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Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04 (Read 81775 times)
Rad
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #15 - Jul 27th, 2008 at 8:55pm
 
My laptop has onboard i915 chipset which includes gfx acceleration. Sux for gaming, but good enough for 2D stuff.

Actually, now everything looks better. I d/l'ed and installed a bunch of patches (~40-ish) and one of two were for Firefox I noticed, So maybe that helped, cuz only FF was looking suky. Everything else looked decent.

Still I'd like to take advantage of hardware acceleration if possible.
 
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Nigel Bree
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #16 - Jul 28th, 2008 at 2:30am
 
One of the many advantages of virtualization is that pretty much none of this device stuff is necessary; by default VMWare (or the other VMMs) emulate NICs that basically every OS knows about, and can either bridge or NAT that virtual NIC to get the VM out onto the internet for you. Ditto for the display (and with VMWare tools you get a special display driver to install in the client). Pretty much the only drawback is that the virtual display isn't capable of 3D acceleration or compositing effects, but those are things I turn off in any OS install I do in any case

The end result is a pretty much fire-and-forget experience, with possibly the exception of installing something like VMWare tools (which you don't get to do with the free Player) if you're installing an OS completely from scratch instead of using a preconfigured VM appliance which has the tool drivers in it already.

As for the partitioning question, again because I use VMWare I basically never EVER partition a disk. The emulation overhead is too small for me to care about, and the VM disks are growable up to a decent size (and it's easy to add more virtual disks to a VM anyway), and having one honking big partition instead of lots of itty bitty ones means fragmentation or filling one up is not an issue.
 
 
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MrMagoo
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #17 - Jul 28th, 2008 at 4:10am
 
Rad wrote on Jul 27th, 2008 at 8:55pm:
cuz only FF was looking suky

Ah, yes.  I do notice that some of the fonts popular on the web look 'icky' on a new Linux install.  You have to play with it a bit.  I totally forgot about it cuz I have mine dialed in.  Your website is one of the most noticeably icky until I get my fonts right, which is probably why you noticed it so much right away. 

Try playing with some of the suggestions on this link to see if it helps any:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=20976

Other similar font tweaks might help.  Like I said, I'm not running Heron (and don't happen to own your particular LCD) so specific recommendations are tough.  Let me know how it goes.
 
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MrMagoo
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #18 - Jul 28th, 2008 at 4:13am
 
Quote:
One of the many advantages of virtualization is that pretty much none of this device stuff is necessary

Yes, but learning things like this is exactly why Rad installed Linux, and I've found its hard to force yourself to learn these things if you can just minimize the screen and be back in your comfort zone.  The learning curve is so much steeper outside your comfort zone.
 
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #19 - Jul 28th, 2008 at 4:13am
 
Rad wrote on Jul 27th, 2008 at 8:55pm:
My laptop has onboard i915 chipset which includes gfz acceleration

I'm not familiar with it.  Is that Intel?
 
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Rad
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #20 - Jul 28th, 2008 at 11:48pm
 
Yeah: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/cs-011594.htm

Quote:
The emulation overhead is too small for me to care about

How much %CPU we talking?

Does sound attractive to be able to ALT-Tab back-n-forth. Coulda used it today. =)
 
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Rad
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #21 - Jul 28th, 2008 at 11:54pm
 
MrMagoo wrote on Jul 28th, 2008 at 4:13am:
The learning curve is so much steeper outside your comfort zone.

Interesting concept.

Was listening to Sean Penn narrating Bob Dylan's "Chronicles - Vol 1." Dylan says the same thing. Interesting you mentioned it, cuz that line stuck with me.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/dylan/index_chronicles.html

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/dylan/Chronicles_excerpt.mp3

But I still would like to have ALT-Tab capability, and virtualization sounds cool. =)
 
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Rad
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #22 - Jul 29th, 2008 at 12:18am
 
Can I run Apache? MySQL? PHP? .. on this *desktop* install? (I didn't install the server variety)
 
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Nigel Bree
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #23 - Jul 29th, 2008 at 1:10am
 
Rad wrote on Jul 29th, 2008 at 12:18am:
Can I run Apache? MySQL? PHP? .. on this *desktop* install? (I didn't install the server variety) 

Yup. Everything is available via packages. There are, slightly confusingly, different graphical front ends to the package installer that show you different packages, as well as the command line tool to download and install packages "apt-get" which is something you'll need to get familiar with in Ubuntu (the same kind of thing exists in Fedora as well but it's called "yum").

Installing software requires elevated privileges and the graphical installers tend to be dog slow searching for packages because the repositories are completely full of thousands of packages which are useless crap, so the simplest thing is just to learn the magic package names for the command line installer.

See e.g. http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Hardy#Install_a_LAMP_server_for_local_web_dev...
 
 
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Nigel Bree
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #24 - Jul 29th, 2008 at 1:44am
 
Rad wrote on Jul 28th, 2008 at 11:54pm:
Interesting concept.

