Tuesday, January 30, 2007

C:\>format c:

In answer to the Windows Vista release today, I banished Microsoft from my computer. Thanks, Herr Benedict, for the OS recommendation!

9 comments:

Don J. said...

YAY! Rejoice for free software. Free as in free beer, and free as in free speech!

Does my typing that make me an annoying Linux evangelist?

Don J. said...

What should we try and play with first?
Ubuntu Gamers Area

It is rumoured that NWN runs better in a Linux environment. I have not tried this yet.
Or we could just tinker with or setups endlessly in real time.
"Look, I moved this widget over here. Now I am dowloading a new icon set. Well I hacked my startup to boot faster . . ."

Did you install 6.06 or 6.10?

Pete said...

6.10 couldn't support my PCI graphics card or wirless USB dongle. After some tinkering I got both to work with 6.06. I'm still adjusting to this strange new file structure & DOS syntax. Linux-NWN looks really easy to install, what you do is burn a full-Windows-install of the game and download the Bioware Linux kernal and voila! (Probably a bit more complex than that.) The dedicated-server would definitely run much-much better.

I'm looking into learning to model in Blender, in a dabbling sort of way. As a permanent modeler/CAD solution for home. It appears to have at least 80% of the functionality of 3D Studio Max, which is quite a few grand.

What applications do you find yourself using frequently?

Don J. said...

I only use my computer to play Maelstrom (the old Mac Ateroids game).

The basics:
TeERMINAL-Still a NOOB but getting better with the ability to cut and paste commands.
FIREFOX-Internet. Little bit slower with Ubuntu but solid.
THUNDERBIRD-E-mail. First time using a mail client. CPU heavy for what it does but great for organizing messages.
GAIM-Instant Message. All networks.
SKYPE-Telephone. Not as full featured as the Windoze version but I do not need it to mow the lawn.

Work oriented:
GIMP-Photo editing. Little bit funny interface but it is a powerful tool.
SCRIBUS-Best page layout program I have ever worked with.
INKSCAPE-I am new to vector graphics. This is the top open source product. There are professional alternatives like XARA but all I do is make business cards.
OPEN OFFICE-I find the interface more intuitive and the pages to all be much better looking than the package it was modelled after (MS). Export to PDF is a lovely feature that is apparantly bogged down in a copyright battle in proprietary world.

Other small tools:
GFTP-for uploading. I use this rarely but it works well.
GTKAM-Seems to have drivers for every digital camera I have come in contact with. I could not even get the hand me down camera I have to run with XP.
AUTOMATIX-Fast way to set up the most commonly used system configurations. Great for if you reinstall.

Fun stuff:
Lots of little games that are good for a short attention span but that could be spoken about elsewhere.
KTORRENT-It is a KDE application but it is the best bit torrent client I have found.
TOTEM MOVIE PLAYER-I immediately set up the XINE backend as GSTREAMER works terrible for me. Simple and clean interface.
VLC-For oddly formatted files. Not bad for streaming radio as well. Not as handy as in Windoze as you need to know the paths to your media drives by heart and it is a mystery when it comes to subtitles for me. Changing its visual library soon rumour has it.

Problematic stuff:
MUSIC PLAYER: I am having a hard time finding a decent music player. Rhythmbox does not play radio for me and has a tendency to crash, all the other ones do too much stuff for the MILLENIUM FALCON to handle. I was using BEEP for a while which is a Winamp clone but that project has been halted. I may just go with the old XMMS.
GNOMEBAKER: I had some problems with UBUNTU 5.10 when they did a buggy upgrade to this program and was churning out a few drink coasters. But I had also been doing really goofy hacks and patches to my system at that point as I did not know what I was doing and the older version lacked many features of 6.06. I recently did a fresh install and have yet to test this issue.
WEB EDITING: I suck at HTML and lack patience for it, but really would like to redesign my web page. Most of the great editors (BLUEFISH) are straight code wizards for the hardcore. NVU is a good program but very buggy. I have not been able to compile from source the new bug free fork KOMPOZER as it outside the repositories. That project is a precursor to MOZILLA COMPOSER 2.0.

I have been reading 6.10 is more of a development fork and not for the faint of heart when it comes to tinkering. Unfortunately UBUNTU does not make this very clear on their web page.

I am sure that is more than you wanted to know but this is the most fun I have had with a computer since the Commodore 64, so it is fun to geek out about.

Don J. said...

Test, test.

Does Chad-Roc even read his own web log, particularly this far down?

I wonder what is going on in his world these days.

Where did the expanded super friends go? Were they assimilated?

Robert Martin said...

so i take it that u are not going to get VISTA?

Pete said...

Thanks for the list.
I was trying to install Compiz yesterday, to no avail.
I have also been enjoying Neverball and Neverputt a great deal.

Don J. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Don J. said...

I have no intention of ever using VISTA, while XP and Apple are more or less phased out of my future computing experience. I may use Windoze 2000 Professional on a small partition if I get a new computer, essentially as an X-Box . . .