Alright, so 2 weeks in and I've booted my ubuntu 9.10 beta backup.
Things that are broken: -visual effects work mostly, but break a lot of video playback. I guess just too many moons have to align for this to work right. -Firefox. This one still eludes Ubuntu, every version of ubuntu up to and including the current one has suffered from sub par FF performance. I really don't understand why. -DVD playback, every program I tried crashed.
Things that work really well: -video playback. Once I turn off visual effects, video playback works great. -Chromium for linux works great -flash playback works as well as windows as far as I can tell
Firefox's sub-par performance has nothing to do with Ubuntu or Linux. It's Mozilla's repeated failure to improve their Linux build. Remember, Ubuntu just takes a whole bunch of open source stuff, bundles it up, and ships it out. All these different parts have someone different to blame if they don't work.
What I think is sad is that people don't often understand the full awesomeness of the Linux kernel itself because they only experience it through the lens of a pile of junk on top of it. Remember, it's that same kernel at the bottom of the Palm Pre, the Android phones, your Linksys WRT54G, and about a zillion other devices out in the world. Problems you have with Ubuntu are usually the fault of the law (preventing them from including certain things), Mozilla, Gnome, your hardware, or one of the other thousands of third parties involved.
Not saying the problems don't exist, they certainly do. Just saying that you need to evaluate those problems and make sure that you have the blame in the right spot to prevent a false perception.
-visual effects work mostly, but break a lot of video playback.
What?
-video playback. Once I turn off visual effects, video playback works great.
What?
I had a bad problem with visual effects effectively breaking video playback every time I went full screen. I think this is a combination of wobbly windows being very hard to do and my ATI card not working so great even with drivers.
-DVD playback, every program I tried crashed.
What?
Those video playback problems are mindboggling. What program did you use? And did you even try Mplayer for playback and DVD?
Is there anything other than Mplayer for linux video playback? :P It's some kind of decryption problem, some package I need that I haven't figure out yet because a decrypted DVD I had on my HD played back.
-flash playback works as well as windows as far as I can tell
Tried full-screen video? Flash games that are heavy on graphics?
I watched a couple episodes of anime on funimation's website.
Is there anything other than Mplayer for linux video playback? :P It's some kind of decryption problem, some package I need that I haven't figure out yet because a decrypted DVD I had on my HD played back.
Firefox's sub-par performance has nothing to do with Ubuntu or Linux. It's Mozilla's repeated failure to improve their Linux build. Remember, Ubuntu just takes a whole bunch of open source stuff, bundles it up, and ships it out. All these different parts have someone different to blame if they don't work.
What I think is sad is that people don't often understand the full awesomeness of the Linux kernel itself because they only experience it through the lens of a pile of junk on top of it. Remember, it's that same kernel at the bottom of the Palm Pre, the Android phones, your Linksys WRT54G, and about a zillion other devices out in the world. Problems you have with Ubuntu are usually the fault of the law (preventing them from including certain things), Mozilla, Gnome, your hardware, or one of the other thousands of third parties involved.
Not saying the problems don't exist, they certainly do. Just saying that you need to evaluate those problems and make sure that you have the blame in the right spot to prevent a false perception.
Oh, so it's Mozilla fault? Fine, it's still crummy. I want chrome anyway and the latest chromium builds work great for everything I need.
I know about the Kernel underneath, I guess I'm just not sure what to do with it.
Is there anything other than Mplayer for linux video playback? :P It's some kind of decryption problem, some package I need that I haven't figure out yet because a decrypted DVD I had on my HD played back.
DVDCSS (The decryption software.) is no longer in the repositories, you can use this guide (It's two commands.) and it'll work. So much for user friendliness.
DVDCSS (The decryption software.) is no longer in the repositories, you can usethis guide(It's two commands.) and it'll work. So much for user friendliness.
They'd do it if they could. Blame the law.
Apple and Microsoft do it because they pay money to the DVD people. Ubuntu can't really do that.
Instead, what they do, is tell you how to do it yourself. That way it's YOU breaking the law (DMCA) and not Ubuntu breaking the law. By agreeing to accept the liability yourself, you don't have to pay money.
Apple and Microsoft do it because they pay money to the DVD people. Ubuntu can't really do that.
Instead, what they do, is tell you how to do it yourself. That way it's YOU breaking the law (DMCA) and not Ubuntu breaking the law. By agreeing to accept the liability yourself, you don't have to pay money.
I think everyone understands this already. I was complaining that the easy DVD support now seems to be gone. I don't care too much, I have an Xbox if all else fails.