Meh. While this is somewhat true, people have different learning styles; I don't need to push myself this way, for instance. Never have, never will. Hell, I'd learned about 6 high-level computer languages, two assembly languages, a couple of OS's, and taught myself calculus before I was 15 (and done some other interesting stuff, too). And frankly, that was just being on autopilot.

However, that quantity is not what matters - the real issue in learning is the quality: what particular things you seek to learn.

Much knowledge is mere trivia. Inessential, and largely irrelevant. Even after 30 years, I can still remember things like "3D0G" and the rough structure of 6502 assembly from the Apple ][. We all accumulate a lot of this kind of cruft, but it mostly does nothing for us because it's not a guide to anything else.

Other knowledge has real power. The most powerful kinds of knowledge give you leverage, because they help you solve all kinds of other problems hugely faster. These things are the kind of knowledge that are worth seeking, and one of the ways that people of very high mental ability end up being so disproportionately effective (e.g. the oft-observed one or more orders of magnitude difference in software developers) is that they are very purposeful and specifically go seeking for this kind of knowledge.

Trigonometry, calculus, game theory, systems theory, mechanics, economics, ...  things like that (and there are plenty more examples) are knowledge with leverage. Know those, and you know where to stand and how to push just so and move a mountain.

Now, some of this is dictated by cognitive style; some people are what are (in the terminology of a man called Piaget who you should look up) concrete thinkers whose minds are full of things (this kind of person particularly loves analogies, because it's a method of reasoning in terms of chains of specific things), others are abstract thinkers who prefer to think not in terms of things but in terms of kinds and rules and generalizations, and these generalizations are where the leverage tends to be.

Now, that doesn't mean abstract style is necessarily better; I had many wonderful years working for a gentleman who was the most doggedly concrete thinker I've ever known (whereas I'm very abstract). He could conceive all kinds of useful practical ideas which would never occur to me because I was completely incapable of perceiving the need for them - but if he explained them to me, I would know how to make them real in the world of software, which was a mystery to him.

Yin and yang. Gotta have both. Anyway, I digress. Back to virtualization.

It matters because it saves you massive amounts of time, and that time is far too precious a thing to waste. 10 years hence you won't care about what devices you had to struggle with; that's trivia. Virtualization, by giving you the freedom to completely safely attempt all kinds of things you wouldn't do otherwise, and do them vastly more efficiently, gives you leverage.
 
 
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Nigel Bree
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #25 - Jul 29th, 2008 at 2:01am
 
Rad wrote on Jul 28th, 2008 at 11:48pm:
How much %CPU we talking?

%CPU is down in the noise, a couple of percent. I/O latency is a different story. I/O latency is the real cost of virtualization, and that can be all over the place depending on how you do things.

However, it's also largely irrelevant sweating, say, 10% perf on something that you'd waste hours on setting up without a VM. And once you did it using a physical machine, it'd take you more hours to change and then when your hardware died... life's too short.
 
 
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Rad
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #26 - Jul 29th, 2008 at 1:44pm
 
Quote:
people have different learning styles; I don't need to  

You are far from the norm (in a good way). A good analogy is » learning Spanish, which can be done by:

a. reading a book,
b. listening to a CD/DVD, or
c. hanging out with the hot Guatemalean chick who lives next door.
d. moving in with the Guatemalean family who lives next door.
c. traveling to Guatemala for the summer.

Most would learn best by the full "Immersion" method.
 
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Rad
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #27 - Jul 29th, 2008 at 1:56pm
 
Quote:
they are very purposeful and specifically go seeking for this kind of knowledge

It is my experience that knowledge (not 'trivia,' as you say) must be pursued .. diligently. Made a priority. Heard a quote recently that knowledge is semi-euphoric. Nietsche, maybe? I have many thoughts on the subject. Which is why I hate this custody-battle, cuz it's such a waste of my time .. when I could be doing things so much more productive with my time and emotional energy.
 
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #28 - Jul 29th, 2008 at 2:00pm
 
Quote:
a man called Piaget who you should look up

I am familiar with Piaget:

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm
 
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Re: Ubuntu Linux Desktop v8.04
Reply #29 - Jul 29th, 2008 at 2:06pm
 
Quote:
I had many wonderful years working for a gentleman who was the most doggedly concrete thinker I've ever known (whereas I'm very abstract). He could conceive all kinds of useful practical ideas which would never occur to me because I was completely incapable of perceiving the need for them  

I enjoy exchanging ideas with those who think differently, as it helps expand my mind. Tho some people get offended if you disagree with them, or do not adopt their point of view.

I know a eldely couple. He is a militant conservative; she flaming liberal. (Their votes every election season are always self-cancelling.) They hardly agree on anything political tho get along marvelously, cuz they don't feel the need to get the other to adopt their own values, but merely be UNDERSTOOD.

One of my favorite books is:

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780345404282.html

.. cuz it contains 'ideas' (in the form of quotes) from influential people thru-out history .. without regard to right or wrong.
 
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