You were absolutely right... Ubuntu is virtual gold... still took a tiny bit of tinkering to get a couple things going (enabling DMA on the DVD drive, and finding the new repository lists to get used to) but I have 99.9% of the system going...
In case anyone cares I have 2 things left which I'll leave til tomorrow to look into 1) It seems to switch from eth1 to eth0 whenever it recovers from suspend/hibernate for some reason (minor inconvenience at most) 2)My grand test (mostly cause I don't know what I'm doing) getting wine to run, and specifically getting the 1 program that keeps windows on my computer (Rosetta Stone Language Software) running under it
I still just want a distro that works great with my Thinkpad laptop.
I've been through Debian installs so many times, and I get so close, but there's always one thing or another I can't quite get (used to be sound, now I got that working but the darn thing won't sleep anymore)... I tried Kanotix, again the sleeping issue... downloading Ubuntu now. (Yes, in case you can't tell by the list I'm a big Debian fan... but Fedora is next on the torrent list, lousy 2.7GB download though)
Is there a reason laptops are so tricky for linux, and yes I know all about linuxforlaptops.com and the other websites which cater, but still, the installs are frustrating, the wireless has finally gotten to a point where it's ok, but still not great (enabling wep and connecting to a varity of networks etc)...
Does a "for laptops" distro exist?, I'd love it, hell I'd help with it if my skills could be used.
Sidenote: The old debian installer had much better support for laptops than the new one!
I'm not suggesting they're not upgradeable, I'm suggesting you don't run into the same issue of 2 sockets for 2 machines made to very similar specs at the same time like you do with x86 setups.
And actually, if you RTFA, you'll see this thing hardly even mentions AMD anway, it's really a quick explanation of the last few years of intel sockets.
And if you want to upgrade your Apple processor you either buy a new Apple or you go the Apple store and give them your information and buy a new chip.
This article is designed to inform the DYI consumer for whom your concerns don't really come into play as they're automatically handled by either the Apple hardware lock in.
Typical slashdot response of it's not what I need, so why do they make it?
Well, let's think for a second. We use them in all our conference rooms here because we pass the keyboard & mouse around to different people during meetings.
I could imagine using one at home because I like to hook my laptop up to the TV to show photos or watch DVDs or I have a really nice large TV and I want to surf the web that way sometimes.
You know it also might be kind of nice to have had this in the lab I used to use, place was filthy, so the computer was in the next room over, with the monitor, mouse and keyboard cables coming through the wall (dunno if the range could've handled the wall though).
A gay person has every right I have, right now. It is just as illegal to punch me in the face as it is to punch him in the face. I can marry pretty much any woman I want, he can marry pretty much any woman I want. We are equal under the law in every way. Our desires may be different, but it's doubelespeek to say that the law treats us differently.
That's just intellectual dishonesty... you're phrasing things in dishonest ways to prove a false point.
You can marry pretty much any person you want. A homesexual person cannot.
Trying to use semantics to prove a point is just petty and useless.
Once I did a little research on my IBM T series and realized I had to go the APM route vs. the ACPI route, things have been pretty smooth for me running Debian.
A couple little glitches with the 2.6.10 kernel and sleeping, but that's been fixed in 2.6.11.
I don't know about the 3d rendering or whatnot because I just don't run anything that requires it, so it could very well be working without my knowledge, or it could be failing miserably.
The only real snafus I had were in getting the sound to work, and that's a general issue I have with linux, not laptop specific.
And as per usual, a really neat, potentially useful alternative energy device is priced in such a way such that it's completely infeasible for almost all uses.
Yeah, I use a ThinkPad T41 right now, and I love the way the scroll button (windows functionallity) turns into a 3rd mouse button on the clit-control... couldn't live without it in Linux.
But given that I'll be purchasing more, I was just wondering if the Powerbook might be worth it... it's so hard for me to test since I don't really know OSX well enough so if I play in the store I still walk out feeling like I have no clue.
Thank you, and the other posters in the thread, for your opinions...
