Linux-users

I used Ubuntu, OpenSuse is nice too. (Extra for "Linux" noobs is : Linux Mint).

Advantages -
Free
Excellent support
Lots of distros/setups to choose from
Secure (if setup correctly)
Very very powerful OS

Disadvantages -
Not easy to use (even with the easy-to-use distros)
Sometimes lacking hardware support (ie, newer laptop network cards, etc)
Lack of newer games
Lack of powerful specific software (like CAD, etc)


woot google really works !

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i am using fedora (mainly for coding purpose).
it's quite easy to use, of course you'll need to spend some time to get used to it.

it's not wise to take linux if you like playing games.
WINE won't run most games because of their copy protections - and in case you get them running, you'll have quite bad performance most likely. -> dual-os is teh wai.

I'd recommend you Fedora Core 10, or Sidux. I have them both and I'm fairly satisfied with them, They both have a real good support btw.

Playing games on Linux is still a problem, but you already can emulate many games ( http://www.holarse-linuxgaming.de ).

there is a nice article when you think about switching!

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

why don't you run dual :p ? i use ubuntu like 6 days from week and vista for games!

Gentoo.

why you wanna use nerd os?

Ubuntu is nice.

windows -> you have a pre-built generic crippled system
most linux distros -> you build your own personalised system
ubuntu -> somewhere inbetween

the downside of ubuntu is while you can build a really nice system out of it, if it's your first distro you lack knowledge of some things essential to getting that 'perfect' system

anyhoo, depends what you want to do - i keep a windows partition separate (currently running windows 7) for when I feel like playing the latest directx games (rarely) but must stuff I want to play is either already on linux (quake engine games) or is old enough that it runs fine under wine (system shock, etc)

I used to be linux-only but that didn't last long ( a year or sth ). I was using arch linux, I consider this as a best linux out there, but there will be still a lot of people telling you to use ubuntu/mandriva/other "easy to use" linux, so I won't recommend it since my recommendation will be lost among many other anyway.

Ekhm. So. The point I stopped using it, is that as long as you want to play new games from time to time (like, downloading a new one each week) you won't get used to keep trying to run it for the whole day, just to realise that only 1/2 of them actually work ( and the other 1/2 of them isn't running correctly). I am a real fan of linux, but I'm using win xp ( although I currently use interix and other unix stuff on it - having bash on windows is a great thing:D ). Linux is great, awesome for: surfing, downloading, programming, administrating, chating, watching and playing id games which have linux native version. But it's just not good for everyday gaming if you consider playing anything that's not supported natively.

So, I'd love games being written natively for linux on the same time as for windows, but for the situation as it is, I sticked to windows. So, I'm not recommending it in fact, as long as you are not doing any IT work that don't need to be interrupted by launching a game, then dual boot can be your choice.

Shit, too long :D

thanks for all your replies very much appreciated

I'm wondering whether I should switch to Linux again aswell =/
I'm missing it so hard.
Just the power and the stability.

firstly if you don't know what distro to chose don't start with it.

I tried Ubuntu, it took me 4 hours to instal the Ati drivers properly (they were installed before but games still used default drivers for some reason). Even playing mp3 files isn't posible by default, took me only 5 mins to fix though.

In general it was a realy nice OS to use for day to day stuff, but even for an advanced windows user it was realy hard to get used to all the command line work you had to do to egt everything working properly.

IF you decide to instal linux make sure you keep your windows in dual boot. Because the first week(s) you wont be able to do everything you want to do in linux. It took me 2 weeks to do the most stuff in linux which I could do in windows. And still I couldn't play ET like it should, I could chose between 30 fps + sound or running the game with sudo and have 500+ fps but no sound.

ubuntu is kinda nice for linux noobz

check my ubercool tutorial about linux & et D:

Start out with ubuntu and use it until you can decide for yourself what you want :)