Ubuntu & Mala... sitting in a tree?

[KnightofTruth]

Howdy to one of the most helpful communities I've ever been a part of on the interweb! 

So, for the past few years or so I've been working off and on with my MALA layouts and file structures for my arcade cab.  This past year my MOBO died on the PC I was using to maintain this data (I'll save the tech saga and triumphant return story for another day).

Anyway, the data originated on XP using Mala, made a seamless transition to Vista (where the PC died), and sat there until a few months ago when I attempted to bring them over to my Win7 rig - that mobo died as well and has just been replaced, I've used an Ubuntu livecd distro in the meantime just to get my RAID data etc. back...

Now I don't have an OS (other than the usb drive Ubuntu) for my new rig yet (which will be my dedicated arcade cab PC alone) and quite frankly don't want to pay more than I have to (I'm sure you all would agree ) so I'm wondering... will I be able to use my mala setup/files/layouts/etc. with the latest distro of Ubuntu or does it make more sense to purchase a copy of Win7?

Things which weigh heavily in my mind:
- Will Mala work in Ubuntu natively or will I need to virtualize Win7 or use something like Wine?
- Will my other emulators which are already setup for the most part run natively or will I need to start over with their linux equivalents?
- Will some of the "programs" which I've used in the past (i.e. things like Romrenamers, sorters, etc.) work?
- Will all of the "peripheral" hardware items such as the LED controllers, ipacs, etc. work (any driver issues etc.?)

Thanks for any recommendations you guys can provide to help me get this project off the desk and into the workshop!

[raungst]

MaLa is a windows program, so it won't work in Ubuntu. You'd have to virtualize Windows 7. I doubt wine would work, and even if it did, I'm not sure how you'd link to linux emulators. Personally, I'd try to find an old copy of XP, or short of that buy a copy of windows 7. Depending on what systems you want to emulate, I don't think the linux emulators are quite as mature as their Windows counterparts. Most of the rom managerment software I use is windows only as well. Unless your goal is to have a cabinet that runs linux, windows will be much easier to get up and running.

[EssexMame]

+1 on the most helpful forums!

I've not been abused/trolled once and that's with every one of my post having some dumbo question or comment :-)

[KnightofTruth]

@Essex - I completely agree - love the maturity of all the posters on here... wait does that mean we're all old??

@Raungst - Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for - I'm not sold either way on using Linux vs. Windows out of principle - but just wanted to 1) save some $ and 2) use whatever would be best for the final product.  Sounds like Windows would be the way to go if the emulators etc. are still lagging behind in the Linux realm. 

I was particularly concerned with visual problems as I know it seems Linux visual drivers etc. are always just a little (if not a lot) behind.  Sounds like you solved my problem, thanks again! Especially with my first build here, trying to get everything to work in Linux (while possibly helpful to the community at large) seems like it'd be a hassle best avoided!

  <-- Iced tea for me!

[Le Chuck]

I'll second the ease bit about Win.  Everything in the EMU community seems to be done on windows first and then is ported over; however, we have a very active Linux wing here in the the mansion and if you saunter over there you'll find some great docs outlining how to get a cab up and running on the free.  There isn't MALA but there are some good FEs in linux and there are even some dedicated live distros out there.   

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,107620.0.html