my adventures in linuxland....suse style.

[=JHF= -gHoTi-]

Linuxy? lol I boot into windows when I feel risky, bloated, or cramped   (kidding! the ONLY reason I boot into windows is to play trackmania nations (forever just came out, even better than the last one!) and cod4.)

I've tried the usb key stuff before, and i find it's just too ... unpractical for me.  I mean, i have firefox and a few other apps on one for all the other puters i use, but an entire operatiing system for portability?  just seems... too much i guess.

If you are a windows only person, there is an ubuntu windows installer as of hardy (due out thursday ).  It installs like a regular windows program (or so i am told) and you can (i think) do all the ubuntu things in the "virtual" desktop.  (i am assuming this is just a virtualization type thing).  I believe it is called wubi.

Also, if you are just wanting to play with a linux off of a cd with greater hardware support, knoppix has almost never failed to boot properly for me. (ok, once, but it was because of a large crack in the ceedee ).  It has lots of stuff to play around with (and even more on the dvd version!).  I've personally used knoppix to rescue un-bootable winders before, and it's a great way to pass the time when you are waiting for a hdd to arrive via mail!

[=JHF= Smoke]

vista can boot off a usb drive now as well (i think i read that somewhere)....

now onto my next question in my continuing saga....Somehow, part of my other hard drive (the windows one is fine) has become unreadable...chkdsk doesn't fix it... Can I use ubuntu or knoppix to get into that drive and copy the files somehow (it cant be read in ubunu either, the drive can, but when i click on a certain folder, it cant open in either windows or ubuntu).

[=JHF= -gHoTi-]

ok, now the burning question....Why is this better than xp?

I dun have an answer to your hdd problems, but I found me another reason to answer this question:

The tinkerability factor if through the roof!  (tooting my own horn here) Tonight, just playing around with the bluetooth stuff i got some interesting things working.  My fone and me puter are paired, if i walk away (right now the distance is about 10 feet) the screensaver comes on.  When I walk back (which comes to about 5 feet with the set delay) the screensaver comes back off.  This can include: setting away/return messages in IM programs, turning on/off monitor, locking/unlocking puter, muting/un-muting (or stopping/starting) music, or really, any thing!  (i had it just open firefox when I got close enough, just for the geek factor ).  Pair this with some bash scripts, and THE WHOLE WORLD IS MINE (if i haven't lost my fone that is).

Brilliant!

Ok, so it's not a traffic shaping server, or a mythtv unit (yet! - ordered a cheap tvtuner yesterday to get a tinkering with it THANKS ALOT BONE ), but the awesome factor (to me anyway) is incredulous.

...

I did get cod4 working, but punkbuster wont behave, nor does it sound like it ever will   Trackmania wont work either, but that's because of the lame(!) starforce protection stuff.


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Also, Hardy was released today



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I'll stop now.

[=JHF= Astromarmot]

Hardy hates me.  So I recently upgraded to Hardy from I believe it was Feisty.  Everything went swimmingly at first, until I "upgraded" to the restricted ATI drivers so I could make it look pretty.  Reboot, login and as Gnome is starting, bam whitescreen.  Seems there's some issue with some of the chrome provided by Compiz, but it took me a few days of research to find out I had to remove virtually all traces of packages with Compiz connections to get it going, so now it's not as pretty as Feisty and was quite the headache to get it useable.  I dual boot this thing with Windows, and with issues like this I'm still not ready to kick Billy boy to the curb just yet. 

[=JHF= JimmyT (CDN)]

Im not sure I'm ready to have my computer be "feisty".   

-- JT

[=JHF= -gHoTi-]

My adventures in tinkering this week.

I tried XFCE (or XFWM) this week.

Mixed results, for those in the know, I prefer Gnome to KDE.  I've tried openbox, fluxbox, kde a few times, and now XFCE.  It's nice, and I'm sure for a computer not meant for present technology, it's perfect, it just lacks what I like from gnome (bluetooth integration, hotkey support).  It does integrate with compiz nicely, but I've never had any trouble with compiz anyway (even on my old gateway compiz ran fine).  Compiz devs seem to prefer gnome too, cause it's integration is getting better and better.

