Linux: possibly ready to make the plunge after a 20-year consideration period

In My Humble Opinion
1

For years, I have toyed with the idea of making the switch from Windows to Linux. I go back and forth on it from time to time, when I get sick of Microsoft’s bullshit. I find myself pining for the days of DOS, when I was in complete control of my computer, and knew what every file in the DOS directory was for. Right now is such a time. What always holds me back is my games.

I did try it once, going on 20 years ago. At the time, I think Wine existed, but I remember coming to the conclusion that in order to play my games, I would need a dual boot environment, which I didn’t want. I still don’t want that. If I make the switch, I don’t want to do it by halves. I don’t want to have to reboot the computer every time I want to play a game.

My understanding is that Wine has come a long way since then, and I can probably make it work. I know I can take Linux for a test drive by installing it on a flash drive, and I intend to do that. But before I do, I want to get a feel for what I’m up against. My precious games are old RPGs, which I’m hoping might work in my favor. I think the most recent game I play on a regular basis is Oblivion. I don’t do Steam. Other favorites are Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Heroes of Might and Magic III - V, and Civ 4. All of these games are heavily modded, which makes reinstalling them a pain in the ass. This is what I’m hoping to somehow avoid if I make the switch.

The worst of the lot is Baldur’s Gate. If you’re familiar with modding this game, you know what an ordeal it is to get it up and running. Using the Big World Project, it literally has hundreds of mods. The last time I installed the game, I think it took about 12 hours for the install, and then many more hours of tweaking files to get things the way I like them. The runner-up is Oblivion, which I think I’ve got 80 or 100 mods for. Using Wrye Bash, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad to get running, but it still would be a major pain that I’d rather not deal with.

Anyway, I have three physical hard drives in my system: C: is an SSD for the OS and programs, D: contains all of my documents and media, and E: is where I install my games. My most optimistic fantasy is that I install Linux, get Wine running, and head on over to E: and run my games. My gut feeling is that it won’t be that simple, though, because of the Windows registry (one of the things about Windows that has always irritated the shit out of me). Will Wine somehow take settings from an existing Windows registry? Or are my games old enough that maybe it won’t matter, and will run without relying on the registry?

Failing that… in the past, when I have upgraded my system, or bought a new hard drive, or something, and have had to reinstall games, I can usually get away with installing a fresh copy of the game (for the registry entries), and copying the old installation over it. I think my current installation of Neverwinter Nights has gone through several such “iterations,” and it still works fine. Would this strategy work if I have to reinstall a game under Linux?

As far as non-games, the only Microsoft programs I use on a regular basis are Word and Excel. I have no problem switching to Libre Office or something. However, I am a math teacher, thus I use the equation editor in Word quite a bit. I’m also familiar with LaTeX, as I use Mathjax extensively for my website. My fantasy in this regard is being able to type math in LaTeX in a word processor, rather than having to learn a new equation editor. I don’t think Libre Office does this, am I wrong? Is there some plugin that would allow it? Or is there another word processor that would?

Sorry for the windy explanation, but I wanted to describe where I’m coming from on all of this.

2

Setup a dual boot of Windows and Linux. Then start shifting usage. You will find yourself using Linux more and more. It may happen that you never get 100% converted.

3

I used to use dual boot, but eventually found that inconvenient. Now I run cygwin under Windows. It gives me most of what I’d want Linux for. YMMV.

4

If it is important to you to run Linux and Windows simultaneously on the same machine, and dual-boot is not an option, you can install two graphics cards (one of which can be a cheap one), then run Windows in a Virtual Machine set up with the good graphics card dedicated to it.

If you just want to know which games run via Wine, the Wine web site has a compatibility list.

5

Like I said in the OP, I don’t want a dual-boot system. If I’m going to make the switch, I don’t want to use Windows at all. I know games will work under Linux, what I’m looking for insight about is how Wine works and whether or not I will need to reinstall them, or if I will be able to use my current installations.

6

You can always try a more specialized forum, for example:

For example here was a post there on Modded Baldur’s Gate for Linux:

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Has Linux finally matured to the point that using the command prompt is rare?

That’s what overwhelmed me a decade ago. There’s so many different commands to learn. There was even TWO different documentation/help systems. It’s open source and there are so many people developing similar & overlapping applications. It’s like drinking Lake Michigan. Where do you even start?

I’m about ready to try again. See if it works out of the box. I definitely don’t want to spend days and days tweaking configuration files. I remember last time just setting up a printer required several hours of internet searches and reading.

Last time I bought Red Hat.

What’s the cool flavor of Linux today?

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OK first, let me be helpful and observe that AFAIK running Wine means re-installing all your software in “bottles” that are emulated Windows environments with their own registries. Installing a heavily-modded game sounds like pure masochism to me.

Pigs flying in hell want ice water, too.

If all you need to do is run Word, Excel, Windows games, and LaTex, then I’m having trouble understanding why you want to go all-in on Linux at all. Everything you have is designed to run under Windows except LaTex, and the options for running LaTex under Windows are much more palatable than running Baldur’s Gate or whatever on Wine.

The only time I ever found it useful to go all-in on a Linux desktop was at work. I ran Outlook and Excel under Wine, and it was tolerable. All my other software was made primarily for Unix/Linux and it made good sense. But I switched to a Mac desktop as soon as it was on offer, because it gives me all those Unix/Linux knobs I need, but in a usable desktop that doesn’t keep crapping out because some open-source douchebag decides that the Linux desktop needs to be more like a shitty iPad knockoff.

Yeah, I’m a little bitter about my Linux desktop experience.