Yeah, but I fly coach... and I use the laptop on the couch while reclining... so I'm in love with the clit style control on the thinkpads... I think they're great for real work that doesn't involve graphics.
I similarly hate touchpads, especially since I have yet to make a touchpad work smoothly in linux (whereas the clit control/external mouse both work like a charm).
Yes, thank you, that would the longer way of what I meant with my one word post.
The context was called, and the OP tried to defend it by modifying the argument, and in doing so enclosed the word context in quotes, as if it were a laughable term.
Fact is, the quote was used in reference to taking away cold hard cash and redistributing it, and the original post implied it was in reference to taking away rights (which are obviouslly not redistributable). We can argue, off topically about whether or not that's a good or not, but the point is, that quote from Clinton just doesn't have a bearing in this discussion, there is no way to infer her opinion on the broader topic based on her belief that the rich should be taxed at a higher rate.
But even trying to relate the two wouldn't be necessarily moronic, it would be futile sure... but trying to use the quote, remove the context, then apply it to a new discussion, then get called on it, then say that the idea of context is "regardless" is, in my opinion, moronic.
If I was just trying to flame I would've stayed AC... but I hope the above clarifies.
yeah but on a laptop this does actually make a difference... especially for those of us who fly coach, there's not really any room for an external mouse.
Serious question... I've been on the fence about macs for the last year or so, but I pretty much only purchase laptops and it seems to me this is the one place where the one button argument actually holds up.
Does anyone who uses a powerbook/ibook constantly find that this isn't irritating? Or is it just that with the design of the OS you don't notice, so then what if you have it booting linux? For that matter... if your plans are to boot linux anyway, are you being silly with the Powerbook/iBook purchase?
Honestly curious, in the market for a new laptop in the next couple of months and am either going Powerbook or Thinkpad, but have no experience with the Powerbooks.
That's the same thing that happens when you use different sized images on a mouse over vs non-mouse over if they're lined up like that.
The peculair part of this setup is the dynamic scaling, that is that it's not just jumping from one size image to the next as a snap, it's actually growing and shrinking by increments.
Until the users can pick up a box, insert a CD, click "setup" and have new software, or download from a webstore, click "setup" and have new software.... linux is going to face some trouble making inroads to the home desktop. RPM's & debs & emerges and whatever just aren't as convenient as a CD with everything on it for the average person.
And yes, I realize Linux supports such installs, but in my experience very few vendors do.
The other big issue is, and has for quite some time, been the installers... and that's frustrating, because the installers are very good now. But the point is, you have to run them... and that's frightening for alot of people.
Gotta be able to ship out boxed software, and gotta be able to ship out pre-installed (and well installed) machines.
This is really interesting. Since I've seen (and eventually bought;) an Apple Powerbook, all those black plastic PC laptops make me want to puke. They just look like total crap. And even when companies like Samsung try to copy the Apple look, the results look ugly.
As you may have noticed, this is solely a matter of taste.
Personally, I much prefer the look of an IBM ThinkPad to virtually everything else on the market, whereas you seem to much prefer the powerbook (can we all agree the iBook looks like garbage at least?) But when it comes down to it, design is doubly tough, because it's a matter of taste and there's no one right answer. With performance/battery life and the like the answers are easy, more and more. But with design, if you go too far from the standard you run the risk of alienating a portion of your customer base. There have been a handful of laptop companies in the last few years who have tried to focus on design, and mostly they can't get the volume to offer reasonable prices, or their idea of design is to use really expensive exterior components, so people don't buy them.
But really, make you want to puke, I know I'm on slashdot, but don't you think your exagerating a little?
Does this translate to what I should set my DPI setting to in my window manager for ideal resolution?
I have an IBM T41 running at 1400x1050 (14.1 inch screen) which by your formula works out to approximately 124 DPI
I tend to run at 90ish DPI in Gnome to keep things the size I like... would I be better off upping it to 124 and downing font sizes and the like?
