Linux on another computer?
 

I have 2 computers in 2 completely different places.
One i use for mostly Internet and the other i use for everything (including internet) but mostly gaming.
The Internet computer operating system is Ubuntu 9.04.
The everything computer OS's is Windows XP.

The windows computer was attacked by vicious viruses. I now have to format him.
know my question is: should i dual boot with windows and ubuntu, Install only ubuntu and in ubuntu use a virtual box or install only windows.

My fear is that if i dual boot i won't ever use linux because i wont ever the energy to restart every time i want to play.
I don't Know how good is V BOX kind of software and if it would be able running games.

BTW
Linux game are out of the question as I'm addicted to Crysis like graphics.



please answer quickly,
thanks in advance,
someone Awesome.

If you do not want to use Ubuntu for gaming then either you can use virtualization and install Windows xp as guest. You can always use Wine to run windows games on Ubuntu. But not all games will perform on Wine. You will need to go through the compatibility docs.
There is nothing bad about Vbox. Use it.

Well, if you like the latest games, they won't really work with wine or in virtual machines.

Dual booting is what works best for me. Windows for games, Linux for everything else :)

For what you are wanting to do, I say put Windows XP back on the machine along with better anti-virus protection. (norton, McGafee or similar along with Spybot-Search and Destroy).

Everyone here understands Linux is not made for gaming and shouldn't look down on you for your choise.

i think ill take anarchyinc advice.
I knew that this will probably be the best choice all along but i had to check my options.
i just grew attached to linux.
ill dual boot anyway even though i won't be using linux to much.
BTW
you are very outdated in anti-viruses. Norton is a really bad choice, i think avast and avira are good.
S&d i a very good anti-spyware

Yeah, norton sucks but it was the first one that popped in my head. Haven't had to use any anti-virus programs in a few years so I'm a bit behind. I used Trend Micro and McGafee back in the day, which ever one is free for the military.

I think you are wrong regarding virtualisation. At least on newer hardware, where there are hardware support for virtalisation, you should be fine. E.g. if you have one of those new AMD Phenom CPUs Id say dual booting is waste of time. In that case install Ubuntu and play games through virtualisation.

Haveing said that, I have been through a similar process. I dual booted and had Windows as the main system first. Later I got fed up with having to keep anti-virus and anti-spyware tools up to date, so set Linux as the default booting OS on the boot menu. I moved my mailbox over to Linux (using Thunderbird) and eventually got fed up with the games, so haven't booted Windows since...

Mons
PS! As a strategy game fan, I am currently adicted to "Battle of Wesnoth". Great native Linux game.

I have had problems with some older windows games running in virtualbox. Some issue with the mouse that I believe to be related to usb. However, I then figured out that most of those games will run in wine anyways. But virtualbox, as much as I like it, is not the perfect solution. It is really a pain in the neck. There is no perfect solution to getting windows programs to work.

This has happened to me many, many times over the years using Windows. What I recommend is to image your computer every couple of months and back it up every week; so that if you get a virus then you'll only use a few days of files. When you get infected, then you can then clone the computer with the last good image and restore the last backed up files - that is the best recommendation I can give you. The other alternative and my favorite, is to run Windows as a Qemu or Virtualbox guest; to tarball the guest every other month, so that if it gets corrupt then all you have to do is untar the guest and go.

no directx in virtul?