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Socoder -> Off Topic -> Ubuntu 7.10

Thu, 18 Oct 2007, 08:01
HoboBen
Ubuntu 7.10 is out today!

Notable features include fully automatic printer discovery. Only, I have my network printers all set up anyway so I guess I'll turn that off!

Also, compiz (graphical effects like wobbly windows to win over the vista crowd) is on by default if your computer is fast enough, with an option for extreme settings like the windows which catch fire. Guess I'll turn that all off too!

Yuech! Feature bloat!

But, on the plus side, new linux kernel to provide better efficiency especially for laptops. Unless you turn off the new features listed above though, it's less efficient overall than the previous version of ubuntu! Thankfully Ubuntu is easy enough to customise so I can disable anything that I don't want.

New version of GNOME too, slightly more optimised in places, with a bit more feature bloat that'll want turning off too, like a multi-user switching panel applet (I hate those, why can't people just log out and back in again?!?)

I guess I'll upgrade in a month or so, then do one upgrade more for the 2008 edition, which is a long term solution (3 years of support instead of 18 months) and settle for that until the support expires.

So I'm upgrading for the longer support potential, really, plus the optimisations after turning everything off.

Recommended system requirements still 256MB RAM, or 350MB if you install graphically from the live CD, so not bad.

Anyone else upgrading? Or are you clinging to 7.04 for the full 18 months?

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Thu, 18 Oct 2007, 08:16
JL235
I upgraded to Ubuntu a while ago with WUBI. Both my wireless and graphics card both didn't work (but that is better then failing to boot).

To be fair I didn't try downloading newer drivers from the NVidia site and instead was just trying to get the ones that come with Ubuntu to work. However as I couldn't get online with it, and there are no games, graphics wasn't my main concern.

Besides, everything I want to do I can already do on Vista.
Thu, 18 Oct 2007, 08:39
HoboBen
New feature in this version is better wireless support, apparently. But I've never had any problem with that to be honest. There are NVidia drivers available too, apparently.

Maybe the new version is worth a shot then?

As for games, Tremulous is amazing!

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Thu, 18 Oct 2007, 10:30
JL235
I'd like to use Ubuntu, I really would, or another non-Windows OS because it'd be useful knowledge in the long run. The problem is that many aren't that great looking. I'm not talking about all the visual effects, I'm talking about the general design of the GUI's. Often they aren't as pretty as Windows or Mac OS.

Second I have had so many driver problems with Ubuntu. People claim Windows has problems but it is always with obscure webcams and printers. Even then it's usually rare. I have had more problems in 3 years when I've only tried to run Ubuntu with hardware, then I have with Windows and hardware ever.

Third everything is available on Windows. It's usually only smaller and more obscure stuff that is Linux only. The same is not true the other way round.

But I might give this a go. As I said I would like to get some Linux experience and see what all the fuss is about.
Thu, 18 Oct 2007, 11:01
HoboBen
It is possible to make pretty GNOME desktops, but it's quite rare, I agree!

But I hope you can find a version which gets on well with you. There's often a few tweaks you need to do on any machine (even the ones with Linux pre-installed from Dell have a weird screen resolution - any machine with a certain form of Intel integrated graphics need another package installed) but I think it's worth it.

Cause I mean, there's a free version of everything!
e.g. Visual Basic/Delphi -> Gambas

And not only does firefox run better, there's a Linux-optimised build called Swiftfox that's even faster!



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Thu, 18 Oct 2007, 15:27
magicman
I think i will wait, not sure for what, but i still think i will wait to upgrade.

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Stuff... Yeah...
Thu, 18 Oct 2007, 16:12
dna
Does this Ubuntu allow Windows XP to run within it?

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DNA
Thu, 18 Oct 2007, 16:33
HoboBen
Sort of - I use Wine, which is a compatibility layer to run windows applications inside Linux with variable success.

Ohh, I forgot to mention, new to 7.10 is NTFS write-access - 12 years of development, and finally NTFS file systems is stable, so you can both read and now write to the XP drive on a dual boot.

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Thu, 18 Oct 2007, 22:27
Scherererer
Okay, this was only mildly interesting to me until you said that its got full stable NTFS read/write capability. That is very good news.

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Computer Science Series: Logic (pt1) (part 2) (part 3) 2's Complement Mathematics: Basic Differential Calculus
Fri, 19 Oct 2007, 02:59
Jayenkai
Absolutely agree with that, Instinct!
That's really been the only thing holding me back from Dual booting..