Adding to my broken visual effects, my computer can't resume from stand by with XGL (or whatever it's called) on. Oh well, good ol metacity does at least have wicked fast response time going for it. I should get myself a nVidia GPU so this stuff works.
I think everyone understands this already. I was complaining that the easy DVD support now seems to be gone. I don't care too much, I have an Xbox if all else fails.
What sort of Linux things should I try doing? Cause I'm struggling to find anything I do on a day to day basis that Windows doesn't do faster, better, easier.
How old is your Windows install and how fast is your computer?
Couple months old Win 7 RC and my computer is a tri-core AMD Phenom with 4 GB of ram.
Yes, I know I have a powerful computer, but other than being a server, what things does Linux do really well? Because so far the sound is worse, video playback is worse, flash crashes more, and I'm having trouble accessing my file server (totally my fault I admit).
Well, dual boot into Windows for a month or two. I went back and forth between the two for a while before the effort of getting the features of Ubuntu working became outweighed by the slow creeping annoyances of Windows. When I'd had enough of programs hanging the entire system and peripherals randomly not being recognised, I ended up sticking with Ubuntu and figuring it out and it was worth it in the end to have a reliable system (Except when you install beta versions but that's a given.).
Ok.. sound, did you try PAVcontrol? For video you want VLC or SMPlayer and you could try grabbing flash off the Adobe website.
Does anyone who uses Linux regularly ever get the feeling where they pause for several seconds in Windows and try to remember how you move a window to a different virtual desktop before remembering there aren't virtual desktops?
For video you want MPlayer and you could try grabbing flash off the Adobe website.
Did you read anything from his earlier posts OTHER than the DVD encryption bollocks? It's not the player that's the problem, it's his ATI video card and the drivers that suck under Linux. Same goes for Flash, downloading it from the Adobe website makes no difference since you're still suffering from shitty video drivers. Also, stop lying, nobody wants VLC.
video playback is worse
You said only when using Compiz. If you just don't demand to have a more fancy looking desktop than under Windows there's no problem.
Don't use Mplayer, it makes getting The GIMP to work look easy. Ignoring Nineless on this kind of stuff is advised. Just stick with VLC or SMPlayer.
What are you talking about? You should ONLY use mplayer. It's really simple to use. mplayer /file/you/want/to/play.whateverThen whatever it is, audio or video, it plays. It plays perfectly no matter what codec. It can even play DVDs.mplayer dvd://. No matter your OS, MPlayer is king.
Also, yes you are having suckage because your hardware is AMD, ATi. Intel NVidia combo crushes it big-time. Also, the fancy desktop compiz effects are no good. I turn them off even if I have the hardware to handle them. If you really want them, then you should definitely have an NVidia card. Even a relatively old NVidia card can handle them better than a newer ATi one because the ATi drivers are just shit.
I think Scott's post pretty much sums up why you should stay away from stock Mplayer. VLC or SMPlayer or, when Karmic gets here, Gnome-Mplayer is looking good.
Somewhat ironically, the way this conversation has gone is quite typical of what happens when people ask simple questions about Linux.
Well, dual boot into Windows for a month or two. I went back and forth between the two for a while before the effort of getting the features of Ubuntu working became outweighed by the slow creeping annoyances of Windows. When I'd had enough of programs hanging the entire system and peripherals randomly not being recognised, I ended up sticking with Ubuntu and figuring it out and it was worth it in the end to have a reliable system (Except when you install beta versions but that's a given.).
If you call not having seconds on my clock a "slow, creeping annoyance" then I understand. I have no reliability issues with windows. Sure I have to go out and get drivers, but ubuntu has to do the same thing to make my video card work so that's par for the course.
Ok.. sound, did you try PAVcontrol?
I have no issues with making the sound work, other than some issues stemming from my own stupidity (I disabled my audio output last night trying to setup my mic). It's issues like the loud pop as the sound card flicks on after there's been no sound on my computer for a while. Why did it turn off in the first place?
For video you want VLC or SMPlayer and you could try grabbing flash off the Adobe website.
I use SMplayer, it's still just not as crisp and clean as MPC.
Does anyone who uses Linux regularly ever get the feeling where they pause for several seconds in Windows and try to remember how you move a window to a different virtual desktop before remembering there aren't virtual desktops?
I have no use for that other desktop other than to put the terminal window I use to spawn Chrome.
You said only when using Compiz. If you just don't demand to have a more fancy looking desktop than under Windows there's no problem.
And yet even with the pretty turned off I still have issues. Like the slider doesn't work half the time. Or I pause a video and it just doesn't start up again when I unpause it.
