Linux is easy if you know what you are doing, it takes more than a couple of days to learn, but when you ge the picture of it, then it's really simple built up.
I would guess that alot of the problems people are having is because they can't get 3d acceleration to work, and blitzmax depends on it alot.
Hell alot of people that don't even know what blitzmax is, is having trouble getting 3d acceleration in linux. They can't get their games (like enemy territory, quake4, ut2005, etc) to run properly.
Also, you don't know for certain without testing that you actually have 3d acceleration in linux, cause glxinfo might report that direct rendering is enabled, but if there is a wrong kernel module or not properly built kernel module for your graphics card installed, then you don't have 3d acceleration at all, even if (using the nvidia drivers) the manufacturing logo appears at startup.
A good way to check this is to run a "heavy" 3d screensaver (do NOT test with glxgears, it is old and will run smoothly on a standard "nowaday" computer because of the processor speeds, even without 3d accell.
I have seen that a lot of Ati cards and certain nvidia cards have been a pain in the ass to install the drivers for, but always managed it in the end, with a lot of tuning ofcourse, sometimes without knowing how I did it. That was in mandrake linux. All in all it's best to use the distro's own driver packages if possible, and enable 3d acceleration allready when installing the distro, if possible, not later, that will give you a better chance of it to work.
Downloading and installing drivers from the manufacturer's page might give you problems you don't want, if you don't know what you are doing or what is required to install the drivers. So in general it is suggested that if you feel you don't have the knowledge to, and allready have 3d acceleration, don't install any newer driver if you have a working one.
I would guess that alot of the problems people are having is because they can't get 3d acceleration to work, and blitzmax depends on it alot.
Hell alot of people that don't even know what blitzmax is, is having trouble getting 3d acceleration in linux. They can't get their games (like enemy territory, quake4, ut2005, etc) to run properly.
Also, you don't know for certain without testing that you actually have 3d acceleration in linux, cause glxinfo might report that direct rendering is enabled, but if there is a wrong kernel module or not properly built kernel module for your graphics card installed, then you don't have 3d acceleration at all, even if (using the nvidia drivers) the manufacturing logo appears at startup.
A good way to check this is to run a "heavy" 3d screensaver (do NOT test with glxgears, it is old and will run smoothly on a standard "nowaday" computer because of the processor speeds, even without 3d accell.
I have seen that a lot of Ati cards and certain nvidia cards have been a pain in the ass to install the drivers for, but always managed it in the end, with a lot of tuning ofcourse, sometimes without knowing how I did it. That was in mandrake linux. All in all it's best to use the distro's own driver packages if possible, and enable 3d acceleration allready when installing the distro, if possible, not later, that will give you a better chance of it to work.
Downloading and installing drivers from the manufacturer's page might give you problems you don't want, if you don't know what you are doing or what is required to install the drivers. So in general it is suggested that if you feel you don't have the knowledge to, and allready have 3d acceleration, don't install any newer driver if you have a working one.