I was going to use the latest Ubuntu to game via Wine, but I am starting to wonder if it is worth the trouble. But then again I hate windows and have no desire to spend $100+ on something I hate.

One of the biggest issues with Linux is getting a proper security suite with real time scanning and firewall. I am not sure how to do this. All the normal companies seem to only provide business linux services, not consumer service. So, that won't work. Business stuff is stupidly expensive.

Plus what I have seen of various other security software seems very... iffy. I just don't know what to make of it.

How hard is it to game and use office suite type software on ubuntu? And I am used to Kaspersky. How do I get that level of security on Linux.

I thought I should let you know why this thread has now been triplicated. When I press the button to post the thread it screws up and shows some messed up text in the place of the button. Looks like it says something processing. And I am not taken to a redirect page or anything like that after clicking the post button. So, I wasn't even sure if the thread posted. Please fix tue button.

Please delete the other threads I just made on this topic.

This is good. Your hate will keep you determined in the face of any eventual trouble you find in your way. :P

Nah, seriously, I only encourage people to switch to Linux if they've got a reason for wanting to ditch Windows. If you're going to try it out "just to see how it is", chances are you're gonna leave it sooner than later and go back to Windows. I'm not sure there's such a thing as a "security suite" for Linux home users. But if you're not afraid of getting your hands dirty, you can pretty much configure your own customized firewall.

For the record, I've been using exclusively Linux for nearly 15 years now (Mandrake/Mandriva, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and now Arch Linux), I've never bothered to configure me a firewall, and I've never had any security issue. That I know, of course. :P Except for the newest of games that only support DX11, most of them can be get to run through Wine (and the immediate future looks bright in that regard). Plus, there's some utilities like PlayOnLinux, and a couple of must-go threads in this very forum:

· https://www.gog.com/forum/general/adamhms_linux_wine_wrappers_news_faq_discussion
· https://www.gog.com/forum/general/linux_playit_weekly_news
· https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_judas_does_this_run_in_wine_thread_v1173 Yep, known issue. Every other day there's some doubled or tripled (or more) new posts around here. This forum is a mess, and many bugs/glitches aren't likely to be fixed. But it's our forum and we love it for what it is. :P

Here is a screen shot of what the troublesome button looks like.

And the latest Ubuntu claims to have its own firewall and security suite built in. Is it good as kaspersky?

I have been using ubuntu the last months and i am pleasantly surprised of how much is this os capable of gaming. Until now i have 90/95 % success rate of running games under wine. It is true that you need some time in order to get use of using wine and playonlinux ( front for wine, making using wine a lot easier). There is a awesome web page called gamersonlinux.com, with a lot of step by step guides for installing and running different games and is a perfect starting point of learning the main wine/ playonlinux options. After you install some games following the guides on gamersonlinux, you will have enough expirience and you can look in some of the many awesome threads here on gog forum, regarding games without guides on the mentioned web page. The guides here on the forum are a lot shorter. However, after the step by step guides you will already know what is what.

Regarding security, linux is known to be the os with the highest degree of security and the lowest count of viruses. This was the main reason for me to migrate from win to ununtu. Until now i havent had any problems. It must be mentioned however that linux is alot different than win in the way it feels and i have still a lot to learn. :)

Hope that helps

The thing is, you generally don't *need* such software on Linux. In particular:

* Files you download are not executable by default; you have to make them executable before you run them. This is a small extra step (chmod +x on the command line, or changing the file properties in the GUI), but it prevents you from accidentally running a virus that you didn't intend to.

* You can also take advantage of the multi-user nature of the system, doing gaming and work on separate user accounts. This way, you limit the damage that malicious programs can do.

* The kernel has a built in firewall, and there are programs out there (even GUI programs) that allow you to configure it to your needs.

* Malicious software that's aimed at consumers tends to target Windows, so there's less risk from that standpoint (but be aware that Windows viruses have been known to work under WINE).

(If you're really security minded, you could use Qubes OS, but I don't think you can really game on it, at least not to my knowledge.)

Edit: One other thing: Never run games as root; unlike on Windows, where some older games need administrative privileges (due to having been made before consumer Windows had proper security policies), in Linux this should never be necessary. In fact, never run any program as root unless you have a good reason (the scary dd command, for example, is only scary if you run it as root; you can't wipe your hard drive as a normal user).

Yeah, but I still need to clean files so as to not infect other systems. I don't want to be rude about file hygene. Um, no. Why?

your name, flatiron.

The Flatiron building is in the heart of NYC and one of the most famous buildings on the planet. It's credited with being the first skyscraper in the U.S. but I don't know if that;'s ever been confirmed.

I wonder if that's why that name popped in my head... now it makes sense. I remember watching some show about that now.

There's clamav for that.

In my opinion? No. Ubuntu is the leftovers of Debian, given some time to get funky, since what Debian has is already often 6 months aged.

But at least it isn't the insanity that is Mint, which is made from Ubuntu's table scraps.

I'm a Fedora user. While rare in the userspace, we're actually more common than it seems especially in the serversphere.

Fedora has the Goldilocks advantage. The packages aren't too new, in that you're just trying to open Gnome and spiders pour out, but it isn't so old that Gnome is still in the 2.0 versions. It's just right.

Also in Fedora, you don't have to figure out how to turn the lights on, unlike Arch. (Which is still saner than Slackware, where you have to figure out how to connect the lights.)

Fedora is backed by Red Hat, which is probably one of the most damn reliable distributions ever.

Do I have to already have linux to use Fedora? Will it work with wine?

And I suould have asked, how do you install this? Can I just download it on android and jam the drive in my computer?

Fedora is one of the Linux distributions, just like Ubuntu.

However, I vote against end-users using Fedora, unless you are some expert wanting to use and try out newest bells and whistles. As far as I know, Fedora is basically a work-in-progress beta version of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), usually full of bugs and annoyances. When it finally becomes stable, they release it as a commercial RHEL, and the support for your Fedora ends soon after, after which you are supposed to upgrade to a yet another unstable Fedora version.

If you want to use a Linux distribution from the Red Hat family, instead of Fedora I suggest CentOS. CentOS is basically a free, non-commercial, version of stable RedHat (while Fedora is the test version of some future RedHat version).

But if you don't necessarily want or need to run RedHat (e.g. due to your work or studies), I suggest Linux Mint, which I am currently using. It is like Ubuntu, but without its stupid user interface, and Mint is nowadays quite popular among home Linux users (along with Ubuntu), as far as I know. RedHat family is maybe more popular with corporate users.

Many GOG users use various Linux distros for gaming, including Fedora.
However, GOG only officially support Ubuntu based distros, so Fedora is not a good choice for Linux newbies.

You can use DriveDroid to boot your PC from ISO/IMG files stored on your phone.

Okay, when installing Ubuntu, do you just download it to a flash drive, or do you have to extract it first?