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General fluff => Announcements => Topic started by: Josh @ Dreamland on September 01, 2009, 06:46:57 pm

Title: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Josh @ Dreamland on September 01, 2009, 06:46:57 pm
I've actually been running Ubuntu for several days now. But I'm just now posting about it.

I haven't told many people at this point, but college started last Monday. Since then, I've had next to no free time. Even now I should be reading... checking what I have to do for economics tomorrow...

Whatever.

I'm trying to work, but my free time has just been sliced. Every day, a new chapter in my biology book (which I should mention has its own orbit) as well as some awful essay or other worthless priceless piece of shit information from this book calledThe Presence of Others. The thing opens "This is a book for and about reading." Jesus.

Anyway, the good news is that everything I expected to work on Linux does in fact do so. With a little luck (and less homework, mind you) I could probably get this thing working on Mac, too. BUt that's complicated in addition by the fact that I don't have a Mac. (I'll just VM It).

Also, I believe ubuntu fixed my card problem by ignoring it. It's piping things through the card, but it is slow as molasses. (Talking of screen savers, not ENIGMA, don't worry)

Now I need to come up with a molecule-based reason that gas (well, Isooctane) burns better than ethanol for my BIOLOGY class. Have a paper to write for economics on the topic that I had some say in choosing: "Does America 'going green' make economic sense?"... I imagine I can sink my teeth into that one. For the same class, though, I'm supposed to read "The Nature of Man", which is some 40 pages. <_<"

At least English... oh, no wait... In addition to that book about reading I mentioned, there's a paper due. Yeah.

Not to mention random calculus assignments, which are basically just numerous and annoying. (Rather than challenging. Our last task was to give intervals on a graph that were increasing and intervals that are decreasing. I could get a kindergartener to do that)

So basically, I'm swamped. I killed more time than I'd liked to have, just writing this.

Not sure what else to say. I'm in no position to make promises. But I will work some on it today.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: IsmAvatar on September 01, 2009, 07:54:42 pm
Ubuntu doesn't use proprietary drivers by default, so it pipes things through your card using a non-proprietary non-accelerated driver for your card. To get accelerated graphics (that is to say, to utilize routines that are proprietary to your card in order to run graphics at a reasonable speed), you would need to get the proprietary drivers. System > Administration > Hardware Drivers.
Again, this is if you don't mind polluting your system with proprietary software/drivers (much like myself).
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: RetroX on September 01, 2009, 08:08:19 pm
I use Arch Linux. :cool:

I'm using the default VGA drivers right now, and it's amazingly fast for no hardware acceleration.  Screensavers don't work, though, and Compiz asplodes my computer everytime I turn it on.

Also, Linux is the kernel, not the OS. :P
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Game_boy on September 02, 2009, 04:01:12 am
Install the proprietary driver. It's using xorg-video-nv by default, which is 2D only, slow and the code is obfuscated so no one can edit it even though it's open source.

@Retro

Linux is the OS, because that's what everyone calls it. It's not technically correct but lots of things aren't and it's a useful and time-saving untruth.

<begin internet stalker mode> We'll do your homework for you josh!!!!! </stalker>
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Rusky on September 02, 2009, 06:27:55 am
Linux, while technically the kernel, is still part of the OS's name- GNU/Linux. So calling it Linux is fine, especially if you want to bother the idealistic GNU sillyheads.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: luiscubal on September 02, 2009, 09:39:37 am
The debate about "GNU/Linux" is precisely that. The fact that Linux distros include GNU code.
However, since nobody bothers calling it "GNU/X11/Mozilla/OpenOffice.org/Mono/Linux"(or worst "GNU/X11/Mozilla/OpenOffice.org/Mono/Apache/PHP/MySQL/Linux"), we might as well just use "Linux" and pretend it includes all that stuff or we just call it "Ubuntu".

And bothering idealistic GNU sillyheads is the best part. :P

Good luck with your homework. Now onto the daily flame, I'm on holidays so I have no homework. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
But I fear I may not be laughing for much longer :(
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: RetroX on September 02, 2009, 10:01:12 am
or we just call it "Ubuntu".
Which is the better, headacheless version. :P
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: score_under on September 02, 2009, 12:55:19 pm
For the same class, though, I'm supposed to read "The Nature of Man", which is some 40 pages. <_<"
I hope that's a typo.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Rusky on September 02, 2009, 04:06:42 pm
Ubuntu is a single distribution.
Mozilla, OpenOffice.org and Mono are not really part of the operating system, so they're not in its name.
X11 and GNOME/KDE/etc. could be considered part of it, but so much of their operating-system-level stuff is shared anyway that "GNU/Linux" is the most accurate.
Because there's not really <anything else>/Linux, Linux is probably the best name for the operating system.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Josh @ Dreamland on September 02, 2009, 05:50:47 pm
We just running low on things to argue about?

