I wouldn't say there's *no* support
but I like - by way of example - L4D2. I'm sure the Linux games are very good, but they won't get me my fix of co-op survival zombie bashing, unless I drop my framerate to Powerpoint speeds by running it in an emulator. Last night, because I was bored, I bought Starwars: The Force Unleashed from Steam for the grand total of three quid. Not a fantastic game, but easy, cheap, and available.

Win7 tends work faster than *Vista* on the same hardware. No-one's suggested it can outperform XP in most real-world tasks - generally, it can't (http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/windows-xp-vs-vista-vs-7/). That said, it does have its nice points; the Media Centre is intuitive and very competent, the UI is generally pleasant, and it's stable.

Different tools for different requirements - I've never really understood the rabid fanboi ranting on the subject. I'm not too bothered which OS you choose to use - if it does the job for you, excellent. But the idea that windows is unremittingly and irredeemably awful, whilst Linux is flawlessly compiled from love and kittens, is outdated and wrong.

EDIT: as it happens, I have at various points in time run various flavours of Linux on various machines (currently, just bt3 on a netbook). In many cases, it's by far the better choice than Windows - but not, for my requirements, on my main machine.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 10:25, 2 replies)

"if it does the job for you, excellent. But the idea that windows is unremittingly and irredeemably awful, whilst Linux is flawlessly compiled from love and kittens, is outdated and wrong."

Agreed, although I cannot get on with the Win7 (and Vista) UI. Things seem to be hidden from you for no real reason.

e.g. The MRU documents list in Win7 is gone. As a developer where I may be using the same documents for weeks if not months this was very useful. I cannot find anywhere where I can turn it back on.

In contrast, in Linux, I can turn anything on and off as I wish, and it's generally all in the same place(s). If it isn't, I could add it myself.

I think it's the fact that I have to pay for an OS that is generally unstable - I've had Win7 blue (well black) screen on me a few times - specifically when trying to interface with hardware (which is my job) and that takes an age to set up (admittedly, Win7 is a bit quicker than XP/Vista), and then I have to download and install a huge host of 'updates'.

It just chokes in the throat a bit, after having parted with money for it.
(dchurch bah, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 10:32, closed)

well :P
taskbar, properties, start menu, customize, check the 'recent idems' box - you now have them back! I think they were removed by default because too many hamfisted husbands had their porn stash accidentally revealed.

Anyway, I don't want windows to stop going wrong - it'd take a large chunk out of my income :)
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 10:44, closed)

Ahh dude!
I owe you a beer!

Thanks for that - I couldn't see the wood for trees!
(dchurch bah, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 13:42, closed)

No worries
I had a similar problem completely overlooking 'open folder location' in the new search

Also, re things being hidden from you - have a look at 'godmode'. Just about everything is presented in one very easy-to-use page.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 20:20, closed)

Hmmm
will google that tomorrow.

(very reminicent of Doom ;-) )
(dchurch bah, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 20:44, closed)

Aye
It's nothing more than a shortcut, really - nothing to download - but the resulting agrgeagation of useful stuff saves hours of finding out where MS has hidden stuff. I named mine 'noclip' rather than godmode, because I'm sad.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 22:11, closed)

I never really understood what all the UI ranting was about with Vista and win7
Its like, you've got a computer and its job is to get your work done and not sit there simply all fucking pretty acting like a slut. You want to do that? Aw no you may be a virus, click here, are you sure? FFS.

Windows systems were not built to be as stable or secure as *nix systems. Microsoft's engineers are piling security stuff on top of each other rather than fix the core which would be very tedious. I have never seen a linux person complain about not having administrative rights, stuff like that. True some people complain that they cannot log in as root but a normal person logging in as root is pure stupidity. root is a weird account.

If I use windows, I either use XP or disable all the fancy shite before using vista/win 7.

The UI affects those with low memory/old graphics cards so they'll experience frequent hangs and such but at the same time GNOME running on the same machine works flawlessly.
(Archeleus hates cabbage, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 10:42, closed)

again,
I wouldn't for a moment question your decision to run Linux - it's been the right choice for some of my machines, and if it's the right choice for yours, fantastic.

It is not, however, the right choice for my relatively high-end main machine, which I paid a fair amount of cash for in order for it to be able to play the one or two games I actually enjoy. I quite like Aero, now (disliked it intensely at first), and the win7 UAC is far less intrusive than Vista. If I couldn't cope with it, I'd turn it off.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 10:47, closed)

I am not telling you to run linux
yeah, its your choice. But just out of curiosity, which two games?
(Archeleus hates cabbage, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 10:49, closed)

At the moment,
Left4Dead 1 and 2.

Before that, counter strike source, before that, Quake2, before that, worms armageddon (best game of all time, I reckon). I'm not a huge gamer, don't take to it particularly well, and prefer to keep it to one or two rather than flitting around and being depressingly bad at all of them.

That said, I did download Serious Sam HD 1&2, Ghostbusters, and Starwars: Force Unleased over the weekend - came to 15 quid in total, I think...
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 10:53, closed)

Hearing all that makes me want to start gaming again
but I don't have enough time. Still, I have finished Left4Dead, played CS on garena, and a bit of warcraft III this year.

A couple of years before I used to game quite a lot, finished a lot of games like Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights II, San Andreas and such. My interest is in RPG's.
(Archeleus hates cabbage, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 10:57, closed)

I find RPGs too immersive - or, more accurately, the wife does. Other things tend to get slightly neglected...

A bit of Team VS L4D2 is a good way to end the day; I don't tend to play much of anything single player, as I like the petty satisfaction of knowing someone, somewhere, is getting quite pissed off about me shooting them in the head/eating their brains. It's a really well-thought-out game for multiplayer - very balanced. Should give it a go.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 11:01, closed)

Yeah I like the game
but I have not played it multiplayer.

I'll try sometime.
(Archeleus hates cabbage, Wed 30 Jun 2010, 12:05, closed)