The Beauty Of Ubuntu Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The Beauty Of Ubuntu Linux

This past weekend my uncle had computer problems again, yes the one that was ripped off by the geek squad before. He knew I was in town just for a party and going back. He did not want to tell me that his computer was messed up again but I knew it after looking at his face. I said I would stop by and fix it. I only had a couple of hours to spare and was expecting the usual virus or spy-ware to be slowing it down but when I got there it was a lot worse than that. His wife, who is the primary user of the computer, loves to download (caunta porqueria se encuentra). I had to say it in Spanish because it has more meaning, but it loosely translates to every little dirty thing that she can find on the net. From every disc cleaner to the almighty registry sweeper, she had downloaded things I had never even seen before.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=11311

[userid]

as you mention the words headshot and gaming, you could try et or mods or urban terror, a quake 3 mod. Very CS-like.

[ethana2]

'could rival'? Man. It can CRUSH Vista /and/ Leapord.
Have you ever used compiz fusion my friend? Blows Aero and Quartz away.

Games to try out: ioq3 and crystalspace games, nexuiz, sauerbraten. If you're into spending money, ID is your friend. Use qJoyPad with your game controller

If you need any help souping up an Ubuntu install, let me know. ethana2@gmail.com
You know, using screensavers as your desktop background, etc.

Welcome to our world.

[KohlyKohl]

I used Ubuntu for the last year but decided to try Opensuse 10.3 and I was so surprised how much better it was. I installed the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 7.10 and I have not gone back since. The customized menu for Suse is much more useful than the tired default gnome one. Also having a window with all setting applications that you can organize and find within seconds is amazing. Just my thoughts on the situation.

James

[ethana2]

I used Ubuntu for the last year but decided to try Opensuse 10.3 and I was so surprised how much better it was. I installed the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 7.10 and I have not gone back since.

James

I'm confused. You say OpenSuse is better.. then you installed Ubuntu and never went back?

You mean you were using Ubuntu x86_64 for a year and then installed OpenSuse and never went back?
...Wait, 7.10 has only been out for like a week...

I'm going to stick to Gutsy until I have time to try out other ones again. Last time I tried suse, it wanted me to get some account with novell and wouldn't let me install or upgrade anything from repos... Nightmare. Fedora was always... not shiny. I must admit, I like shiny... and I hate orange and brown.

Ubuntu Studio Feisty x86 -> Gutsy (package-manager -d)
Theme: black, dark grey, and bright, shiny blue

...if anyone knows of an OSX-like theme for KDE, please let me know. Call me fickle, but the reason I'm using gnome is because of my dependency on visual elegance... ethana2@gmail.com

[TheOmegaMan]

Well I've tried several different distro's debian based, mepis, k/x/ubuntu, Free/Linspire, debian - Gentoo based: Gentoo (of course), Sabayon (very nice) - RPM based: Redhat/Fedora, OpenSuse - Almost unix: Slackware.

Now through most of my experience I learned a few things, slackware/gentoo is crazy solid, slackware you need to basically build everything it really gives you a basic install but excellent for dedicated stuff like NAS/Web/Mail/FS.... Gentoo is the snapiest of all but if your just the most jet powered propeller head would you subject your self to gentooism. Now no crazy flames please I really like gentoo but the compiling is what kills me. This is not a desktop OS, although Sabayon does do a good job of having almost everything off the bat but still it takes for ever for the updates to be installed.

Now onto RPM based distro's, they are very good as well, as one person mentioned that they had problems with updating. This is probably the most critical thing that any OS competing with windows needs to have. The problems I always had was that the repositories didn't have all the dependencies required for the front ends they had on their server... now that is just plain stupid. Why would you have a front end if you don't have the back end.... no brainer. But overall there are some interesting tools offered by the two major RPM based distro's, yast is one of my favorite management tools but it isn't enough to make me switch from ubuntu.

Onto Debian based distro's. Well I find any debian based distro is best suited for daily tasks such as updates and installation... sorry I have to say it ... except Free/LinSpire, they have that stupid click and run crap.... BAH!!!!..... Anyway Mepis is a great debian based distro, it has many useful tools and is "compatible" with ubuntu and debian repositories but it's kinda like the bastard child of both. I found it was hard to find resolutions to specifics since it had crossed kernels and packages making it hard to find which base for resolution to look for... sarge-edgy (at the time) ...