Anyway, no, that wasn't a typo. I know 40 pages isn't really that bad, but to just have it dropped on us like that... And that's in addition to my other pages of reading which are about the same number from each class.

Unless you were talking of the subject, which also wasn't a typo. It's really that boring.

I did like this paragraph though:
Quote from: The Nature of Man
       George Bernard Shaw, the famous playwright and social thinker, reportedly once
claimed that while on an ocean voyage he asked a celebrated actress on deck one evening
whether she would be willing to sleep with him for a million dollars. She was agreeable.
He followed with a counterproposal: “What about ten dollars?” “What do you think I
am?” she responded indignantly. He replied, “We’ve already established that—now
we’re just haggling over price.”
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: HUMPHREY on September 08, 2009, 08:19:03 pm
I'm six days late with the southbound mail

Josh, Mac is the only OS you can't VM (or at least easily, with reasonable speed, and legally)

Also, [unrelated], the registration CAPTCHA is very messed up i.e. not random
*fires up spambot*
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: RetroX on September 08, 2009, 08:51:21 pm
Josh, Mac is the only OS you can't VM
It's UNIX.

Solaris works in VM.

Why won't OS X?

Also, Rusky, why do you have to go through all the pain and frustration of arguing over Linux vs. GNU/Linux when you could just say "Greetings from Ubuntu" instead? :P

And for the record, I use Arch Linux.  Which, really, to be honest, is mostly just Linux when you first install it.  The only difference is a fancyized installer and login.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: notachair on September 09, 2009, 12:35:54 am
Solaris works in VM.

Why won't OS X?
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=102126
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Game_boy on September 09, 2009, 10:14:57 am
There's no technical reason why it can't be virtualised though, right? Just that the EULA says you can't [and that case is still in court with Apple v. Psystar]?
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Josh @ Dreamland on September 09, 2009, 03:24:25 pm
Basically.

I had OS X working for a glorious twelve minutes with 100 byte/second internet and basically zero applications. Didn't get as far as installing their 400GB "development basics" package before it all died, though.

(400GB is a slight exaggeration, 100b/s is not)
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: RetroX on September 09, 2009, 04:29:03 pm
It's probably Microsoft saying NOPE NOPE NOPE, APPLE IS BAD TO EMULATE.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Game_boy on September 09, 2009, 04:53:21 pm
It's probably Microsoft saying NOPE NOPE NOPE, APPLE IS BAD TO EMULATE.

Doesn't account for open ones like Virtualbox not working. The demand is there, surely some interested developer could patch it in?
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: RetroX on September 09, 2009, 05:51:41 pm
It's probably Microsoft saying NOPE NOPE NOPE, APPLE IS BAD TO EMULATE.

Doesn't account for open ones like Virtualbox not working. The demand is there, surely some interested developer could patch it in?
No, I mean, Windows doing something and not the program.

Unless it works in *nix, which I have not tried.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: score_under on September 10, 2009, 12:39:55 pm
It's probably Microsoft saying NOPE NOPE NOPE, APPLE IS BAD TO EMULATE.
It's probably Apple saying NOPE NOPE NOPE, I JUST DETECTED EMULATION HARDWARE AND I WANT YOU TO BUY OUR DAMN COMPUTERS.

After all, Apple is much worse at this DRM thing than Microsoft, and it really wouldn't surprise me if they had implemented VM detection.

Also... Microsoft aren't all that bad. Sure, they make their OS for computer-illiterates and make a few huge mistakes, but Apple are worse. Apple are the ones that stop you from using your legally-bought songs on a new computer, and don't allow you to play them on anything but the computer it was bought on or an iPod. This is why iTunes should die.

Also, unimaginative naming much? iTunes, iPod, iPhone... if you removed the i, it becomes nothing. "I'm just going to download a song from Tunes and put it on this awesome thing called a Phone". ...no.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Micah on September 10, 2009, 05:49:25 pm
Apple is much more proprietary than Microsoft, and there are way too many delusions about how Macs are more secure and stable, and their non-computer products are very overrated. So is iTunes.

And they charge a humongous amount for their computers. They probably spend a lot of that on marketing.

I wouldn't mind having a MacBook though. Mac is pretty awesome.

