Can Open Rails function in Linux Mint?

[oldno42]

Hi!

Two questions

Can Open Rails be made to run on Linux Mint? I have tried without success, although MSTS runs fine. Other question, can the MSTS utilities be made to run on Linux Mint as well. I have Wine installed and still no success.

[NW 2156]

Hi, MSTS has been able to run on certain Linux Distros using Wine. There is a trick to it though.

You need to copy the contents of both MSTS CD's to a folder on your desktop and install it from said folder.

The linux wine system sometimes can't find the CD 2 during the installation process.

You also need to install the MSTS updates from Microsoft into your MSTS folder under wine. This install is fairly easy as it is similar to installing the updates on windoze.

Because of the way ORTS is written it just does not work on Linux sadly. If the Linux crowd would be interested in porting ORTS to Linux then that would be really cool.

Also check out https://www.codeweavers.com/compatib...rain-simulator if everything else fails.

Robert

[ftldave]

If the Linux crowd would be interested in porting ORTS to Linux then that would be really cool.

Crowd? Last month's StatCounter report shows desktop Linux still at about an insignificant 1.5% usage worldwide. It's the Walking Dead of desktop operating systems, a few people out of millions. Hardly a crowd.

And who in the world would want to spend their time porting OR to run on such a rarely used desktop platform? Maybe those who after years and years can't figure out that the "Year of Linux" is now a running joke and not a prophecy, I suppose.

Tony Bradley at PC World said this about his attempt to use Linux on the desktop, instead of Windows:

" ... constantly tinkering and finding workarounds to get everyday tasks done. Using Linux as a replacement for Windows takes more effort than it’s worth, and in the end I was still left with a poor substitute lacking tools I rely on ..."

[oldno42]

Must disagree about Linux being dead. First, my pc runs cooler, faster, and less prone to viruses, malware, annoying popups and a stable open office. All of this requires constant updates, fees and etc for Windows. I have no problem running my dvd ripping, converting and burning software and other video editing tools. Many free addons available as well. Most Australian government institutions use Linux platforms as well as Scandinavia, Germany and New Zealand. Would love to see a Open Rails like program created for Linux. I think it would be impressive. Either way, thanks for information and feedback. Oh, by the way MSTS does run smoothly on Linux Mint.

[NW 2156]

Crowd? Last month's StatCounter report shows desktop Linux still at about an insignificant 1.5% usage worldwide. It's the Walking Dead of desktop operating systems, a few people out of millions. Hardly a crowd.

And who in the world would want to spend their time porting OR to run on such a rarely used desktop platform? Maybe those who after years and years can't figure out that the "Year of Linux" is now a running joke and not a prophecy, I suppose.

Tony Bradley at PC World said this about his attempt to use Linux on the desktop, instead of Windows:

" ... constantly tinkering and finding workarounds to get everyday tasks done. Using Linux as a replacement for Windows takes more effort than it’s worth, and in the end I was still left with a poor substitute lacking tools I rely on ..."

Like the ReactOS project. Which just now finally has got a Alpha version out. It's only been 20 years in developement.

Robert

[mikeebb]

Tony Bradley at PC World said this about his attempt to use Linux on the desktop, instead of Windows:

" ... constantly tinkering and finding workarounds to get everyday tasks done. Using Linux as a replacement for Windows takes more effort than it’s worth, and in the end I was still left with a poor substitute lacking tools I rely on ..."

I had to LOL when I saw that quote! While earlier versions of Windows often (usually, in 7 and XP) just worked, 10 very much requires constant tinkering. Every time there's an update, for instance, it's necessary to go through all of your settings to verify that nothing got changed (and to deal with the new ones have arrived and work around the old ones that are gone, often in the update process itself). With updates happening more or less randomly (though the big ones still tend to arrive around Patch Tuesday), that gets to be an annoyance.

My experience with Mint is that if you want to just run it you can, for quite a while. Do make sure that you set up the firewall, which Mint doesn't do by default. Yes, updates are needed from time to time, but most are not as insistent and (for me so far) seem less likely to really break things than in Win10. Of course, I haven't gotten my VMs up to 18 (let alone 18.1, which has gotten less than stellar reviews for all the wrong reasons) yet - the update manager is being a bit finicky about something.

No, I have not yet gotten MSTS working in Mint (under Wine), but that's because I haven't really tried yet. It supposedly does work, and has for quite a few iterations of Wine. But having it not work in a Virtualbox VM would not be surprising - it doesn't recognize the virtual graphics adapter as providing "hardware acceleration" in any VM-based version of Windows.

[moelarrycurly4]

I run mint on several machines. I tried loading OR on a whim and it does not like it. I was sucessfull installing the XNA framwork on mine ( under wine)

[lindsayts]

Crowd? Last month's StatCounter report shows desktop Linux still at about an insignificant 1.5% usage worldwide. It's the Walking Dead of desktop operating systems, a few people out of millions. Hardly a crowd.

And who in the world would want to spend their time porting OR to run on such a rarely used desktop platform? Maybe those who after years and years can't figure out that the "Year of Linux" is now a running joke and not a prophecy, I suppose.

Tony Bradley at PC World said this about his attempt to use Linux on the desktop, instead of Windows:

" ... constantly tinkering and finding workarounds to get everyday tasks done. Using Linux as a replacement for Windows takes more effort than it’s worth, and in the end I was still left with a poor substitute lacking tools I rely on ..."

