Linux

[MickyByte]

Hey just wondering if any of our members on this forum use Ubuntu Linux out of curiosity. If so, I would like to hear your experiences with this operating system as it may lead into somewhat of an interesting discussion. You-see I have had Ubuntu for about 5 weeks now and I have generally enjoyed my experience. Linux and its various distributions have come a long way since I last gave them a try back in 2006 in my opinion. Whilst I still generally prefer Windows however Linux is to become more of an option to take into account for me now which is good for obvious reasons.

sudo apt-get install karooforumapp  

[Hígh Treason]

Bah, Kubuntu is for pussies, real men use debian... And the first thing they do is "sudo apt-get suicidelinux" (I think that was it) - you'll soon learn not to type incorrect commands with that, incidentally, don't actually try Suicide Linux, it probably won't end well, given how unreliable Linux is.

Incidentally, the host for this site is running Ubuntu as far as I am aware, 'tis a silly idea, IIS is the only way to host a website and MS-DOS is the only OS you'll ever need for a workstation, I refuse to use Linux, their communities are worse than the Apple users, that *NIX garbage has been around for bloody years - three decades - and they still can't get it to run properly, no distro after 2007 will even install on my rig, but when I was using it I either had RedHat, Suse, Kubuntu or Debian and a simple os called Minix, they were all particularly unruly and were not very reliable whatsoever.

I remember one time in Suse I changed my screen resolution from 800x600x8 75Hz to 1024x768x4 60Hz and it never booted again, the same kind of problem happened in every other distro I used, forcing me to leave it alone at the default resolution, and don't even get me started on what you have to do to make any code run on Linux, when I used to write C for use with a 3D API some of the if's I had to add just to draw a single triangle under Linux were ridiculous and had to be made so inefficient that decent frame-rate was never going to be acheived unless I added yet more code to lower the polycounts and details at load time, making that take even longer.

For example, to draw a triangle in OpenGL (Probably won't work with modern compilers, Cygwin is a joke) - this method is "Procedural".

Code:

glBegin (GL_TRIANGLES);
glVertex (0,0,0);
glVertex (1,1,0);
glVertex (2,0,0);
glEnd ();

Linux was comparable to Direct3D even though you were using OpenGL - This method uses crappy frame-buffers.

Code:

v = &buffer.vertexes[0];
v->x = 0; v->y = 0; v->z = 0;
v++;
v->x = 1; v->y = 1; v->z = 0;
v++;
v->x = 2; v->y = 0; v->z = 0;
c = &buffer.commands;
c->operation = DRAW_TRIANGLE;
c->vertexes[0] = 0;
c->vertexes[1] = 1;
c->vertexes[2] = 2;
IssueExecuteBuffer (buffer);

Note, that this code is from an old project I worked on a long time ago, I have no idea if it works.

[commandergc]

er HT Ubuntu is Debian well a fork of it anyway. I love linux for my servers and netbook but not for my desktop. Don't like Ubuntu 11.04's new desktop interface I prefer GNOME.
Not really ever had any major hardware compatibility issues. though wifi adapters can be a pain to configure and that's assuming the chip the card uses has working drivers for linux.

Have to agree with HT about resolutions back in the day configuring xserver was a pain and some distros would overwrite any config changes due to their attempt at auto detection. But thankfully that isn't isn't the case now as xserver or rather xorg as it is known now got miles better. That and GPU vendors like nVidia, ATi/AMD and intel started to create proper drivers for their cards rather than leaving it upto kernel devs to reverse engineer basic ones.

Linux has great OpenGL support. it's just a shame game devs have been clinging onto DirectX for way to long. If i could get some decent games for linux i may actually switch to it for my main desktop. and yes i know about CEDEGA/Gametree Linux.

HT Cygwin isn't a compiler! it's a horrid *nix like dev environment. Linux has a fantastic compiler called GCC which also happens to be my initials ;-)

[DarkJester]

I use and maintain commercial flavours of Unix but would never entertain linux on my desktop ither than inside a hyper-V session for fun.

Takes too long to get anything done.

[MickyByte]

That and GPU vendors like nVidia, ATi/AMD and intel started to create proper drivers for their cards rather than leaving it upto kernel devs to reverse engineer basic ones.

