Windows or Ubunto?

[Yhor]

I've been considering switching from Windows to Ubunto recently, and I was curious if some of the people here that have used both could give some pros and cons. My first impression of Ubunto was from from a SS that was posted, I believe it was Dreadelord's. It looks awesome, but looks can be deceiving.

I'll start with pro# 1.

1) Ubunto is Free.

[Petrah]

The only Con I can think of is that Blizzard does not officially support Linux... so you will get no official technical support from them.

[Yhor]

I've been playing since mid 2005 and have never 'contacted' Blizzard for anything with successful results. I use an authenticator as well for security of my account (not failsafe, but it's a great tool). I think WoWI has better support for WoW anyway, at least in my experience.

[saanlem]

Pike of Aspect of the Hare rubs WoW on Linux.
Check her site here.

[Vyper]

Originally Posted by Yhor I've been considering switching from Windows to Ubunto recently, and I was curious if some of the people here that have used both could give some pros and cons. My first impression of Ubunto was from from a SS that was posted, I believe it was Dreadelord's. It looks awesome, but looks can be deceiving. I'll start with pro# 1. 1) Ubunto is Free.

Pros:
2) Ubuntu has lots of support from the community
3) Linux is often more efficient
4) Symbolic links are great for addon devs
5) If you want software to do it, chances are its both available and free.
6) Often time more secure.

Cons:
1) No native client
2) WINE is sometimes buggy
3) Linux sometimes has a steeper learning curve
4) GNOME? KDE? XCFE? OpenBox? OMG I can't decide! (actually I can... I love GNOME (ubuntu default))
5) Driver hell... generics may not work as well, proprietary not always available
6) sudo confuses windows users (come on people its not that hard!)

Hope this helps. FYI on the driver hell, if your using a NVIDIA card, ubuntu includes the proprietary drivers and will ask if you want to activate them. If you have further questions on any of these points let me know.

[Yhor]

I keep seeing this "sudo" popping up in everything I read, just what is it?

My guess... it's a pseudo (alternate) method of doing something, such as admin on your computer or fixing files?

[Shirik]

sudo is used to execute a command at root level. This way, you don't have to su into root, you just excute that command.

[Vyper]

Originally Posted by Yhor I keep seeing this "sudo" popping up in everything I read, just what is it? My guess... it's a pseudo (alternate) method of doing something, such as admin on your computer or fixing files?

Basically, in order to perform certain actions, that action must be run as root. Root is an unrestricted user, which can do anything they want on the system and nothing will get in the way. Many distributions no longer (by default) allow the root user to log in, instead giving users a method to temporarily gain root privileges for the duration of the single command. Hence sudo. So, say I wanted to do something silly like write over my disk with zeroes. The old way:

1. Log in as root (or use su)
2. run: cat /dev/zero > /dev/sda0

now
1. run: sudo cat /dev/zero > /dev/sda0
Sudo will prompt you to re-enter your password.

There are serveral advantages of this method, especially if multiple people use the machine. For more information read this

Note: For many at this point it is possible to completely manage the machine using the GUIs, so you may never need sudo unless you are doing something complex.

[Yhor]

Thanks for the help, I think I'm going to dive into it. I have 2 hard drives (one is a clone of the other) and I'm curious as to the best route I should take into making the switch? I don't have a cd burner, so burning a copy of Ubunto isn't really an option. Should I make a partition and go from there? (Sorry for my newbness).

[Shirik]

Originally Posted by Vyper Many distributions no longer (by default) allow the root user to log in, instead giving users a method to temporarily gain root privileges for the duration of the single command. Hence sudo.

I don't find this to be true. Rather, most distributions allow the user to su to root. I still don't use a distribution with sudo, and never really liked it in the first place due to the fact that it doesn't always ask for the password (its inconsistency seems like a security flaw to me, despite the fact that it is rather good at guessing whether or not you are actually the user).

I still su to root, though I do have my box set up such that you cannot log in as root, you must su to it.

[Vyper]

The Debian derivatives such as Ubuntu all (or almost all) do not setup a root password by default (on Linux no password=no login). If you use an RPM or source based distro, I believe those still setup the root password (I know Fedora does).

As for not asking for the password on sudo, that is configurable. By default on Ubuntu, if you have sudoed in the last 5 minutes it will not ask you again, but that can easily be changed. You can also (though its not recommenced) set sudo to never ask for a password.

Finally, as far as what I'd recommend for a beginning user: If you have at least say 40Gb of spare hard drive space on windows (more is better) or on a spare drive, I would recommend giving Wubi a try. It makes installing/removing Ubuntu as easy as any windows program an runs almost as well as a native installation. This also allows you to keep running windows for those times when you want it (it gives you the choice at boot between Ubuntu and Windows)

Edit: IF for some reason you want to go straight to a native installation STOP! Take some time, make a list of all those windows applications you cannot live without. There may be several that cannot run under WINE or don't run well. Post the list here and I'll help you either find open source alternates, or determine if they can run under WINE easily.