What are you talking about? You should ONLY use mplayer. It's really simple to use.mplayer /file/you/want/to/play.whateverThen whatever it is, audio or video, it plays. It plays perfectly no matter what codec. It can even play DVDs.mplayer dvd://. No matter your OS, MPlayer is king.
This is what drives me nuts about most linux things. I understand that keyboard shortcuts are faster, but why must I use them for absolutely everything I use? I don't want to remember nor can I remember all these commands. I understand pictures. I have a mouse. Why can't I use these things?
Also for windows, MPC is just better, faster, easier for a windows user. That whole GUI thing.
Also, yes you are having suckage because your hardware is AMD, ATi. Intel NVidia combo crushes it big-time. Also, the fancy desktop compiz effects are no good. I turn them off even if I have the hardware to handle them. If you really want them, then you should definitely have an NVidia card. Even a relatively old NVidia card can handle them better than a newer ATi one because the ATi drivers are just shit.
At no point has my processor been an issue. Linux is perfectly fine with my AMD cpu. And I turned off the visual effects and that did fix most of my problems, but there's still issues. Like which video render do I use with smplayer? There's like 30.
But seriously, these issues are minor and I can work around most of them (though I don't think I should have to) but that's not my question. What do you linux users do with your computers other than revel in the open-source-ness of it? What is it that keeps you using it?
Well, I like the your questions and I'mma let you finish but, virtual desktops is one of the greatest features of all time!
In seriousness though, once you get used to using virtual desktops, instead of minimizing and maximizing sets of applications, it's hard to go back. Long term performance is another big factor; At the end of a six month period before the next upgrade, my system runs like it did in the first month, no matter how much I install or un-install. Dealing with software maintenance is also another reason I have trouble with windows, synaptic update is really the standard from here on. I've learnt an awful lot by using Ubuntu for so long, much of this is figured out while getting things working. Looks nice and can be customized quite easily.
This is what drives me nuts about most linux things. I understand that keyboard shortcuts are faster, but why must I use them for absolutely everything I use? I don't want to remember nor can I remember all these commands. I understand pictures. I have a mouse. Why can't I use these things?
Also for windows, MPC is just better, faster, easier for a windows user. That whole GUI thing.
You don't have to use the mplayer command line. There's a gui version. But, like you said, it's just faster to use the command line. Windows is no different. A shortcut is just a command line command reduced into an icon. Icons on the Gnome desktop are the same thing. You can easily make it so that you can double-click on video file icons and have them open in mplayer. Using the command line is just faster and gives you more options in both Windows and Linux.
Regardless of whether you choose to use command line or GUI, MPlayer is just straight up the best player out there, no matter what OS you are using. I use MPlayer on Windows, Linux and OSX. It plays anything and everything perfectly with great performance every time with no fuss.
What do you mean which video renderer do you use? Don't futz with anything weird like that. It just works out of the box.
But seriously, these issues are minor and I can work around most of them (though I don't think I should have to) but that's not my question. What do you linux users do with your computers other than revel in the open-source-ness of it? What is it that keeps you using it?
That's nice, except in this case it's the hole hog that hanging up on the little things I need to do. Perhaps this is do to its shear power and being designed for much more serious work. Maybe I need to hammer in a nail. The strong casing means I can in fact hammer in the nail, but a simple hammer works better.
Maybe I just don't do enough serious work with my computer to see the value of Linux.
Maybe I just don't do enough serious work with my computer to see the value of Linux.
Strange, isn't it. My parents do barely any serious work with their computer. That's why they use Linux. You can infinity free upgrades, and it's free to begin with. If you're not doing serious work, then free is awesome.
Likewise, doing serious work like me, I need it for my developing and such.
Really the places Linux fails are in media production and gaming. The first could be solved if Adobe would just port its stuff over. The second probably won't ever be solved, and Mac also has no games, so...
Regardless of whether you choose to use command line or GUI, MPlayer is just straight up the best player out there, no matter what OS you are using. I use MPlayer on Windows, Linux and OSX. It plays anything and everything perfectly with great performance every time with no fuss.
On Windows, I would argue that CCCP + MPC-HC is better. For example, it offers support for Vista's Enhanced Video Render (EVR) while MPlayer does not.
Comments
Things that are broken:
-visual effects work mostly, but break a lot of video playback. I guess just too many moons have to align for this to work right.
-Firefox. This one still eludes Ubuntu, every version of ubuntu up to and including the current one has suffered from sub par FF performance. I really don't understand why.
