Any Linux users?

Talk about just about anything else that is non-gaming here, but keep it clean
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Mozgus
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Post by Mozgus »

lordofduct wrote: keywords in your statement... "tweaked out trimmed down..." versus "default"

yatta yatta
Don't take it all personally. Besides, if we're talking default installations of XP vs Ubuntu, XP will STILL win in bootup time. I'm completely positive on that. At least with the newest Ubuntu. I cant speak for the versions prior to 2006. But XP won on my system by a good 7-10 seconds. In terms of performance, I can't judge because I had no multi-OS applications to compare.

But my two gigantic gripes with Ubuntu? It can't play MP3s because it doesn't have legal rights or some shit the forum guys told me. And when I followed the instructions for installing my Geforce drivers, STEP....BY....STEP, it killed Ubuntu and never booted again. Screw that.

Plus, when it came right down to it, 90% of my activities on Windows are completely impossible on Linux, because there's no software support in those areas. You think I can flash my GBA cart in Linux? Hell no. Frameserve in Avisynth? Selfboot Dreamcast games? Play virtually any of my modern, graphically intensive games, or even effeciently emulate any game consoles above SNES? Not a chance.

Sure, Ubuntu Linux is nice if you only need a computer to type reports on, chat on GAIM, and browse the net (in a gimped fassion). But I just see no reason to when WinXP so effectively does all this, and 100x more. WinXP is just not as unstable as people make it out to be. Just get yourself behind a router, or use the decent firewall which comes with XP. Run simple cleaners for spyware, trojans, viruses, and your registry once a week. Defrag once a week. Check for Windows Updates once a month. Remove any junk services starting with Windows. You are now done. As long as you avoid shady sites, avoid shady emails, and refrain from installing every pointless app you come across, you can keep an XP install alive and healthy for years. As long as you aren't some doofus who was raised on AOL, ( which is 90% of the people who ask me to fix their computers), you will be able to follow these directions.

I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but give them credit here. It took them how many decades to craft up an awesome OS? Thanks to XP, I finally have a computer that is so stable, that I don't even hesitate to leave it in the hands of friends, (who can otherwise barely operate AIM on their own), so they can have an awesome weekend of gaming. I later ask them how they liked it and they report that not a single thing crashed or locked up. It's a good feeling, man.
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Post by lordofduct »

Mozgus wrote:
lordofduct wrote: keywords in your statement... "tweaked out trimmed down..." versus "default"

yatta yatta
Don't take it all personally. Besides, if we're talking default installations of XP vs Ubuntu, XP will STILL win in bootup time. I'm completely positive on that. At least with the newest Ubuntu. I cant speak for the versions prior to 2006. But XP won on my system by a good 7-10 seconds. In terms of performance, I can't judge because I had no multi-OS applications to compare.

But my two gigantic gripes with Ubuntu? It can't play MP3s because it doesn't have legal rights or some shit the forum guys told me. And when I followed the instructions for installing my Geforce drivers, STEP....BY....STEP, it killed Ubuntu and never booted again. Screw that.

Plus, when it came right down to it, 90% of my activities on Windows are completely impossible on Linux, because there's no software support in those areas. You think I can flash my GBA cart in Linux? Hell no. Frameserve in Avisynth? Selfboot Dreamcast games? Play virtually any of my modern, graphically intensive games, or even effeciently emulate any game consoles above SNES? Not a chance.

Sure, Ubuntu Linux is nice if you only need a computer to type reports on, chat on GAIM, and browse the net (in a gimped fassion). But I just see no reason to when WinXP so effectively does all this, and 100x more. WinXP is just not as unstable as people make it out to be. Just get yourself behind a router, or use the decent firewall which comes with XP. Run simple cleaners for spyware, trojans, viruses, and your registry once a week. Defrag once a week. Check for Windows Updates once a month. Remove any junk services starting with Windows. You are now done. As long as you avoid shady sites, avoid shady emails, and refrain from installing every pointless app you come across, you can keep an XP install alive and healthy for years. As long as you aren't some doofus who was raised on AOL, ( which is 90% of the people who ask me to fix their computers), you will be able to follow these directions.

I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but give them credit here. It took them how many decades to craft up an awesome OS? Thanks to XP, I finally have a computer that is so stable, that I don't even hesitate to leave it in the hands of friends, (who can otherwise barely operate AIM on their own), so they can have an awesome weekend of gaming. I later ask them how they liked it and they report that not a single thing crashed or locked up. It's a good feeling, man.
No... you seem to be the one taking it personally because you only compare it to those application YOU require. It is similar to a gamer telling a video editor he shouldn't buy a Mac because no good games are released on Mac. What use are video games to someone who wants to edit images and videos on a secure architecture?

As I stated... depending the application, one may be better then the other. In the realm of which Racket is discussing Ubuntu has an upper hand in capabilities.

First off... mp3 playback is VERY simple to install. They don't supply it with the disk for legal reasons... but it is available on the repositories very quickly... just download any of the gstreamer packages and divx, xvid, mp3, and a ton of other codecs are opened to your disposal.

As for your Nvidia problem... I don't know what you did... but I've never had any problem with them.


Now of course windows has the upper hand due to its large amounts of utilities... utilities are made for it because it has the largest user group. I admitted this earlier. But outside of that line of software (basically illegal bootlegging software) you have a nice variety of tools to choose from. On top of that all those things are doable in Linux... it justs means learning a new way of doing it. And totally understandable if you don't want to learn it. But if you have a desktop and a lappy for basic stuff... are you going to use the lappy for your bootlegging and major applications? No you'll use the desktop... the lappy is for on the go simple computing, media playback, word processing. It is all handled well.