Have you checked out the iRiver HDD players? I can't speak for the 300 series, but I have the 140... and well let's go through the list...
1,2,3,4,8 it satisfies.
5 I spose you can do, but it's not a standard HD. 6 Not by ethernet, but if you connect via USB it just shows up as a normal harddrive, so you can do what you want from there 7 No, but it has standard mini out (obviouslly, plus optical out... so really you're all set there)
Yeah, if the camera is an freebie tossed onto the MP3 player, it may be ok.... though I'd guess most people would rather swap the camera out for some space savings. Then again I think the same way about cell phones, so who knows.
However, if they actually charge extra for the camera portion they'll price themselves right out of the market.
As a side note, I think Rockboxx is working on a firmware for the iRiver... but I'm not a person who purchases or suggests purposes on something that's due out anytime now.
I've got the 40 Gig version, which you can now pick up for between 350-400 dollars.
Solid as solid can be. I threw it through a plaster wall (don't ask) and after removing it from the hole in the wall, it still plays perfectly, without a scratch on it. I think I'm on about month #8 without a single problem.
I have exactly one complaint about the device... no on the fly playlists. Rumored to be coming in an updated firmware update, but who knows.
The lack of FLAC in a portable device is no big deal in my opinion... I consider FLAC more of an archiving tool than something I need for my portable player.
Oh I guess I have a second minor complaint... the case it ships with is kinda bulky, but then again... it does ship with a case and a microphone, and a remote.
Oh, and you'd be remiss in mentioning the iHP's without noting they have 15 hour battery life... with replaceable batteries (requires a case opening)... and some of the aftermarket options are supposedly getting 20-24 hour battery life.
If that's what you want you can with the iRiver iHP 300 series... you plug the USB cable from your camera into the MP3 player and it runs as a USB host allowing you to take your pics right from the camera to the player.
Slashdot Mirror
You were absolutely right... Ubuntu is virtual gold... still took a tiny bit of tinkering to get a couple things going (enabling DMA on the DVD drive, and finding the new repository lists to get used to) but I have 99.9% of the system going...
In case anyone cares I have 2 things left which I'll leave til tomorrow to look into
1) It seems to switch from eth1 to eth0 whenever it recovers from suspend/hibernate for some reason (minor inconvenience at most)
2)My grand test (mostly cause I don't know what I'm doing) getting wine to run, and specifically getting the 1 program that keeps windows on my computer (Rosetta Stone Language Software) running under it
I still just want a distro that works great with my Thinkpad laptop.
I've been through Debian installs so many times, and I get so close, but there's always one thing or another I can't quite get (used to be sound, now I got that working but the darn thing won't sleep anymore)... I tried Kanotix, again the sleeping issue... downloading Ubuntu now. (Yes, in case you can't tell by the list I'm a big Debian fan... but Fedora is next on the torrent list, lousy 2.7GB download though)
Is there a reason laptops are so tricky for linux, and yes I know all about linuxforlaptops.com and the other websites which cater, but still, the installs are frustrating, the wireless has finally gotten to a point where it's ok, but still not great (enabling wep and connecting to a varity of networks etc)...
Does a "for laptops" distro exist?, I'd love it, hell I'd help with it if my skills could be used.
Sidenote: The old debian installer had much better support for laptops than the new one!
I'm not suggesting they're not upgradeable, I'm suggesting you don't run into the same issue of 2 sockets for 2 machines made to very similar specs at the same time like you do with x86 setups.
And actually, if you RTFA, you'll see this thing hardly even mentions AMD anway, it's really a quick explanation of the last few years of intel sockets.
And if you want to upgrade your Apple processor you either buy a new Apple or you go the Apple store and give them your information and buy a new chip.
This article is designed to inform the DYI consumer for whom your concerns don't really come into play as they're automatically handled by either the Apple hardware lock in.
Typical slashdot response of it's not what I need, so why do they make it?
Well, let's think for a second. We use them in all our conference rooms here because we pass the keyboard & mouse around to different people during meetings.
