Easier to use OS?

[FlyingK]

Hey so when building my pc I realised I had no OS, and I don't really want to pay so much for windows .. so now I have linux mint.. It looks good but I just can't be asked to having to use the terminal to download things... I have no idea how it works and installing games on linux is really hard.... So I was wondering is there a free/cheap OS that can run windows based games or will I have to pay alot for windows 7?

 

[Ijack]

You will have to pay a lot for Windows 7.

 

[cl-scott]

No, there is not. There is ReactOS which is aiming to be Windows API compatible, but last I checked (admittedly a couple years ago) they were still a long ways off from their goal of being around NT4 level. Then you'd need to add to that the hardware support in terms of drivers, plus getting the DirectX API implemented...

Long story short, it's Windows or bust for the short-term. Maybe Valve's efforts on improving Linux's gaming capabilities will pay off in a couple of years, maybe it won't, but until it does you can either pay for Windows or maybe consider shifting to console gaming.

 

[JonathanR]

At least on Ubuntu you have the software center to install things, I assume mint should have similar? As for gaming, Linux still doesnt have support from the big players, but a lot of games run under wine quite well.
If your patient you can also wait for Steam, which will be coming to linux fairly soon, word has it Left 4 Dead 2 is already faster under Linux than windows =)
If you do pay M$ tax for windows 7 Id suggest you dualboot, aside from having its share of advantages Linux is very efficient with space, if you dont save too much media on the partition you should be able to easily keep it under 20Gb, so it wont hurt to keep it.

 

[chamaecyparis]

Hey so when building my pc I realised I had no OS, and I don't really want to pay so much for windows .. so now I have linux mint.. It looks good but I just can't be asked to having to use the terminal to download things... I have no idea how it works and installing games on linux is really hard.... So I was wondering is there a free/cheap OS that can run windows based games or will I have to pay alot for windows 7?

I used to be Mint, now SolusOS is king!
. . . or so it seems.

 

[hdeezie80]

I wouldn't use Linux at all for gaming. Windows XP or Vista is your OS for gaming. you can try wine to run a few windows apps but Ubuntu 12.04 is the easiest for Linux noobs, almost every thing is done in a GUI. If you plan on using Linux you should get fairly comfortable with using terminal, read up online for a few of the basic commands they are fairly easy to learn.

 

[audiovoodoo]

Have patience. Steam is very nearly ready, then we really will see things get busy down here.

 

[hdeezie80]

Have patience. Steam is very nearly ready, then we really will see things get busy down here.

Yeah when that happens I'm definitely switching the OS on my gaming PC to a Linux distribution, always need a small windows partition just for business tools though like office and Visual Studio. I don't think most developers care about people running Linux though only cash, especially since most of the software for windows is overpriced trash. People don't really take pride in their programming nowadays's.

 

[powerhouse32]

I'm a Linux Mint "fanboy" sort of. Have used it for the past 6-7 years and have managed to get a quite tricky installation done on my new PC. Linux Mint is similar to Ubuntu, on which it is based, with some differences in the GUI (I love the good old menu button ).

Linux Mint is well integrated and practically everything you need to do can be done from within a GUI application. Unless you want to do some more advanced stuff.

As for gaming, I agree with what's been said before, with one notable exception: given the right hardware and skills, you can get a Linux machine that runs Windows on top in a Virtual Machine with native graphics performance. I just did that, but believe me, it's not for the impatient.

The solution is called Xen hypervisor with VGA passthrough. Sounds difficult? It is and chances are you won't have suitable hardware to support that. However, if you DO have the hardware or want to give it a try, let me know to give you some pointers and instructions.

My machine is running now Windows and Linux side by side at the same time, with full graphics acceleration in both systems. Windows Experience Index is 7.0 - my graphics card is the weakest point (7.0); CPU is 7.8; RAM 7.9; and disk 7.8 (using SSD). By the way, 7.9 is the highest mark for current PCs. And I have enough spare resources on my Linux dom0 (Xen talk for administrative domain or operating system) to do other stuff along Windows. If I don't use Windows, I just shut it down and regain the full CPU etc. resources for Linux. Real cool. Unfortunately this requires a full Windows retail license which is more expensive than an OEM license that often comes with a PC.

 

[powerhouse32]

One more thing: You may want to have a look at Windows 8. It may still be available with a free trial license or so. Of course Windows 8 can also be run as a guest under Xen, if you want to try.