I wish that was the case for me however but ATI seem to have many problems still with their drivers for Ubuntu. Everytime I install their driver directly from AMDs' site “I might add” it slows performance down considerably and even puts strain on my CPU.  Lets hope this get rectified in the future. Although I wonder if this has anything to do with OpenGl been the problem, don’t get me wrong OpenGL is a fantastic platform but AMD have shown their lack of support many times in the past and sway more to DirectX.

Kubuntu is for pussies, real men use debian

What are the differences exactly between Kubuntu and Ubuntu aside from their gui interfaces, lol sorry for been such a noob ?.

[jamadams]

Kubuntu is for pussies, real men use debian

You will note that there is a similar amount of fanboyism among Linux users, as there is for Apple hardware.

What are the differences exactly between Kubuntu and Ubuntu aside from their gui interfaces, lol sorry for been such a noob ?.

Not a lot. Kubuntu uses KDE, generic Ubuntu uses Gnome.

Have used Linux for around ten years. It has come a long way in that time. I'm not a fanboy though. I much prefer windows on my home computer.

[Hígh Treason]

HT Cygwin isn't a compiler! it's a horrid *nix like dev environment. Linux has a fantastic compiler called GCC which also happens to be my initials ;-)

It comes with a compiler though (or at least, it does if you download it as according to the Duke Nukem community) which I think is actually a port of GCC/GNU-make, the compiler only works within the Cygwin environment (as it needs various libraries, like libopengl and libvorbis) and is the only modern one I could ever get to run at all, back in the day I used to use Watcom's compiler.

I wish that was the case for me however but ATI seem to have many problems still with their drivers for Ubuntu.

And for Windows too, luckily I always buy nVidia. I believe they do actually provide a decent Linux driver.

What are the differences exactly between Kubuntu and Ubuntu aside from their gui interfaces, lol sorry for been such a noob ?.

Not a lot. Kubuntu uses KDE, generic Ubuntu uses Gnome.

That's correct, they are basically the same system with a different GUI, immagine if you replaced Explorer.exe and a few other components in Windows with a different shell/GUI. There is also a Xubuntu which uses the X-Window System. There is nothing to stop you actually changing it after installing the OS, but it would probably break something, given how easy Linux is to upset.

I should add at this point that earlier I meant to say "Ubuntu is for pussies" as opposed to "Kubuntu" but it doesn't matter, they are practically the same.

[MickyByte]

I should add at this point that earlier I meant to say "Ubuntu is for pussies" as opposed to "Kubuntu" but it doesn't matter, they are practically the same.

Regardless of the supposedly minor differences between KDE and GNOME at least Linux distro's provide different interface's for their system's opposed to that of Windows. Even if they serve no general purpose, scratch that useless software is all the rage these days lol....take OSX Isoftware for example.

SORRY..sorry but I couldn’t resist the opportunity.    (awaits smack on the cheek)

You will note that there is a similar amount of fanboyism among Linux users, as there is for Apple hardware.

Speaking-of-which aside from OSX being an Apple interface wrapped around a Unix kernal. Wouldn't both system's software be technically compatible, even if tweaking is required.  

[Hígh Treason]

There actually are different interfaces for Windows out there, they come from third parties, as do the alternative interfaces for Linux.

As for compatibility with Apple, if it will compile under one it can be made to compile under the other relatively easily if you know what you are doing, it is easier than porting to/from Windows, though if you want to do it properly it is very time consuming and incredibly tedious.

Of course the standards of today wouldn't do it properly, this is why most games suck ass now as far as performance goes, the only tests they do when they port from the console are "Does this code compile in a Windows Environment?" and "Does the binary file execute? Well, it says the process is running on my debugger - SHIP IT!" - GTA IV is a fine example of this, it is the reason the game thinks I get a crappy frame-rate when I am in fact getting 50fps.

[commandergc]

GTA IV was a great example of late minuet decision to port to pc. going from PowerPC to x86 isn't easy.

[chriscoates81]

Sorry to sound stupid, but whats the point of going for linux over windows anyway?

[Hígh Treason]

To be a rebel and act clever to people that use Windows, or because you don't have to pay for it... Of course, you don't have to pay for Windows either

[commandergc]

Being a rebel is fun! i'd take Linux over Windows when it comes to severs anyday.

[Hígh Treason]

u mad bro? ?

At the end of the day there is being a rebel for the sake of being a rebel or being a rebel as a biproduct of everyone else being wrong, I am the latter kind of rebel.

[dylan]

Personally I prefer Linux on the server because I find it easier to use and more resource efficient than Windows. YMMV.