Using Linux is a free choice, no one is holding a gun at anyone's head to try an force them to use it. I have been running Linux for over 20 years now, and I have no issues with it.MSTS runs OK under wine, its route editor and tools runs perfectly under wine, better in my opinion than under Windows.

If you do not like Linux you do NOT have to use it, so why should any windows users feel threatened by it.

Changing operating systems will always be a serious chore, use what one is happy with or be prepared to put in the required effort.

Using Linux since kernel 0.96d (1993)

Lindsay

[EricF]

Dave, are you sure you're not trolling us in fun, just a little bit?

The Mac OS was declared "dead" many times, and while it never outsold Windows on the desktop, it still established itself quite well.

And now that the "desktop" environment isn't the only way to run a computer, Linux has seen a huge amount of adoption in the form of Android, which is Linux at its core.

I'd make a rough guess that Linux on the traditional desktop is in much the same place that Apple's OS was in the late 1990s -- A lot of people know about it. A smaller number actually try it, and an even smaller number decide to stick with it -- but once they do, they tend to stay, and those numbers keep going up slowly.

The Steam platform has done a lot for gaming on Linux. Windows users might not have noticed it much, since Windows certainly dominates as a gaming platform, but Steam has done quite a bit to dispel the "you can't run any games on Linux" myth. Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator 2 both run on Linux -- those are two very popular items in the sim genre on Steam. Outside of steam, the flight simulator X-Plane is available for Linux.

Now that Microsoft is open-sourcing .Net, combined with efforts like Monogame and Vulkan, developing cross-platform games is getting more and more feasible.

Open Rails began its development in on XNA 3.1, .Net 3.5 and DirectX 9 which were all standard development environments at the time, all based in Windows. The discussion is open for what coding platforms OR should advance to in V2 and beyond. The current toolset ensures compatibility with Windows XP. Keeping XP compatibility has been debated a lot. If OR is allowed to drop XP support, as well as moving the supported hardware requirements up to more modern systems from say, the last 5-7 years, then there may be far more options for cross-platform development. It's possible to keep support for MSTS file formats and still advance the "engine" that runs the simulator The v1.x branch of OR has been focused on near 1:1 compatibility with MSTS (although new features have been introduced), so we have yet to see where it can go once that's nailed down.

Myself, the only thing I'm loyal to in operating systems is "using the right tool for the job". That means I've run Macs, Windows and Linux on various machines at various times depending on what's needed to run software for various purposes. There just hasn't been a lot of mainstream software aimed at desktop users that's been Linux-only. A large amount of software that runs on Linux has been developed as cross-platform software, so there haven't been a lot of compelling reasons for the average end-user to have a Linux desktop to run must-have software. (Imagine what would happen if Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop suddenly ran only on Linux, though...)

A few years ago, I installed Mint on my daughter's aging Dell laptop to keep it going far a couple more years, since it was too old to upgrade from XP and run Windows 7 very well. Linux installed and ran quite nicely, with no more tweaking needed than installing a fresh copy of Windows from a generic Microsoft CD (not vendor-specific with custom drivers slipstreamed in). Mint, at the time, was more annoying to do a major version upgrade (Back up, format and re-install as opposed to over-the-top upgrade installer) but the latest Mint distributions seem to have done away with that and allow over-the-top upgrading like Windows. And I've found that reliably backing up and restoring a user account on Linux is simple and reliable. At the time, my daughter was yet to become a "power user" like she is now, and she found Mint to be quite easy to work in and less likely to annoy as Windows XP occasionally had.

[billjacklin]

Actually, it has been my experience that many Windows power users ‘look at’ Linux and other developments through the eyes of Windows-oriented magazine writers who are in turn paid to look askance at such heresies. I can’t blame them; they are way too busy doing their thing to do anything other than read about what else is going on in their world. There is absolutely no reason for them to do otherwise.

There are others who through curiosity or whatever decide to try things for themselves prior to relegating them to the trash heap, and they sometimes uncover what for them is a veritable treasure.

For quite a few folks, Linux Mint is just such a find. It looks and feels much more Windows-ish than the Ubuntu on which it is largely based. I found it purely by accident, but in addition to having switched to it myself, have converted a number of disenchanted Windows 10 casual users (i.e. they didn’t have to use MS software at work) to happy Linux-ers, my wife among them.

No, its not for everyone, but then train sims, model railroading, and railfanning aren’t either. I and a number of friends do all of these and, as a group, share some characteristics which I suspect would also apply to many readers of this forum. Most are techies, in one sense or another: if they didn’t or don’t work in technical fields, they are totally willing to learn new high-tech things. They are fascinated by large, complex things like trains, airplanes, computers and the like – to the point where they would go out of their way to learn more about their workings. I think you get the point; more than a few Linux converts here.

I, too, have tried to quickly get ORTS running on Mint, but was unsuccessful doing it. I think I could make it run if I made a concentrated effort to do so. At this time, my model railroad and railfanning activities prevent me from just sitting down and getting it done. If and when I do get the time, my initial efforts will involve either or both V1 and V2 of Run 8, my train sim of choice. But, for those times when intense concentration on my part isn’t what I want to have to do, ORTS is a better choice.

So let’s encourage work in the area of making this (and other train sims) work on the Linux distro that Windows users convert to easily. Who knows, you too may some day want to run on an OS that doesn’t require a subscription.