Good advice. I did a base install (alternate image) of xubuntu and then added the later xfce 4.10 from a PPA.
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Installing Ubuntu 12.04
- Thread starter Duff-Man
- Start date
Good advice. I did a base install (alternate image) of xubuntu and then added the later xfce 4.10 from a PPA.
Virtualisation is fantastic if its done properly. I'm using Parallels on Mac OS X 10.7.4 and its amazing. The seamless integration allows Windows apps to run on you Mac desktop without having to even see Windows. I've used Virtual Box and its very good but Parallels is much better. Parallels is $50 and Virtual Box is free.
@ Duff-Man : If you need Ubuntu 12.04, either 32bit or 64bit, you can feel free to come over and pick up a copy. I live in Centurion
@ Duff-Man : If you need Ubuntu 12.04, either 32bit or 64bit, you can feel free to come over and pick up a copy. I live in Centurion
Elimentals
Honorary Master
Thanks for the offer vinodh, but I live in Durban and finished downloading Ubuntu 12.04 64bit earlier today
Thanks everyone for your advice, I'm installing Ubuntu 12.04 on an old hard drive now to get the feel of it, if I feel that it meets my expectations, which it probably will, then I will either install it alongside Windows or backup my files and install Ubuntu over Windows.
unskinnybob
Expert Member
Virtualbox = win.
If you're planning on running current mainstream gaming titles on Ubuntu right now, prepare to be disappointed. Hopefully this will change very soon.
Apart from everyone's overstated disgust at Metro, Windows 8 is the bomb. It's better than Windows 7 in every aspect. I wager most people never navigate start->programs on Windows 7 anyhow. They either shortcut stuff to the desktop (which you can do with Metro instead), shortcut stuff on the taskbar (which you can do with Windows 8) or type the name in the search bar (which you can do with Windows 8).
If you're planning on running current mainstream gaming titles on Ubuntu right now, prepare to be disappointed. Hopefully this will change very soon.
Apart from everyone's overstated disgust at Metro, Windows 8 is the bomb. It's better than Windows 7 in every aspect. I wager most people never navigate start->programs on Windows 7 anyhow. They either shortcut stuff to the desktop (which you can do with Metro instead), shortcut stuff on the taskbar (which you can do with Windows 8) or type the name in the search bar (which you can do with Windows 8).
K
kingrob
Guest
Love Virtual Box too & best of all, it's free.
If you have cash to burn, VMWare is much more advanced, but you'll have to part with $99 if you want a legal copy.
unskinnybob
Expert Member
Love Virtual Box too & best of all, it's free.
If you have cash to burn, VMWare is much more advanced, but you'll have to part with $99 if you want a legal copy.
I have a copy of VMWare Workstation 8 for Windows and Linux. I prefer Virtual Box on Linux. Unity mode on Linux without propper OpenGL support is so broken it's sad.
Why do you say that? Wouldn't mainstream gaming titles work fairly well with Virtualbox/Wine/playonlinux? I downloaded the Windows 8 consumer preview, but from what I can see, it would be a waste of time to install and try it out.
unskinnybob
Expert Member
No. Windows games are designed for DirectX. On Linux you're stuck with OpenGL. You're looking at a significant hit on FPS running WINE/playonlinux. Running games through Virtual Box/VMWare is a no-go.
If it's a gaming PC you want, install Windows 8. Performance is awesome. Do a dual boot and explore Linux on the side. Don't let gaming on Linux, with poor performance and sometimes unexpected behaviour, taint your opinion of an awesome OS.
Is there any way to install/emulate DirectX on Ubuntu, or any way to improve performance on mainstream games in Ubuntu? If not then I'll install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7/8.
Elimentals
Honorary Master
wine
See Play on Linux
Might also wanna Bookmark http://appdb.winehq.org/index.php
Best is to install alongside till you get the hang of things. Personally I play them on Linux only, if it doesn't work I don't play it.
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DrJohnZoidberg
Honorary Master
Very good advice. Don't stress yourself by trying to get your games running with wine until you have become familiar with the new operating system. Dual boot is the best way to ween yourself off Windows. Even when you have mastered Linux, you most likely still will not want to run your games with wine if are even half serious about gaming.
I don't game, and when I do it's very rare, so I love my Linux
EDIT: Oh and btw, if you still love your MS Office (like me) then the above program (PlayOnLinux) does and excellent job of providing an easy way of getting this on your linux machine. You can really only use Excel, Word and Powerpoint but those are all I need and the only apps that are better than the open source alternatives.
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Very good advice. Don't stress yourself by trying to get your games running with wine until you have become familiar with the new operating system. Dual boot is the best way to ween yourself off Windows. Even when you have mastered Linux, you most likely still will not want to run your games with wine if are even half serious about gaming.
I don't game, and when I do it's very rare, so I love my Linux
EDIT: Oh and btw, if you still love your MS Office (like me) then the above program (PlayOnLinux) does and excellent job of providing an easy way of getting this on your linux machine. You can really only use Excel, Word and Powerpoint but those are all I need and the only apps that are better than the open source alternatives.
Thanks for the advice guys, I'll install Ubuntu 12.04 alongside Windows 7, and use Ubuntu mainly for day to day use and Windows 7 for gaming only.
Using a hypervisor like Xen (or vmware esxi?) you can get direct passthrough to the GPU. Then install Win/Linux as 'guests' and you should be able to game in windows while running linux without having to dualboot. This solution does however have certain hardware requirements.
Does this mean then that gaming with Xen installed in Ubuntu would be the same or close to gaming on Windows?
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I think it should but that way will require a good system. It's like running Windows and Ubuntu at the same time. Just making them seemlessly work together although they are two different opperating systems. Virtualbox does the same thing and I think its much easier to use than this "Xen".
Ubuntu and windows runs on 'top' of xen if I can put it that way. Pretty much depends on your hardware but you would take a knock seeing you wont have the same number of cpu cores available as when gaming 'natively'.
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Thing is virtualbox does not do hardware passthrough that gives you direct access to the PCI/GPU so you can run Direct X.
Elimentals
Honorary Master
Well not direct GPU, but has some Direct X support http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#guestadd-3d via the OS add-ons (Some games actually work very well with this like Torchlight and WOW.) I would not play Skyrim with it but its an option for some games at least. AS for CPU, VT-x/AMD-V and Nesting is supported