Saturday, 8 August 2015

Why i Choose Linux over Windows 10

Hey guys, back with another post this time i will be discussing about why i choose Linux over windows 10 (Yep i have been using it past two weeks now and ya its definitely better than windows 8 )

Linux is Free

The biggest thing about linux is it's FREE, you don't have to pay single penny to get a Linux, most of the linux distrubution out there are free of cost and guys before you say windows 10 is free i just have to tell you that Windows 10 upgrade is free not Windows 10 i mean if you want a free upgrade to windows 10 you should have bought Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Linux is Customizable, Super Fast

I have been using Linux Mint for almost 3 months now and i have to admit its really fast, it takes little time to boot up and opening apps, i am not saying windows 10 is slow, its fast too but not as fast as Linux (personal opinion). Moreover, Linux is highly customizable i.e if you hate something on linux and you want that to do or look as you want , you can do it. Linux mint has given me so much customizable options than windows 10, I can change how my login screen looks like, i can choose How my desktop should look like. Windows 10 too offers some of these but not as good as Linux Mint.

Office Suites

Well one area where i was choosing windows over Linux is for the Office Suites, I was under an impression that windows office 2013 is probably the best office suite out there until i started using Opensource Office suites, One of the them is Libreoffice, Well libreoffice is available for both Windows and Linux, but the big thing about Libreoffice is it's FREE. Also, Libreoffice supports most of the microsoft Office formats. It may not look as good as the Microsoft Office Application it sure gets our Work done. I was able to use almost all the functionalities available in Microsoft Office on LibreOffice. And now i have completely started using Libreoffice.

Sound & Video

I don't know how many have done this when they got a windows laptop – DOWNLOAD VLC. Yep the media player which almost play all the video formats. I did when i got my first windows laptop, i just installed VLC since i don't have to download a codecs pack to make some format run on windows media player. Well if you guys are just like me then the thing is VLC is available for Linux too, so why spending some amount to buy a OS to just install a free VLC. You can just do that on a free OS

Well i agree Windows media player is really good for music playback, i use to miss this feature in Linux where you can right click on a song and add to the playlist. I tried a lot of Media player in Linux to get this feature and felt satisfied when I started using Clementine, well you still don't have the option to right click and add it to the playlist but you can just double click on the song to add this to the current playing song. Clementine also has a premium feel the media player has some really good features you can connect to Spotify , Dropbox , Last.fm accounts and start listening.

And for the Windows Media Center Fans, Do Check out Kodi Media Center.


Gaming

This is one area where i can say that Windows is leading over Linux. Windows have great games, all major publishers support Windows and you can get almost all the games you play on console on Windows (Except for Console exculsives). Gaming on Linux is really getting better these days. Games like Shadow of Mordor, Total War, Bioshock Infinite, DOTA 2 have Native Linux Support. I am not a hardcore gamer but i really love playing DOTA 2 whenever i get time, Since it is available on Linux (This was the deciding factor for me) I completely moved to Linux. I usually dual boot windows and Linux for playing DOTA 2, after i started playing DOTA 2 on Linux i really didn't find a reason to boot to Windows again. Moreover, 1 out of 5 games in Steam supports Linux and seeing the future where Games like Batman Arkam Knight and The Witcher 3 are coming to Linux i really don't see a point going back to Windows now. The only Problem I see for Linux Gamers is Display Drivers, as of now Nvidia is the only company which has been able to give a driver where its performance is as similar as the Windows Driver. AMD and Intel are far behind.

And also why Publishers are not supporting Linux ? It's cause of Linux usage, as per the last Steam hardware survey only 0.9 % of people play games on Linux. Which is very small Market share. Hoping this may change in future.

Conclusion

I don't hate windows or i am not a big linux fan either. After using both windows and Linux i had to see which is more benefitting. I can do almost everything on my linux as i can do on my Windows and the big thing is for free of cost. I don't have to spend 50$ on Windows to play a 5$ game instead i can spend a 5$ on the game on a free OS. Windows 10 is definetly good its just i am not quite convinced that its better than Linux.

Well, that's it guys, Peace Out. I will be back with a new post soon till then do let me know your view on this why you choose linux over windows or Vice versa and Finally guys remember this only my Personal Opinion and you guys may have more points than me. Please do share it. 

Sunday, 2 August 2015

Linux Gaming : Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition out for Linux

Hey guys, Big news for Linux gamers with Nvidia cards in there System, Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition is out for Linux. As i have mentioned in my first post here, this is one of the biggest AAA title getting a native linux port, I haven't tried myself but seeing some YouTube videos and few articles on Web , Shadow of Mordor seems to be the best looking game on Linux yet. As per Michael Larabel from Phoronix, Shadow of Mordor is Easily one of the most Demanding Linux games out there.

I am not sure if you guys noticed my first line in this blog about the users with Nvidia Card, that's right as per Feral interactive, developers of the linux port of Shadow of Mordor, the game is only supported on Nvidia Cards for now. So people with Intel and AMD cards need to wait for some more time. Well this is not so surprising as the current drivers for Intel and AMD cards lag far behind Nvidia's properiatary drivers. Hoping Mesa 11.0 update in September may allow Users with AMD and Intel GPU to run the game. For people who are not aware of Mesa 11.0,  Mesa 11.0 Open Source Drivers will support OpenGL 4.1 on Intel and AMD Gpu's, this update is stated to be released this September. As of now the Stable version Mesa 10.6 supports only OpenGL 3.3 core on both Intel and AMD GPU. So for now, guys with nvidia cards please do let me know how the game is working on your linux system.


Below are the System Requirement





Well guys, just on the Hard drive space, above requirement shows 47 MB, i think this is bug/mistake in Steam. You need 47 GB of free hard disk space to install the standalone game. if you are buying with both the DLC you will need a total of 67 GB (Thats a really big game), however the game rocks. This game was released on windows almost an year back with Critical acclaim from both critics and gamers.

So, if you guys want to find out how the game looks on Linux, Check out the below gameplay video



That's it guys, Peace out. I will be back with new posts soon. Till then keep rocking Linux