one question before switchover

[Blake Barnett]

On Tue, 2002-08-27 at 10:35, Linux Lover wrote:
> Is the XWiindows + Gnome desktop faster/slower/about the same, as WinXP.

Yes and no.  For some things it's much faster, for others, it's slower. 
Specifically, for games it's slower for DirectX type games, but faster
for most OpenGL games. (quake 3, unreal, etc.)

For applications, some GNOME/KDE apps are MUCH faster and others and
quite a bit slower than their MS/Proprietary counterparts.  The only
thing I've regretted about my switch to a 100% linux desktop at work, is
the lack of polish in a lot of the applications.  But updates occur
daily rather than quarterly (if that, for most proprietary software).  

> Running it in  a virtual machine gives a good feel of it, but I don't
> judge speed because that would be silly.
> I also want to check a few games my wife plays to see if they'll work
> with  Wine. If not, I'll have to move them over to the Win2K box.

The latest Wine releases have been pretty impressive.  If the
application relies on standard Microsoft or Industry-known libraries and
API's, chances are VERY good wine will run it without a hitch.  However,
if it relies on specific hardware, specific hardware drivers, and/or
unique libraries, chances are VERY BAD it will run in wine.

So you can basically determine the likelihood of an application running
under wine by considering the type of application it is.  General
office-related applications should work fine, such as word, excel, etc. 
Games that don't require the absolute latest DirectX and gaming
libraries should work.

You can find a list of tested applications on winehq.com, but keep in
mind a lot of the listings are old/not-maintained.


-- 
Blake Barnett (bdb)  <blake.barnett@developonline.com>
Sr. Unix Administrator
DevelopOnline.com                 office: 480-377-6816

Learning is a skill, you get better at it with practice.