Alright it’s about that time again, but I’m also going to take a moment to tell you guys about my plans for the next article. A lot of you have been asking about the performance differences between Linux and Windows in terms of games so I figured why not benchmark both of them? I have a few games in mind that I know for sure that I am going to test, but if any of you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know in the comments.
Q: Why are there so many fps differences between OpenGL & Direct X?
A: A lot of things come in to play here, but the biggest thing is that OpenGL is bloated as hell. There is so much old code in OpenGL that just needs to be gotten rid of, but doing so costs backwards compatibility for older hardware. Direct X has done a good job for the most part about keeping the code fairly clean without too much bloat.
A concern: My biggest concern is the nightmare to install the AMD drivers in almost any Linux distro. Whats wrong with that? 9/10 times ends up with a black screen after reboot.
AMD drivers on Linux just really aren’t that great. So far Nvidia is your best choice of GPU for Linux because the driver support is much better. The reason for this is AMD is still very behind when it comes to official Linux drivers (There are Open Source AMD drivers that are much better) but that will soon change as AMD has been hiring many new employees to work on Linux drivers. As far as the black screen goes your Kernel version may not support the newer drivers so make sure you update your Kernel, install the new drivers and then be sure to compile those drivers for your kernel.
I have seen on here and other sites a lot of confusion in regards to desktop environments and how they differ from distributions. A lot of this stems from the fact that people are used to Windows and don’t have the options of other DEs.
Linux unlike Windows is a Terminal with a GUI on top of it. Windows is a GUI with a terminal (Power Shell) on top of it. If you were to install a basic Linux package like a server distro then upon your first boot you would be greeted by a terminal as opposed to a desktop. At this point you can install what ever DE you want (yes there are many). A few examples are:
GNOME (There are different versions as well)
Cinnamon (a Fork of GNOME 3)
Unity (NOPE)
KDE (Ultra Lightweight)
MATE (A fork of GNOME 2)
Now before you ask because I know you will, no matter what people may say there is no superior DE or distribution. What distro or DE you choose to install is all based on your own personal preferences. Personally on my desktop I have Arch Linux with i3 (DE) and on my laptop I have Arch Linux with GNOME 3.
For people new to Linux I recommend Ubuntu with GNOME 3 or Mint with Cinnamon.
That about wraps it up for today everyone. Make sure you keep those questions flowing and I will offer all that I can to help everyone better understand Linux.
Matt Followell is another contributing author here at DSOGaming. A long time fan of PC Gaming and a huge supporter of the open source and homebrew movement. You’ll see him interacting with the community from time to time going by the user-name of Radapples.
Contact: Email
Manjaro + Cinnamon FTW! 😀
I was running Cinnamon for awhile. I really dif the interface, but I grew tired of it. I tend to switch up my desktop pretty frequently.
Cinnamon is perfection for me. Plus using the Menda theme+icons (which I believe are Numix clones) and the Nadia theme is gorgeous. I usually try to replicate the Elementary style too (I loved their simple yet slick look).
I’m thinking in experimenting with KDE though, can’t remember the last time I gave it a try (waaaay back, when I didn’t even had a computer >.>).
Is it still difficult to dual-boot Linux and Windows?
Usually not, but since the introduction of secure/fast boot with W8, it became a minor annoyance. Sometimes you have to turn off these features on the system and/or the BIOS otherwise it will boot straight up into Windows. :s
Its easy except you use 2016 motherboard.
With Windows 7 it is super easy and a mostly painless process. With Windows 8 it is much more difficult As Windows 8 does not play nice with other OSes, but it can definitely be done.
Can you benchmark Warframe and/or Killing Floor?
Warframe is Windows only though.
For now I am just sticking to native Linux titles instead of games running in WINE. I will benchmark WINE titles at a later date.
KDE is ultra-lightweight? Are you sure you didn’t mean Xfce? KDE is more feature-rich than even GNOME.
I meant LXDE, my apologies for the confusion I’ll have the editor make the change.
DX12 will turn Windws 10 into a sexual Tyrannosaurus when it comes to gaming, although these articles are cute, Linux is irrelevant for most of us.
Its “Sexy Tyrannosaurus” dude. not sexual..
Without any official details on all Graphics APIs any sort of advantage over the other is pure speculation. Direct X12 could totally blow Vulkan out of the water or vice versa but we can’t know as there isn’t enough evidence to point to either conclusion.
