Linux friends looking for advice.

[I_Punch_Demons]

Further testing is needed but I am.in probably the most ideal spot. I fudged, the dual boot partitions.......annnnd lost everything ....no back up. All my wads mods and more...gone. luckily all my other games are kept on the 4 tb HDD as storage.

 

So now I can run gzdoom in both environments practically clean. 

[-TDRR-]

If you need a super-lightweight and fast distribution, i recommend getting Puppy Linux too, as it's just 200MB. GZDoom is pretty easy to get running, along with Zandronum. An old version of PRBoom is on the repo, but i don't recommend using it.

[I_Punch_Demons]

Okay so all the OS's are installed. Now is the long task of getting all of my mods. Yeah I know about Pop and Puppy. I don't know I had a lot of pre-knowledge of Ubuntu as my dad is a system's programmer and that was the one he recommended.

[beanz]

Ubuntu is a solid choice for Linux newbs. I still use it primarily because of the stable yet updated packages available in the repos.

Sorry about your data loss. I did the same thing when I was learning about Linux like 5 or 6 years ago.

 

[I_Punch_Demons]

1 hour ago, beanz said:

Ubuntu is a solid choice for Linux newbs. I still use it primarily because of the stable yet updated packages available in the repos.

Sorry about your data loss. I did the same thing when I was learning about Linux like 5 or 6 years ago.

 

Must be right of passage. Burn the past if you have to. Lol

 

Yeah it seems stable and everything runs fine. I plan on doing a side by side comparison of the dooms in various environments just to see if there is any difference.

[I_Punch_Demons]

Okay posting an update for those interested. 

I have conducted the following actions on Linux vs. Windows. 

Vanilla
Heavily Modded 
Heavily Modded/Live Stream

For Heavily Modded I used the following:
Doom 64 for Doom 2:https://www.moddb.com/mods/doom-64-for-doom-ii
Eviternity:https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/103425-final-release-eviternity/

 

These 2 are heavily scripted with .deh files and a lot of different graphical assets making them demanding in some scenarios. Not the most demanding, but playable for the average Doomer. 

Smooth Doom: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/69451-smooth-doom-im-not-dead-i-think-ill-go-for-a-walk/
Neural Upscalling 2x: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/99021-v-0-95-doom-neural-upscale-2x/
Various Assets Ripped from Doom Remake 4: https://www.moddb.com/mods/lowpoly-doom-lite-10 
(Specifically the parallax lighting, textures, gore)
Pistol Start Options (really need an alternative for this, I know someone posted a bind command somewhere for me for GZDoom, but I can't find it): https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/67715-zdoom-pistol-start-options/

Settings are as follows. 
All graphical options are turned on and maxed (except for texture resizing)
Resolution: 2560x1440
Forced 4:3 aspect ratio. 

I'll get it out of the way now. Running any of the original IWADS or the above wads with no graphical increases, mods or anything. Your gonna have a good time regardless of the system you choose. However, I have to give my nod to Linux on this front as I feel the startup time for GZdoom is a bit quicker. But if you are going this route, Chocolate Doom and GLBoom series are just better. I like graphical mods so I go with GZDoom. But overall running vanilla with Doom Strict and no OpenGL, yeah no problems. Except for when you get to heavily populated areas in highly stylized wads such as the above. Then you will get some slow down. But again that could be to a multitude of problems. 

Initially, Heavily modded was running fine, until I hit heavily populated areas. Eviternity on Windows would lag by the Map Drain with all Mods in. There would be performance chugs and frame skipping. However, when the game did decide to run smoothly it would shoot back up to 60 FPS. On Linux, the chugging didn't start until much later. However, the last episode is practically unplayable on both systems. This leads me to believe this could be hardware issues. Or that this is really demanding. For streaming, I noticed it is a lot harder to set up on Linux. Specifically audio. I know that this is a sidetrack, but no SLOBS, I had to run separate scripts for audio and I couldn't edit them. Voicemeter doesn't run in Wine despite my best efforts. This is a little concerning but not the end of the world. I was able to tune somethings through OBS proper and got that to work. Gameplay wise, Windows did struggle with Doom 64 for Doom 2 when I played it there. On stream through Linux, it took until Alpha Quadrant. it should also be noted that parallax lighting is working double time for this wad as there are a lot of low light areas. I was experiencing some slowdown. 

Just to clean up what I am trying to say. It does appear that classic Doom has more playability on Linux. However, my hypothesis was not fully realized as I am still not running at full capacity. I am still experiencing slowdowns. However, with everything cornered and a fresh install on both systems, I can safely say the following.

While not optimal, Windows provides the most USER-FRIENDLY experience. 
However, for sheer performance, I find Linux to be an absolute unit. That isn't to say there aren't restrictions. 

