Linux Has Better Windows Compatibility Than Vista 347
Several readers have written to tell us about one users rant in which he tells the story of being so frustrated with gaming on Windows Vista that he tried comparing gaming on Vista to that on Linux using Wine, with surprising results. "This post is clearly a bit biased. What shocked me though was how easy it was to find games that didn't run under Vista but did in Linux by using Wine or DOSBox. I'm not a huge gamer, so I don't have a huge collection of games to try out, but even still with just a few hours of frustrating work, I have been able to show that not only is Linux a reasonable alternative to Vista for gaming (XP is still king though), but also that Linux handles application failures more gracefully than Vista. Every game but Blackthorne crashed my Vista box, this didn't happen a single time under Linux."
Vista works really well with games (Score:5, Insightful)
Quake 1-3, Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2, Unreal (classic), C&C95, Red Alert.
I mean, if Vista can run a DirectX 4 game, 6 major DirectX versions later, that can't be bad. All power to wine if it can do it too, but to suggest Vista is awful with games is pushing it.
Come on, really? (Score:5, Insightful)
And you should probably try a few more games than that to be able to draw any conclusions at all.
A bit biased? A bit of non sense is more like it (Score:5, Insightful)
First run; no go. Soldat stops responding.
Start explorer, go to soldat directory, open soldat.exe properties. Set compatibility to Windows XP/SP2, disable Aero for this program, run as admin.
Second run; works like a charm. One more popup asking whether Soldat may access the network.
I'm not even going to bother and try the other ones. This guy should have done his homework.
Re:Everyone keeps saying... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be comfortable declaring this the millenium of Linux on the desktop, i'd even go so far as to say century. Possibly the next decade could be the decade of Linux on the desktop. But I think it's too gradual a shift for there to be a single year we could look back on and say "that was it. that's when it all happened". This is assuming it happens at all of course.
Re:Everyone keeps saying... (Score:5, Insightful)
Strangely, I've yet to hear a kind word from the normals in the real world.
Re:Four games (Score:3, Insightful)
Bleh, article is weaktastic. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:hardly a good test (Score:5, Insightful)
Let us take a look at a definition of flamebait (wikipedia): Flamebait is a message posted to a public Internet discussion group, such as a forum, newsgroup or mailing list, with the intent of provoking an angry response (a "flame") or argument over a topic the troll often has no real interest in.
As a professional software developer I have a professional interest in the performance of OS-es, even when it comes to gaming. My message was in no way intended to provoke emotional response; I even replaced the names of the OS-es with placeholders to indicate my argument has nothing to do with the OS-es themselves, but with the methodology followed in the article. Please elaborate why my posting should be modded 'flamebait', for I fail to see a valid reason.
No, I have said no such thing whatsoever. If apps written for A run better on B, it is indeed news. The article however fails miserably in showing evidence for such a claim.
My vision on another subject that is remotely related to the one we are discussing is irrelevant. Please stick to the issue you are debating.
Which was the point I was making, together with the fact that it is bad practice to (non-randomly) pick 5 out of a population of thousands and make assumptions based solely on those 5.
Lets take a look at a definition of a troll (wikipedia): An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response.
I fail to see how my post is controversial; I also fail to see any intention of provoking an emotional response. You simply calling my post 'trolling' has no relevance.
The only point the author can make is that for his obscure and very small subset of all possible games, they run better on wine than on vista. My point is that that says absolutely nothing about vista in general.
Re:A bit biased? A bit of non sense is more like i (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Everyone keeps saying... (Score:2, Insightful)
The "problem" with adopting Linux (and/or Vista) is that XP is "good enough". Let's just wait and see if it'd start to turn out that it isn't.
Or, if you don't like sitting and waiting, go burn some Ubuntu CDs and give them away.
