steveth45 Member Posts: 536 From: Eugene, OR, USA Registered: 08-10-2005 |
I thought I'd stop spamming other threads about how cool Linux is. So here are some screenshots of openSUSE 10.2 with the neato Xgl/Compiz desktop. This one shows switching between a desktop with Firefox and one with Code::Blocks. Also, you can see a partially transparent XMMS (like Winamp) sitting on top of Code::Blocks.
This one shows how you can shrink all the open windows and pick one quickly by putting your mouse in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
This runs smoothly on my laptop with these specs: This laptop is a year and a half old, and it falls short of "Vista" suggested stats. ------------------ |
spade89 Member Posts: 561 From: houston,tx Registered: 11-28-2006 |
hey i have kubuntu and i can't get kppp to connect to the net. ------------------ |
HanClinto Administrator Posts: 1828 From: Indiana Registered: 10-11-2004 |
Very sweet shots, Steve. This is all on your presonal laptop -- do you take any work home with you on that one? Trolltech has done a great job with KDE -- it's just frustrating to me to have a GUI toolkit licensed with GPL, and even though GTK doesn't look as good as KDE, I try to use Gnome and support it because their ideals (LGPL) fit more with what I think a GUI toolkit should be. Still -- it all looks most excellent, and thanks for showing off some of your very excellent shots. --clint |
steveth45 Member Posts: 536 From: Eugene, OR, USA Registered: 08-10-2005 |
quote: I can VPN into work and use VNC to connect to my desktop, so my work desktop is running in a window on my laptop at home. I did this a bit when I was sick. It's nowhere near as efficient at being at work, so I generally work in the office.
quote: Well, using KDE and programming with its GUI toolkit are two different beasts, entirely. I've tried using Gnome, but I have to agree with Linus Torvalds: "I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do." As a GUI toolkit, I use GTK#, which may be historically related to the Gnome desktop but it doesn't rely on it. It seems to run fine in KDE. Spade, I don't really know much about Kubuntu. I'd check first in whatever hardware configuration program comes with that flavor of Linux to see if the modem has been properly detected. If so, where in the process is KPPP failing? Is it picking up the line and dialing? Is it failing to connect to the other modem? Is authentication failing? A friend of mine had trouble with kppp, so he tried kwvdial and that seemed to work for him. Before I had DSL, I think I got kppp to work without much trouble. ------------------ |
CPUFreak91 Member Posts: 2337 From: Registered: 02-01-2005 |
Those are nifty shots steveth45! I've got a separate Ubuntu install that I'll be putting Beryl or compiz on.
quote: Linux probably doesn't have a driver for your windmodem. ------------------ |
steveth45 Member Posts: 536 From: Eugene, OR, USA Registered: 08-10-2005 |
Yeah winmodems can be a problem with linux, but by this time, I think 99% are supported in one way or another. I used some of the first experimental winmodem drivers years ago with success. There are 3 possibilities if your winmodem doesn't work right away: 1. Linux does support your modem, but you have to manually load the driver. Chances are very high that your modem will work one way or another in Linux, unfortunately you may have to follow complicated instructions or dish out some money. Start at linmodems.org , and as a last option go to linuxant.com . The first thing you'll have to do is open up your computer and write down everything written on your modem. If it is built in to the motherboard, all you have to do is look up the exact motherboard model to get the modem chipset. If you go to thrift shops, sometimes you can pick up an external USR 56k modem for 5 or 10 bucks. Those are real modems and work like a charm with Linux. I go to thrift shops a lot, and I must have seen 100 of them. Businesses generally dump them from storage on a regular basis. Unlike winmodems, they don't eat processor time, and they connect at faster rates. You can probably get one on ebay for 15-20 bucks. ------------------ |
D-SIPL Moderator Posts: 1345 From: Maesteg, Wales Registered: 07-21-2001 |
That 3D desktop effects really annoys me. Shakey windows and being able to spin my desktop is nothing more then pointless eye candy. No functionality really. *mental note: stop using Links to post *
quote: What modem do you have? I would suggest getting ndiswrapper if it's a driver issue. ------------------ [This message has been edited by D-SIPL (edited February 02, 2007).] |
Valkyri Member Posts: 205 From: Registered: 08-13-2005 |
stayed up half the night trying to get compiz to work only to find out that you have to have X.org's 7.1 server, which dapper won't ever have, just Edgy and up Though I suppose D is right..... ------------------ |
CPUFreak91 Member Posts: 2337 From: Registered: 02-01-2005 |
quote: Nope no function (just like WindowsUpdate ). It's just cool. I want to try it so that I can show people that Linux is "up to date" and not some stupid os that doesn't do anything cool. ------------------ |
SSquared Member Posts: 654 From: Pacific Northwest Registered: 03-22-2005 |
