Hi everybody!

I've already ask in another thread if linux was going to improve speed of a game I usually run in windows.I got some answer telling that linux would improve fps and this is always good in a "FPS" game ! lol. "America's Army" I meet the minimum requirements to play it but barely, so the game's running terribly slow.

In windows a tons of appz an process runs in background...
So i decide to try linux version of the game to see the difference. Already tried linspire and mandrake 10 but here again too much stuff run in background. I'm very newbie when it comes to linux stuff. I don't know how to use the console, but i may find on the net what to do to start the games from it without having to load desktop environment . (kde,gnome)

I'm searching for a distro that let you choose to boot in console text mode or with a desktop. I will use the gui to setup ethernet and install the game.
I want the distro to be minimalist, just what i need to play the game.
Nothing useless running in background. But it have to be easy to...

I don't know if this is a real challenge to find such a distro but i will try everything your proposing
Thanks

I suggest you just stick with an easy to use distro like Mandrake but use a light weight window manager like Fluxbox or even just the default/backup X one, and turn off all unnecessary services from the control center.

Another solution might be a source based distro like Gentoo so you can recompile your stuff for your exact hardware, but you'd need to be able to install it and set the correct compiler flags.

well, first of all linux wont improve the game speed, sorry man. second you can use almost any distro just dont install any packages other than the nessecities.

That isn't completely true. Linux has OpenGL (and DirectX via WineX) so it would depend on a game's engine and your card's drivers as to how well it performs on the same hardware. With linux you can have more control over reducing other overheads that could be using system resources otherwise used by your game. It's more important to not run more than the necessities, but you can still install as much as you want, so you can go with the easy to use tools&system.