-DVD playback, every program I tried crashed.
Things that work really well:
-video playback. Once I turn off visual effects, video playback works great.
-Chromium for linux works great
-flash playback works as well as windows as far as I can tell
Anyone else have anything interesting going on?
Those video playback problems are mindboggling. What program did you use? And did you even try Mplayer for playback and DVD? Here it still "just works"tm.
What I think is sad is that people don't often understand the full awesomeness of the Linux kernel itself because they only experience it through the lens of a pile of junk on top of it. Remember, it's that same kernel at the bottom of the Palm Pre, the Android phones, your Linksys WRT54G, and about a zillion other devices out in the world. Problems you have with Ubuntu are usually the fault of the law (preventing them from including certain things), Mozilla, Gnome, your hardware, or one of the other thousands of third parties involved.
Not saying the problems don't exist, they certainly do. Just saying that you need to evaluate those problems and make sure that you have the blame in the right spot to prevent a false perception.
This is one of those where the law is to blame.
I know about the Kernel underneath, I guess I'm just not sure what to do with it. But I installed the restricted extras and it still doesn't work.
Apple and Microsoft do it because they pay money to the DVD people. Ubuntu can't really do that.
Instead, what they do, is tell you how to do it yourself. That way it's YOU breaking the law (DMCA) and not Ubuntu breaking the law. By agreeing to accept the liability yourself, you don't have to pay money.
Adding to my broken visual effects, my computer can't resume from stand by with XGL (or whatever it's called) on. Oh well, good ol metacity does at least have wicked fast response time going for it. I should get myself a nVidia GPU so this stuff works.
In an unrelated coincidence, my Ubuntu Beta install hosed itself this morning. Good thing it takes barely any time to reinstall.
Yes, I know I have a powerful computer, but other than being a server, what things does Linux do really well? Because so far the sound is worse, video playback is worse, flash crashes more, and I'm having trouble accessing my file server (totally my fault I admit).
Ok.. sound, did you try PAVcontrol? For video you want VLC or SMPlayer and you could try grabbing flash off the Adobe website.
Does anyone who uses Linux regularly ever get the feeling where they pause for several seconds in Windows and try to remember how you move a window to a different virtual desktop before remembering there aren't virtual desktops?
While I'm not in much of a mood to set Nineless off on a hissy fit, I'd like to keep things simple.
mplayer /file/you/want/to/play.whateverThen whatever it is, audio or video, it plays. It plays perfectly no matter what codec. It can even play DVDs.mplayer dvd://. No matter your OS, MPlayer is king.Also, yes you are having suckage because your hardware is AMD, ATi. Intel NVidia combo crushes it big-time. Also, the fancy desktop compiz effects are no good. I turn them off even if I have the hardware to handle them. If you really want them, then you should definitely have an NVidia card. Even a relatively old NVidia card can handle them better than a newer ATi one because the ATi drivers are just shit.
Somewhat ironically, the way this conversation has gone is quite typical of what happens when people ask simple questions about Linux.
Also for windows, MPC is just better, faster, easier for a windows user. That whole GUI thing. At no point has my processor been an issue. Linux is perfectly fine with my AMD cpu. And I turned off the visual effects and that did fix most of my problems, but there's still issues. Like which video render do I use with smplayer? There's like 30.
But seriously, these issues are minor and I can work around most of them (though I don't think I should have to) but that's not my question. What do you linux users do with your computers other than revel in the open-source-ness of it? What is it that keeps you using it?
In seriousness though, once you get used to using virtual desktops, instead of minimizing and maximizing sets of applications, it's hard to go back.
Long term performance is another big factor; At the end of a six month period before the next upgrade, my system runs like it did in the first month, no matter how much I install or un-install.
Dealing with software maintenance is also another reason I have trouble with windows, synaptic update is really the standard from here on.
I've learnt an awful lot by using Ubuntu for so long, much of this is figured out while getting things working.
Looks nice and can be customized quite easily.
Regardless of whether you choose to use command line or GUI, MPlayer is just straight up the best player out there, no matter what OS you are using. I use MPlayer on Windows, Linux and OSX. It plays anything and everything perfectly with great performance every time with no fuss.
What do you mean which video renderer do you use? Don't futz with anything weird like that. It just works out of the box. Read this.
Maybe I just don't do enough serious work with my computer to see the value of Linux.
Likewise, doing serious work like me, I need it for my developing and such.
Really the places Linux fails are in media production and gaming. The first could be solved if Adobe would just port its stuff over. The second probably won't ever be solved, and Mac also has no games, so...