My only gripe with linux to this day is the horrid flash support.  flash games, wesites (WHY), and other stuff does fine (maybe a cpu spike here and there), but flash videos from youtube always tear and flicker.  fullscreen is even worse.  Compiz helps, I can zoom the screen and fill the video and no problem, but don't hit the fullscreen button!  THE HORROR.  I saw flash 10 beta came out, with limited linux support, but I'm not brave enough yet



Recently, in a virtual box, I tried to get gentoo working.  That didn't work well.

Then I tried ArchLinux, that worked even worse.

I almost got a BSD variant working, but I accidentally deleted the virtual hard drive later and have lacked interest in trying again.

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But my compiz sho' is purty

And sure, the names are cheezy for ubuntu, and the die-hard, been there since the beginning, linux types (BONE ) hate it, but I still prefer Ubuntu over most others.  (names?  seriously:  Dapper Drake, Warty Warthog, Breezy Badger, Edgy Eft, Feisty Fawn. Gutsy Gibbon, Hardy Heron, Intrepid Ibex - thats just sily)


Unfortunately, I think Hardy should be put on the "Let's Try This Again" table.  It's better than Gutsy, but not worthy of a LTS.  firefox3 beta, hacked up pulseaudio, and some other rushed projects should not be on a long term release, but what do I know, I'm just a tinkerer)


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I'm still pleased with my linux tho, other than the occasional game, I have not found one thing that I need windows for.  I'm constantly learning and "testing" new ... wireless security tools (that's right, I hack my own router... BECAUSE I CAN), scripting, and the like.  As I've said before, the tinkering factor is amazing with these OS'es.  Wine recently hit 1.0 (a release client anyway), so a good portion of my games are installed in my linux partition.

I'm probably a fan boy, but I enjoy learning new stuff each day

[=JHF= Astromarmot]

From what I see, they screwed the pooch this go-round with Hardy.  I've only recently gotten back into Linux, so I don't know what the earlier Ubuntu versions were like, but for an LTS to be this buggy seems misguided.  I forgot to mention it also had an(a fairly commmon one at that) issue with SB Audigy.  Seems you have toggle a checkbox on the analog/digital port in the sound mixer several times to get it working when it, for no real reason, just goes silent.  Not ready for prime-time, but fine for someone who wants to tinker.  I love open-source, but I can't see Joe-sixpack willing to go thru this to save a few bux.  Still, Bill better watch his six. 

[=JHF= -gHoTi-]

Well, Hardy is good, don't get me wrong.  Hardy is much better than Gutsy was, which was better than Feisty, and so on.

The problem with popular distros such as these, is much like wikipedia.  Everyone wants it to tailor to them, and if it doesn't, they make it.  Eventually, someone will disagree, and vandalize the previous persons creation, resulting in something else, so on and so forth.  While it's not _exactly_ like that with linux, there is some.  With so few companies helping with driver, software, and other support, many are forced to "make" what will work for them.  Eventually this gets hacked up to work for everything.  These "drivers" become a jack of all trade, but master of none.

Some companies are (ever so slowly) starting to recognize us, but really, there is no point in some cases.  Microsoft, or Apple, pays them to include their devices or software.  Money talks.

It's also been my experience that money is not the factor when choosing an OS.  If you've been on the internet in the past few years, you know just how easily it is to "acquire" a microsoft or apple OS free of charge.  Most of these available have even been hacked and cracked to improve performace and/or visual enhancements.  I don't condone this, but it's out there and quite easy

And you are right, which is part of linux's problem, or really, any OS that isn't Windows.  JoeShmo doesn't really want to learn something different or unknown. (not poking at anyone, just generalizing - please don't get angry at me and threaten my life!)  We've all used a windows computer.  All of us.  Most of us even daily.  Even if you own a mac, you've used a windows computer.  Whether it's your school, work, home, friend, family cat, atm, cash register, etc, ...somewhere sometime, you've used a windows computer.  Even if you know very little about it, you know SOMETHING.  That sort of headstart is hard to beat in a society that wants it simple and laid out for us.  We are all creatures of habit, we fear change.

In this day and age, OS'es are the new religion/politics.  Some people will flip-flop, some will not care, some will choose both (there are only two choices, that ... apple choice doesn't count ), and some will continue to force their opinion down your throat until you hate it as much as they proclaim to love it.

