I could run AGS (I've looked into WINE a bit).

Disco · Tue 13/05/2014 00:18:57

I have yet to try AGS games on the Debian machine I've had going for a month or two, but software in general has not been an issue for me so far. There are often free software alternatives to many things that make me not miss any major applications.

What are you thinking of running on your machine? I experimented with openSUSE, Elementary, and Fedora before settling on Debian 7 (xfce). Tonight I am trying Arch on a virtual machine. I hear good things.

Ponch · Tue 13/05/2014 02:59:51

I'm on my old XP machine right now. I kept it because I have a few legacy programs I need that Win7 doesn't care for. Most of the time, I dual boot it into Linux Mint. Great OS, by the way. Very few problems with it.

Baron · Tue 13/05/2014 03:26:26

Quote from: Oldschool_Wolf on Mon 12/05/2014 20:17:33
Any Linus advocates out there?

I thought you were looking for software lawyers....

bicilotti · Tue 13/05/2014 07:18:03

Quote from: Oldschool_Wolf on Mon 12/05/2014 20:17:33
Is anyone here a Linux user? Do you run into many compatibility problems trying to run software?

Debian stable user here. Quite happy with it: solid as a rock, great choice of software in the repos, supportive community. I have successfully compiled the AGS engine on two architectures (armhf, i386) and play AGS game with little to no problems (e.g. turning off full-screen mode by editing acsetup.cfg by hand). IDE not tested yet.

Quote
I'd consider making a full switch (Vista laptop) but I doubt I'd be able to run GM:Studio, not so sure how well I could run AGS (I've looked into WINE a bit).

You, my friend, just experienced one of the major drawbacks of proprietary software: if they don't support your plaftorm, well.. there is little you can do. Wine is a great program (more info on GM:S on its Wine page), but it still feels like having crutches to me.
Depending on what you are looking for / what you like, there are a plethora of good, free, open source game development tools which target Linux among other platforms (Pygame for Python, LÃ¶ve for Lua, Lazyfoo's SDL tutorials which have been ported to many different languages, including Haskell).
Check them out, I say!

Problem · Tue 13/05/2014 08:31:29

I'm on Kubuntu right now. Compiling the AGS engine is easy, but you can also run pretty much every AGS game with Wine. If you manage to set up timidity, you might even get MIDI sound with Wine.
You can also use the AGS Editor with Wine, but you'll have to install .NET via Winetricks before. It does work, but the script editor sometimes crashes for me, so you'll probably have to use an external editor to edit your AGS scripts. Everything else seems to work very well.

Retro Wolf · Tue 13/05/2014 13:43:05

I pretty much only use Firefox, AGS, GM:Studio, and GraphicsGale.

It seems for the laptop dual booting is the way to go; though from what I've read there are hoops to be jumped through with Vista.
I'll see how I get on with linux on the desktop first.
Thanks for the input guys.

Quote from: bicilotti on Tue 13/05/2014 07:18:03
You, my friend, just experienced one of the major drawbacks of proprietary software: if they don't support your plaftorm, well.. there is little you can do.

Perhaps I should hire one of Baron's software lawyers.

Disco · Tue 13/05/2014 17:33:14

Try Aseprite as a Graphics Gale substitute.

I use Debian's stock browser, Iceweasel, which is a version of Firefox. Essentially the same experience.

Khris · Wed 14/05/2014 00:24:35

I'm not going to switch my main machine in the foreseeable future but I put the latest Lubuntu on an older laptop as an XP replacement. It's basically Ubuntu without all the wannabe flashy UI stuff, and given that this is a 1.6GHz DualCore with only 2GB Ram, it's really really fast. It literally shuts down in five seconds.
I haven't tried any windows software on it yet, just wanted to recommend using Lubuntu.

Retro Wolf · Wed 14/05/2014 13:17:53

I had a little play around with Ubuntu last night, and I did find the GUI a bit strange. Looking into Lubuntu, switching into LXDE seems like a good idea.

Other first impressions are good though, installation was quick and easy. I used Rufus to create a bootable pen drive, and it worked straight away; no searching for driver disks, no multiple reboots.

I'm quite impressed.

Problem · Wed 14/05/2014 18:29:44

Xubuntu might also be a very good alternative. Not quite as lightweight as Lubuntu, but Xfce is a very nice full-featured classic Desktop environment - very straightforward and easy to customize. Lxde (Lubuntu) is relatively new and sometimes a little rough around the edges (though I haven't tried the latest version yet, so it might have improved). But both are very nice and should be easy to get used to when you come from Windows XP. And of course you can always try out live DVDs of various desktop environments.

TheBitPriest · Mon 19/05/2014 15:06:26

I'm a pretty big Linux advocate, but Windows 7 is great too. Not starting any tech wars... Those arguments aren't worth the bandwidth.

Sslaxx · Mon 19/05/2014 15:26:47

Dunno if it'd be what you want, but http://enigma-dev.org/ is an alternative for GM:S.

Adeel · Mon 19/05/2014 17:45:44

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2107641/3-easy-linux-alternatives-for-windows-xp-refugees-who-dont-want-a-new-pc.html

You have, so far, tried Ubuntu and LXLE. If you want more of a XP like 'atmosphere', try Zorin OS.

That being said, I'm still using Windows XP for the time being. I'm thinking about upgrading my system soon, hence I'm not bothering to install any linux 'flavour'.

Gurok · Mon 19/05/2014 23:33:58

As this is about replacing XP, I thought this might be appropriate:

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/40191-Windows-Embedded-POSReady-2009

Yes, you can replace XP with XP (for 5 more years). Just do not run MS Office. Or do, the licensing restriction doesn't seem to matter much.

Me, I run Windows 8.11 for Workgroups. I know why you love XP -- MS screwed up Explorer and progressively broke OS features in later releases. But if you want to build Windows applications, use > 4GB RAM* and test web applications in IE, you've got to stay up to date. Give in to the bloat!!

*You could run Win2000 DataCenter Edition for this.

Retro Wolf · Tue 20/05/2014 21:52:16

Thanks for the input guys.

bgordebak · Thu 14/08/2014 18:30:31

I don't know if I count as an advocate, but I use and love Linux. Only thing close to Window$ I use is Wine. I use only Linux since 10 years, and never needed anything else.

Maybe my logic is somewhat crooked, but this is what I think about free software:

I don't have a problem with paying for proprietary entertainment. End result can be proprietary. Like games, movies or books. But I think the tools should be free (as in beer and speech) and easily accessible by everyone. That's the only thing that would make entertainment grow and give us choices.

I don't want to start any flame wars here. Just stating my opinion.