I’m a total newbie in the Linux world and I was wondering if you guys would be kind enough to suggest a really good Linux system, one that’s stable and and easy to use. I want to develop games using OpenGL, so with that in mind, any guidelines at all would be appreciated. I hear Suse is good (how do you pronounce that, Sooz?). Any comments on good hardware would be nice too.
Also, are there any pitfalls that I should be aware of? I understand that drivers and getting all the latest features can be a problem at times, so if anyone has a gotcha or 2 to share that’d be great.
I’m sure this has come up before in one form or another, so I hope you don’t mind revisiting this subject with renewed enthusiasm
Again, I’m as green as they come, so anything at all would be news to me.
don’t want to bother anyone, but if you want ogl under linux, the most important choice maybe the graphics card. buy an nvidia.
i have suse 10.0 (try to say something like zoo-ze ;-)). no problem with my fx5500, nforce2 chipset with onboard sound, additional pci lan card, dvd-rw. i have to admit i’ve never tried ubuntu, but suse has been in business for the past 12 years, i think. that’s a plus, i guess. at work i’m using redhat 9.0. very stable, too.
I have had a good experience with Nvidia under Windows so it’s a comfort (and not surprising) to learn it’s comparable under Linux.
Regarding SUSE (thanks for the pronunciation key ), I looked at their website and I must say I’m a bit confused over the pricing scheme. Do you have to license this? I saw the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop for $50 a year, and some went as high as several thousand? That can’t be right. I may have missed it or I just don’t understand how the Linux OS is handled commercially. Needless to say I was a little mystified by Novell’s website.
I liked what I saw at RedHat (or maybe it was just easier to understand). The free Fedora Linux looked interesting. Do you know if that’s any good? The screenshots looked promising.
Thanks for the reference to Ubuntu, looks interesting. That seems to be free like Fedora. But I don’t really care about price - just want a great OS for OpenGL on my home desktop.
Oh, the term “49er” is from the California gold rush in 1849, when prospectors came to be know as “49ers”. I always liked the Dallas Cowboys anyway, being a Texan and all
Suse is free to download, under the name of OpenSuse or OPENSUSE (not sure what name they decided on).
Look at the front page of novell.
Debian look good too, but I like the window frame in Suse better.
I had problems with Fedora and it doesn’t give automatic access to my NTFS volumes. Didn’t like it overall. Also, I could not get my ATI drivers installed on it.
Also, are there any pitfalls that I should be aware of? I understand that drivers and getting all the latest features can be a problem at times, so if anyone has a gotcha or 2 to share that’d be great.
In general, Linux drivers from the IHVs have the same feature as Windows, but they are behind schedule.
I’m very relieved to hear the features are there, even if somewhat belated.
Are you using a dual partition, like for XP and Linux? If so, any problems with that (never tried it and it seems kinda scary). I’m really tempted to try that right now on my Wintel box but I’m way too chicken
Do you have a SLI motherboard and if so does it work OK? I’d really like to get my feet wet in the SLI stuff, but I’m not sure what to get. I’m looking at the Nvidia Nforce boards and they seem pretty slick to me That’s got to be a good match I would think, a couple Geforce 6800/7800 and a Nforce SLI?
What if anything about CPUs? I doubt that’s a big concern, but I thought I’d ask just the same. I’m guessing 64bit is the way to go these days, and AMD is looking pretty good I hear. Does Linux really care, any stability issues either way?
I sure appreciate the tips. Any other comments or suggestions are very welcome.
I’m using 2 HDD and they are not dual boot. Windows and Linux are installed independent of each other and during boot, I press F9 and choose the HDD I want to boot from.
I had a problem with RH8 and dual boot a while ago so I could not boot into Windows.
using 2 hds id probably the best choice, because for each os, you should have at least 2 partitions (not including the linux swap). one for the system and one for user data (like /home/* and maybe /pub/mp3 , which could contain your legally acquired mp3 collection ).
Thanks big time V-man for the 2 HDD trick. That sounds a lot easier and safer. I wonder what differences (if any) show up in BIOS in this configuration. Any PnP/IRQ device conflicts or changes necessary? I’m sorry, but I don’t even know if Linux is PnP (it’s gotta be). I’m probably being overly paranoid.
And thanks for the Linux forum link (that should definitely come in handy, but I hope I wont need it too much ).
The gotchas are what scare me. I realize cutting edge technology can be a bit risky, but I just cant resist.
Thanks RigidBody. Are you saying I’ll probably need 2 partitions, even with 2 HDDs? Or is that just a better way to organize things, like my legally acquired MP3s (how else would one acquire them?).
Are you saying I’ll probably need 2 partitions, even with 2 HDDs?
no, not necessarily…
Or is that just a better way to organize things, like my legally acquired MP3s (how else would one acquire them?).
yes.
if something goes totally wrong (maybe when you want to update your system), you may have to re-install the whole system. if you have user data- mp3s, source code, whatever- on a separate partition, this partition will not be affected, so you do not need to backup your data before you reinstall the system
if you have everything on one partition, you’ll have to save your data before, otherwise it is deleted during the installation process.
I see what you’re saying now. Jeez, it’s been so long since I’ve had to wipe my HDD and reinstall my OS that I’ve forgotten about this kind of ugliness. Back in the days of Windows9x, an OS reinstall was a monthly ritual for me at its peek.
About 10 years ago I had Windows95 and WindowsNT on a single HDD with 2 partitions (don’t ask me why). But thereafter I never had the wits to do that again (2 partitions) despite the countless installations. I kept telling myself, “This is the magic one! I feel the magic!” Who was I kidding. :rolleyes:
Originally posted by <49er>: I wonder what differences (if any) show up in BIOS in this configuration. Any PnP/IRQ device conflicts or changes necessary? I’m sorry, but I don’t even know if Linux is PnP (it’s gotta be). I’m probably being overly paranoid.
You are welcome.
No, there isn’t any device conflict issues. For Linux, it’s just another diskdrive. Linux supports PnP devices and installs drivers but for certain devices like wireless network cards, there may be no drivers. Specialty things like video in/out cards don’t have drivers.
), I looked at their website and I must say I’m a bit confused over the pricing scheme. Do you have to license this? I saw the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop for $50 a year, and some went as high as several thousand? That can’t be right. I may have missed it or I just don’t understand how the Linux OS is handled commercially. Needless to say I was a little mystified by Novell’s website.
mp3 collection ).
