What Linux Distribution is the Best for Games?

CodeGeekGuy asks: "I've been thinking of doing the big switcheroo from Windows to Linux. I have, in the past, had various levels of success using Linux, but I generally have to give up as soon as I feel like playing a game. I've done dual booting before, but find it a pain if you're waiting for something to finish and just want a quick game of Half Life 2 or WoW. I'm willing to give this another shot (as I hear that Cedega plays HL2 and WoW quite nicely). I've used Mandrake and Fedora Core and even Redhat, is there another distribution out there that is the best distro to use to get Cedega (and ultimately games) to work well? "

Comments

Regardless of the Dist you use

[KingBahamut]

Your still going to be bound by Cedega's working game list only. That aside, Ive had fairly good success with Suse, Fedora, and Gentoo.

Re:Regardless of the Dist you use

[Compenguin]

> Your still going to be bound by Cedega's working game list only

That's completely untrue. Many games (like ut2004, doom3, and enemy territory) have native linux ports. Tons of older games also have linux ports. Older SCI and SCUMM based adventure games will run and modern native VMs. Here's the list of FPSs that gentoo packages: http://gentoo-portage.com/s?search=category%3Dgame s-fps

Gentoo

[ClassicG]

If you have the patience to set it up intially, I think Gentoo might be your best bet, as the flexibility of Gentoo and it's packaging system is second to none. Compiling the initial system shouldn't be a serious problem on any machine beefy enough to run modern games - my last stage-one complete rebuild from scratch took less than a day, including KDE.

Re:Gentoo

[Tr0mBoNe-]

I've "sat through" the install on a less than uber system and it can take upwards of 3 days to build and install all the needed and wanted packages for a complete system. But, it's worth it.

I've had Cedega running with Steam for CS quite well. It only took 2 tries and 32 wtf's. Also, for games that run in linux when a patch is properly applied, you can emerge them. but you need the cd's or images as the emerge only comes with the patch. but it does the install for ya. Gentoo is teh slick... I just wish their install process was a little more automated. HINT HINT!!

Re:Gentoo

[wolf31o2]

Ugh...

You know, I am one of the Games developers for Gentoo, and I can tell you that we aren't anything special when it comes to non-native gaming. We might do a little better on the open source games than most people, but when it comes to commercial games, it really is all the same. Either cedega or WINE is really doing the work, if you're playing Windows games.

There is no best Linux for games

[SPQRDecker]

As much as I hate to say it, if you want to play games that are designed for Windows, the best thing to do is boot into Windows. No matter how good Cedega gets, it will still be an attempt to imitate the environment that the game was designed for, and will always have some performane lag. Not only that, but if it is a graphically intensive video game, as most are, you will want the best possible video drivers for direct rendering and such, and in that respect, Linux is nowhere nere as adept as Windows yet. But, on the bright side, since the game is full screen, you won't have any of the annoying widgets like the 'start' menu around to remind you what OS you're in. If, however, you still want to play your game on Linux, I don't think that the distribution really matters. What does matter is that you are using the vendor supplied proprietary driver, either from nVidia or from ATI, rather than the open source equivalent, which is not nearly as good at demanding rendering tasks. Most distributions, including Fedora and Redhat, only include the open source version, so be sure to go to your video card maker's website and download their linux drivers.

Re:There is no best Linux for games

[Sparr0]

great speech, from someone who has never used cedega. linux HAS the best video drivers, with as many or more features as the windows counterparts (for my nvidia cards at least). for performance lag, thats on a game by game basis. linux native games (savage, ut2004, every single ID game) run faster in linux almost 100% of the time. SOME windows games run faster (WoW being a prime example). most windows games run slightly slower on the graphical end, but almost every single windows game runs faster on the computational end, because the cedega emulation of various windows system calls such as disk access and paging are faster.

Re:None...

[X0563511]

Thats why i experience a 2 FPS drop? You just pulled that number out of your ass.

It doesn't emulate. It's a wrapper - it translates the calls to the appropriate API, rather than drawing it in software with occasional help from your hardware(as would be emulation).

But, you do have a point in that using them doesn't push devs to develope cross-platform. But, neither does the small market share making noise.

Why are you considering Linux?

