G'day mates.

I am a person who doubts the qualeties of windows and have firsthanded many times expirienced that it sucks. However i need to run a few programs and games i don't know if linux or another alternativ OS can handle.

First of i dabble into 3D modelling and animation and thus i use GMAX (free) at this point. So my first question is will Linux handle 3D modelling and animation programs?

Secondly how will Linux handle most games (with or without XP emus)?
I also need to run Rome: Total War and Medival: Total War (addicted)?
And how does linux do with most MMO's?

How about Hardware? Does it requires specific hardware or is it unsupporting for some hardware?

And most importantly, does linux support 64 bit systems (I don't know why it shouldn't but i gonna ask)?

I forgot to mention, but i will probably run my current hardisk together with the existing one so some things will not be a problem, but my current harddisk is just 120 gigs.

Also does linux function well with Adobe photoshop?

I forgot to mention, but i will probably run my current hardisk together with the existing one so some things will not be a problem (it runs XP), but my current harddisk is just 120 gigs.

And i also wan't to know what in your opinion is the best linux version for me and my use?

Oh and does Linux work good together with Adobe Photoshop?

BTW: I apologise for my really bad english, but lack of sleep and bad coffe isn't the best mixture for nice grammer.

Sorry for double posting i unintentionaly pushed quote and i was to high on caffeine to notice.

Next time just edit the one post, you have made my head hurt ;-)

With regards to your questions;

- Adobe Photoshop you do not need as there is something called GIMP provided with Linux, which does the same job for free. You can even download a patch that makes GIMP look like Adobe Photoshop so you will not get too confused at the start.

Linux can handle 3D modelling, quite a lot of films using animation on Linux machines, and you can get things like Maya to run on Linux with ease.

With regards to the games; I really would not know as I am not much of a game player sorry.

Anything else?

Oh yes, a "best" version of linux does not exist as there is no such thing. Best thing to do is start off with a very simple to install one such as ;

SuSe, Mandriva, Ubuntu, RedHat.

Good luck

One suggestion would be a Dual boot system.

Try linux find what works and what doesn't i.e. boot into XP for your games and use linux for everything else.

Hey everyone.

I'm planning to switch entirely from windows to linux.

Maybe GIMP can be equivalent to PS, but can anyone tell me whether you can run adobe illustrator or xara x, and corel painter IX on linux (I don't think any free alternatives would cut it this time, I really dislike inscape)?

Also, is there an alternative/equivalent to bittorrent clients and dc++?

Those programs will not work natively on Linux, unless of course the vendor supplies Linux binaries. You may get these programs running under wine or cedega, but you most likely will be in for a rough ride configuring wine/cedega to run your programs

There are bit torrent clients for Linux - google will help you out here

Xara is opensourced recently and Linux version is work in progress as we speak.
And about 3D, I would really suggest Blender since proffessional tools like Maya or Softimage are expensive as hell.

The response to create a dual boot machine is the best. You can boot into XP or Linux as you choose. This also takes some pressure off of the learning process. That said, here are some brief comments to your questions that may mirror the responses of others.

1. Most current games are not ported to Linux. Some games, such as those written by id (Doom 3, Quake 4) are current and do have Linux ports, although you will have to download the Linux portion and copy files from the Windows CDs to set up the process. (I recently did it for Doom 3 and it was a relatively simple task.)

2. Linux has more problems with hardware than Windows, although the situation is better than it used to be. Additionally, applications written to be used in Windows with specific hardware, like software that enhances a printer's functionality, will probably not work in Linux, even though the basic function is OK. (There may be exceptions, but I doubt it.)

3. Linux is not particular regarding where or on which HDD it resides. It is not like Windows, which only likes being on the primary drive (if that is the correct technical term). You just need a place to put the Linux partition.

4. I am not aware that any Adobe products, except Acrobat Reader, run on Linux.

Two _amazing_ open source P2P programs i use:
- Azureus (BitTorrent)
- LimeWire (p2p file sharing)