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Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition is Popular:

Here is a useful guide to distributions by popularity:

I am also one of those thinking of switching to Linux for 20 years (20 years ago it was the Slackware distribution I looked at, my most recent attempt was Mint Cinnamon). But each time I gave up. But it is much, much easier today than 20 years ago.

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If the game runs fine under Wine, gameplay mods would probably still work. You MAY be able to get away with not having to reinstall if you ran them in the same folder from Wine.

However, you’re really asking for a world of pain. Modded gaming under Wine is probably one of the least supported parts of Linux. You can check winehq for compatibility. Expect to be thoroughly disappointed.

Would strongly suggest dual booting or keeping a separate gaming PC.

Or a virtual machine, as above. The overhead is probably less hassle than wine, and you’re playing super old games anyway (except oblivion).

11

I have an old PC that hasn’t been turned on in several years. I planned to format the drive before getting rid of it.

It’s a good candidate for a Linux box.

I can try out Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition and see if it’s worth pursuing.

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I just have to use the terminal when I want to copy a directory tree without the files inside the tree; and a few times a year to check the cpus being used etc,mostly it’s never needed. Only a very few distros required configuration files, such as possibly Gentoo? for installation. Generally installing an nVidia driver set has to be done outside the GUI, in the terminal like screen one can get after booting.

Most things are automated. And there’s usually an application for changes, like GParted etc. for partitioning.

I’ve been using openSUSE for 15 odd years, and find it the prettiest and most baroque, although I am presently using Mint. The only time I’ve touched Windows in that period is fixing friends’ computing problems. ( I am not a computer expert, though. )

Windows is pretty dire, but you should only try Linux is if you actually like it and commit to the new reality. O/W Windows is good enough for the huddled masses. Just try it out on a CD Live Disk first.
Mint will work out of the box for you. The only important thing to remember with Linux is to use KDE ( and switch to the Classic Menu asap ).

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Thank you for the tip.

I remember the KDE desktop when I used Redhat a decade ago. It was a good desktop.

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Thanks. This is why I am reluctant. I don’t know that I want to go through all that effort again.

:dubious:

I didn’t say anything like that. I said the only Microsoft programs I use are Word and Excel (and these are easily replaced). Everything else I use has native Linux support, so I guess I didn’t feel the need to mention any of it.

For example, I do quite a bit of work on my website, almost on a daily basis. I’m not a trained programmer, but I know enough PHP and whatnot to get by. Notepad++ and Apache do me fine in Windows, but working in an environment that is more programmer-friendly has an appeal.

The main appeal, though, is the idea that I would be fully in control of my own computer, and have the ability to customize the hell out of it. :smiley:

15

I third the suggestion to use a virtual machine to ease the transition. I would suggest running Linux in a VM first and see how seldom you can find yourself dropping out into your native environment to do stuff. If it’s fairly rare, switch to running Linux as your native OS and run Windows in a VM – and first use existing utilities (issued by purveyors of VM software environments) to convert your existing Windows box to a VM so you have your Windows environment, not just a Windows environment, as your Windows VM.

16

If full control is the goal then you need to eliminate all vestiges of Windows. Including emulators of it (Wine) and apps that expect the Win API (Word, etc.)

IOW your objection is at bottom moral, not technical. A half solution that runs real Windows apps under a semi-Windows isn’t morally pure and won’t satisfy your itch.

The Win8RT box I’m typing on has Office 2016 installed. The C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\ folder tree contains 77 folders, 1096 files, and 456MB. Good luck with achieving “… and knew what every file in the DOS directory was for …” as it applies to your apps.
I’m not disagreeing with your goals. I’m just suggesting that half-measures won’t do for you what you tell us you want.

17

If your interest is in playing retro games, just get two computers. Vintage computers are going to be better for playing old games anyway because even modern Windows is running emulation stuff to get them working. Decently specced old laptops are very cheap and don’t take up much room. You can hook up an external monitor/kb/mouse if you want expansiveness or just play directly on them.

If you’re deep intro retrogaming, you probably want a DOS/Win3.1 machine, a Win9X machine and an XP machine, each dedicated to each respective era. All of which can be had for well under $500.

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Don’t delude yourself into believing Linux will afford you that ability. It’s an enormous OS just like anything reasonably modern.
Don’t delude yourself into believing Linux is free of bugs or crashes. I run ubuntu on my laptop and probably every third time I log in I get a dialog saying “sorry, but ubuntu 16.04 has experienced an internal error” and asks me to report it. I’ve had system menus just lose their configurations and program entries vanish. I’ve had it throw an “oops” (the Linux equivalent of a blue screen of death) here and there plugging/unplugging USB devices. And graphics drivers (especially AMD) are perpetually a step behind Windows.
You “knew what every file in the DOS directory was for” because DOS was an incredibly minimal OS which did precisely jack and shit. It was written around all of the quirks and limitations of the 16-bit 8086 which haven’t existed for decades. To boot an MS-DOS system required only three files; IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, and COMMAND.COM. Those days are gone.

19

Sounds more like a hardware problem, or it’s configuration — noting your remark about graphics drivers. I haven’t had a crash in 10 years of daily running different Linuxes, excepting what turned out to be the graphics port ( hardware ) not the graphics drivers.
Or you’re just unlucky with Linux.

20

The most popular Linux nowadays is ChromeOS, and you can get a laptop built for it and with it already installed for a couple hundred dollars (a Chromebook). It’s still not perfect (no OS is), but it has the vast majority of the rough edges sanded off, to the best of Google’s ability to do so.