Linux

AgeGap said:
Ten... Linux apps you must install
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How about ... No!

What am I supposed to to with the Synaptic Package Manager on OpenSuse, huh? And I really have no need for ClamTK either. And wrt the rest, I have mainly alternatives that do the job perfectly fine, like KWrite instead of Kate, KSnapshot instead of Shutter, or Ark instead of PeaZip. I do agree about SMPlayer though; this one is excellent.
 
And why would you need gparted? Who modifies their disc partitions on a running system? That's something you do at install time. If you think your disc needs may change, use LVM (logical volume master) instead, so you don't need to worry about the actual partitions. I don't know what this guy does to create "botched multiboot set-ups", but I can't remember the last time that happened to me. Heck, it's been a few years since I last bothered with multiboot.

Since the invention of blackbox, which provides an all-in-one replacement for most of coreutils and various essential admin utilities, I don't believe there have been any truly essential apps. It all depends on what you're doing. A DB server is different from a Web server is different from a Mail server is different from a desktop is different from a phone.

Even for a desktop, the only thing on that list I even have installed is LibreOffice (the new, improved, version of OpenOffice). And I rarely use that. And from what I've seen of the others, I'm inclined to ignore the whole list. I might check out SMPlayer, though, but only because Lord Emsworth recommended it. Not because of what El Reg said.

Checking...nope, it uses the Qt libraries, and I don't want to bother installing any of those. I have more than enough gooey libraries already. Qt is only worth it if you're going to install KDE, which I have zero interest in.
 
I'm 95% of the way to full Linux, but my work machine is Windows with a Linux VM. The main reason is that I develop Flash games, and Adobe doesn't support Linux drivers for Flash 11.x (yet).

Hopefully that changes and I'll make my next work machine all Linux with a Windows VM for the rare Windows only apps.
 
Got a new laptop finally, has Windows 8 installed. Took me all of five minutes to want to scrap my plans of dual booting and just wipe and load Ubuntu.
 
Alan said:
I'm a Steam for Linux beta person. :)
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How is that going? Questions I want answered are...

What desktop
Do you get a slowdown in performance if running a composited desktop like Unity or Gnome3
Will it run Under KDE, and will I see a boost when switching between composited and no wobbly windows?
How many games are available?
Is game performance as good, or better than windows?
 
The best way to get answers to questions like that is to get a live distro (like Puppy Linux) and play with it. You should be able to download some games for it.

I did it that way and the CD-Rom didn't come out of my computer until I installed Slackware on it.

I don't think the choice of WM is as critical as many make out so I use a simple one (Fluxbox). Xfce is also a good choice (Puppy uses JWM).
 
Captain_Snort said:
How is that going? Questions I want answered are...

What desktop
Do you get a slowdown in performance if running a composited desktop like Unity or Gnome3
Will it run Under KDE, and will I see a boost when switching between composited and no wobbly windows?
How many games are available?
Is game performance as good, or better than windows?
Click to expand...

I use it with Unity. There is a change to Unity in 12.10 that will be coming to 12.04 to improve performance by turning off compositing when using something fullscreen by default, as not doing so causes performance issues.

It will run with KDE, but I haven't tried it despite wanting to. I'll try it soon.

There are 27 games currently in the Linux section of the Steam store (apparently that part of the store is available only to beta people). Perhaps 12 of them previously from humble bundles. And another 8 have been greenlit, which are available to the public: http://steamcommunity.com/greenligh...d=765&browsesort=pending&requiredtags[]=linux

Performance for me is not as good with Windows because I have an AMD card and when I install the latest proprietary AMD driver (the one recommended by Valve for Steam for Linux for AMD people) it causes there to be better performance in Steam, but worse performance outside of Steam. Graphical abnormalities everywhere outside of Steam!
 
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Most of my machines are running Linux Mint 13 or 14 (depends), mostly with Cinnamon for the desktop. Very nice, and now very configurable. Liking Mint all over again. :)
 
Still tempted to move to straight Linux. How reliably does "PlayOnLinux" work for windows games? Is it reliable?

I remember putting Ubuntu on my laptop and working that for a while. Quite nice... Booted like a champ. If I hit the power button, and got hit by lightning the second the POST and CMOS finished, I'd be at the desktop before my smoking corpse hit the ground.

#EDIT: I'd love to stay with Linux, but I never managed to get any version to recognize the external monitor my laptop uses.
 
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Mister Earl said:
Still tempted to move to straight Linux. How reliably does "PlayOnLinux" work for windows games? Is it reliable?

I remember putting Ubuntu on my laptop and working that for a while. Quite nice... Booted like a champ. If I hit the power button, and got hit by lightning the second the POST and CMOS finished, I'd be at the desktop before my smoking corpse hit the ground.

#EDIT: I'd love to stay with Linux, but I never managed to get any version to recognize the external monitor my laptop uses.
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I don't really play PC games but have installed PC games on a pc using WINE. I got photofiltre and 7zip running using PlayOnLinux but find it easier to just use wine. After moving from a Ubuntu with a Gnome2 to Mint 13 (Cinnamon) PlayOnLinux no longer works.
 
Ok, sorely tempted to go back to Linux! Just need to figure out how to get ubuntu to see the monitor plugged into my HDMI port. Perhaps I'll geek-stick-install Ubuntu and boot that way, see if I can't figure it out.
 
Xero said:
You didn't follow the link I posted, did you?
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Yes. Your link worked but the homepage gives the impression that it will no longer be updated, which is a shame. I don't use wine much. I sometimes buy cheap games from the supermarket on the off chance they will work to some degree. I use the method of just try to install it and then mess with the settings to get a reasonable result.
 
Mister Earl said:
Ok, sorely tempted to go back to Linux! Just need to figure out how to get ubuntu to see the monitor plugged into my HDMI port. Perhaps I'll geek-stick-install Ubuntu and boot that way, see if I can't figure it out.
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Did you try to troubleshoot it? One great thing about Ubuntu is that there's a very helpful community based around it. If a web search doesn't come up with anything, you can usually get help at the Ubuntu forums.
 
Is the monitor detected at all. Have a look in /var/log/Xorg.log (or similar) You should see entry and capabilities for the monitor. my second monitor is on HDMI and it works fine, well I say fine, but it forgets the underscan settings at each boot, though there is a fix I am too lazy to do.

Of course I am assuming you have a dual monitor output here and can see the output on a screen, or are at least able to ssh into the box. This shoud tell you if it is just a wee problem with some default settings. I would try booting up some live cd that goes into the command line first before starting X, like the system rescue cd. That will enable you to have a good poke about the hardware logs for feedback.
 
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