Irrlicht Engine

I use windows, but I am more ashamed of it then happy. I am someone that likes to use all processor power and memory for the app that I run, and I don't care about a skinnable window, or the option to switch between a game and a browser window. Sure it is handy when developing, but if I have a verry heavy program, I would not mind to switch back(temporarily) to prompt, so I can dedicate all my system recources to the app I want to run. Linux supports this, windows does not.
But then again I have tried to install Linux sometimes, and I couldn't get my videocard to work. And that is the problem with Linux, it is not used widely enough to let it be supported by all drivers and apps. I know this is a vicious circle, (cause it has to be used more, so it is interesting to develop for, but it will only be used more, if people develop more for it) This is what makes me sad.
So i will try to install linux again, cause i like it"s options(or lack of) better(And I do not get poop like, if you press shift for 8 second, you enable some special function that makes my shift key hang!) But I need windows for compatibility, and developing software the easy way.

This is just my view of things,
Greets, Robin

I use Windows only to play games on.

I have a Mandrake 8.2 laptop and server (both well old, and the latter of which I haven't used in a long time), and a Mandrake 9.2 computer for development/email/work.
I also use Mandrake 9.2 (dual booting with XP pro (OEM), but I haven't booted to that since I installed it ) for PHP development at work, which runs UT2k3 (and hopefully 2k4 soon too) just fine.

The only major problem I've had with Mandrake was when trying to install 8.1 on the aforementioned laptop, which wouldn't detect the "eraserhead" controller. 8.2, which was new at the time, picked it up fine and has been running since.

Ah,yes: And if I need new software, I don't have to download 600 MB of bugfixes and patches to get it running, on Windows.

Have you ever installed XP Home fresh? I bought a new computer about a month ago, and to download only the "critical" updates took about 2 hours!
Though this is an issue with pre-packaged software in general, not Windows or Linux specifically.

windows, as not that much tools for 3d for artists out there...

I mean, for me it'd be Wings3d, blender, Gimp. Whose ports I already use in Windows...plus all the rest of tools I have in windows.


I was long time dual booting and was fine with it, with a Mandrake, sometimes redhat. I can handle it without x windows, more or less, in is nice the amount of flexibility.

But ...also used to work a lot till I had my old nvidia cards working propperly, editing several config files... They say now it detects it itself, also the wacom...

I have a Mandrake 9.1 taking dust, and I shouldn't.But too lazy.

I think the way to go is having both.Imho.

To much huge user base of Windows out there. And will keep so, as majority gets messed with even easier tasks in Windows...go imagine in Linux...I worked kind of installing red hats and configuring stuff in linux machines, but guess what...I don't have a clue about linux. But the others there were totally windows users, so they did pick me. I must have made really weird things to those machines.

Most artists don't think it, even. Windows directly. Even more, neither Wings3d, Gimp win32 port , or Blender. But Max 6, Adobe 7.01, etc. I'm *way* rare at this among them.

Talking about imposed logos...

But...to be tru, the big packages do too many times more stuff and better than free ones.

Is just that with work an time you can do the same in the others...or almost.

As a hobbist, I'm glued to my Wings, though...

A fun yet functional OS is Menuet. It's all on 1 Floppy Disk, and it includes some apps and uses Open GL and has networking.

I use Linux almost exclusively. A game needs to be really, really compelling to get me to boot to windows (I usually just sleep my laptop, and don't switch off).
I do all my development in Linux, and since the things that spin my wheels are playing with programming and development not playing windows games doesn't bother me overly much.
Anyhow, I am much happier developing at home with Linux than at work developing with windows. Of course I do get paid at work.......

Brad

saigumi wrote:A fun yet functional OS is Menuet. It's all on 1 Floppy Disk, and it includes some apps and uses Open GL and has networking.

Yeah! and don't forget Oberon http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/ it's just cool!!

saigumi wrote:A fun yet functional OS is Menuet. It's all on 1 Floppy Disk, and it includes some apps and uses Open GL and has networking.

Ah, just like QNX. OSes like that are perfect for kiosks.

Anyway, I personally am locked into a Win32 environment since my sound card only has Windows drivers. And, not to mention, Sonic Foundry - errr, Sony MediaSoftware - has no plans to ever port any of their apps worth purchasing to any other OS.

I guess I'm stuck on Wintel - unless I decide to go the Mac route.

