The GNU/Linux thread

I should try it again, but I think it is working on my system (Ubuntu 10.10).
 
What screen saver program are you using? There are more than one.
 
gnome-screensaver

(yay for ssh-ing to your computer from your phone to do a quick ps-ef | grep screen :D )
 
argatoga said:
What screen saver program are you using? There are more than one.
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gnome-screensaver, too.

RdKetchup, which vlc-XYZ-Addons Do you have installed?
 
I'll have to check tonight at home, and make sure it actually disable the screensaver.


Edit:
Yep, screensaver does not kick-in while playing a video in full-screen.

There are a ton of plugin installed, don't know how to list them all...
 
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So I've installed Wheezy the other day, and since my urge for fiddling with it hadn't ceased, I decided to build my own kernel. First of all, I'd say it's rather easy to do, except maybe knowing every config option (damn there are many :? ). The only thing left to do is build the nvidia module for the proprietary driver. I know I need to use m-a, but it always wants to build the module for the kernel that is running, not the new one?how do I tell it to make it for the new kernel?
 
Psirus said:
So I've installed Wheezy the other day, and since my urge for fiddling with it hadn't ceased, I decided to build my own kernel. First of all, I'd say it's rather easy to do, except maybe knowing every config option (damn there are many :? ). The only thing left to do is build the nvidia module for the proprietary driver. I know I need to use m-a, but it always wants to build the module for the kernel that is running, not the new one?how do I tell it to make it for the new kernel?
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In the old days (haven't built a kernel for the better part of this century) which kernel version to compile modules for was determined by the /usr/src/linux softlink. It should point to the source directory (usually /usr/src/linux-VERSIONNUMBER-MODIFIERS/ ) you want to compile for.
 
Zuhaib said:
I am a long time Linux fan, I was one of the first Mods of the *nix forums over at DSLR forums and currently admin a handful of Red Hat boxes and in the past done CentOS and Ubuntu so I am no n00b at Linux. That being said I prefer OS X as an desktop/daily OS. It just gives me enough *nix when I need it but enough abstraction that on days I dont want to care if I am using the propriety drivers or open source drivers for my WiFi card. I still think Linux is not end user/desktop ready and any attempts to get it to that level is like trying to get a square peg in a round hole. You can build a new OS that is *nix compatible that is end user friendly (see OS X, Android, and Chrome OS) but Linux was built by hackers for hackers and for the most part found its home on Servers and high power workstations.

Ubuntu goes a long way to try to plug up issues for end users and personally I love ubuntu server and use it exclusively for my personal servers but right now as a test i gave my mom an older laptop with Ubuntu loaded on it. And while it has reduce the amount of trouble of malware/crapware (I remember after some Family came to visit her I found a bunch of .exe a few of them tried running and most of them turned out to be viruses) I find myself hitting the wall trying to get a proper photo/video manager. Windows in even XP had a decent way of importing images and video and managing them but right now I have not found one that works for my mom. Yeah I can setup a workflow that works great for photos and video on Linux but it fails the mom test which is what is important as a desktop OS.
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I too have moved from running Linux on my desktop (Ubuntu) to OS X. I find the experience with OS X and Ubuntu roughly equal, but there are several really great programs for OS X that I do not want to be without. My laptop is running Windows 7 because I needed to run some Windows CAD software and didn't have time to get everything running in an emulator, but I find the experience to be considerably worse than on Linux or OS X (which is not an option on this laptop). As soon as I can, I'll be switching back to Ubuntu. The latest version of Ubuntu is as good as Windows, and probably even OS X, when pictures or video media are inserted.


The great thing about both OS X and Linux is that I can have a completely standard environment across all my computers. I have all of my important config files in git, with some scripts to keep it all updated, so terminal works the same on all my servers, my laptop (when running Linux), and my desktop, even though I am running Debian Stable, Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10, OS X On various machines.
 
Office for Mac has or had the tendency to be rather unstable (i've hears Office 2011 changed that, but that's hearsay)
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Office 2011 is actually quite good, seems to be better than the Windows version TBH.

I went DOS>Windows>Windows + Linux (RedHat and a Russian clone of it)>Ubuntu>Win7>Win7+OS X

So far OS X beats the rest. It has the ease of use and non-involvement of Windows + under the hood power of UNIX (BSD to be more precise). That is to say I can still run iTunes without having to hax the balls out of it but still get SSH out of the box :)

@mpicco the main reason OS X requires a lot of effort to get working outside of Apple hardware is EFI. Most "PC" boards are still running BIOS and the EFI implementation on those that have it is fairly broken. The other problem is drivers, Apple doesn't make OS X drivers for components outside of their hardware (makes sense why would they?)