Hm. I'm slightly offtopic here too. So, my experience with running windows games on current Debian unstable is that they won't run. My machine is "slightly" old (Celeron 2.4, 256mb ram, GeForce 440mx), so I'm only playing^W trying to play older games like GTA2, JK3, Quake 3, but the problem is that there's no "easy" way to get the damn nVidia driver working. I need either the 7xxx series or 96xx series (which implement texture_from_pixmap, needed for all the compiz stuff), but both are a little broken in Debian and just won't install. But the games do run
Re:Everyone keeps saying... (Score:2, Insightful)
I am purposely ignoring Linux niche markets such as servers et al, we are talking about the home user/gamer/office drone.
I read an interesting review a year ago that compared Vista/XP/Ubuntu as gaming platforms, and Vista and Ubuntu came out tops. The small advantages that Ubuntu (this was 6.10 or 7.04 methinks) had was because Vista was spanking new and drivers were not tops yet.
Vista was Quicker framerate wise than both the others, yet Ubuntu was the better overall platform, beating XP speed wise, and lagging behind Vista due to needing WINE to run the games.
That said about the "Year of Linux" I again hear about "Vista will be better once drivers mature.." over and over, it's been out a year, when will those drivers mature?
Damned if they do, damned if they don't! (Score:5, Insightful)
Compatibility Issues dialogue for Civ 4 (Score:4, Insightful)
Check to see if a solution is available on the Microsoft website
TFA's response to this? To not allow the compatibility shimmer to check MS's website, but rather run the program anyway, with the comment "If you [Microsoft] know something is wrong, fix it." This despite the fact that, to any sentient observer, the dialogue box is attempting to get him to let Microsoft do... Ummm, just that. Presumably the author of TFA would prefer Microsoft to break into his house and install newly developed compatibility shims without his knowledge, rather than have to tolerate the chutzpah of -- *gasp!* -- asking him...
Re:hardly a good test (Score:3, Insightful)
Does he have a point? Yes.
Is the article interesting? Yes.
Is it biased? Yes.
Re:A bit biased? A bit of non sense is more like i (Score:4, Insightful)
The argument that Linux is too complex has been used for years. It still is, but once my mother needs to right-click on an executable and wade through options I'd say "Game Over" for Windows as well. This is not what I call backwards-compatibility as it should be.
To be fair, running a game using Wine is probably more complicated for most.
Side note, I had problems running Baldurs Gate on my new AMD 64bit dual core with WinXP 32bit. Graphics were wrong and sound mis-aligned. Whatever I tried, I could not improve it. Then I decided to run it using Wine (never used wine before) in OpenSuSe 10.3, 64bit and guess what: works like a charm.
Reemi.
Re:hardly a good test (Score:4, Insightful)
Game 1: Basically didn't work. Oh sure, he got Soldat running in WINE eventually, after tweaking, and gives the impression that it was unplayable. Vista 0 - Linux 0.
Game 2: Darwinia, patched to the latest version (a reasonable suggestion for any game, really, in this day and age) ran with a horrible frame rate in Vista, but "runs fine under Wine (even at a tolerable speed)" Not at "a normal" or "expected" framerate, but at "a tolerable speed." I have no idea what that means. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, but someone might want to share the fact that Darwinia is available in a native Linux version. Vista 0 - Linux 1.
Game 3: DOSBox under Vista hangs, and he says it's basically a DOSBox problem. Okay, fine...so he tries it in Linux and it also fails, though in a different way. In Vista he tries to shut off the sound in the config, and nothing, but in Linux he changes the config from SBPro to SB. I'd like to know, did he try that in Vista? (First rule of troubleshooting...assume nothing.) I don't think I can give Linux a point on this because there's just not enough information. Vista 0 - Linux 1.
Game 4: Civ 4. The author of the article says he's a big Civ fan, and frankly so am I. Great game series. He gets a message that indicates known compatibility issues, so tries to run it anyway (why not...might as well see what happens.) It hangs on him. Now, anecdotes are anecdotes, but my buddy and I have been playing the Civ games together for sometime, and he recently (within the last year) put Vista on his machine. Afterward we both purchased Civ 4 (I'm running it on XP.) He installed it, loaded it, and (drum roll)...it worked. No window claiming "known compatibility issues", it didn't hang his machine. It's not even a state of the art machine. We've been playing for several months now, and neither of us has had any issues with Windows "hanging", which suggests to me that there is more going on here than just a windows issue (even though windows could be involved.) He does say that after patching the game (there it is again), well, I'm not sure what he says.
