[QwarkDreams]

Since my old Netbook has been struggling under the 'weight' of Win7 Starter (serioulsy, it's not even as demanding as Vista) I've been looking into Linux distros. I didn't want to spend another 80€ for Win8 (which might run as sluggish as Win7 on my Netbook) Linux seemed like a good, free alternative. So far I've tried Ubuntu 14.something (I've not been fond to find out that Cannonical implemented some sort of spyware into it), Mint 17 and currently Fedora 21. Non seem to do the job, maybe I'm just spoiled with the convenience of Windows.

My Netbook is not very powerful (Atom N570 @1.6GHz, 1GB RAM), so when I play games on it I prefer ScummVM.
I'm just curious if anyone has dived deeper into Linux and gaming on it? (especially now that Steam is available for it)

[Laura Knotek]

Since my old Netbook has been struggling under the 'weight' of Win7 Starter (serioulsy, it's not even as demanding as Vista) I've been looking into Linux distros. I didn't want to spend another 80€ for Win8 (which might run as sluggish as Win7 on my Netbook) Linux seemed like a good, free alternative. So far I've tried Ubuntu 14.something (I've not been fond to find out that Cannonical implemented some sort of spyware into it), Mint 17 and currently Fedora 21. Non seem to do the job, maybe I'm just spoiled with the convenience of Windows.

My Netbook is not very powerful (Atom N570 @1.6GHz, 1GB RAM), so when I play games on it I prefer ScummVM.
I'm just curious if anyone has dived deeper into Linux and gaming on it? (especially now that Steam is available for it)

I doubt if you'll be able to play many Steam games. For example, Dota 2 has the following system requirements:
System Requirements

Windows
Mac OS X
SteamOS + Linux

• MINIMUM:
  
  • OS: Ubuntu 12.04
  • Processor: Dual core from Intel or AMD at 2.8 GHz
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: nVidia GeForce 8600/9600GT, ATI/AMD Radeon HD2600/3600 (Graphic Drivers: nVidia 310, AMD 12.11), OpenGL 2.1
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
  • Sound Card: OpenAL Compatible Sound Card
  
  

[QwarkDreams]

I doubt if you'll be able to play many Steam games. For example, Dota 2 has the following system requirements:
System Requirements

Windows
Mac OS X
SteamOS + Linux

• MINIMUM:
  
  • OS: Ubuntu 12.04
  • Processor: Dual core from Intel or AMD at 2.8 GHz
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: nVidia GeForce 8600/9600GT, ATI/AMD Radeon HD2600/3600 (Graphic Drivers: nVidia 310, AMD 12.11), OpenGL 2.1
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
  • Sound Card: OpenAL Compatible Sound Card
  
  

Oh yeah, I'm aware of that and I'm not interested in playing Steam games on my netbook (I really hope that I will be able to replace it soon with something that is not total crap^^). I treat it more like a "retro game machine", since games like old school LucasArts adventures are the only ones that will run fluently ;-)

I'm just curious if anyone here plays games on Linux, not treating the ability to do so not just as a gimmick (pros/cons, issues, advantages,...). Since more and more games are also running on Linux without the use of a virtual machine it seems to be getting taken more seriously as an OS for gaming.