I got a laptop over the weekend. I figured that I should take advantage of having an income and the post-christmas, Vista-release mark-down on hardware. I shopped specifically for Linux compatibility and bought this Acer laptop, which had the best screen of the machines in its price range (of under a grand). I only got as far as the end-user-license-agreement with Windows Vista before formatting the hard drive. The long and short of it is that a low-end Vista machine is a really high-end Linux machine. I'm running Ubuntu Edgy, because it is most compatible. I installed Beryl on it, which is the coolest, least-useful thing I've ever seen. Very Max Headroom. Anyway, nuts to Vista.
All your programs WON'T run on it. There are new, quite useful programs on the other side. I recommend making a partition and dual booting, instead of doing a wholesale conversion. If you don't want to give up hard-drive space, you could also buy a small drive just to play with Linux, they're kind of cheap.
I should warn you that there may be a lot of command line tinkering involved in getting certain drivers to work, particularly wireless internet and graphics accelerators. I spent a day or so copying and pasting lines from the forums into my Terminal for each Ubuntu install I've done thus far. I didn't really mind, but I can see how somebody could.
I had to install Vista on the new laptop yesterday to run AutoCAD and 3D-Studio Max for my job, because they ailed to run perfectly in the windows-compatibility-layer for Linx. I'm going to run it on a partition with Kubuntu (Ubuntu with the KDE GUI), just to see what that is like.
Vista won't run NWN. :( "Planned obsolesence" I guess.
Will it run NWN2? I received a copy of that also for my birthday, but haven't had a chance to play it. Character creation is nice, even if they look a little plastic.
From what I've read on the forums, it depends on if your graphics card plays nicely with both Vista and Direct-X 10. Only one Radeon card is considered fully compatible with DX10, every other card on the market has either small or large issues with it. Maybe they should start labeling the boxes in the stores, "graphics decelerators".
Also, the KDE desktop has a very poor design sensibility. That means it is either programmed really well ("no web designers on this project, just us code guys.") or its as clunky as it looks.
8 comments:
I got a laptop over the weekend. I figured that I should take advantage of having an income and the post-christmas, Vista-release mark-down on hardware. I shopped specifically for Linux compatibility and bought this Acer laptop, which had the best screen of the machines in its price range (of under a grand). I only got as far as the end-user-license-agreement with Windows Vista before formatting the hard drive. The long and short of it is that a low-end Vista machine is a really high-end Linux machine. I'm running Ubuntu Edgy, because it is most compatible. I installed Beryl on it, which is the coolest, least-useful thing I've ever seen. Very Max Headroom.
Anyway, nuts to Vista.
Beryl looks shiny . . . I want one!
Acer is a Chinese brand.
You use Linux.
Thus, you are clearly a Communist.
I still run XP Pro, but have no interest in upgrading to Vista. If i want a pretty interface, i'll buy a Mac.
I'd consider running Ubuntu, but i don't know if all of my programs would run on it.
All your programs WON'T run on it. There are new, quite useful programs on the other side.
I recommend making a partition and dual booting, instead of doing a wholesale conversion. If you don't want to give up hard-drive space, you could also buy a small drive just to play with Linux, they're kind of cheap.
I should warn you that there may be a lot of command line tinkering involved in getting certain drivers to work, particularly wireless internet and graphics accelerators. I spent a day or so copying and pasting lines from the forums into my Terminal for each Ubuntu install I've done thus far. I didn't really mind, but I can see how somebody could.
I had to install Vista on the new laptop yesterday to run AutoCAD and 3D-Studio Max for my job, because they ailed to run perfectly in the windows-compatibility-layer for Linx.
I'm going to run it on a partition with Kubuntu (Ubuntu with the KDE GUI), just to see what that is like.
Vista won't run NWN. :(
"Planned obsolesence" I guess.
"Vista won't run NWN. :( "
Will it run NWN2? I received a copy of that also for my birthday, but haven't had a chance to play it. Character creation is nice, even if they look a little plastic.
From what I've read on the forums, it depends on if your graphics card plays nicely with both Vista and Direct-X 10. Only one Radeon card is considered fully compatible with DX10, every other card on the market has either small or large issues with it. Maybe they should start labeling the boxes in the stores, "graphics decelerators".
Also, the KDE desktop has a very poor design sensibility.
That means it is either programmed really well ("no web designers on this project, just us code guys.") or its as clunky as it looks.
Of course it's fully customizable. So once I get it loaded, it won't look clunky for long!
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