Performance. Perhaps linux is favoured for server needs, largely due to its user management & heavily console based interface - but this is the only place it belongs.
As a desktop machine you will see that it eats often twice as much RAM when running some applications (or more) as windows to perform the same task - and I am still able to figure out why it does this (Ex: Half Life dedicated server uses 60-80 meg ram on windows - on linux it's closer to 160 meg).

(Is this the entire OS with the app minus filebuffer/cache? Which windows vs. which linux version? how measured?)

There are also _alot_ applications that use much less memory than under windows, or the same amount. Not to talk about the OS+GUI, which usually takes less. So this point is pretty uh pointless.

And since my linux rarely uses all my 512 megs, I don't see why this should affect performance (I mean, if my OS uses only 1/2 of my memory, I still have 1/2 left, and there is no reason why anything would slow down with swapping. Ram is there to be used, not to be left empty. Unlike CPU cycles

I think your experiences are probably outdated. (and HL was compiled with debugging or so

The various GUI's avaliable for it may look pretty but I have found that they all turn out to be flawed & incomplete compared to windows.

You should try a more modern distro, like SuSe 9.x, mandrake 10.x etc.

quote=niko]
And if I need new software, I don't have to download 600 MB of bugfixes and patches to get it running, on Windows.
[/quote]


I see now why all these worms spread: people don't need to download patches and bugfixes, because, heh, it's windows and the software crashes anyway...

This is an A is better than B topic, so I won't write any more pointless replies - I swear

Cheers,

Tels

less filling!!!!

Tels wrote: <snip>
This is an A is better than B topic, so I won't write any more pointless replies - I swear

Cheers,

Tels

This wasn't intended to be a A vs. B topic, but one so I could see how many people within the community used Linux and how many used Windows. As of now it's pretty close to 50%-50% so using DX8/9 would cut out half of the community

don't forget us linux pda user
i just got my sharp zaurus sl-5600
think of this a full linux workstation that fit in my pocket complete with gcc so i can program no matter where i am

AlexL wrote: As of now it's pretty close to 50%-50% so using DX8/9 would cut out half of the community

Well, if you're targeting the people who've responded to this thread, then yes, but if we go by these global internet statistics here;
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
we see that Windows counts for more than 90% of people on the net.

I use Slackware linux 9.1 on my primary box - It is better for work (web development), as crossover wine can concurrently install and run different versions ov IE & netscape. also in cxwine I can can use photoshop, dreamweaver, flash and a few games, like jedi academy and enemy territory. nativly I run blender, gimp, and k-everything and some loki games. my seconday machine has XP and a bunch ov audio apps (rebirth, frutyloops, cakewalk). The only reason I have not installed linux and open source audio programs on it is because it is a tablet PC and has no CD-Drive, and to change OS, one would need to change the HD, and to do that, one would need a T-9 torque wrench to open its case (and that is not somthing I have). So for now, it can have XP on it.

I started computing with windows dos 3.1, and since have used every major release ov windows (3.1, 95/usb, nt, 98/se, 2000, me, xp, 2003).
I used windows XP until a few months ago, when during a routine windows re-install (a neccesity to maintain system preformance on windows platform), an unexpected error during the download ov the 49 critical updates hosed my machine. I decided to install slack, and less then a half an hour later it was installed and configured. From that point on I decided to use slackware. I am not saying that I will never use windows again, as I like to keep my options open, but I like using linux. I find computing with it a much more enjoyable experence.

* You can run Photoshop 6 fine under wine.

* There is a native Linux version of Maya 6 (and 5)

* Cross functionality of Irrlicht doesn't extend to popular choices of physics engines (only ODE if I'm correct)

* I find games like UT2004 perform better under linux then Windows(maybe it is just the OpenGL v Directx at play but who knows?)

* And since Fedora Core 2 was released the default GUI (Gnome) is as stable/easy to use/fast if not better than Windows 2000 becuase my windows 2000 keeps doing stupid things like hanging that I can't seem to fix :(

* Plus I've had no big problems with the 2.6 Kernel setting up my fairly recent hardware - small 8k stack workaround for Nvidia drivers is required though - but no big issues at all

I'm a sucker for trollbait


It doesn't matter. A computer is a computer. It computes stuff. Windows you have to pay for and Linux doesn't have as good hardware support.

But to me, OpenSUSE 11 is a fantastic OS. For the curious I recommend you try it, download a live CD and boot it up. If it works fine, and you have nothing on your computer that you want to keep, install it.