[ratboy666]

Let me put it this way:

You are buying a vehicle. You want something fun, fast and sporty. You go and buy a 3/4 ton pickup. Mistake!

Select your OS based on what you want to run. If what you are running is "Windows Games", examine the first word -- Windows -- and run them on that platform. If you want to run Linux, go and buy VMWARE, and run Linux on the same box. No big sweat, and no particular problem.

Or, use the money you would spend on VMWARE, and buy another box for Linux.

I am sure that you will get a lot of "Red Hat sucks", "Gentoo rules", "SuSe rules", "Mandrake is the schiznit" answers.

Ignore them. Again, pick a REASON as to why you want to use Linux -- is it a hobby? if so, Gentoo or "Linux from Scratch" may be suitable. Do you want to do real work? Red Hat/Fedora Core or SuSe. Whatever, its your choice.

If you *do* explore VMWARE, you may want to pick a VMWARE supported system.

Anyway, the OS is a commodity (at least in the Linux world, with Microsoft, it tends to be forced on you based on applications -- it's the platform). So don't sweat it.

Ratboy.

Everytime you use Cedega...

[Anonymous Coward]

...you kill a puppy. It's true.

See: 10 Points to Consider Before Buying Cedega.

Heh.

3 letter answer

[gothzilla]

KVM

Just get a KVM switch and hook it up to a linux box and a windows box. Problem solved.

SuSE

[TheRealJFM]

I recommend SuSE here, simply because of its driver support. It installs the nvidia drivers at install time if you have a net connection, and provides a good GUI to control all of that.

One click enabling of direct rendering (3d acceleration) is something that I think would be a godsend to most new users.

Also SuSE's exellent documentation cannot be ignored.

On the cedega front I suggest you do try this! It plays Counter Strike via Steam perfectly here, though I can't comment on WOW or anything like that.

I've heard Half Life 2 support is pretty good, and there are a lot of revies on the net that show it's working pretty well. In fact its cedega that's tempting me to go and buy HL2 - an interesting fact since I don't own a windows pc :p

The best thing to do is to just *try* all these things. SuSE isn't free, but there is an FTP install that should cover everything you need for gaming (the commercial extensions wont help you here and the drivers for nvidia are downloaded at install time or during a later online update).

The only problem with SuSE is a lack of a good package manager, but the installation of Apt For SuSE (http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/) solves any problems here.

As for stability I'd recommend SuSE over Mandrake, in usablilty i'd recommend it over just about everything, and I'd recommend it for gamers over the other distros.

I'm happy to answer any questions. :)

(I recommend other distros for other things (eg slackware or debian for servers) but thats not the point. For home users its SuSE all the way)

Get a console

[fr0dicus]

Install Linux, get a console, and simplify. The Xbox has or is getting 75% of what's decent on the PC. Joypads take five minutes to learn unless you're mentally deficient.

A follow-on question...

[fmaxwell]

What Linux Distribution is the Best for Games?

And which Lotus is best for off-roading?

just one user's opinion

[rogabean]

As a longtime Cedega (wineX) user I've had best luck under Mandrake in general. Suse was my preferred distro prior but as of the last year I've had nothing but trouble gaming under it... Fedora seemed to do ok, but the most solid so far (currently playing the two games you mentioned) has been Mandrake for gaming purposes.

Gentoo's manual install is arguably a -good- thing

[ClassicG]

Heh, I know it's not to everybody's liking, but I think the manual install process of Gentoo is actually one of it's strengths. I learned more about Linux in the two days it took me to get Gentoo set up the first time than I did after months of playing around with RedHat and Mandrake and the like.

Vidalinux or Ubuntu

[mushroom blue]

if you're wanting an OS to play games, I'd say try Gentoo, and maybe check out Ubuntu as well.

I'm a Gentoo guy, but I totally understand why people wouldn't want to go through the long install process. This is why VidaLinux exists. VidaLinux is essentially a precompiled Gentoo (with Gnome 2.8, etc), installed with Redhat's Anaconda Installer. works amazingly well Full working Gentoo distribution up and running in under an hour.

don't want to compile future packages? that's allright. just check out Project Chinstrap, which has precompiled packages for Gentoo. Easy as pie.

Ubuntu has its share of issues, but overall, it's a top-notch choice as well. both should work amazingly well for games.