I'm a mix of all 3

[=JHF= Astromarmot]

I guess it all depends on one's view of OS'es.  IMHO, ultimately the vast majority of users aren't going to care so long as they can do what they want to do when they want to do it.  The OS is just another layer between user and hardware, so, like a device driver,  an API, or a network protocol, in most cases should be as invisible to the user as possible.  The solution is also the problem.  The perfect OS would be ubiquitous, but by doing so, if it lies in the hands of a private corporation,  stymies creativity and opens the door for abuse.  I myself, really like to tinker, I like to make old hardware work as long as possible, and enjoy the challenge of doing so, on my own time.  But in my job, I'd hate to have to recompile the kernel on the airport computer just to print off the weather before a flight.  So far the only truly fanatical zealots I've encoutered are Macists(Mackists maybe,  Macist sounds like they wield blunt weapons, on second thought maybe Macist is appropriate };-) most Linuxians seem to be more realistic, and Windopes just don't have enough time between reboots to care.  :-)

[Von Rosenburg]

I guess it all depends on one's view of OS'es.  IMHO, ultimately the vast majority of users aren't going to care so long as they can do what they want to do when they want to do it.  The OS is just another layer between user and hardware, so, like a device driver,  an API, or a network protocol, in most cases should be as invisible to the user as possible.  The solution is also the problem.  The perfect OS would be ubiquitous, but by doing so, if it lies in the hands of a private corporation,  stymies creativity and opens the door for abuse.  I myself, really like to tinker, I like to make old hardware work as long as possible, and enjoy the challenge of doing so, on my own time.  But in my job, I'd hate to have to recompile the kernel on the airport computer just to print off the weather before a flight.  So far the only truly fanatical zealots I've encoutered are Macists(Mackists maybe,  Macist sounds like they wield blunt weapons, on second thought maybe Macist is appropriate };-) most Linuxians seem to be more realistic, and Windopes just don't have enough time between reboots to care.  :-)

I think I'm fairly confident in saying I agree with you on this one Astro; I'm kind of in the same boat. I dual boot my XPS 1210 because I'm a little bit of a linux fanboy but fanboy or not my Desktop is still soley windows because as it stands,

But in my job, I'd hate to have to recompile the kernel on the airport computer just to print off the weather before a flight.

Windows is where it's at fortunately or unfortunately.

I have only yet graduated from HS this year and will be attending University come August for Electrical Engineering, Engineering Mathematics, and maybe Computer Science so as it is, it's still simply easier for me to use my desktop (number crunching powerhouse) for any practical purposes like Autocad, Solidworks, Photoshop, Gaming, and frankly Microsoft Office (because that's such a demanding suite -wink-). Not that there's anything wrong with many of the alternatives like Open Office or Blender, it's just easier for me to work with familiar programs; plus my biggest issue with the OS debate has always been compatibility. Many of the less demanding games I play (Warcraft 3 anyone?) I could finagle to work with my laptop through various virtualization methods but it's just more convenient when things work seamlessly not only software-wise but hardware wise. With the majority of the populace using Windows based machines and the majority of the products on the market being tailored to Windows machines... well... compatibility is usually pretty seamless. Whereas with my Ubuntu Lappy (which still has Vista dual booted as a "just in case" measure for the University) I use it for things like browsing the internet, basic word/document processing, instant messaging, and VOIP?

Today I spent about 4-5 hours trying to jerry-rig a webcam and bluetooth headset to work with Ubuntu (and ultimately Skype) so I could chat with a few pals and though it was all good fun and an interesting learning experience to be frank; if I absolutely needed those devices to be compatible I would have dual booted into windows because I know for a fact those devices  would be more agreeable. The reason I spent all that timing tinkering (besides the fact that it's fun) is because like I said I'm a litttttle bit of a fanboy.

ok, now the burning question....Why is this better than xp?

It's ultimately up to you; frankly I find that my experience with Ubuntu has been not only relatively pain free (until I start tinkering with things I aught not to tinker with and render any audio devices useless... yeah that happened today, I don't want to talk about it) but to an extent less buggy. When making the transition to Linux there are certainly bugs but the bugs you encounter are different then those you encounter in a windows environment. I suppose it's like picking the best of two evils? I prefer the occasional hiccups Ubuntu gives me vs. the ridiculous "errors" windows likes to send my way. Plus as a windows machine... it feel less secure. Oops. Furthermore I find that Ubuntu allows me to interact with my data in a way that works better for me. Multiple desktops, multiple tabs, multiple everythings. I can manage everything much more easily in Ubuntu vs. XP/Vista. And just to top it off I find Ubuntu to be a much more aesthetically pleasing OS.

That's just me though...