As far as buying a Mac to get OS X.... When Snow Leopard came out, I walked into Best Buy paid $30 for the DVD and walked out (also it's good for 3 machines IIRC could be wrong but its more than one for sure). Doesn't seem difficult to me :)

Back to Linux:
I have given up on Ubuntu when on my very old tablet just released Win7 was slower than current version of Ubuntu. The fact that my designed for Ubuntu XPS stopped recognizing the finger print reader after 2 updates and would take 2-3 minutes to connect to wi-fi after suspend while on win7 it took 15 seconds (and most hardware recognized out of the box) was just enough to push me back into Windows. The fact that BT audio is BEYOND complicated in Ubuntu (and I use it quite a bit) was just icing on the cake.

It's not a very good desktop OS, actually let me change that, it is a very BAD laptop OS. If you have a desktop that you are building yourself and know what you are going to use it for it's great. I have a co-worker who swears by MythTV (I use 7MC myself because it took me all of 30 minutes to set up 25 of which was Win7 install). If you do some kind of development work that doesn't require Windows and use an always on wired ethernet desktop that will never see any gaming or have to be used with iDevices or BT it's GREAT. Otherwise it can be a complete pain in the ass, which IMO is not really worth it.

EDIT: I never cared about RMS's hippie ideals of openness and freedom when it comes to software. It's not open code that we need (although it is nice to have) it's open and enforced standards and API's.
 
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From the "c'mon, X.org developers, you can't be serious"-dept: Flash video does not play smooth in full screen.

HATE.
 
Dr_Grip said:
From the "c'mon, X.org developers, you can't be serious"-dept: Flash video does not play smooth in full screen.

HATE.
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In fairness, Flash is a piece of shit on any operating system. I get considerably better battery life on my laptop when I run FlashBlock, even if I'm running under Windows, and nothing causes Chrome to close more tabs that hung Flash processes.
 
PacketCollision said:
In fairness, Flash is a piece of shit on any operating system. I get considerably better battery life on my laptop when I run FlashBlock, even if I'm running under Windows, and nothing causes Chrome to close more tabs that hung Flash processes.
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+1 an episode of Fam Guy ate 30% of my battery (this is a 7 hour rated MBP for fuck's sake...) I had it crash FF, Chrome, IE on every single OS I ever used. In fact in Chrome I have an extension that makes YouTube videos HTML5 just so I can avoid flash....
 
PacketCollision said:
In fairness, Flash is a piece of shit on any operating system. I get considerably better battery life on my laptop when I run FlashBlock, even if I'm running under Windows, and nothing causes Chrome to close more tabs that hung Flash processes.
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I hate flash as much as the next guy, but in this case it's not (solely) flash's fault. It's the graphics driver or the interaction between flash and the driver. The video plays fine in the browser window, what does not work is fullscreen.
 
Dr_Grip said:
I hate flash as much as the next guy, but in this case it's not (solely) flash's fault. It's the graphics driver or the interaction between flash and the driver. The video plays fine in the browser window, what does not work is fullscreen.
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My one hope is that Apple's insane market share in the tablet segment along with a sizeable market share in the smartphone segment will kill Flash for good. It seems like it's getting there already since Adobe introduced Wallaby Flash to HTML5 translator.
 
Oh good, I always felt we needed a good flame thread on Finalgear. :p

Anyways, I use Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit on my laptop and desktop. On a VM for my desktop, typically native on my laptop.

It's a good OS and I like the UI a lot (goes better with my workflow) but the battery life is worse than it would be on Windows for my laptop.
 
FATMOUSE said:
It's a good OS and I like the UI a lot (goes better with my workflow) but the battery life is worse than it would be on Windows for my laptop.
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I've noticed the battery issue too. Hopefully some of the latest kernels will help somewhat, since they finally got rid of the BKL. Otherwise, you might consider looking through the various things Ubuntu likes to start up in the background and disable the ones you don't need.
 
The BKL will finally be killed in 2.6.39, which is due in a few months... we'll see. I suspect the battery life issues have more to do with the amount of background stuff that's going on even on a base ubuntu install (and, to be honest, on my debian, too).
 
I've started using Ubuntu in late 2007, starting with the 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, if I remember correctly. For a small stint I've been anti-Windows and used Linux solely. After a year of that I moved onto to Arch Linux and that was awesome in so many ways, I never looked back at Ubuntu ever again.

After the release of Windows 7 I moved back to Windows because 7 is just such a soul-ful piece of design. And of course I've grown up tremendously and just didn't care what I used. Nowadays, I almost always use Windows due to the need for ANSYS, games, Solidworks, Inventor, Pro/E (which is piece of crap) and etc.
 
Dr_Grip said:
The BKL will finally be killed in 2.6.39, which is due in a few months... we'll see. I suspect the battery life issues have more to do with the amount of background stuff that's going on even on a base ubuntu install (and, to be honest, on my debian, too).
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Yeah that's really my one major beef with Ubuntu, a lot of stuff gets installed and turned on by default if you do a desktop install. Biggest problem with any Linux and laptops is the fact that every manufacturer has slightly different ACPI so there will be certain things that will work on Windows because of the provided drivers and will not be fully supported under Linux.
 
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