Now I stick with ubuntu since it is a version that is actually back by a major vendor ... gah!!! man I hate saying this.... grumble grumble... Dell!!! ok I said it happy now ... What I like about ubuntu is that there is actually a real company behind it, they have regular revisions of the distro (every 6 months) and they even have the concept of LTS which is something really needed in linux. Ubuntu also has a huge base of support (forums, howto's, ...) which is really needed. There are many wonderful people who make beautiful tools like envy, automatix, and a few other's out there I'm sure. I actually was excited for the first time in 7 years about a OS release and it was Gutsy Gibbon. The last time was Windows 2K.

I've been able to do many thing with ubuntu so I don't see why I need to change, oh btw if your wondering gaming is possible on linux maybe not in the scale that people would like but I've been able to get things running that were not "listed" on WineDB so many things are possible. And you can at lease say one thing is for sure about ubuntu it has bling, Compiz Fusion.... yes yes bling is no reason to buy a system but Mac seems to have done well for it's self hasn't it

Vista could learn a few things from compiz ... like what 3D really means.... hahaha just had too sorry any ms lovers out there Vista has nothing on compiz.

[KohlyKohl]

I'm confused. You say OpenSuse is better.. then you installed Ubuntu and never went back?

You mean you were using Ubuntu x86_64 for a year and then installed OpenSuse and never went back?
...Wait, 7.10 has only been out for like a week...

I'm going to stick to Gutsy until I have time to try out other ones again. Last time I tried suse, it wanted me to get some account with novell and wouldn't let me install or upgrade anything from repos... Nightmare. Fedora was always... not shiny. I must admit, I like shiny... and I hate orange and brown.

Ubuntu Studio Feisty x86 -> Gutsy (package-manager -d)
Theme: black, dark grey, and bright, shiny blue

...if anyone knows of an OSX-like theme for KDE, please let me know. Call me fickle, but the reason I'm using gnome is because of my dependency on visual elegance... ethana2@gmail.com

OpenSuSE 10.3 and Ubuntu 7.10 came out at the same time. Before installing both I had previously used Ubuntu for a year. After installing both Ubuntu 7.10 64bit and OpenSuSE 10.3 I have decided that 10.3 is more solid and easier to use and takes a lot less time to do repetitive daily tasks that the average user like myself would do.
I do agree with you on Gnome but I have been checking up on KDE 4 in hopes it will change for the better.

[ethana2]

I also am watching KDE 4 with great anticipation.

From what I understand, everything gnome had over it, it will take back and then some.

...although gnome seems to be targeting mobile devices now...

On a side note, while I mentioned KDE and gnome, I want to learn to program GUI applications for Free POSIX operating systems in C++ (and I intend to put all my work under version 2 of the GNU GPL), but I'm kind of confused as to where I should start. I need to know if I should develop for KDE, gnome, or strictly X (and why), and which IDE to use, which compiler and linker to use, and how. So, if anyone out there develops apps for linux, and can take on an apprentice of sorts, please pick me ethana2@gmail.com

[KohlyKohl]

I chose Java myself but do plan to someday follow the same approach as you.

[Thetargos]

GUI programming in Linux is like a never ending discussion. GNOME and KDE are both based on two different toolkits. GTK for GNOME, Qt for KDE. They differ in way too many aspects to simply "enumerate" in a post, suffice to say that GTK has been traditionally used in plain C, while Qt is pure C++... However both share a load of similarities at the API level. Even though it is recommended that you KNOW the API, you are better off using a "builder" tool (to quickly generate a skeleton) and fine-tune by hand. After all, what's your app worth without the actual "backend" (engine) to do the job you want? One thing I've learned about GUI development is that you are better off modularizing your app, not having the GUI and "function" mixed up (as is commonly the case in Windows), but rather have the "application code" and "GUI code" separated, access your application from your GUI through shared libs and the like or even your own API. That improves robustness of your application and you can even run it from command line for stuff you may not require the GUI for... like acting on multiple files in batch or whatever.

You use the standard Linux tools, i.e gcc (g++) for compilers, ld for dynamic linking... You are better off learning how to use autoconf and automake to really have portable code, simply run ./configure on any supported platform and the correct Makefile(s) will be generated. Then only a matter of "make" in most cases to build the app and "make install" to install it... On all supported platforms you choose to port, so it IS worth learning about those commonly held as esoteric, tools.