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  • edited January 2008
    Well, SLI was the cheapest performance option at the time, believe it or not. I picked up two 7300 gs's for under a hundred bucks on sale about a year ago, and it came out WAY cheaper than a mid-range 7 series, and WAY less than an entry level 8 series. One of my cards ate itself over the weekend, so I ordered an 8600 gt (512) for a bit under a hundred bucks to replace the single 7300 that I have left. Also, the reason I had to get vid cards last year was because I was building a new system, and I wanted to be able to go to a good PCI-e card when I could afford it, and all I had laying around were agp cards. And SLI doesn't cause Amarok to suck, it sucks just fine all by itself.

    Plus, why would Ubuntu go from working fine once set up ,in one release, to not working at all, in the next release, on the same hardware?
    Post edited by WallyBman on
  • Plus, why would Ubuntu go from working fine once set up ,in one release, to not working at all, in the next release, on the same hardware?
    Because Linux sucks. ^_~
  • Plus, why would Ubuntu go from working fine once set up ,in one release, to not working at all, in the next release, on the same hardware?
    Because Linux sucks. ^_~
    Linux always doesn't work in one way or another. Open source driver documentation would be of some help but we've got some way to go. 010111100101111101111110
  • Don't get me wrong. When I installed 7.04 and got everything working, I loved it. I reluctantly went back to xp because I couldn't find as good a solution for ipod management as itunes. I couldn't find anything close to the quality of itunes, and my ipod is probably my most important piece of mobile electronics. I listen to about 5-8 hours of podcasts every night from the time I leave for work until the time I get home. Hell, I had better luck getting my XP install of WoW working under wine than I did trying to simply sync my ipod.

    And that is why 7.10 was so disappointing to me. 7.04 worked for me, and 7.10 simply didn't. Maybe I'll try 7.10 again once I get my 8600 gt in.

    One thing though. I seem to remember under 7.04 you could click and hold the mouse button on the frame of a window and drag it around. Did they change that in 7.10? The last time I installed it, I wasn't able to drag windows around. :(
  • edited January 2008
    One thing though. I seem to remember under 7.04 you could click and hold the mouse button on the frame of a window and drag it around. Did they change that in 7.10? The last time I installed it, I wasn't able to drag windows around. :(
    Haha, wtf, of course you can drag windows around. And you can even make them wobbly if you want.
    Post edited by Sail on

  • And that is why 7.10 was so disappointing to me. 7.04 worked for me, and 7.10 simply didn't. Maybe I'll try 7.10 again once I get my 8600 gt in.

    One thing though. I seem to remember under 7.04 you could click and hold the mouse button on the frame of a window and drag it around. Did they change that in 7.10? The last time I installed it, I wasn't able to drag windows around. :(
    Part of your problem in 7.10 is that compiz fusion is now enabled by default. Compiz fusion is a window manager that uses your fancy video card to make your gui fancier. Basically it adds all sorts of eye candy. If you use 7.10 and disable compiz fusion in the System->Preferences->Appearance->Visual Effects menu, then your experience should be closer to what you had in 7.04.
  • At Scott from page one: I'm not rich, but I have been saving a lot of money for a computer so I can give back my cousin his.

    I got 4000 bucks, why so much? Because I need a computer that can handle a professional console, large photoshop files and lots of 3d rendering. In other words, I need a fucking good Pc.
  • You make a good point. I often forget about Boot Camp, since it's less than ideal on a MacBook Pro (driver issues cause it to overheat and waste power).

    I'm just impressed that virtualization has gotten that far. At the same time, I'm less impressed that there's no solid effort to bring Wine or something similar to the Mac. With a little bit of configuration, I've been able to get linux to run Windows games just fine without virtualization, with equal or sometimes better performance. Doesn't seem like it'd be too hard to duplicate on OS X.
    There is and it is called CrossOver.
  • edited January 2008
    Oh, I KNOW about wobbly. Wobbly worked just fine for me under 7.04, when it was still "under development." I guess it got worse when they finalized it. And no, I literally could NOT drag windows around the last time I tried 7.10. If I wanted to move a window, I had to go down to the task bar, right click the window's entry, select moved, and then move it. Dragging didn't work.
    Post edited by WallyBman on
  • Oh, I KNOW about wobbly. Wobbly worked just fine for me under 7.04, when it was still "under devolpement." I guess it got worse when they finalized it. And no, I litterally could NOT drag windows around the last time I tried 7.10. If I wanted to move a window, I had to go down to the taskbar, right click the window's entry, select moved, and then move it. Dragging didn't work.
    If you tried that in 7.04 it was a different piece of software. There was a big change with compiz/beryl between the time 7.04 and 7.10 came out.
  • Ah, that explains it then. Still, why would I not be able to drag windows around?
  • Ah, that explains it then. Still, why would I not be able to drag windows around?
    Because the thing that controls the eye candy also controls the windows and all that business. You really have to understand the X Windows architecture.
  • Ah, and it wasn't the SLI at all. I just went to a single 8600 gt, and I'm getting almost the same problem. The system isn't finding (don't quote me, I can't get the error without fuckering up my system but good) device nvidia0. So, yeah, I CAN get 7.10 running, but 1024x768 looks like ASS on a 22" widescreen...
  • Ah, and it wasn't the SLI at all. I just went to a single 8600 gt, and I'm getting almost the same problem. The system isn't finding (don't quote me, I can't get the error without fuckering up my system but good) device nvidia0. So, yeah, I CAN get 7.10 running, but 1024x768 looks like ASS on a 22" widescreen...
    Hmmm. How did you install the nvidia driver?
  • edited January 2008
    Ctrl+alt+f1 to stop x, then used

