OT Action Computer games

[Norm]

Steve Searle wrote:
> Around 01:58am on Sunday, April 22, 2007 (UK time), Norm scrawled:
>
>   
>> My sister is in the process of buying a new computer for her 15 year old 
>> son.  She would prefer to follow my advice and use a Linux operating 
>> system, the catch is there does not seem to be many games for Linux that 
>> would hold a typical 15 year olds attention.  The option of an emulator 
>> such as wine is out as the games I have tried to install under wine 
>> require additional setup or work that neither my sister nor my nephew 
>> wish to learn.  The option to do the work for her is out as she lives a 
>> days drive away from me, and frankly driving a day to install some game 
>> even if I do have opportunity to visit with my sister is just not worth 
>> the effort very often.  Is there a source of  a selection of games 
>> available for Linux?  The tetrex/ solitaire style games just don't have 
>> the type of action a kid expects.  
>>     
>
> I'll no doubt attract the odd flame, but to be honest in these
> circumstances I think he would be better with a MS Windows PC.  The
> games that his peers will be playing, and that he will probably want to
> play are just not available for GNU/Linux.
>
> You can always set the PC up as a duel boot PC, and encourage him to use
> GNU/Linux for other activities.  I did that for my son's - the elder now
> in his early 20s uses GNU/Linux for development, etc., and my 10 year
> old likes to use it for web browsing and "messing about on", but both
> revert to MS Windows for most games (as do I).
>
> Steve
>
>   
As much as it hurts to admit it the reality is one seems to need access 
to a windoze box from time time, purest can argue no but the reality is 
one is needed.
I have toyed with the idea of sort of a dual boot.  The sort of part is 
to use a usb boot with M$ installed, don't know if the performance will 
take too much of a hit  but the extra hassel of pluging in the second 
hard drive should keep him on the linux system more often.  Has anyone 
tried this method, is the performance fast enough provide the computer 
itself is up to the job?
Also thanks Frank for the link to some linux games, as unimportant as 
games really are the reality is there availability is an important 
factor for many when buying a computer.