Also, RetroX, Windows stopping several different VM's from running Mac is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. It's probably you saying NOPE NOPE NOPE, ZOMG MICROSOFT IS PROPRIETARY.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: IsmAvatar on September 10, 2009, 07:37:15 pm
I have a friend who bought a MacBook and then reformatted it and installed Ubuntu. Can't blame them.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: RetroX on September 10, 2009, 07:55:17 pm
Also... Microsoft aren't all that bad
I was going to make a new topic on this, but since it's relevant:
http://www.overclock.net/windows/569458-microsoft-attack-linux-retail-level-probably.html
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: score_under on September 11, 2009, 12:12:54 pm
Also... Microsoft aren't all that bad
I was going to make a new topic on this, but since it's relevant:
http://www.overclock.net/windows/569458-microsoft-attack-linux-retail-level-probably.html
That does make my blood boil a little, but you do have to remember that most of it is true for the complete tech-illiterate, which Microsoft OSs are targeted at.
The comment about fixing bugs was a pure lie, though. Microsoft is over 9000 times worse at that. Windows XP still has a well known privilege escalation bug that has been present since the initial release. Most distros of linux have software updates more than once per week.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Josh @ Dreamland on September 12, 2009, 04:56:06 pm
Ubuntu has one hourly <_<"
Unlike Windows, though, Ubuntu's don't require restart, save three times.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: RetroX on September 12, 2009, 08:00:40 pm
That's because Windows won't let you modify system files while Windows is running, whereas Linux doesn't care.  Of course, some things are stored in RAM at startup and require a restart to be re-loaded.

Ubuntu has thousands of updates monthly, whereas Microsoft waits before they find tons of bugs and release an update compilation, to make it look like Windows doesn't have many bugs when it has as many as Ubuntu might.

O'course, they could have easily made it exaggerated and much more accurate with reasons Linux hardcoreists wouldn't be able to argue.

Windows is more physically secure.  Windows 7 Ultimate has BitLocker, the first actual way to protect your hard drive and be secure since normally you could just insert a live CD of Ubuntu or something and view the hard drive.  Linux is more virtually secure, meaning you can't get viruses and stuff.

They could have just made screenshots showing off Aero and then a screen-capture of a slackware terminal or something saying "THIS IS WINDOWS" "THIS IS LINUX".  There are tons of ways they could have made it look better, but I lol at this.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: notachair on September 12, 2009, 08:44:53 pm
I was going to make a new topic on this, but since it's relevant:
http://www.overclock.net/windows/569458-microsoft-attack-linux-retail-level-probably.html
That does make my blood boil a little, but you do have to remember that most of it is true for the complete tech-illiterate, which Microsoft OSs are targeted at.
The comment about fixing bugs was a pure lie, though. Microsoft is over 9000 times worse at that. Windows XP still has a well known privilege escalation bug that has been present since the initial release. Most distros of linux have software updates more than once per week.
This, this, this, this.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Game_boy on September 13, 2009, 05:27:34 am
Windows is more physically secure.  Windows 7 Ultimate has BitLocker, the first actual way to protect your hard drive and be secure since normally you could just insert a live CD of Ubuntu or something and view the hard drive.  Linux is more virtually secure, meaning you can't get viruses and stuff.

There are a number of free disk encryption tools for Linux. There are no tools that will make Windows as 'virtually' secure as Linux though, at least not without crippling the OS's functionality.

And if you buy Ultimate just for Bitlocker then Bitlocker is costing you $120.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: score_under on September 13, 2009, 09:24:33 am
There are a number of free disk encryption tools for Linux.
The one I use (cross-platform, can use virtual disks, whole disks, partitions, and can encrypt the MBR) is TrueCrypt.
http://www.truecrypt.org/

I wonder if BitLocker has as many features as TrueCrypt... (Note: I don't have Win7, I can't see for myself)
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: antidote on September 13, 2009, 07:53:06 pm
it... doesn't. Truecrypt has several different algorithms to choose from while BitLocker has one that has already been cracked.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: HUMPHREY on September 21, 2009, 05:11:47 pm
OS X doesn't use a BIOS it uses a faggotbooter or something like that.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: antidote on September 21, 2009, 05:29:17 pm
@humphey: You are an idiot. OS X is the OPERATING SYSTEM not the hardware and YES macs use a BIOS.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: notachair on September 22, 2009, 12:56:35 am
OS X doesn't use a BIOS it uses a faggotbooter or something like that.
EFI
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: RetroX on September 22, 2009, 05:00:07 pm
OS X doesn't use a BIOS it uses a faggotbooter or something like that.
Actually, OS X installs its fagottbooter over the BIOS so that you can only use OS X on the computer and never anything else ever again.

Damnit, I hate pages so much.  You guys ruined my troll.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: Rusky on September 22, 2009, 06:11:20 pm
You can't write over the BIOS, it's burned into ROM. But yes, Mac hardware does use EFI instead of BIOS. Not sure how it works on other hardware though, you probably have to do some kind of fancy bootstrap thing.
Title: Re: Greetings from LInux
Post by: RetroX on September 22, 2009, 08:50:13 pm
Hence why it was a troll.