I could imagine using one at home because I like to hook my laptop up to the TV to show photos or watch DVDs or I have a really nice large TV and I want to surf the web that way sometimes.
You know it also might be kind of nice to have had this in the lab I used to use, place was filthy, so the computer was in the next room over, with the monitor, mouse and keyboard cables coming through the wall (dunno if the range could've handled the wall though).
It's not for you, that doesn't make it stupid.
A gay person has every right I have, right now. It is just as illegal to punch me in the face as it is to punch him in the face. I can marry pretty much any woman I want, he can marry pretty much any woman I want. We are equal under the law in every way. Our desires may be different, but it's doubelespeek to say that the law treats us differently.
That's just intellectual dishonesty... you're phrasing things in dishonest ways to prove a false point.
You can marry pretty much any person you want.
A homesexual person cannot.
Trying to use semantics to prove a point is just petty and useless.
Once I did a little research on my IBM T series and realized I had to go the APM route vs. the ACPI route, things have been pretty smooth for me running Debian.
A couple little glitches with the 2.6.10 kernel and sleeping, but that's been fixed in 2.6.11.
I don't know about the 3d rendering or whatnot because I just don't run anything that requires it, so it could very well be working without my knowledge, or it could be failing miserably.
The only real snafus I had were in getting the sound to work, and that's a general issue I have with linux, not laptop specific.
And as per usual, a really neat, potentially useful alternative energy device is priced in such a way such that it's completely infeasible for almost all uses.
Yeah, I use a ThinkPad T41 right now, and I love the way the scroll button (windows functionallity) turns into a 3rd mouse button on the clit-control... couldn't live without it in Linux.
But given that I'll be purchasing more, I was just wondering if the Powerbook might be worth it... it's so hard for me to test since I don't really know OSX well enough so if I play in the store I still walk out feeling like I have no clue.
Thank you, and the other posters in the thread, for your opinions...
Yeah, but I fly coach... and I use the laptop on the couch while reclining... so I'm in love with the clit style control on the thinkpads... I think they're great for real work that doesn't involve graphics.
I similarly hate touchpads, especially since I have yet to make a touchpad work smoothly in linux (whereas the clit control/external mouse both work like a charm).
Yes, thank you, that would the longer way of what I meant with my one word post.
The context was called, and the OP tried to defend it by modifying the argument, and in doing so enclosed the word context in quotes, as if it were a laughable term.
Fact is, the quote was used in reference to taking away cold hard cash and redistributing it, and the original post implied it was in reference to taking away rights (which are obviouslly not redistributable). We can argue, off topically about whether or not that's a good or not, but the point is, that quote from Clinton just doesn't have a bearing in this discussion, there is no way to infer her opinion on the broader topic based on her belief that the rich should be taxed at a higher rate.
But even trying to relate the two wouldn't be necessarily moronic, it would be futile sure... but trying to use the quote, remove the context, then apply it to a new discussion, then get called on it, then say that the idea of context is "regardless" is, in my opinion, moronic.
If I was just trying to flame I would've stayed AC... but I hope the above clarifies.
yeah but on a laptop this does actually make a difference... especially for those of us who fly coach, there's not really any room for an external mouse.
Serious question... I've been on the fence about macs for the last year or so, but I pretty much only purchase laptops and it seems to me this is the one place where the one button argument actually holds up.
Does anyone who uses a powerbook/ibook constantly find that this isn't irritating? Or is it just that with the design of the OS you don't notice, so then what if you have it booting linux? For that matter... if your plans are to boot linux anyway, are you being silly with the Powerbook/iBook purchase?
Honestly curious, in the market for a new laptop in the next couple of months and am either going Powerbook or Thinkpad, but have no experience with the Powerbooks.
Regardless of the "context"
Moron.
That's the same thing that happens when you use different sized images on a mouse over vs non-mouse over if they're lined up like that.
The peculair part of this setup is the dynamic scaling, that is that it's not just jumping from one size image to the next as a snap, it's actually growing and shrinking by increments.
woohoo.
