while CFL mercury is a problem, the mercury emissions from the amount of coal it takes to burn to feed incandescent bulbs that would not be required to burn to feed the far more efficient CFLs far more than offsets the mercury in a CFL.
Modern CFLs also have a far longer lifespan. Buy a set now, and they may still be going by the time low-cost good light quality LED lamps are available for standard 120V lamp bases. Though I'm interested in seeing what manufacturers will do with indoor lighting that is not constrained to conventional screw-in lamp bases. (at LED lifespan, they might as well be soldered in)
Let's say the FBI decides for reasons having to do with what they think your politics are to get you busted. (e.g. mistaking you for somebody else) You see a page of what interests you and you click on it. The FBI screenshot shows a bunch of naked juveniles.
I bought a 36 bulb white LED Xmas string for $6. While these are admittedly bargain-basement LEDs whose color fidelity isn't all that great, I expect that in volume production, LED "bulb" costs will be comparable to CFLs. At this point, the CFL disappears. Except for the installed base.
Get a copy of Knoppix first, if it runs on your hardware, then grab a copy of Debian Etch (stable) and install it. (running Knoppix is faster than checking your hardware piece by piece for Linux compatibility) Or wait until Debian Lenny goes into stable. The area where Linux is moving fastest is in ease of use. I've lost interest in switching to OSX, I suspect that I'd give up convenience if I switched.
With Debian and Debian derived distros like Ubuntu, "dependency hell" is a thing of the past.
I'll admit that being a "power user" is harder on Linux than it was on Windows. But I'd rather work on a text-based config file than screw around with the Windows Registry. In most cases, "worst case" is that you screw up only one app if you get a config file wrong. If I were doing something besides writing Linux how-to stuff for a living, i.e. having to come up with ways to tweak Linux or install unusual apps to have something to write about, I'd be doing nothing much with this box on a weekly basis other than using it and running automated upgrades.
Switch to a Debian or Debian-derived distro like Ubuntu and let the OS figure out the dependencies. If a Windows box runs into dependency problems, it doesn't seek out and install the dependencies, it just throws an error message. And you regard this as proof that Windows is superior to Linux? Note that yum and YaST also do installation dependency management as well, my experience with both leads me to believe that Debian apt is superior. But any installer that tries to handle dependencies in a way that leaves you with working software is superior to the Windows method.
As for downloading tarballs and making them work, needing to do so is a lot less common than it used to be as more software hits the distro repositories, and when I do install them, they work a lot more often without hassle than they used to. Part of this is that more tarballs can be simply downloaded and untarred and Just Work immediately afterwards without compiling. I just installed Eudora for Linux that way. IIRC, googleearth works that way, though given that I can now download binaries from Google repositories, I don't have to compile.
If you find Linux an adventure rather than a working tool, your PEBKAC.
This is essentially the same system in terms of look and feel as it was when I started out with Linux... my Debian Lenny/Sid desktop is practically identical to the one I ran on Fedora Core 3 and does exactly the same job. I did wind up changing the base distro, and had to replace the Win4Lin 9.x virtualization software with VMware Server.
Though I'll admit that changing distros (no suitable nvidia driver in FC6 for the new motherboard) took a hairy 3 days.
The only real difference between the current desktop and my FC3 desktop is that the current one is easier to use and maintain than it was 3 years ago.
But I don't change things just for the sake of change. I have a Windows directory tree on this box that's almost old enough to vote.
Microsoft stopped finding Linux funny years ago. I would expect that the increasing number of major vendors selling PCs with Linux pre-installed (e.g. the eeePC) is even less funny to them.
With respect to hardware driver issues, if you want a troublefree Linux install and setup, research the hardware you plan to use it with to make sure that the drivers exist and they are actually usable.
Just like you do if you want a Vista installation to work on your box... given MS's admission that the Vista-compatible sticker means nothing in particular in the recent class-action suit.
I run desktop Linux (Debian testing/unstable) because I use this box for making a living and I can not afford downtime or to have to screw around with keeping waves of malware off my computer for hours every week. Even the W98SE installation on VMware Server for running legacy Windows apps is far more reliable with Linux to do the heavy lifting than it ever was in native mode.
Turns out that in a virtualization environment like VMware Server, it's reliable and stable and behind a Linux firewall, it's moderately safe. And on a Athlon 64/4200 dual core box with 356M memory allocated, it's pretty fast.
I may move to XP eventually on the VM, but since the purpose of running Windows in any form of this box is to run Windows legacy apps and I haven't installed a new major Windows app on this thing in years (haven't needed to)... what's the rush?
Not to say I'm a total luddite, my base OS is Debian testing/unstable.
