So i just installed Linux Mint...

And its really effin amazing! With the cinnamon ui its feels just like XP. I would recommend dual booting and giving it a go. The only downside.. *cough* less games, but i dont mind taking a break from them anyways. Anyone using that distro for linux currently?

I used to try out Linux distros on my old notebook and internet PC, and Mint was one of those I tried. It was great; smooth, hassle free, and in a lot of ways better than Ubuntu, though I still had a soft spot for Kubuntu.

These days, my internet PC is gone, leaving only my gaming PC and my new notebook. Obviously, my gaming PC needs Windows, whereas my need to keep a personal Wiki meant I'm stuck with Windows on my notebook as well.

it's great for laptops on which you might not do hardcore gaming but you'd still be able to play lots of indie games along with the regular pc stuff.

word, i feel you @madrocketeer. @Kh1ndjali have like 43 games on steam linux right now that i could play. so its not bad, but theres a lot of classics...which i dont mind :)

You want it to feel like XP? so why not just use XP and have the games as well? Me not comprende...

Hopefully their forums are better than elementryos's if you have a problem. I remember hearing a lot about elementryOS and the forums made me sad.

They said their mission was to make Linux easier to adopt but they have questions to register on their forums like "If one is actually five, and you add three, how much do you have?"

Answer is eight obviously, but smartass questions are annoying.

Here's one reason. Also, nobody considers going Linux with any expectation to its gaming capabilities. I used my internet PC exclusively for surfing the internet, and my old notebook mostly for writing and multimedia, functions which Linux served very nicely.

Well I guess he could go with Win7/8. It's just that he said he has games on Steam he could play (like he misses them), so why use an OS that doesn't allow you to play the games your purchased?

Linux Mint was the first distro I ever tried, and had a pretty miserable time with it, unstable, and a bit buggy, and I didn't like the fact that I had to reinstall it every 6 to 9 months, your pretty much stuck with outdated software. Even the LTS version of Ubuntu and Mint don't get all the major updates, just security and bug fixes. Also didn't like how it handled display driver installation at all. And I wouldn't say it looks and feels just like XP, it's definitely more advanced and intuitive than that. Mint does everything for you, but takes away some control from the user.

Manjaro (based on Arch Linux) ended up being perfect for me, does all the initial hard stuff during installation, and is always up-to-date with system components like the kernel, desktop environment, display server and manager, the boot initialization system, display drivers, and all software besides. And the rolling release was the cherry on top of the sundae. Manjaro is all about choice, you can install it via the command line, or from a GUI, it gives you the choice to use open source, or proprietary display drivers before you install it, you can install software packages from the terminal, or from the 2 GUI based packages managers. Manjaro is as close to perfect as a linux distro gets.

I don't use my PCs only for gaming. In fact, I hardly ever play games on my notebook, old or new, and spent more time on Linux than Windows XP on my old notebook. It's nicer and smoother, and if I really wanted to play some games, I could just restart and fire up WinXP from the boot menu. Best of all, I paid $0 for the option; Mint and Kubuntu are free to download and install.

Again, no one ever consider going Linux with gaming in mind. For gaming, Windows is still irreplaceable. For light working, web surfing, organizing photos and other non-gaming stuff, however, Linux can be a very nice, well-featured, lightweight, and best of all free alternative.

Linux is all around just more efficient than windows, but Windows has all the games, and all the most popular video editing, paint, and development tools.

No, I mean HE (the TC) said he had games he wanted to play, and he wanted it to feel like XP.... so if I were in his shoes I would just install Windows, lol...

Eh? Read the post again:

From where I'm standing, it reads more like a comment on the similarity between Mint's Cinnamon UI to Windows XP, not an expression of desire for an XP-like OS. Also, gaming was only mentioned as a downside, not an essential demand, one which the poster immediately in the very next part of the sentence explicitly stated was an acceptable pay off. Notice how the very first five words of the post was an explicit declaration of happiness with the subject of the post, namely Linux Mint.

Yeah I see that now.

Fair enough. I just wonder why people sometimes choose something that offers less when you can have it all?

Glad your happy with Linux anyhow. The more people use/buy linux games on Steam, the more games linux will get because of the more users.

Yeah, if you absolutely must use Photoshop, 3DS Max, Microsoft Office, etc. you're better off with Windows. But if you're just looking to touch up a photo or two, surf the web, or write a letter, then Linux is a nice alternative.

Yup, and play games here and there, I also strongly prefer Linux for *ahem* emulation.

When I considered trying Linux, I wasn't looking for "all." I was looking for "enough."

For your case it's fine, cause you mentioned "In fact, I hardly ever play games on my notebook" so Linux is enough for web surfing and email, unless you need to use stuff like Office or Photoshop.

But for some people that want that PLUS gaming, why go Linux?

This question lies beyond the scope of my posts. I have neither the intention nor the interest in trying to convince anyone to go Linux. All I've done so far is give my own opinions and experiences. Take it or leave it.

That's fine. Don't take my posts the wrong way, I wasn't trying to convince anyone of anything. It's just something that is always on my mind and would like to understand the mindset.

Linux is a much more pleasant and easier OS to use than windows for me, regardless of the fact that it doesn't have "everything". And its free.

In the case of my own personal experiences, I believe my posts in this topic so far have been fairly self-explanatory.

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.... and I said twice now that in your case it's fine because you don't game on the netbook.

