turn on | tune in | strung out » jaunty http://blog.mcstudios.net Wed, 05 May 2010 00:13:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 realizations http://blog.mcstudios.net/2009/05/09/realizations http://blog.mcstudios.net/2009/05/09/realizations#comments Sat, 09 May 2009 20:11:25 +0000 Mark http://blog.mcstudios.net/?p=556 not quite sure
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If you need to install linux on a laptop, choose Ubuntu over the other derivations. There is simply more time and people working on the Gnome version of Ubuntu versus the KDE or Fluxbox derivations. When I installed Kubuntu 09.04 (Jaunty) things weren’t “just working” like they do on my desktop. Having always preferred KDE to Gnome, I have never really tried the pure “Ubuntu” experience. I have to say, especially for laptops, the experience is radically different and ultimately superior.

I think I still prefer KDE over Gnome. If you still wanted the KDE experence on a laptop, I would recommend trying a distribution that is more focused on the KDE side (like OpenSUSE). For me, I prefer a Debian based distribution, though to be honest, it has been a while since I’ve tried OpenSUSE. Pure Ubuntu on this laptop has been a pleasure to use, so I’m going to stick with it — though I now need to figure out how to customize and theme the hell out of it =)

]]> http://blog.mcstudios.net/2009/05/09/realizations/feed 0 not quite sure Creative Commons License a series of unfortunate frustrations http://blog.mcstudios.net/2009/05/07/a-series-of-unfortunate-frustrations http://blog.mcstudios.net/2009/05/07/a-series-of-unfortunate-frustrations#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 20:43:37 +0000 Mark http://blog.mcstudios.net/?p=533 On my desk
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Kubuntu 09.04 (Jaunty) has been an absolute pleasure to use on my home desktop. Everything just works, and works really well. I happen to choose an Nvidia graphics card when I put it together. Turns out that was a very good decision.

Lets turn to my laptop (a Thinkpad T42). It has an ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 inside. There is a semi decent open source driver implementation that it used by default. However, for some reason I’m running into crashes. Ubuntu upgraded their Xorg X server, so ATI’s Catalyst driver (version 9.3) no longer works. Theoretically, this should be fine — ATI is coming out with version 9.4 — however ATI made the decision not to support their older cards with version 9.4! And they’ve said they won’t update their 9.3 driver to work with the latest Xorg version! Arg!

Ruby
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ATI — You Suck!

I think I’m basically screwed. Any new linux install (no matter the distribution) will have this latest Xorg — there is just no way I can use this laptop with the latest distros! I’m probably going to reinstall it with 08.10 (Intrepid) so at least I have a functioning laptop.

I wonder… will ATI’s 9.3 driver work with Windows 7? If it doesn’t, they are also screwing over all the Windows users out there to the same fate.

]]> http://blog.mcstudios.net/2009/05/07/a-series-of-unfortunate-frustrations/feed 0 On my desk Creative Commons License Ruby Creative Commons License