While I practically never use it, there are some software downloads one can only get that way. If my broadband provider wants to tell me that I can't use the connection I'm paying them for in order to do something legal, they can take that connection and ram it up their ass.
I hope to see people buying these and writing Linux hacks to get it working on Linux as soon as it goes on sale... maybe we can have a kernel driver by the 2.6.30 release?
I then hope to see people writing FOSS APIs that can be used in non-gaming applications (word processor, anyone? Lots of embedded possibilities... imagine using this as a UI for graphics applications... whether for paint or CAD/CAM apps)
Linux terrarium 2.6.22-3-k7 #1 SMP Sun Feb 10 21:04:14 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
(Debian testing/unstable)
just tried turning on cool & quiet - DON'T DO
on
Building a Green PC
·
· Score: 1
Looked great with the CPU running in low power mode and running up to full power when needed.
Right up until it crashed, turning the video into a blank with short lines across it and locking up the keyboard so hard that even SysRq S - U - B wouldn't reboot the system, I had to unplug it and power it back up.
There may be a conflict with the nvidia video driver, but I don't have any more time to deal with this.
The problem is not with suspend, it wasn't enabled for the second crash.
just tried the instructions in that technowizard
on
Building a Green PC
·
· Score: 1
article on getting processor power reductin... they appear to work. My computer is doing nothing much right now (a VMware server running a W98 session, Opera with a couple of dozen windows, a couple of Firefox sessions)
# cpufreq-info cpufrequtils 002: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006 Report errors and bugs to linux@brodo.de, please. analyzing CPU 0: driver: powernow-k8 CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0 1 hardware limits: 1000 MHz - 2.20 GHz available frequency steps: 2.20 GHz, 2.00 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1000 MHz available cpufreq governors: ondemand, performance current policy: frequency should be within 1000 MHz and 2.20 GHz. The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use within this range. current CPU frequency is 1000 MHz (asserted by call to hardware). analyzing CPU 1: driver: powernow-k8 CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0 1 hardware limits: 1000 MHz - 2.20 GHz available frequency steps: 2.20 GHz, 2.00 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1000 MHz available cpufreq governors: ondemand, performance current policy: frequency should be within 1000 MHz and 2.20 GHz. The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use within this range. current CPU frequency is 1000 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).
Seems to work so far.
as to how well this plays with suspend, I'll know the next time I spend a few minutes away from the computer.
And thanks for posting, I thought I had "cool and quiet" running on my x2/4200, turns out all I've done was turn the capability on in BIOS, for more information on turning it on (Debian/Ubuntu), try this article.
a TV cartoon show or movie that needs marketing collateral? We always knew that MS has it's own bass-ackwards way of doing things, but . . . they really pulled a Hillary on this one.
He's slagging Linux based on his experiences with a 5 year old version of a Linux desktop distribution which was out of date when he tested it?
The distro he was using was Red Hat 9. . . the predecessor to Fedora Core 1. The current version of Fedora is Fedora Core 8.
This is analogous to slagging Vista based on a recent install of Windows 3.1.
I've been writing how-to pieces on Linux starting with Fedora Core 3. (I use Debian stable/testing now) The majority of how-to pieces I wrote back then can not be updated for publication for a current version of Linux. When "how to use a Palm PDA with Linux" changes from manual installation, manual configuration of config files using a text editor, and a number of other things I'd rather not remember (it took me a month to make it work) to "find the menu entry for KPilot if it isn't installed by default, and if it isn't, type in:
# aptitude install kpilot (of course there's a GUI installer, in fact, there are at least two. . . my not using either is personal idiosyncracy)
what's left to write about?
Setting up scanners and printers used to be a pain. Xsane now handles the scanner that cost me a lot of pain to get running on FC3 without hassles, for printing, I simply got a copy of Turboprint. No more problems.
Linux has improved pretty drastically in the last few years in ease of use and of installation in both hardware and software. The problems I've seen described with Vista in terms of drivers and simply getting it to work remind me of what Linux was like years ago. It's not perfect (getting a UPS to work with Linux or configuring suspend is still fairly painful) but from the reviews I've seen, it's superior in usability to Vista. And a lot easier to install from scratch than XP.
The editors of slashdot would have done Haselton a favor if they hadn't run this article. While the apparent fact that the Vista IPv6 implementation doesn't degrade gracefully to IPv4 is new to me, this is probably a matter of my not bothering to pay much attention to Yet Another Bad Vista Review. When mainstream computer publications are writing detailed how-tos on upgrading Vista to XP, how much attention do I need to pay?
