Mail Archives: djgpp/2000/04/03/23:11:53
> >>Linux works properly and it is free.
> >
> >Linux is not free at all, or i don't know what's free mean.
>
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
>
> >At RedHat web site, personnal edition is 30$, Deluxe is 80$ and pro is 180$
>
> Mandrake is cheaper.
The distributions are free if you have a really fast modem or a lot a patience.
(Or a good friend with both. ) other wise don't be suprised if you have to fork
over $30-50 for a good distribution.
> >BTW, windows is not as good as Linux
>
> How not?
>
> >i know that and it's going to be this way a long time.
>
> So you think the GNOME desktop will take "a long time" to get good?
> Try HelixCode's GNOME distribution; it may change your mind.
It's not the GUI, in my opinion, that makes linux hard to use. KDE and Gnome
are very easy to use and navigate. It's setting the dumb thing up. Linux wont
have the PnP support that windows has for another year (minimum). (Where you
can plug something in, turn it on, and have a thing come up that configures the
device and prompts for a driver disk) Installing software isn't as easy as it
is in Windows either. Usually you have to download an RPM and install it. It
doesn't sound that bad to you and me, but your grandma that uses her computer
to write letters would call it a nightmare.
> >I dislike windows, isn't the kind of OS i like, but i can't put
> >Linux on my computer, cause i'm the only one here at home who know
> >how computer work, and windows is enough hard for them. If i have
> >Linux on my system, i'll have to be by their side everytime.
> Then set up GNOME and gdm with "users can shut down the computer"
> access, and give them an account on your box.
It's not the same... they'd have to use software other than MS word or Corel
office (unless they want to pay for another copy). That means they will have to
learn the new interface and all the other stuff. It shouldn't take too long,
but the general family's eyes, if its not broke, don't fix it.
> >Some games are not ported on Linux, Tomb Raider, Sims, FF7, Viper Racing,
> >Commandos, and the list is very long.
>
> Quit yer WINEing. Starcraft and Carmageddon run quite well on WINE.
> There are _lots_ of cross-platform games, and the list is very long:
> http://depot.allegro.cc/
Wine works fine for a few games, but it's a pain to set up my box to run in
640x480x256 mode for Starcraft, plus, you can't play on the net without
modifying the config on other peoples windoz boxes. Getting the sound to work
is another problem. A really big thing, is that not everything runs on Wine.
I've tried to run some things that made Wine barf.
> >Some companies should start develop games over Linux.
I agree. The guys who made Civilization kind of got the idea.
> In fact, it's easier. The Allegro library for Windows has a much
> cleaner API than DirectX, and Allegro works on DOS and Linux too.
> So write your wingame with Allegro and recompile it on Linux.
In some ways. If you use allegro, you have to either distribute your source
code and have people compile your game on their machine. ( Which is not a fun
experience, and not a wonderful way to distribute a commercial game either. ) Or
come up with a massive list of precompiled configurations for your game. (
Which is near impossible, and impractical. ) What you would have to do is make
your own libs, or buy/borrow someone elses, and have them all compiled into
your program except stuff like libc and the standard X-libs.
> Better yet, write your Allegro game on Linux and recompile it on Windows.
I agree with this idea. I do this and it works really well, plus it makes
development time faster because you aren't reseting your computer on all of the
seg faults your program caused.
I guess the way I see it is, Windows is probably the best end user OS, (other
than MacOS) out there. It is easy to use, and easy to configure. When you are
an end user, it isn't a priority to have your system on 24/7. Therefore, it is
only an inconvinience when your machine crashes.
Linux however, is probably the best server and development OS out there. It is
very stable, fast, and configurable, but yet, it has a very steep learning
curve. Another thing is that you can really screw your self over with Linux if
you don't know what you're doing. However, if you have the time and patience to
learn how to use it, then all the better for you.
--
Jared Stevens
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