Any Linux users?

[Mozgus]

I'm ganna have to ask you to try again. I can't understand half of what you said. Sounds like a bunch of crying. If I actually responded to that, this thread would be doomed. I'm not going to get into a playground spat with you.

Edit: Haha, there you go. Much better. I'm surprised you typed up all those paragraphs, only to delete them.

In short, I got 1280x1024, but no thanks to the fools on the ubuntu forums. They were doing it wrong; telling people to run some xserver shit. All you have to do is add "1280x1024" before each of the graphics device lines in that xorg.conf through that sudo editing dealie. Man, I need to stop listening to people, and just figure things out without help. I always have better odds when I do that.

Anyways, I had time and tried the 64-bit version. No performance improvement, and more problems. The big one being that flash can be half assed on 32-bit, but on 64-bit it's absolutely impossible, so far anyway. The official site even says this.

I told you already that I like to try new things, and so I try Ubuntu. I fail to see how that makes me such a terrible person, but thanks for deleting that insult.

[lordofduct]

I'm ganna have to ask you to try again. I can't understand half of what you said. Sounds like a bunch of crying. If I actually responded to that, this thread would be doomed. I'm not going to get into a playground spat with you.

I changed it before you even posted this because I knew that was what it would lead to. And no it's not crying... it's telling you to stop crying because you can't get your head around something.

[racketboy]

Play nice now...

[solidunit]

Why would I want to learn "terminal"? It's another god damn computer langauge we don't need! Do you know what year this is? We don't have to type out code to run an application anymore. That was half of the reason Windows was invented; to end that archaic shit. It's not about stupidity or laziness. It's about efficiency. If I had to type code just to open and run every single command for every single tool, I'd never get anything done, and I'd be constantly forgetting what my goal was to begin with.

Uhhh dude, as long as there are computers, there will be command lines. The command line makes everything simpler and more direct. Even Mac OSX has a command line! Vista is also going to have a new and improved command line interface

Don't even pretend that it's hard to get codecs for Windows. All you need is a build of Xvid, and Winamp classic. You'll be able to play every main format right off the bat, unless you insist on playing some wack-ass pirated movie encoded in some underground format.

as far as videos go, that doesn't cover some flavors of divx and h264. In this respect I find linux far easier. Install Mplayer (or VLC) and boom! Pretty much EVERY format imaginable will play, with no fussing around with filters and whatnot

for the record i dual boot ubuntu and windows. I WISH I could run Mac OSX though. Perfect marriage of Unix sensibilities and a GUI done better than microsoft

[Mozgus]

as far as videos go, that doesn't cover some flavors of divx and h264. In this respect I find linux far easier. Install Mplayer (or VLC) and boom! Pretty much EVERY format imaginable will play, with no fussing around with filters and whatnot

FFDShow. Run the exe, next next next next. Done. Every video format automatically plays. No "fussing". There's no way you can argue this.

[lordofduct]

add multiverse repository

open terminal and type

sudo apt-get install vlc


Done.

[Mozgus]

add multiverse repository

open terminal and type

sudo apt-get install vlc


Done.

Everyone knows how to double click a file. Not everyone knows what a "multiverse repository" is, nor do they even know what terminal is or where to find it. Windows still wins here.

[solidunit]

FFDShow. Run the exe, next next next next. Done. Every video format automatically plays. No "fussing". There's no way you can argue this.

Don't mean to nitpick but ffdshow itself wont handle container formats besides avi, like mp4, mkv, ogm, etc. I actually use a filter pack called CCCP for windows (which works great). It took me a LONG time to find out about CCCP and up until i found out about it i was about ready to give up and just use mplayer for windows cause it plays everything you throw at it. Some apps are best-of-class in linux AND windows, mplayer being one of them, but also gaim and pan (a free usenet newsreader, also available for windows). I still use it on windows from time to time cause it gives you more control over bufferring and whatnot.

You have to realize that Linux is not the same for everyone. Some people use Redhat, some use Gentoo, etcetera and on different CPU architectures. In contrast, everyone effectively runs the same version of windows on the same processor architecture. Its very difficult to write an app that delivers the EXACT same experience from Install to Runtime across all Linux distributions on all different CPU platforms. Add to that, writing a package for a specific distribution that provides for smooth install and uninstall. Ubuntu has been the closest one to get it *idiot-proof* across different CPU architectures. That's a pretty awesome feat, especially because 2 years ago, it was a nightmarish, (but fun) hours-long process to get your system up and running on another distro like gentoo or debian (i'm leaving out redhat and suse cause I think they suck).

However, I agree with you, there are some things you simply can't do easily on Linux. But this isn't because "Liunix Suxx0rz", its simply because it isnt as ubiquitous as windows, so developers don't bother supporting it. If you're enterprising and smart enough, you'll find ways of achieving 90% your computing taks on Linux. Its actually part of the fun of running Linux! At certain points, you'll often catch yourself thinking, "why cant windows be more like this (particular app or methodology)?". Examples being the Gnome desktop, mplayer, gaim, amarok (mp3 player), etc.

If you're not really into computers and aren't interested in learning about them, just use windows. You're really missing out on some cool stuff though.

/end rant

[Mozgus]

/end rant

Thank god.

[solidunit]

I hope someone already pointed out you can just use synaptic to install stuff. Its all point and click, no complicated programming languages to learn