Wow! I was just going to ask what is so great about the 3D thing when I read these other posts. Yes, it does look VERY cool. But what purpose does it have? Having used OS X a bit, I do find some cool things which I think have been added to Vista. Things like having weather, time, and all that appear at a button click. But why do I need a hardware accelerated OS? I am not trying to complain, just trying to be open and honestly find out good reasons. Funny thing...I have read one article saying Vista is MUCH faster running the 3D Accelerated Aero interface over running the WinXP or Win2000 compatible interface. It was suggested the 2D graphics are slower than 3D accelerated, among other possible reasons. This may have been in regards to a beta, so maybe things are better optimized. In any case, it sounds like you are better off using Aero if running Vista. No argument here. I'm sure I will much prefer Aero. Hmmmm...maybe I'll be asking for help installing Linux one of these days. But I use several Windows specific apps (Linux equivalents are lacking), so Windows will remain a significant part of my system. |
Jari Member Posts: 1471 From: Helsinki, Finland Registered: 03-11-2005 |
Hmm, so is that 3D desktop actually useful or just something to play with? I find it very useful how linux desktops can have multiple views/desktops. ------------------ [VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3) |
steveth45 Member Posts: 536 From: Eugene, OR, USA Registered: 08-10-2005 |
quote: I don't know what purpose the 3D desktop may or may not serve in Vista, but once I switched over in Linux, I don't think I can go back. It's very useful and practical, in my opinion. Here are some of the functionally useful features: 1. Zoom. With the windows buttons and a right click, I can zoom in on any part of the screen. This is a great accessibility feature, if something is hard to read and I can't adjust the font, or there is some detail in a graph or something that I want to look at closer. 2. I've mentioned this before, but if I have several open, overlapping windows on the same desktop, I can move the mouse to the upper right hand corner of the screen, then I can see all the windows and pick the one I wand to go to. This has turned out to be very handy. There is similar functionality in OS X, and my friend who is a graphic designer uses it all the time when he's working on a project with numerous open images, etc. 3. If I hit Ctrl-Alt-Up, all the desktops shrink and line up, like #2 but with desktops instead of apps. Then I can pick the desktop I want to work on. Or, I can spin the cube very quickly and see what's on all the desktops. 4. Transparent windows. I can have a music player sitting on top of what I'm working on, always available, but not totally obscuring the application underneath. Admittedly, I haven't found this terribly useful, yet. Overall, it produces a more organic feeling environment where I can switch between apps, or see everything, all at once. The reason it can be faster than a 2D desktop, is that you are offloading some of the rendering work directly to the video card, instead of doing it all with the CPU. Of course, if your video card is not very fast, it could slow things down considerably. With my configuration, I feel like things run at about the same speed. Amazingly, the 3D desktop seems to run windowed video and 3D games just as fast as a 2D desktop. The games and the video don't stop when spinning or moving the cube around, either. ------------------ |
Lazarus Member Posts: 1668 From: USA Registered: 06-06-2006 |
Downloading the iso now. Mandrake 10.0 doesn't like my desktop anyway. |
CPUFreak91 Member Posts: 2337 From: Registered: 02-01-2005 |
quote: I have found a use for the transparency. You can browse the web or do your homework or write an article while you watch a movie. All you do is make the browser, or word processor slightly transparent so that you can see the movie playing underneath. (Note that I haven't done this in a while but it was great back when I used compiz on Gentoo Linux) ------------------ |
steveth45 Member Posts: 536 From: Eugene, OR, USA Registered: 08-10-2005 |
quote: I gave up on Mandrake when it turned into Mandriva. They became focused entirely on commercial users where you have to pay for access to their large libraries of packages, including open source software. I think they violated the GPL in a couple different ways. I tried Ubuntu, but felt like that was the opposite of an empowering experience. SUSE has really done well to support Linux users. It is, in my opinion, the best distro for software developers. openSUSE and the commercial Enterprise Desktop, use the same core so packages are cross-compatible. You don't have to pay for access to their repositories of open source packages or automatic update service. They have paid staff that work on a number of open source development tools, specifically Mono, which is a very high quality substitute for .NET. Code::Blocks provides nightly builds for SUSE. NVidia and ATI also directly support SUSE. I believe SUSE is the easiest to set up the 3D desktop on. All you have to do is get the latest NVidia or ATI drivers, change one setting and reboot. What could be easier? ------------------ [This message has been edited by steveth45 (edited February 02, 2007).] |
CPUFreak91 Member Posts: 2337 From: Registered: 02-01-2005 |
quote: I just switched to Beryl. Check it out. This is what I first configured. It's a basic cube. Fun, but not as cool as when I turned on a bunch of settings such as 3D effects (makes the windows stack up on top of each other when rotating the cube) and transparency.
Wobly windows and the Cube are my favorite Beryl plugins. EDIT: I've also noticed in the 4 days that I've been using Beryl, that my computer runs faster. I'm not the only one, Dan Washco (from the Linux Link Tech Show) has noticed this too. ------------------ My Programming and Hacker/Geek related Blog [This message has been edited by CPUFreak91 (edited February 26, 2007).] |