What I learned is that Linux is still a very restrictive way of doing things, HOWEVER, it should not be ruled out. For instance, you lose a lot of creature comforts of Windows and lack some control as there are no "admin" privileges. Plus you are subjected to the use of the systems provided by the Linux community over that provided by AAA developers of similar products. Case in point KDEN Live vs. Sony Vegas. But Linux with it's lack of bloatware and small, SMALL, foot print I am left to believe that somehow my system is obsolete in just 2 years. Which is...concerning. Or I built the system wrong somehow (more than likely, this was the first computer I hand-built). 

In conclusion (also TLDR), I think every Doomer should give Ubuntu a try. It's free, mostly easy to install and you get a different take on things. Like installing GZDoom is not going through a website. You have to download it from a repository and then run it through a DOS-like application called Terminal. I am grossly oversimplifying but I am referring to those who are on Windows and considering it. It feels far more secure and is easy to pick up. To be honest, gives you that "Hacker Guy" feel using terminal. 

A few tips if you are going to make the jump. PARTITION PROPERLY. I made this mistake and lost my initial Windows install. That's not Linux's fault that is mine. I wasn't paying attention in GParted and accidentally formatted my NVME drive. I looked up a few tutorials on my phone and was up and running properly in minutes. Also, it is worth noting, updating your video drivers is INFINITELY easier on Linux than windows. It detects your hardware and then you go to the update application and it's just there and just..works. Amazing. 

Going forward I am keeping Linux and it might be turning into my main Dooming machine. I also recommend if you are looking to jump to dual boot with Windows. You don't get 4k on linux. You don't have ray tracing on linux. Linux should be for your retro games from the 90's and emulators. 

 

[Maes]

19 hours ago, Odorousbag87 said:

But Linux with it's lack of bloatware and small, SMALL, foot print I am left to believe that somehow my system is obsolete in just 2 years. Which is...concerning. Or I built the system wrong somehow (more than likely, this was the first computer I hand-built).

 

If you tried Ubuntu hoping it would be somehow more lightweight than Windows, you'll be in for a surprise. Ubuntu, unless we're talking about an aging LTS release, is not a lightweight distro at all, as that's not its goal. In fact, it can be just as demanding as Windows, if not more. If you want a lightweight distro with emphasis on small size or performance, there are better suited ones out there, but those are harder to setup and use. Compatibility (an often sidestepped argument, when discussing Linux) is also not as good, as you will often find yourself missing dependencies/packages not on your distro's repos/not included in the main installation.

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by Maes

[banjiepixel]

My personal experience is that Kubuntu does perform pretty close to how Windows performs. Normal Ubuntu desktop is pretty heavy, not something you want to run especially if your hardware has even some trouble running Windows. Much better options for perfomance are KDE, Xfce and Mate. There also many other more lightweight options available within Ubuntu itself. Changing distro just to get more lightweight experience is unnecessary in most cases. Also there are ways to get around the missing dependencies/packages not on your distro's repos/not included in the main installation. And sometimes it is even possible to run into very similar problems with Windows too.

[Maes]

But at that point you're already a far cry from the oft-trumpeted usage scenario that wants Linux/Ubuntu to be a drop-in, 1:1 replacement for Windows that everybody and his grandma can use.

[I_Punch_Demons]

17 minutes ago, Maes said:

But at that point you're already a far cry from the oft-trumpeted usage scenario that wants Linux/Ubuntu to be a drop-in, 1:1 replacement for Windows that everybody and his grandma can use.

Okay to be honest, you guys are right, one thing I failed to mention is that Ubuntu does come with Bloat. But I did sniff out some of it and removed it. However, that being said. Windows 10 is a resource hog. I will have to do just an idle session just to see how much both Ubuntu and Win 10 use. Also @Maes Yes you are never going to have that 1:1 replacement. You will need to learn new things. That is why I did amend a lot of the pros with cons. Which aren't even as in depth as one of you guys can do. My goal was to take average player experience on both systems as I was having some small issues I noticed other doomers weren't. Both times it was a clean install due to my own follies. Thanks for your input however, I will see about other distros or just continue to strip away at the onion that is Unbuntu. I almost want to try Arch so I have a better application repository like the AUR. But I think I can translate those programs over.

[Kira]

Judging by the name, maybe Arch can resurrect overrode partitions!

 

Spoiler

But really, I feel you. I did the same mistake years ago.

 

[I_Punch_Demons]

3 minutes ago, Kira said:

Judging by the name, maybe Arch can resurrect overrode partitions!

 

  Hide contents

But really, I feel you. I did the same mistake years ago.

 

The jokes, cause Archvile! Sorry I had to be Mr. Obvious. Yeah, but its part of the learning process. I found out that my default file drives for windows (Docs, music, etc) were saved as they were on my 4tb drive not my main NVME. So hurray for the most part all of my streaming stuff was intact.

[Barry Burton]

I'd suggest MX Linux.

 

Also, did you run any of the Windows 10 Debloat scripts? There's a significant performance improvement just by disabling telemetry.

Edited May 13, 2019 by R4L

[Marisa the Magician]

btw I use Arch :P