I've been using Linux for over 3 years. I had to change ISPs so I could get broadband over a year ago. I can go anywhere on the Web I feel like going that isn't IE-only. I've never had any previous occasion to open the file, and when I did a minute ago, all I found was a single entry for the network LAN.
The documentation says "On a normally configured system this file should not be necessary."
Slashdot Mirror
while CFL mercury is a problem, the mercury emissions from the amount of coal it takes to burn to feed incandescent bulbs that would not be required to burn to feed the far more efficient CFLs far more than offsets the mercury in a CFL.
Modern CFLs also have a far longer lifespan. Buy a set now, and they may still be going by the time low-cost good light quality LED lamps are available for standard 120V lamp bases. Though I'm interested in seeing what manufacturers will do with indoor lighting that is not constrained to conventional screw-in lamp bases. (at LED lifespan, they might as well be soldered in)
getting there. A shame if anything bad happened to it.'
[shrug] It happens.
Let's say the FBI decides for reasons having to do with what they think your politics are to get you busted. (e.g. mistaking you for somebody else) You see a page of what interests you and you click on it. The FBI screenshot shows a bunch of naked juveniles.
Do YOU deserve it?
I bought a 36 bulb white LED Xmas string for $6. While these are admittedly bargain-basement LEDs whose color fidelity isn't all that great, I expect that in volume production, LED "bulb" costs will be comparable to CFLs. At this point, the CFL disappears. Except for the installed base.
Get a copy of Knoppix first, if it runs on your hardware, then grab a copy of Debian Etch (stable) and install it. (running Knoppix is faster than checking your hardware piece by piece for Linux compatibility) Or wait until Debian Lenny goes into stable. The area where Linux is moving fastest is in ease of use. I've lost interest in switching to OSX, I suspect that I'd give up convenience if I switched.
With Debian and Debian derived distros like Ubuntu, "dependency hell" is a thing of the past.
I'll admit that being a "power user" is harder on Linux than it was on Windows. But I'd rather work on a text-based config file than screw around with the Windows Registry. In most cases, "worst case" is that you screw up only one app if you get a config file wrong. If I were doing something besides writing Linux how-to stuff for a living, i.e. having to come up with ways to tweak Linux or install unusual apps to have something to write about, I'd be doing nothing much with this box on a weekly basis other than using it and running automated upgrades.
Switch to a Debian or Debian-derived distro like Ubuntu and let the OS figure out the dependencies. If a Windows box runs into dependency problems, it doesn't seek out and install the dependencies, it just throws an error message. And you regard this as proof that Windows is superior to Linux? Note that yum and YaST also do installation dependency management as well, my experience with both leads me to believe that Debian apt is superior. But any installer that tries to handle dependencies in a way that leaves you with working software is superior to the Windows method.
As for downloading tarballs and making them work, needing to do so is a lot less common than it used to be as more software hits the distro repositories, and when I do install them, they work a lot more often without hassle than they used to. Part of this is that more tarballs can be simply downloaded and untarred and Just Work immediately afterwards without compiling. I just installed Eudora for Linux that way. IIRC, googleearth works that way, though given that I can now download binaries from Google repositories, I don't have to compile.
If you find Linux an adventure rather than a working tool, your PEBKAC.
This is essentially the same system in terms of look and feel as it was when I started out with Linux... my Debian Lenny/Sid desktop is practically identical to the one I ran on Fedora Core 3 and does exactly the same job. I did wind up changing the base distro, and had to replace the Win4Lin 9.x virtualization software with VMware Server.
Though I'll admit that changing distros (no suitable nvidia driver in FC6 for the new motherboard) took a hairy 3 days.
The only real difference between the current desktop and my FC3 desktop is that the current one is easier to use and maintain than it was 3 years ago.
But I don't change things just for the sake of change. I have a Windows directory tree on this box that's almost old enough to vote.
Microsoft stopped finding Linux funny years ago. I would expect that the increasing number of major vendors selling PCs with Linux pre-installed (e.g. the eeePC) is even less funny to them.
With respect to hardware driver issues, if you want a troublefree Linux install and setup, research the hardware you plan to use it with to make sure that the drivers exist and they are actually usable.
Just like you do if you want a Vista installation to work on your box... given MS's admission that the Vista-compatible sticker means nothing in particular in the recent class-action suit.
provider goes out of business, where are you left with respect to the content you paid for?
Go to http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ and add the right entry starting with deb to your sources.list file.
Debian is far more about freedom of choice than about purity, that's why non-free / contrib / restricted sections of repositories are available.
You can even get vendor repositories, I download Opera from the Opera Debian repository, for instance. The same for Skype.