Pleasant where? and easier how? Win 7 and 8 have been the easiest OS I've ever used, and I've used most of them (Windows Series, Mac (most OS versions), some Linux distros)

I like using repositories much more than going to a stupid website and downloading software that way for instance, its faster and easier. KDE is awesome too. I've just had a much better experience with linux than I ever had with Windows.

You mean drivers? or just general software?

For everything.

How do the current repositories work? I remember using them a while back but it might have changed.

Well the Manjaro repo has everything in it, from drivers, to linux kernels, desktop environments and windows managers, to paint programs and media players. Theres a list of apps, you just do a search click the app and click the check mark button and it just installs, and thats it. Manjaro uses 2 different GUI package managers, Octopie, and Pamac, both do things the other does not, but are both excellent. They also have access to the Arch User Repository, which is just as easy, you do the same thing, do a search, then click which ever app you want to install, and it automatically complies it for you and installs.

Isn't that the same as Windows? It comes with apps and stuff which you can decide to install or not... and now with Win8, even a Windows Store.

@AlexKidd5000: glad to hear more people enjoying it. steam really does need to update its library of linux games. i was surprised to find witcher 2 being in closed beta for linux play.

A repo is 1000 times better, since MS approves everything in the windows store, and I doubt I'd find anything in there I'd want to install anyway, looks like its made up mostly of cheap mobile apps. The Manjaro repo has 6686 software programs, and the AUR has like 50000 more.

That may be because GOG.com (the store front of CDPR) will be offering Linux versions of games in their library later this year. They announced at least 100 titles would have Linux versions, some not available on Linux before.

@Gallowhand: so i've heard. its going to get better and better with linux, im sure of it. im just getting the hang of using terminal for my linux class :P

although what we have in class is fedora 13 which isn't a bad distro in my opinion, obviously an older version of fedora, but hey it works fine.

Fair enough, but a couple of things:

- MS doesn't approve everything in the Windows Store, but it seems lately they can't keep up with demand so some things get through when they shouldn't.

- I didn't just mean the Store, that's new for MS, I meant the things that comes with Windows (Add/Remove Windows Components). Which is basically the Windows Repository.

I see.

I think thats just for software already installed, a linux repo is a server with tons of software on it that you can install directly from, and it also acts like Windows Add/Remove utility.

Yeah, they are similar things. Sort of Stores for the OS.

Yeah.

i like how everyone keeps saying "linux is great! it keeps everything up to date for me!"

i honestly couldnt tell you the last time i touched anything regarding updating of windows or any of my drivers.... it is all handled automatically for me. so much for linux being "so much more efficient"

Windows has never automatically update my graphics drivers...or any of the dozens of apps I also have installed either...

i never said windows did, but... yes. it does. you just have to tell it to automatically install optional updates. it also updates drivers for a lot of other components. it isnt the day the driver comes out, but it will once MS or whoever maintains the driver repository for windows updates gets ahold of it.

aside from that.... pretty much every major component in your system has the option to "automatically update drivers" with its included software. is windows doing it? no. can it be done? yes. and you get an OS that isnt horribly gimped when it comes to software/games as well. if your system cant handle a few apps running in the background taking up 10 or 15megs of your memory... i dunno what to tell you.

It must be a rare thing, the only optional updates I ever see in windows update are for useless crap like bing desktop. In linux your guaranteed to have all drivers updated within a week or two after they become available, as well all every other piece of software you have installed that has an update available. Atleast with Manjaro.

Windows allows you to update the following automatically (or not if you choose to turn automatic updates off).

- Security Updates

- Drivers

- Software such as DotNetFramework and Silverlight

- Software updates for MS products like Office

- Updates for Metro Apps

On top of that, each program normally comes with an autoupdate as well, such as Flash, Java etc.

I normally update manually, cause I like to control when my PC updates... but the choice is there for Windows to do it all for you.

I still like Manjaro's update manager, as it updates every single thing imaginable thats installed, and way faster than windows. I do the driver updates manually as well, I don't really trust windows to handle them itself.

How do you know it's faster though? you said you don't have experience with 8.

There's an option in Windows which does everything in the background. It downloads the updates, uncompresses them and sets them ready to install, so when you go and press TURN OFF, the updates kick in automatically while you go somewhere else. That's probably the best way because it lets you continue using the PC and then installs the updates when you're away.

@SimplyFatal: wow fedora 13? When I did my Linux class we were just told to download Debian or a derivative and probably everyone had a different distro and out tutor was fine with it.

Any way my distro of choice is Fedora however I'm looking for something else now, want something stable with less releases, updates and patches are all I really need now. Don't care much for gaming on it but once Wayland gets more stable and graphics drivers become.. well.. good then I'll give it a proper go.

I'm mainly comparing to windows 7, windows 8 could be faster, and yeah, having it install the updates after you shutdown would be the best manner of installation. A typical update (in windows 7) usually takes 10 to 15 minutes to download and install including reboot, while Manjaro takes about 5 minutes to download and install a 500MB+ update and reboot. Though MS's server does seem to be pretty damn slow though.

Depends on the update. Some updates are a few MB, some updates are bigger. If an update is something like 500MB+ though, then I would be worried, nothing should be that big unless it's a Service Pack.

The download time depends on speed of the internet mostly. My updates at home and work download fast, but of course also depends on the load of MS's servers, which I haven't noticed lately having many issues. Remember they are hosting updates for millions of computers.

In Win7 some updates take longer than others depending what they are, and some require reboots while others don't. Like we agreed on, best way is to get it to install on shutdown, so you just walk away and it does it's thing.

True, the servers probably experience a heavy load. My internet is 35 megabits/s.