To be honest, though, I rarely bother to reboot nowadays at all, so the probability of me doing it to try out Linux is incredibly unlikely

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Fri, 19 Oct 2007, 23:28
mindstorm8191
I think I'm with Jayenkai on this. I tried a live CD of Ubuntu once. I didn't see any problems with it, but I couldn't see myself using it. I mean, I have everything on Windows already. I didn't see any way to actually access those files, even if linux had superior programs for it. So I didn't really see any actual use for it.

But that's good news that Ubuntu can now read & write to windows file systems flawlessly. Maybe I'll reconsider giving it another shot.

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Vesuvius web game
Sat, 20 Oct 2007, 12:40
Scherererer
Reading through the improvements made in Gnome 2.22 and all the other clean ups they did in ubuntu made me download it. I've run it off of disk and I'm impressed with the way its shaping up. I'm planning on purchasing a new harddrive soon, and so I think I'll transfer everything off of my media partition onto it and put ubuntu on that partition. I'm finally making the switch from casual user that plays with it in VMware to dual-booter!

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Computer Science Series: Logic (pt1) (part 2) (part 3) 2's Complement Mathematics: Basic Differential Calculus
Sat, 20 Oct 2007, 15:05
Nolan
I was planning on dual-booting too, although on the same hard drive. I downloaded it, burnt it to a cd, ran the live-cd, and ended up tearing my hair out at the partitioner. What a pain in the ass.

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nolandc.com
Sat, 20 Oct 2007, 15:09
HoboBen
Oh the installer was confusing, I certainly do agree!

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Sun, 21 Oct 2007, 16:05
mindstorm8191
I wasn't entirely sure how to do a partition, or if I even had any programs on my computer to handle that... so I didn't try it.

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Vesuvius web game
Mon, 22 Oct 2007, 16:42
dna

I found that there is another alternative. You can use VMware which runs a program inside of windows or linux to run either windows or linux.


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DNA
Mon, 22 Oct 2007, 18:36
Edmund
what I find the most confounding is how this thread did not start a flame war against windows (not suggesting one be initiated of course). In all honesty, I don't see why a blitz programmer would boot ubuntu (since wine doesn't support blitz), but then again, I'm still booting hoary.
Mon, 22 Oct 2007, 18:44
JL235
As a Java and Ruby programmer, Windows isn't the best environment. However Windows is fantastic. It does everything I want, runs all the applications I need and Vista is nice and stable. I see no reason to change, and if I think I'd rather try and run Solaris again.
Mon, 22 Oct 2007, 20:08
HoboBen
JohnESmith, perhaps the reason that there's no flamewar is because so many people have the classic xp/ubuntu dual boot going on.

Though, if it helps you feel better, I have fought the urge to insult vista!

Linux runs everything I want, even runs Cobra perfectly (well, perect-ish) in Wine, and it's free (most importantly!), so that's why it's my OS of choice...
Plus you can get some distros working on Pentium IIs with 64MB of RAM and still run them faster than XP with a Core 2 Duo!

Anyway the upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10 on my laptop went well. Lots of stuff I went and disabled after (no compiz-fusion, no auto-thingies, etc) but very nice improvement with the new GNOME.

Particularly the menu editor - they finally added a move up/down feature! Worth the 3hr upgrade just for that!

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Mon, 22 Oct 2007, 21:46
JL235
I might try it now for the compiz-fusion stuff. I've wanted to see it in person. In the last version of Ubuntu the drivers wouldn't work and so I tried an older version and installing Beryle. But the versions of the tutorials on how to install which hadn't been spammed (it was a Wiki) didn't make much sense to me, so I gave up.

Besides I don't have to insult or flame Linux. Pointing out the many times it's been more buggy and less reliable then Windows does that for me.
Tue, 23 Oct 2007, 05:19
HoboBen
I suppose in fairness my hardware has never been less than two years old at the youngest, so I'm always guaranteed working drivers! Sounds like you've had a bad experience with the hardware, sorry.

I don't see why people like the wobbly windows and shadows on their GUI and stuff tho. I'd rather have the speed than be distracted by eye-candy! Anti-aliasing and blending makes PNG/GIF screenshots bloated too.

Oh hey Diablo/JL235 - what's with the name? Are you the same person, or are two people using the avatar?

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Tue, 23 Oct 2007, 15:18
JL235
My current PC is only 2 years old. Even then it shouldn't be a problem.

Yes I am the same person. I decided to change to JL235, however I will still be DiablosDevil in the Mud Chat and you can still refer to me as Diablo.