I run desktop Linux (Debian testing/unstable) because I use this box for making a living and I can not afford downtime or to have to screw around with keeping waves of malware off my computer for hours every week. Even the W98SE installation on VMware Server for running legacy Windows apps is far more reliable with Linux to do the heavy lifting than it ever was in native mode.
I'm still running Windows 98SE.
Turns out that in a virtualization environment like VMware Server, it's reliable and stable and behind a Linux firewall, it's moderately safe. And on a Athlon 64/4200 dual core box with 356M memory allocated, it's pretty fast.
I may move to XP eventually on the VM, but since the purpose of running Windows in any form of this box is to run Windows legacy apps and I haven't installed a new major Windows app on this thing in years (haven't needed to)... what's the rush?
Not to say I'm a total luddite, my base OS is Debian testing/unstable.
for long enough to switch broadband providers.
While I practically never use it, there are some software downloads one can only get that way. If my broadband provider wants to tell me that I can't use the connection I'm paying them for in order to do something legal, they can take that connection and ram it up their ass.
I use his monkeyboy video in various versions to test new Linux multimedia software.
I hope to see people buying these and writing Linux hacks to get it working on Linux as soon as it goes on sale... maybe we can have a kernel driver by the 2.6.30 release?
I then hope to see people writing FOSS APIs that can be used in non-gaming applications (word processor, anyone? Lots of embedded possibilities... imagine using this as a UI for graphics applications... whether for paint or CAD/CAM apps)
Linux terrarium 2.6.22-3-k7 #1 SMP Sun Feb 10 21:04:14 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
(Debian testing/unstable)
Looked great with the CPU running in low power mode and running up to full power when needed.
Right up until it crashed, turning the video into a blank with short lines across it and locking up the keyboard so hard that even SysRq S - U - B wouldn't reboot the system, I had to unplug it and power it back up.
There may be a conflict with the nvidia video driver, but I don't have any more time to deal with this.
The problem is not with suspend, it wasn't enabled for the second crash.
You can find out how I got my Debian desktop running with suspend / hibernate here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).
And thanks for posting, I thought I had "cool and quiet" running on my x2/4200, turns out all I've done was turn the capability on in BIOS, for more information on turning it on (Debian/Ubuntu), try this article.
If you see a popup that says "Sponsored by BigBadWolfCo", you probably should be concerned.
a TV cartoon show or movie that needs marketing collateral? We always knew that MS has it's own bass-ackwards way of doing things, but . . . they really pulled a Hillary on this one.
He's slagging Linux based on his experiences with a 5 year old version of a Linux desktop distribution which was out of date when he tested it?
The distro he was using was Red Hat 9. . . the predecessor to Fedora Core 1. The current version of Fedora is Fedora Core 8.
This is analogous to slagging Vista based on a recent install of Windows 3.1.
I've been writing how-to pieces on Linux starting with Fedora Core 3. (I use Debian stable/testing now) The majority of how-to pieces I wrote back then can not be updated for publication for a current version of Linux. When "how to use a Palm PDA with Linux" changes from manual installation, manual configuration of config files using a text editor, and a number of other things I'd rather not remember (it took me a month to make it work) to "find the menu entry for KPilot if it isn't installed by default, and if it isn't, type in: # aptitude install kpilot (of course there's a GUI installer, in fact, there are at least two. . . my not using either is personal idiosyncracy) what's left to write about?
Setting up scanners and printers used to be a pain. Xsane now handles the scanner that cost me a lot of pain to get running on FC3 without hassles, for printing, I simply got a copy of Turboprint. No more problems.
Linux has improved pretty drastically in the last few years in ease of use and of installation in both hardware and software. The problems I've seen described with Vista in terms of drivers and simply getting it to work remind me of what Linux was like years ago. It's not perfect (getting a UPS to work with Linux or configuring suspend is still fairly painful) but from the reviews I've seen, it's superior in usability to Vista. And a lot easier to install from scratch than XP.
The editors of slashdot would have done Haselton a favor if they hadn't run this article. While the apparent fact that the Vista IPv6 implementation doesn't degrade gracefully to IPv4 is new to me, this is probably a matter of my not bothering to pay much attention to Yet Another Bad Vista Review. When mainstream computer publications are writing detailed how-tos on upgrading Vista to XP, how much attention do I need to pay?
on how to upgrade to XP from Vista on mainstream computer sites, I'd say that what's wrong with Vista for most users is a lot more than fud.
Linux has a resolv.conf file .
I've been using Linux for over 3 years. I had to change ISPs so I could get broadband over a year ago. I can go anywhere on the Web I feel like going that isn't IE-only. I've never had any previous occasion to open the file, and when I did a minute ago, all I found was a single entry for the network LAN.
The documentation says "On a normally configured system this file should not be necessary."