• From: Cambridge, MA, USA
  • Registered: 2010-01-12
  • Posts: 100

Topic: Best distro for flash games?

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice on a distro to install on my mom's desktop. I don't know the exact specs, but it's a moderate-level Dell purchased new a few months after Windows Vista was released.

My mom is terrible with computers and only uses it to play flash games (mostly on Facebook) and store digital photos. She's convinced she needs a new computer since hers is "getting slow," but I told her all she needs is the OS reinstalled. She doesn't have Vista restore disks, so I thought I'd put some idiot-proof version of Linux on it for her since all she really needs is a browser, and basic photo/media autodetection.

I had some poor experiences with flash games on Ubuntu 9.10, and am curious to know if things run more smoothly on either the newer versions of Ubuntu or Mint, or on any other popular distro? Also, is either Ubuntu or Mint any better for flash games than the other?

Thanks in advance, folks.

  • From: the Netherlands
  • Registered: 2010-03-07
  • Posts: 974

Re: Best distro for flash games?

I think Linux Mint is a great distro for your mom. Java and flash games will play out of the box. And it's not so hard for windows users. My mom (79 years old) likes it.
Tuna.

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  • Registered: 2009-05-04
  • Posts: 250

Re: Best distro for flash games?

Plus there is a Mint debian edition ( http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=66 ) -- in case you are running Statler and prefer to have her on the same base for support reasons.

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  • From: Cambridge, MA, USA
  • Registered: 2010-01-12
  • Posts: 100

Re: Best distro for flash games?

Out-of-the-box performance isn't the issue I had, it was the quality of flash playback, both with video and games. Previously with Ubuntu 9.10 I had severe lag and choppiness when streaming Hulu/Netflix and playing contemporary games (older stuff was fine), and especially when lots of stuff was going on, like in the later levels of tower defense games for example. In comparison on playing the same game on the same computer but using Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.10 performed terribly. Do you know if 10.04 and Mint 9 can now get similar performance to Windows?


I'm not using Statler yet since Debian gives my Broadcom wireless card problems, but thanks for the advice.

Last edited by atomicbricks (2010-09-27 20:08:45)

  • Registered: 2009-05-04
  • Posts: 250

Re: Best distro for flash games?

In general I don't think my flash experience in linux has ever been as quick, smooth, and resource friendly as it was in Windows. Given that you can install the flash plugin directly from Adobe's site, I doubt there is a huge difference between distros. The biggest difference I would guess is what version of xorg and what sorts of video drivers you're using.

Also keep in mind that Netflix and linux is a no go. You can always virtualize a copy of xp though and run netflix through that. (I do this on a Core Duo 1.83ghz without much problem.)

IRC: PizzaAndWine     Script bits: Incremental Backup | Sleep Timer
  • From: the Netherlands
  • Registered: 2010-03-07
  • Posts: 974

Re: Best distro for flash games?

Well... atm i only have linux mint xfce running in virtualbox, so i can't test it.

Java and flash games run better on windows. They drive my cpu to the max on crunchbang.

I played Bloons Tower Defense 4 a lot... i just have to pop another 5422162 balloons to get to the next ranking.

I just had a look at the mint forums... some say flash runs as fast as under windows, some report problems. So... ???

Good luck with this quest...
Tuna

Last edited by Tunafish (2010-09-27 20:54:16)

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  • From: Cambridge, MA, USA
  • Registered: 2010-01-12
  • Posts: 100

Re: Best distro for flash games?

Tunafish wrote:

I played Bloons Tower Defense 4 a lot...

Exactly the game I was thinking of that had terrible lag with Ubuntu and worked fine with Windows 7.

Thanks for the info. Good point that flash support comes straight from Adobe, so distros should have similar performance. I had thought that maybe there could be differences in implementation and/or other software that enhances flash performance, but I'm not very knowledgeable on how these things work.

I don't play the Facebook games that my mom plays (or any for that matter), so I can't test them here. I don't think any of them are as intensive as Bloons TD4, and a few of them even have high/med/low resolution toggles, which helped a great deal with lag on Windows. Next time I visit I guess I'll just bring a copy of Mint 9 and hope for the best.

  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 2,088

Re: Best distro for flash games?

The Adobe Flash Player is "closed source" software so there is nothing any particular Linux distro can do to improve its performance.

Really the only thing that would make a difference is that, theoretically, a "lightweight" distro (like CrunchBang!) that uses fewer resources will have more resources left over to dedicate to Flash.

You may find the Adobe Flash system requirements informative:

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/systemreqs/

You'll see that Adobe quite plainly states that the Linux version is more hardware-intensive than the Windows version.

One option you might consider is to upgrade the graphics card... even a very inexpensive Nvidia card for example (with proper drivers installed) should be an upgrade from integrated graphics.

  • Awebb
  • #! Die-hard
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-07-23
  • Posts: 2,478

Re: Best distro for flash games?

You should also stick with 32bit.

I'm so meta, even this acronym