I couldn't agree more.
Until the users can pick up a box, insert a CD, click "setup" and have new software, or download from a webstore, click "setup" and have new software.... linux is going to face some trouble making inroads to the home desktop. RPM's & debs & emerges and whatever just aren't as convenient as a CD with everything on it for the average person.
And yes, I realize Linux supports such installs, but in my experience very few vendors do.
The other big issue is, and has for quite some time, been the installers... and that's frustrating, because the installers are very good now. But the point is, you have to run them... and that's frightening for alot of people.
Gotta be able to ship out boxed software, and gotta be able to ship out pre-installed (and well installed) machines.
This is really interesting. Since I've seen (and eventually bought ;) an Apple Powerbook, all those black plastic PC laptops make me want to puke. They just look like total crap. And even when companies like Samsung try to copy the Apple look, the results look ugly.
As you may have noticed, this is solely a matter of taste.
Personally, I much prefer the look of an IBM ThinkPad to virtually everything else on the market, whereas you seem to much prefer the powerbook (can we all agree the iBook looks like garbage at least?) But when it comes down to it, design is doubly tough, because it's a matter of taste and there's no one right answer. With performance/battery life and the like the answers are easy, more and more. But with design, if you go too far from the standard you run the risk of alienating a portion of your customer base. There have been a handful of laptop companies in the last few years who have tried to focus on design, and mostly they can't get the volume to offer reasonable prices, or their idea of design is to use really expensive exterior components, so people don't buy them.
But really, make you want to puke, I know I'm on slashdot, but don't you think your exagerating a little?
Does this translate to what I should set my DPI setting to in my window manager for ideal resolution? I have an IBM T41 running at 1400x1050 (14.1 inch screen) which by your formula works out to approximately 124 DPI I tend to run at 90ish DPI in Gnome to keep things the size I like... would I be better off upping it to 124 and downing font sizes and the like?
Have you checked out the iRiver HDD players? I can't speak for the 300 series, but I have the 140... and well let's go through the list...
1,2,3,4,8 it satisfies.
5 I spose you can do, but it's not a standard HD.
6 Not by ethernet, but if you connect via USB it just shows up as a normal harddrive, so you can do what you want from there
7 No, but it has standard mini out (obviouslly, plus optical out... so really you're all set there)
Yeah, if the camera is an freebie tossed onto the MP3 player, it may be ok.... though I'd guess most people would rather swap the camera out for some space savings. Then again I think the same way about cell phones, so who knows.
However, if they actually charge extra for the camera portion they'll price themselves right out of the market.
As a side note, I think Rockboxx is working on a firmware for the iRiver... but I'm not a person who purchases or suggests purposes on something that's due out anytime now.
I've got the 40 Gig version, which you can now pick up for between 350-400 dollars.
Solid as solid can be. I threw it through a plaster wall (don't ask) and after removing it from the hole in the wall, it still plays perfectly, without a scratch on it. I think I'm on about month #8 without a single problem.
I have exactly one complaint about the device... no on the fly playlists. Rumored to be coming in an updated firmware update, but who knows.
The lack of FLAC in a portable device is no big deal in my opinion... I consider FLAC more of an archiving tool than something I need for my portable player.
Oh I guess I have a second minor complaint... the case it ships with is kinda bulky, but then again... it does ship with a case and a microphone, and a remote.
Oh, and you'd be remiss in mentioning the iHP's without noting they have 15 hour battery life... with replaceable batteries (requires a case opening)... and some of the aftermarket options are supposedly getting 20-24 hour battery life.
If that's what you want you can with the iRiver iHP 300 series... you plug the USB cable from your camera into the MP3 player and it runs as a USB host allowing you to take your pics right from the camera to the player.
So hook them up with Hotmail in Thunderbird... it's not that hard. http://www.boolean.ca/hotpop/
I love it... modded funny when I'm dead serious. Mods must all be under 20 today.