Switching to Linux - Which distro???

[JupiterPaladin]

So I have finally decided to ditch the comfort zone of Windows and go for Linux. I have basically been reading reviews (or watching on YouTube when I get lazy), and I think that I have a few in mind to try.

Ubuntu 8.10
Linux Mint 6
PCLinuxOS 2009
Knoppix 6.0.1

I'm looking at a full hard drive install, no dual-booting or anything like that. I want to ask the Playgrounders which is best and why? I also have a few applications that have to be able to run on the distro to be a valid option for me. Here is the list.

NeverWinter Nights (I host a NWN server)
NeverWinter Nights Extender 2.0 (NWNX2)
Ultima Online & UO Razor
A whole pile of cheap Windows required games for my daughter

Thanks in advance for any helpful info!

[valadil]

I've been using linux for 8 years and highly recommend Ubuntu. I was a big debian fan before it came out, and Ubuntu took debian and focused it for every day desktop use.

You're going to want to install wine to run your windows applications. Wine isn't perfect, but it usually works well enough. I'm pretty sure NWN has it's own native linux clients, so that shouldn't be a problem and I'm also fairly certain that people have gotten UO to work. You can check WineHQ's compatibility database (http://appdb.winehq.org/) for more info. Your experience with wine will not vary a whole lot from distro to distro.

[Starscream]

I also enjoy Ubuntu. I personally dual boot it and Windows, which is something you might consider if you are worried that you might not be able to run everything and you have enough space for both.

[Haruki-kun]

I also recommend Ubuntu. Especially if you're only starting out. They call it "Linux for Human Beings", after all.

I suggest you stick to Dual-Booting at first, though. Otherwise it's huge leap of Faith.

[Anuan]

From experience, PCLinuxOS is even easier to use than Ubuntu.
However; as far as gaming goes, there's no guarantee that WINE (which is available for PCLOS or Ubuntu) or another windows-emulator will work properly, especially if you host a NWN server (which is awesome, btw :smallbiggrin:), SO...Recommend doing a dual-boot with Windows with enough room for your games.

[Lupy]

I'm going to vote Ubuntu, it is the most used (and thus, easiest to get help for) distro in the world, and it's very user friendly.

However, at least until you have everything down pat for Ubuntu, you should probably dual boot.

Just my two non-euro-cents. (Take that all you people who can't just say "cent!")

[DanielX]

A third vote for Ubuntu - although Knoppix or another LiveCD or LiveUSB distro may also work. I've used different versions of Ubuntu since I got 5.04 on the recommendation of my college's Linux User Group back in 2005... and its gotten a heckuva lot better since then.

You don't want to replace Windows outright - even with Wine, runnng Windows apps in Linux (or any other OS which Wine can run on - including Mac OS X) is a chancy business at best. There are commercial products based on Wine (CrossOver Office, which is oriented towards business apps, and Cedega, which is oriented more towards games), but that costs money and is only guaranteed to work for a subset.

What you do is one of three things:

1. Use a LiveCD, LiveUSB, or similar ("Live" being synonym for bootable - most computers, actually nearly all of them if configured correctly, allow you to boot from CDs, and many from USB) to try out the distro before installing. Ubuntu has this; there are also dedicated Live distros like Knoppix or Puppy. This is only really good to "try before you buy" - you can't save anything on a CD, nor install anything not bundled.

2. Install on a virtual machine or "nested" inside your existing OS. The former requires VMWare, Microsoft VirtualPC, Sun VirtualBox, QEMU, or another VM program where you install the OS on a virtual hard drive represented by a file in your real hard drive; recent versions of Ubuntu allows the latter using the Wubi installer. Both essentially are putting Linux on top of Windows (for non-intensive stuff, you can also do the opposite, if you have a valid Windows Install CD - or if you hoist the jolly roger, which I cannot recommend - QEMU and VMWare both have Linux versions and can run Windows). This has a performance penalty, plus you generally can't access your Windows drive from Linux in this case (I don't know if this is true for Wubi).

3. Split a part of your Windows partition using GParted (included with recent Ubuntu install CDs) or commercial software like PartitionMagic; you use a boot manager to choose between multiple OSes at boot (no problem, 90% of the common Linux distros come with GRUB and generally set it all up for you). This is what I do; its the best from a performance standpoint - important for games - but its more technical (Ubuntu makes it a lot easier, but even so you need to know what you're doing) and there is still a slight risk of corrupting your original hard disk (the risk shrinks every year though, and I've never encountered any kind of problem). Or if you have unpartitioned space, an unused partition, or an extra hard drive, use that instead with no risk.

[Penguinsushi]

I also have a considerable amount of XP with Ubuntu, but I recommend Mint - mostly because i find it to be very similar to Ubuntu, but with better support for a few things like flash the 3rd party drivers - things that *do* work fine most of the time in Ubuntu, but i've often had to work harder for them and occasionally have had problems.

My 2c

~PS

[JupiterPaladin]

I appreciate all of the advice. The only thing I disagree with though is the dual-booting. I stated up front I will not and can not dual-boot. Constant switching would cause many interruptions and downtime to my NWN players logged on the server.

I am not surprised to see such overwhelming support for Ubuntu. I checked many of the video reviews on YouTube and it was a common preference there as well. I considered Linux Mint because it is based on Ubuntu and many YouTubers considered that easier to use. I am going to build a 4th system to test the distros on before committing my server PC to any changes. I think I will start with Ubuntu 8.10. NWN and the Extender have Linux clients for download. The Windows based games should run in Wine considering they require 300MHz and 64mb RAM, like I mean cheap Dollar General games my daughter likes! Thanks for the advice all!