Where to start for a gamer?
 

So I have decided to move much of my activities from a Windows based platform to a linux one, in hopes it will reduce some overhead and improve performance.

What I am looking for is where to get started in moving things over. What version of Linux is best, what programs, packages, or other various things would be an absolute must. Stuff like that.

While I'm a reasonably advanced computer user, I don't have the patience to dive straight into Linux, so simplicity is also important, and a big plus would be how shiny everything looks when it's all ready.

Hopefully I have been specific enough that somebody can answer me... Thanks in advance for any replies.

Linux Version: One of the easiest to install/manage is Ubuntu Linux, which can be found here:

Ubuntu

For gaming, the easiest way to get Windows games to work in linux:

Cedega Transgaming.

No distro is really best, and once you get to know the internals of UNIX-like OS's (like the GNU tools used in distros) and Linux, its not overly hard to use information from one distro to work on another. Pretty much anything that can work on one will work on another, but if you really do use your computer, then i would suggest looking at some tutorials for the command line and information about the base system, it can really come in handy (like moving a few thousand files scattered around multiple directories with varying names into a single directory, and renaming all the files ... i actually had to do this a few times to reorganize my desktop, im such a lazy scatter-brain)

games.... Wine can emulate the Windows API (Cedega is based on Wine, Wine is free, but Cedega supports more games). Some must have games: ccgo (hehe, i like playing go), xboard (you like chess, right?), enemy territory, cube is also interesting, it really depends on what type of games you want to play, but i doubt youll find the games as high quality as the Windows games (thus the need for a Windows emulator like Wine, but even that doesn't work all the time). There are a few good games (and by that, i mean the graphics are pretty good), but it really comes down to what type of games do you want to play?

also, what types of things are you planning to do? Nothing is really a must, but it all comes down to preference usually. Altho, i think mplayer is a absolute must, if it cant play a audio or video file, odds are, nothing on Linux can, altho, for use friendliness, i usually also install another video/audio player and use mplayer when i need its superior set of options, or its better support of lots of codecs.

Thanks for all your help, guys.

So if all the linux versions can run the same components, what's the major difference between them, what goes on under the hood?

A question about Cedega: How is it's payment system organized? It looks like it costs a monthly fee to use, which I have never liked. Isn't there a way to simply buy it?

As for what I do on my computer, well I'm not the type of gamer that gets all the newest games the moment they come out. Overall I think the transition isn't going to be too rough, because of that fact, but I want to avoid as much headache as possible when it comes to having to reboot into windows to play some of my more obscure games.

Anyway, thanks again, I'll try Unbunto, and Wine, maybe Cedega if I can find a way of using it that's not so ridiculous.

Gilrad - you might want to consider a dual boot system, leaving Win in place just for your games. Not very difficult, arguably easier than installing Wine. (though I insalled wine anyway, just to learn how)

Yea, I figure I will probably end up doing that.

So, I know the Windows file system and the Linux file system don't mix at all... Is there a file system that both can recognize, or a way to be able to play my media files in both Windows and Linux without having them exist on both partitions?

Yep, vfat/fat32. Recognisable by ALL OSes. File limit of 4gb, so don't rip dvd iso's to it.

The monthly payment system is for updates, from what i recall. If you stop paying, you can still use the software, but you cant get any new updates to it.

As long as you dont get the newest, there are several good 3D games, just look at the wiki (note, its a bit out of date)