    "sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common

    sudo nvidia-xconfig

    sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart"

    I've got it (mostly) fixed now. I used Envy. Right before that, the system finally recognized my card and offered me the restricted driver, so I tried that, but couldn't set it to widescreen resolutions. Envy worked, but I have to start up the Nvidia manager upon starting x to change my res back to 1440x900 (or 1680x1050), since, for some reason, I can apply that setting, but I can't write it to the xconfig.org, or whatever, using the Nvidia app, and I'll be damned if I want to dick around with editing it manually right now. I need a nap before heading to work (I'm working for time and a half tonight, and double time tomorrow. Might use the extra cash to pick up a cheap 37" lcd hdtv to use as a monitor, and for my 360.).

    Maybe tomorrow afternoon I'll brave configuring it manually...

    Oh, and any suggestions would be of help. I'll probably be reading the forums tonight from work; I doubt they flew in the weather today.
    Post edited by WallyBman on
  • Ctrl+alt+f1 to stop x, then used

    "sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common

    sudo nvidia-xconfig

    sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart"
    That's the old bad way, and that might be why you are having trouble. In the new Ubuntu you should install the nvidia driver through the restricted drivers manager gui. Then use nvidia-settings to set your resolutions and such.
  • edited January 2008
    Yeah, that is how I was doing it. I then tried the restricted driver, but didn't realize that the proper way to then set the resolution was the the nvidia app. Hell, I didn't even know that it existed.

    Right now, I have the drivers installed via Envy. However, the settings won't stay set through a restart, so I'll try cleaning that out, and try the restricted drivers again.

    UPDATE!!!

    Ok, so, up until this point, I've been installing 7.04, updating it, restarting, upgrading to 7.10, then messing with it from there. And when something went wrong, I simply wiped the drive, and started over, avoiding the previous tries' mistakes.

    This time, I installed 7.10 from cd from the get go, tried the restricted drivers, and it just works. In fact, I'm typing this from My new 7.10 install.

    My next project is getting support for reading, and writing, to, and from my ntfs XP drive. The main reason for that is I will be suing it to run WoW in Ubuntu using WINE. And once that is completed, I will see if there are any ipod solutions in linux that are less shit than Amarok. Of course, I've seen turds that were less shit than Amarok. :)
    Post edited by WallyBman on
  • ......
    edited January 2008
    My next project is getting support for reading, and writing, to, and from my ntfs XP drive. The main reason for that is I will be suing it to run WoW in Ubuntu using WINE. And once that is completed, I will see if there are any ipod solutions in linux that are less shit than Amarok. Of course, I've seen turds that were less shit than Amarok. :)
    - Ntfs-3g. Should be installed as default and NTFS partitions should just work. Mount them and enjoy.
    - You'll have more trouble setting Wine up properly to run WoW.
    - Screw iPod firmware, just throw Rockbox on it if you can. Works on everything and with almost anything so yeah. Also looks really awesome if you get a skin for it (mandatory, just like with Dwarf Fortress, gah I'm hooked to that now. Damn you Scott with that graphic set link.) And if you want to make it sync automatically make a cron job and a shell script that automatically copies the newest podcast files to a folder on your Rockbox. I still need to set that up, but I like to do it myself for full control, so yeah.
    Post edited by ... on
  • edited January 2008
    Yeah, see, I have never written a script in my life. I wouldn't know where to start. Plus, itunes just works. You give me a packaged piece of software that just works on install, I'll use that. I built the computer, I'm not building the software. You see, my system runs XP, and it does pretty much everything that I could want it to do. Ubuntu, as nifty as it is, in nothing more than a curiosity, a challenge, and a toy to me. My ipod is not a toy. I spent $300 on my ipod whereas all I've spent on Ubuntu was $20 for a 45 gig hd on ebay. In other words, I'm not fucking with my ipod.

    And as for WoW, I had it running perfectly fine under 7.04, hopefully it will be as easy under 7.10.

    And NTFS? No, it didn't work out of the box. But, I do have it working now. Just went to Synaptic, and added everything that sounded like it would add support for NTFS, and now everything NTFS just plain works.

    And right now, I'm trying to put 7.04 on my laptop. I was trying 7.10, but it kept failing to install the kernel. Got the same problem on another disk burned fromt he same iso, and another disk off an iso from a different server. Anyone know of a good boot cd that will run systems diagnostics to check non-drive hardware?
    Post edited by WallyBman on
  • Check out this review of Skulltrail.