I challenge linux user to install GPU driver in 2 minutes!
89% fail.
Install the system>uses the open source drivers. Done.
Stop spreading FUD.
its not FUD just ask linux users
I’m one, never had any problem with drivers.
nice i came to read the trolls who claim they never had problems with the GPU drivers its nice its on the second comment.
Oh, I am a troll now, just because I happen to be able to read and learn how to proper make use of a operating system.
Troll, yeah right…
Yeah anyone is a troll to set there and come in and say hey i had no problems when the majority says different. You are arguing from small numbers which is a logical fallacy and it shows hard.
As anyone in the Linux community will tell you , know the terminal you will be on it at times even on the most popular Linux distro
So… different experience equals trolling. Ok, I’ve got it.
Now I’ll take the liberty to quote Matt but with some minor alterations:
“For more skilled [insert OS here] users its a fairly easy process especially if you are a [modern OS goes here] user, but it can be a pain for those who are new to any OS.”
Try to explain what is to install a driver to anyone not familiar with a PC/OS. Doesn’t matter what OS, is a strange concept to anyone, and if you come to me and tell that the majority of Linux users today are “clueless” when it’s only at less than 2% of OS adoption (as of February) I’ll come to argue about it.
Hell I’m not a heavy or long timer Linux user, and even then I can handle myself.
I knew some person was going to say they had no issues so who cares. Well according to logic this doesn’t matter for normal PC windows users a driver installs very very easily with NO mistakes.
Just because you can handle it really means nothing when the majority can not and even i someone who enjoys Linux to an extent even admits installing a graphics driver can be a pain in the ass. on Linux. I even remember trying to install handbrake and it was a pain.
In short i think linux is still more of a pain in the ass then windows i have no idea why people think a GUI built on a command line interface is better then a command line interface built on a GUI. When you have a GUI it provides you with help right out of the box without having to look anything up.
I can’t speak for all people because obviously I don’t know everyone, but I can tell you why I prefer a Terminal with a GUI built on top of it.
I’m a tinkerer, I have always liked building things and fixing things myself. I find it very rewarding. Having a terminal with a GUI built on top of it is like owning a car where you can pop the hood and fix your engine. Now you can make a lot of tweaks in Windows, but if something is broken like say explorer.exe won’t launch then you are screwed and you have to go in to recovery mode to figure out why things aren’t working. In Linux you can just Ctrl+Alt+F1 to leave the gui and go right into the terminal.
Additionally you can download certain Linux distros that are so feature rich you may never have to even use the terminal as everything can be done in the gui interface, but the terminal is still there for troubleshooting.
Also, every operating system is hard to use until you get used to using it. I’m not a mac user, so if I picked up one tomorrow it would take me some time to learn how to navigate it (only not really because I can just use a bash terminal :D).
The biggest mistake that people make is that they expect Linux to be just like Windows and do things the way Windows does and that is simply not the case, there is going to be a learning curb that you’ll just have to deal with at first. I have found Linux to be the most rewarding operating system to use, but I also work in IT so maybe it just works better for me.
The point of my articles is not to convert the masses to Linux but to inform those who are interested. If you really love Windows and it works for you then more power to you man, it is all about what works best for you.
That’s fine but me I like software to stay out of my way I love tinkering with hardware
I’m just saying that I don’t accept both yours and Ahmed statement about the majority of the supposed Linux “users” being unable and/or clueless when installing a graphics driver. Like Matt replying to you, give a Mac OS today and not only I’ll be clueless I’ll also not include myself as a major user of the OS.
On a Mac you would probably!y be able to download a driver just fine with little knowledge besides getting the driver from amd Intel or nvidia, steam os solves the issues with this anyways
See how that’s my point!
A OS familiar user could be fine. That’s what I was trying to argue as being the majority. 🙂
The point is I never used a Mac but I know Nvidia and amd drivers would install correctly without kicking someone out of the gui
For more skilled Linux users its a fairly easy process especially if you are a Ubuntu user, but it can be a pain for those who are new to the OS.
I agree it was a pain, at the end I had the choice between rebooting the x session or rebooting the computer… sure that .rpm of Nvidia blob was hard to install. It even had the audacity of setting itself to the good resolution.