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  • From: "Cristóbal Palmer" <cristobalpalmer AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] Thinking about a new PC and moving to Linux
  • Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 00:49:54 -0400

On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 11:37 PM, Lyman Green <lymang AT gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been looking at maybe building a new PC.

If you're doing this for the experience, go for it. If you're doing it
for the price tag, skip it. By a Dell with Ubuntu pre-installed or get
something from System76.

> Along with that, I am really not happy with the idea of spending about
> 400-500 bucks for Vista Ultimate and Microsoft Office. So I'm thinking it
> might be time for me to move to Linux and an open source solution for my
> word processing, etc.

Woot! May I recommend Ubuntu?

> I have only 1 real requirement for this system: it must play World of
> Warcraft, and it must play it well. It has to handle Burning Crusade, and
> also the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King.

Options, ordered from easiest to hardest to implement:

Get Vmware, slap XP on top of Ubuntu. Get beefy-ish hardware and this
might be faster than XP on the bare metal.
Get Cedega
Get wine, have fun trying to make things work.

> I assume all the other things I do can be covered by a Linux machine (email,
> surfing the web, listening to MP3's, maybe a few other things I can't think
> of right now).

Dell Ubuntu pre-install covers all of that. System76 (maybe?) or
Ubuntu on your own gets into shady legal status when trying to play
encrypted DVDs and such. Damn the DMCA. :/

> I did some research and it looks like Cedega made by Transgaming is a
> product to allow Windows gaming on Linux. That looks to be a possible
> solution for me to be able to continue to play World of Warcraft on a Linux
> machine.

Yep, but do your homework. It may or may not support all the games you
want to play.

> I am concerned about buying hardware that is supported by Linux - I did some
> quick research and it looks like Nvidia (my preferred vendor for video
> cards) is fairly well supported by Linux.

ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-8178/README/appendix-a.html

Again, do your homework on the particular card you want. If you buy
from somebody like System76, that won't be an issue.

> So just throwing this out there, and wondering if anyone has any input. Is
> there a particular distribution anyone would suggest?

Ubuntu. Large, friendly user community. Friendly GUI. Fast development.

If you're at all interested in having Linux experience that is
relevant to business uses, I suggest you also play with Fedora, since
each Red Hat Enterprise Linux release is essentially a well-tested
snapshot of Fedora. Fedora, like Ubuntu, has a large user community.
It has a shiny GUI and fast development cycle, too.

> Some other info about
> running games (specifically World of Warcraft but I suppose it is possible
> some day there will be some other rpg/mmorpg I want to play...) or hardware
> I should avoid?

I'm not much help here. Not a gamer. Sorry. :/

> I've looked at a lot of suggestions on Tom's Hardware (they recently did a
> system builder marathon with some good suggestions on mobos, graphic cards,
> and assorted other hardware) so I sort of know what I want in general but
> I'm really thinking about being sure to buy hardware that works/is supported
> by Linux.

Trouble spots could be sound, video, and wireless. Know the chipset
and google-stalk. Ask specific questions here:

http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug

> I've not actually ever done more than a few tests years ago (I'm thinking it
> was back 7 or 8 years ago) building Linux machines but I'm able to follow
> instructions so I don't anticipate this being impossible, plus I will have a
> still working WinXP desktop to fall back on if I have to.

7 or 8 years ago? You'll be VERY pleasantly surprised with how much
easier things are these days.

Dive in: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Cheers,
--
Cristóbal M. Palmer
http://tinyurl.com/3apraw "They also abandoned other volumes, later,
while fleeing from the librarians."



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