Newb looking for best hardware/software for certain uses
 

Pls bear with me, I know this question may seem vague, but only when compared to "Why won't this work..." questions.

Basically, I have many years PC experience but less than a year (continuous) on Linux. My Suse Linux 10.1 system is working fine, I enjoy it so far.

But I am considering getting more adventurous with it than just LAMP development, listening to music, file server, etc.

For instance, I hear Linux is capable of some Vista like desktop GUI behaviors, but I don't think my old ATI All in Wonder 9600 is up to it. Where do Linux experts, or teenagers (:->), find out what's the best video card to buy...the HCL will tell me what is compatible, but where do you go to find out what works great...what folks used and were delighted with the results? Ideally it would be great if they gave info on XGL setup or other non-hardware issues that helped them accomplish this?

Along the same lines what if I want to drive my nice new HDTV (which has SVGA and HDMI inputs) from my Linux box?

I also wonder if, now that I've got a year experience, am I outgrowing Suse 10.1?

Also, I'm not a gamer, but I am considering looking for something a bit more than just SuperTux.

Bottom line: I (as a newb) have found LinuxQuestions is a great place for answers to problems, but when I'm looking for hand-holding as I venture into a brand new area where I don't even know what I don't know, LQ is so large it's hard to know where to look, even with Search.

Can anybody suggest other forums of LQ, or blogs, or any sites or books they think might help a newb like me get a bit more adventurous without wasting too much $$$ and time???

Thanks for your patience with this question!!!

As for video cards, I would recommend pretty much anything from nVidia. Their current proprietary driver support is much better than ATI, although that may change in the future with ATi's commitment to developing OpenSource drivers.. but hey, we're talking about now, not what may or may not happen in the future. I have a nvidia 6800 card in my PC, only because I'm strapped with an AGP port.. if I had PCI Express I would have a faster card in there for gaming.

Desktop effects ? Look at Compiz/Beryl. You WILL need a semi decent card to get this working, but it will give the the fancy rotating cube, wobbly windows, and those effects you are interested in ..

Super Tux.. can't say I've played that one. If you have any or the Quake, Doom, neverwinter nights or UT games for widows you can install them on Linux.
http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux/

Loki provides installers for some other older windows games.. http://www.lokigames.com/support/

Savage is native Linux and now free to download and play. Savage 2 is still in pre-beta but is around $35.00 http://www.s2games.com/savage/

bzflag Battlzone tank game with power up flags. good for a quick hit and run gaming session. http://www.bzflag.org

There should be other games in your Distros repository.. or you can checkout some of the Linux gaming sites.
http://www.linuxgames.com/
http://www.happypenguin.org/
http://www.tuxgames.com/

You can also subscribe to Cedega so you can play your windows games on Linux (free versions of Wine, winex, or Cedega CVS can also be used ) http://www.cedega.com/

Ok so your gaming options are hardly limited..


HDTV hookup .. I dunno on that one. I'm too cheap to invest that much into a TV right now...


Outgrow Suse. Well Are you happy with it? if so stick with it, although it never hurts to look at other disros. They can all offer pretty much the same thing in the end, but the tools to get there will be different. If you want more hands on with configuration files and the like, then look at Debian, Slackware, Gentoo. You can install the free vmware server on your current Linux box and install all of these distros into virtual machines to try them out.. Hey you DID ask for something else to do on your machine other than LAMP

glad you are enjoying your Linux experience :)


[edit]
I forgot the link to a Linux hardware review site.. Motherboards, Graphics cards etc.. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=home

and of course LQ's HCL has info as well.. http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/

I'd recommend a book like Linux for dummies or in the case of a distribution like Ubuntu or meapis the distributions own forums. As for base hardware like mother boards i strongly recommend against purchasing the ASrock 775I65gv mainboard because I have tried to install several distributions including Ubuntu and Debian which due to the fact that Linux doesn't support Graphics Processor Units (GPU) pluged into the Advanced Graphics Processing (AGP) lot when they are NVidia based GPUS.

Thanks farslayer and linux-Hawk, your replies were just what I was hoping for! Brand recommendations and warnings, links, vmware suggestion (a good idea I hadn't thought of), a visit to Barnes & Noble maybe for some Linux book, some game suggestions...lots of good directions from your posts.

I didn't mention in my OP but I had a birthday recently so I do have some discretionary funds I can use on a video card and a book, at least.

Thanks again.

Here's a good free online book: http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz (rute)

I'll usually find a good price range (usually from www.newegg.com) and then go from there. For example if I thought a 7600GT was a good price range I'd google something like: "manufacturername 7600GT review" and "manufacturername 7600GT spec". I usually buy the most bang for the buck at the time, which was a 7600GT at the time. As for Compviz/Beryl, if your doing development I'd stay away as its not stable yet, I don't believe this will speed up or help your usability of your pc in anyway right now.