So i repeat... I'm not taking it personally, I am defending something that people usually don't realize. A good analogy is: Applications for Linux is to quality gaming on SegaCD and Saturn.
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Post by Mozgus »

lordofduct wrote:First off... mp3 playback is VERY simple to install. They don't supply it with the disk for legal reasons... but it is available on the repositories very quickly... just download any of the gstreamer packages and divx, xvid, mp3, and a ton of other codecs are opened to your disposal.
Yes but it's not as simple as running an EXE to install the codecs. It's a very complicated and risky process just to give yourself even the most basic of multimedia playback functionality.
As for your Nvidia problem... I don't know what you did... but I've never had any problem with them.
Please do not assume I am at fault. If the instructions on the official Ubuntu website for the nvidia drivers are wrong, then that's not my fault, ok?
the lappy is for on the go simple computing, media playback, word processing. It is all handled well.
Be honest. Scratch "media playback" off that list.

Let me just say that Ubuntu, on the surface, has a fantastic visual style, and menu organization. I give it that. A total computer noob would have a MUCH easier time learning where everything is on Ubuntu. If they can just improve it a bit more, I may consider converting my grandma's comp to Ubuntu, so that maybe I can finally teach her how to use the damn thing. It just sits there, year after year.

I dream of the fictional day when all the Linux teams can team up together, and build the ultimate Linux OS, keeping it free, and give Microsoft a good motivational kick in the pants to further improve their own stuff.
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Post by lordofduct »

oh for codecs... either you can use Synaptic and add the "restricted and multiverse repositories" and then search gstreamer and w32codec and get all the codecs that way... or add those repositories and open a terminal and type

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gl gstreamer0.10-plugins-base

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

sudo apt-get install w32codecs

Each line is done seperately and you would be requested for your root password. OR you can just type

sudo su

put in your pw and then type each line without the sudo command as you'll be doing a super user (SU) session.

Once you do all that... boom every codec known to man except DVD playback... which only requires a couple more lines in the terminal or with Synaptic.

sudo apt-get install libdvdread3
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh
sudo apt-get install totem-xine

(I will say this isn't your only option... it is one... there are more, probably better ones too. I quickly just copied pasted on repository as I don't keep this sort of information memorized).

DONE! Takes about 15 minutes on a cable or DSL connection.

-----------

I wasn't assuming the nvidia thing was your problem... I was assuming you received bad info.

Secondly I to hope for a more user friendly and easier Linux OS. I hope they can join together more. But that takes time... and a lot of flavours coming out are moving in that direction (fedora, ubuntu, suse). Why bash something moving in a good direction... they should be supported and applauded for trying so hard to fight all the legal litigation behind it and get into the hearts of some of the less informed users.

And I won't revoke my media player comment...
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Post by Mozgus »

lordofduct wrote:oh for codecs... either you can use Synaptic and add the "restricted and multiverse repositories" and then search gstreamer and w32codec and get all the codecs that way... or add those repositories and open a terminal and type

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gl gstreamer0.10-plugins-base

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

sudo apt-get install w32codecs

Each line is done seperately and you would be requested for your root password. OR you can just type

sudo su

put in your pw and then type each line without the sudo command as you'll be doing a super user (SU) session.

Once you do all that... boom every codec known to man except DVD playback... which only requires a couple more lines in the terminal or with Synaptic.

sudo apt-get install libdvdread3
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh
sudo apt-get install totem-xine

(I will say this isn't your only option... it is one... there are more, probably better ones too. I quickly just copied pasted on repository as I don't keep this sort of information memorized).

DONE! Takes about 15 minutes on a cable or DSL connection.
0_0 I rest....my case...

Wow.
Why bash something moving in a good direction... they should be supported and applauded for trying so hard to fight all the legal litigation behind it and get into the hearts of some of the less informed users.
I'm not bashing anything. I just summed up Ubuntu's current situation by being realistic. It has a long way to go.
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Post by lordofduct »

That would be the Terminal or Command prompt way of doing it... it looks a little complex due to its archaic implementation, but it is simple type and hit enter kinda stuff.

As I said the Synaptic way is even easier... just type gstreamer into the search bar, it shows you all the codecs, highlight all in click install. Not very hard. I showed the terminal version because a lot of people prefer this way.

Compare this to searching the internet, downloading every individual codec and going through the standard windows install shielf for each individual codec... or finding a codec package, which a lot are very untrustworthy. In comparison it isn't much different... actually, the search part is made much easier as everything is a one stop shop and remarkably safer then googling.


Oh... and all OSs have a long way to go... why? Because technology has yet to stagnant; it is an ever growing mass that seems to not want to stop any time soon.
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Post by Jakanden »

I know I am the new guy here so I may get flammed for this but - I don't think Racketboy was looking to turn this into a Xp vs Linux debate as there are tons of those on the net. He is asking for assistance and that is really all that this thread should be about =)
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Post by racketboy »

lol -- not really :)

Let me re-emphasize this:
I'm not ditching XP on my primary machine -- my desktop
This is my spare laptop that is primarily for Firefox and Thunderbird and maybe some xvid and mp3 playback
Nothing terribly complicated.

It's more of an experiment if nothing else.
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Post by lordofduct »

racketboy wrote:lol -- not really :)

Let me re-emphasize this:
I'm not ditching XP on my primary machine -- my desktop
This is my spare laptop that is primarily for Firefox and Thunderbird and maybe some xvid and mp3 playback
Nothing terribly complicated.

It's more of an experiment if nothing else.
Sorry if it seemed to be getting into a flame war... I didn't mean to do that. I just got a little defensive of something inherent; not a hatred for Linux (personally I prefer my Windows machine... it does MORE). I just like putting a fair light on everything.
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Post by Mozgus »

lordofduct wrote:I just like putting a fair light on everything.
I thought that's what I was doing.

But I turn everything into a debate. It's no fun otherwise.
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