    Sadly, though, the feeling that I get is that the Mac Pro is still better.
  • edited March 2008
    I was almost ready to buy the Mac Pro. I might have even bought it this week. The advantages are of course that it is stupid fast, many things "just work", and thanks to VMWare Fusion I could have all 3 OSes at once. It would make life easier times a zillion, theoretically.

    However, I am not a fan of OSX. I also knew, from past experience with the Mac mini, that there would be many annoyances that would drive me crazy and regret spending $3000. I started to think of everything that could possibly annoy me, and search Google to see if those annoyances were real or not.

    As I started asking questions, I got mostly favorable answers. I found out the Happy Hacking Keyboard can work just fine. My Logitech mouse will work just fine as well. Combining the VMWare full screen mode with the OS X spaces works just fine. Making a RAID1 is easy.

    Then I tried to figure out how I could mount the RAID1 to /home (/Users) as I do on my current box. The answer was not favorable, but it was something I could live with. The Mac Pro, if you didn't realize, is the only Mac that allows for the addition of more internal hard drives. OS X doesn't seem to think that anyone would want a unified file system tree that abstracts the hardware. Even Windows has this feature. Despite this being an annoyance, it wasn't enough to block the sale.

    Then I found another annoyance, and it is enough to stop me from even considering the Mac Pro at this point. Apparently VMWare Fusion does not support multiple monitors. Paralells does, in a hackish way, but Parallells doesn't support Linux. What this means is that if I want to have Windows on one "space" and Linux on another "space" those spaces would only take up one of my two monitors. When using Linux or windows, I would have half the screen real estate. Even worse, when using the unity mode that integrates Windows apps with the Mac desktop, they all have to stay on one of the two monitors.

    This may seem like a minor missing feature in an $80 program, but it is enough to prevent me from spending $3000+. When you buy a computer, it's all about getting a machine that can do more things that the current machine can't do. Well, my current machine can run Ubuntu across two screens, but the fancy Mac Pro can't. Maybe one day in the future they will update VMWare Fusion and the Mac Pro as well. Until then, I'll stick with what I've got.
    Post edited by Apreche on

  • This may seem like a minor missing feature in an $80 program, but it is enough to prevent me from spending $3000+. Buying a computer is all about getting a machine that can do things that my current machine can't do. My current machine can run Ubuntu across two monitors. The Mac Pro can't. Maybe one day in the future they will update VMWare Fusion and the Mac Pro as well. Until then, I'll stick with what I've got.
  • It's always something with Apple. My wife and I were at the Apple store last night. We are looking at getting his and her laptops. We looked at the Air and the 13" Mac Book. My wife kept trying to tap the touch pad for a mouse click and it wouldn't do it. That killed it for her. I just looked at OSX and all the bad memories about my iMac came back.

    Even running boot camp and XP, there is no way.

    There's a Dell XPS that I like, but honestly, I think we can probably go to Microcenter and buy two cheap, functional laptops for the price of one specialty order Dell or Mac Book.
  • Even running boot camp and XP, there is no way.
    That's just it. If I want to reboot to Windows, I can do that with the PC I have now. The reason to buy the incredibly powerful Mac Pro is that I can run multiple OSes at once without having to reboot. Speed and eye candy don't matter so much to me. What matters is a significant change to the user experience.
  • My wife kept trying to tap the touch pad for a mouse click and it wouldn't do it.
    I actually hate that functionality, and disable it whenever it can. It's too ambiguous for my tastes.
  • My wife kept trying to tap the touch pad for a mouse click and it wouldn't do it.
    I actually hate that functionality, and disable it whenever it can. It's too ambiguous for my tastes.
    The problem I have is the my thumb floats over the touch pad when I type and occasionally the mouse will jump due to my thumbs close proximity.
  • The problem I have is the my thumb floats over the touch pad when I type and occasionally the mouse will jump due to my thumbs close proximity.
    I know that in Linux and Windows there is a feature to disable touchpad while typing. Enabling this feature completely eliminates this problem.
  • edited March 2008
    Click the Apple logo on the Menubar -> System Preferences -> Keyboard and Mouse, then select the Trackpad tab

    image

    One item always worth clicking when one needs help is Help (it even locates menuitems for you with a big blue arrow, if you can't find them)

    image

    Most of the time (when I sit at a desk) I simply use my standard Microsoft mouse, otherwise I like the feedback of an actual button. I didn't like it on my older Notebook running XP, which had it always turned on by default, the MBP has it disabled by default.

    By the way why does someone walk into a store dedicated to one manufacturer and just doesn't ask anybody, if there is a problem. People who base their opinion on the initial setup of the OS should especially like a Mac in my opinion, as it is supposedly the easiest to use.

    When the settings OS X gives you for your mouse by default aren't to your likening, you can try SteerMouse.
    Post edited by Jain7th on
  • Click the Apple logo on the Menubar -> System Preferences -> Keyboard and Mouse, then select the Trackpad tab
    Psh, you think I use a Macbook? Haha...
  • Psh, you think I use a Macbook? Haha...
    No, I read about Thaed's wife not buying a Mac because of a setting which can be easily changed, so I felt like posting on how to change that setting in OS X.
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