Using highly refined comparitive techniques similar to those in the "rant", and given that my friend's experience running Civ under Vista has been completely smooth, I'm gonna give Vista a point on this one. Vista 1 - Linux 1.
Margin of error: 1000 games, either way. I don't care if one "handles application failures more gracefully than" the other. If I'm the average user who wants to game as is implied in the article, I will be as confused by nothing happening as I would be by the computer hanging and restarting. Looks like a tie to me.
Look, folks, I have no love for Vista (tried it, tested it, didn't like it), but this was about as scientific a test of Vista's compatibility as reading tea leaves.
And just to add 2 cents, I don't think any of those games were sold on the assumption that they would run in Vista, just because it's supposed to be backwards compatible.
I'm gonna go with flamebait on this one.
Re:hardly a good test (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's see: the article is titled "Linux has better Windows compatibility than Vista"; it's even in the url. Comparisons between operating systems have (traditionally) high emotional responses in discussion groups (I recall comp.os.*.advocacy newsgroups in the pre-www days). Making such a claim (os A > os B) while offering the worst possible 'evidence' (non random 5 out of thousands) can certainly be called trolling/flamebaiting.
I have clearly stated why I think this article is flamebait. You have still failed to give proper argumentation why my response is flamebait or trolling. In fact, on my question: 'why is this flamebait?' you answer: 'you called the article flamebait'. So in your logic, stating that something is flamebait is flamebait in itself?
I am not complaining, I am calling for valid arguments. You continue to fail to give them.
Please, look at the title again. The title of TFA that is. The whole point the writer is making is that vista is worse than wine, because his non-randomly selected 5 games run better on wine. That makes it flamebait to me.
Please stick to argumentation and stop picking on words. The message I am trying to get across to you is that you have not pointed out why my response is flamebait. 'I fail to see' is a friendly way of saying 'you did not make it clear'.
Ah, now we are getting somewhere. As you might know we slashdotters are not able to mod or censor articles. On regular occasions comments are given like 'nothing to see here, please move along' or '-1, Flamebait'. They are not ment to really censor the article, but comment on its newsworthyness. Such comments are lingua franca on slashdot, just like RTFA, IANAL or references to the goatse man. That you are emotionally provoked by such a statement surprises me, to say the least.
Well, if you do not appreciate that, than do not accuse me of things I clearly did not. Keep in mind you have NOT given any valid argument why my response should be modded flamebait, so I cannot reach any other conclusion than that you incorrectly accused me of something because you did not 'appreciate' what I said. I find that a bit sad.
Re:And yet... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Everyone keeps saying... (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe you missed the fact that Asus posted Windows XP drivers for their Eee PC on their website. Linux was a way of keeping the cost down. And that's the only reason.
Re:hardly a good test (Score:3, Insightful)
The fact that DOSBox and Wine are around as packages to help install and run older software is a bonus.
Fact is, this software USED to work in older Microsoft Operating Systems... Yet, the article is saying that alternative software such as Wine and DOSBox work better than XP and Vista in some respects - despite the claim they XP and Vista are (apparently) a little backwards compatible.
Re:Everyone keeps saying... (Score:1, Insightful)
> as long as I can, and then I will
> at least invest a reasonable amount
> of time looking at Linux or Mac before
> making a final call on Vista.
Kudos for this sensible attitude. But may I make one suggestion? Don't wait until circumstances force you to upgrade before starting to look into the alternatives. If you wait until the last minute, Vista will inevitably be the path of least resistance, even if it isn't really the best choice.
The way to make the best switch is from a position of strength, and the way to be in that position is not to be under pressure.
Re:Woah! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Everyone keeps saying... (Score:3, Insightful)
When it comes to serious games, you are just not going to get joy from the Eee. That's when I throw a CD into the PS3.
Re:Everyone keeps saying... (Score:2, Insightful)