[manix]

I am real fan of GNU/Linux from long time Slackware 3.xx was my first distro. I use Kubuntu on my laptop as primary OS and have it on my desktop computer too, but still I think playing wow in linux with wine aint good.

Don't know how some people claim they have better fps in WoW on linux.
I have mid video card(X1950GT) 60 fps in windows and that goes to 30 on linux.
There are also too many troubles with screen gliteches and stuff on linux, atleast for me.

I have read about fixxing some of them, but still it can't compare with playing experience on windows.

Native client will be super, but that will never happen imo. So for me WoW goes only on windows.

[Vyper]

Originally Posted by manix Don't know how some people claim they have better fps in WoW on linux. I have mid video card(X1950GT) 60 fps in windows and that goes to 30 on linux.

Are you using the the proprietary NVIDIA drivers? If not, you should be for gaming. 90-95% of the time, the generic VGA drivers are why people think Linux is inferior as a gaming platform. If you are running Ubuntu, the proprietary drivers should be showing up as "Restricted Drivers". Make sure the NVIDIA driver is activated, and you will likely see a vast gain in performance.

[manix]

Originally Posted by Vyper Are you using the the proprietary NVIDIA drivers? If not, you should be for gaming. 90-95% of the time, the generic VGA drivers are why people think Linux is inferior as a gaming platform. If you are running Ubuntu, the proprietary drivers should be showing up as "Restricted Drivers". Make sure the NVIDIA driver is activated, and you will likely see a vast gain in performance.

X1950GT is ATI RADEON card and yes I use the proprietary driver with latest version of Ubuntu, everything is up to date with me. Never old kernel, drivers and stuff and still WoW is better on windows.

For the people playing with old versions of some distros, I must say always upgade to latest version.
Ubuntu 8.10 introduced new kernel 2.6.27 and wireless with that kernel is times better then old ones. Also support in kernel for webcams and many other things is improved.

[Vyper]

Originally Posted by manix X1950GT is ATI RADEON card and yes I use the proprietary driver with latest version of Ubuntu, everything is up to date with me. Never old kernel, drivers and stuff and still WoW is better on windows.

Whoops! You'd think I'd have noticed that! Actually running ATI may be the majority of your problem (not that I'm saying NVIDIA is a better card). Last I used ATI (which was about a year ago so things may have changed), their Linux support was extremely poor, vs NVIDIA which puts in the effort to ensure that the card runs just as well under Linux as windows.

[WEEWSIR]

i didnt know wow would work with linux how is this ? more info is need plz post on it

thxs

[zork]

Winduws and Obonto?

[Vyper]

Originally Posted by zork Winduws and Obonto?

Lol really? You dug up a topic from 2008 for this?

[aceman67]

Originally Posted by Vyper Lol really? You dug up a topic from 2008 for this?

Its a good topic, worthy of being dug up.

Here's a guide I wrote to Install WoW on Ubuntu, you will need to update the filenames of the Graphics Drivers and other programs (Should they have been updated in the 9 months since I wrote it) when you get to their parts but that's it.

http://www.animeonline.net/f21/insta...w-linux-41199/

The con I have with playing wow on Linux is that you do not take advantage of the graphics power of your machine. I have a reletively high end nVidia card, and most of the features in the video member are either not there, like Anti Aliasing past 4x, Triliner Filtering, and others.

I eventually switched back to Windows only because, well, I got bored of linux, and I wanted to give Windows 7 RC a whirl (Which I have and I love it, and you should all buy windows 7 in october, Micro$haft really did their homework on this one, as the OS is stable and works amazingly well)

[Yhor]

Originally Posted by zork Winduws and Obonto?

Yeah, I spelled the name incorrectly (a few times), so what.


This thread has helped me a lot to get more familiar with things I probably would never have known about otherwise (dual booting programs and the ease of use of Ubuntu once you find a few shortcuts). I hope others have learned as much (probably more) as I have; it's been a great deal of fun and well worth the effort, imo.

My good box is still Windows, for gaming and media. Other programs for tasks and non-gaming are on my older box, running an Ubuntu OS. I found most programs made for *unix are just 'better', for me, compared to similar programs for Windows. I am able to run games with WINE with no problems (although I don't install in the "conventional" manner), with similar performance on an older box (graphics and video seem to be more consistant on my Windows box, and Vent always works there, otherwise...).

I offer my most sincere and sarcastic apology to those I offended by misspelling the name, no offense was meant by it.