If I buy a new pc just to run VO what is the best linux to install ?

I run Ubuntu on PC and on netbook; VO run fine on both.

Distro doesn't really matter for VO, as long as it has proper OpenGL support (basically anything but a really minimalist distro). You should choose a distro based on what suits you best.

Install PC-BSD and tell me how to get the game working! :)

I've ran alot of Linux distros and it really depends on what you like. opensuse uses .rpm files, and in the latest versions yast has got pretty slick.

Then you have Ubuntu, which has that dreadful Unity crap that reminds me of Windows 8. Choices vary but there are alot of Debian / Ubuntu based distros like Mint Linux, which is as feature loaded.. and maybe a bit to bloated IMHO, to something really lite with a minimal base like Bodhi Linux, which is quite nice and fast. And don't always take DistroWatch reviews as word of god, since they seem to screw shit up quite a bit.

Personally, I'd just pick one, install Virtualbox on it and try out the others when you have the time and you'll eventually find one you really enjoy.

And ya, make sure you pick a system with a Nvidia graphics card.

I'd say Fedora or Archlinux. Don't run something that's going to have outdated video drivers.

And ya, make sure you pick a system with a Nvidia graphics card.
^ Not necessarily. The AMD open source drivers are pretty good these days.

I do love Arch, but I don't know if it's a good choice for somebody who has to ask "what distro should I use". It's not as extreme as Gentoo, but it still assumes you at least sorta know what you're doing. Good way to learn hands-on though, I guess.

The best one for VO isn't necessarily the best one for a total noob. I also suggested Fedora since it's kept reasonably up-to-date (RedHat employs a lot of the people who actually *work* on things like Mesa and the Linux kernel.), fairly well documented, and it's not terribly hard to use.

If you want a good experience with VO, having the latest video drivers is a must. A lot of development has been done in the last year on the Mesa side of things that makes the difference between running the game smooth as glass and "Just buy nVidia."

I haven't installed Fedora in eons. I just took a look at it again, and noticed several variations like Gnome, KDE, LXDE, and Xfce. Which one you using Arf?

I'm grabbing the default and the KDE versions to try out first.

Hopefully they made the .rpm stuff faster than my last try. (I'm just used to apt I suppose).

I used the Fedora XFCE spin for a while on my Netbook. Most of the time you don't use rpm directly (much like how you don't use dpkg directly) yum handles all of that.

Okay first off, if you have used Linux before than any of the above distributions are fine. The chart below is pretty good to use:

Distro's For Beginners (and experts):
-Ubuntu
-Fedora
-OpenSUSE
---Linux Mint is a pretty Decent distro from what I have heard, but never tried it.

Distro's for Intermediate Linux Use:
-ArchLinux
-Debian (Not too hard, but tricky to use)
-PCLinuxOS (Usually works out of the box, but if not it requires alot of tweaking)

Advanced Linux Distro's:
-Linux From Scratch (Unless you like programming dont use this.)
-Arch Linux derivatives
-Any distro that uses "pacman" package manager. Pacman is fairly new and may not contain all the updates you need.

Personally I would stick with either Ubuntu or OpenSUSE. The support for the 2 is amazing, and they are constantly updating graphics drivers and other aspects.

Hope this helps!!

Astronut

they are constantly updating graphics drivers and other aspects.
I'd like to refute this claim, at least with regards to Ubuntu. They tend to pick a specific release of mesa and stay with it until their next distribution version, which is quite the opposite of what you said.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=libgl1-mesa

PCLinuxOS - Lol, I tried that one lately. Actually their KDE setup is pretty good. But after playing with it for a bit it's missing some stuff that I've never seen a distro "forget" before. man was not installed. Frickin kidding me?

Your right abort! But for the most "user friendly" and ease of use I would start with Ubuntu. In my opinion.

And PcLinuxOS....I feel like its run and managed by little kids. Their entire shell doesn't even work with some Linux commands.

Debian 7.2 (awesome stable distro) currently works fine with this game, although I had to do a little:

* Had to run installer with --keep but thats not because of debian, its because I have /tmp on tmpfs and mount it with noexec

* For a little while, game was stuck at 800*600 res, regardless of what config file tweaks I did from threads on this forum. I got the game to desktop res by closing the lid (set to not suspend or hibernate) of my machine with game running. When I opened it, the game was still 800*600, but was at the top left corner of screen with only 800*600 actual pixels (not stretched fullscreen). Went to options and changed res to my desktop default.

Try Manjaro if you are scared yo configure arch. Its based of arch but easier to get going with

I dont trust a Linux Distro that hasn't been around for at least 20 years.

And LFS isn't really a distro rather than a description for building a linux system without the use of a distro. A distribution should be at the minimum, a operating system consisting of a mechanism to install and remove and upgrade OS components.

Try everything, then find one you you like and if you picked wisely, you'll never find yourself looking to use anything else the rest of your life.