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Loading ... Loading ...November 25, 2007
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So I took the plunge. It looks good so far. It didn’t go entirely smoothly, but it works. For some reason, it stalled on the install a couple of times, but I finally got it to work.
Freedom!
Comment by Eric Ptak — November 25, 2007 @ 8:37 pm
Glad to hear you kicked Microsoft! I haven’t used PCLinuxOS, but I’ve heard good things about it. A little install trouble is not that unusual; sadly, the hardware vendors’ first priority is Windows support, so it’s not always possible for the Open Source developers to make the process as smooth you would hope. (Then again, compare that to what you’d have to go through for Vista on that machine…) There’s also the fact that with most distros the focus is on newer hardware, and so the software isn’t always extremely lightweight and zippy on the older machines (of course this is not true with them all).
Well have fun! If you ever do check out Ubuntu again, though, there’s always Kubuntu, which uses KDE.
Comment by Ben — November 29, 2007 @ 8:06 pm
There’s still a lot for me to learn on this, as it’s been a while since I’ve used Linux. I have to play around with the settings, figure out how to make changes (like stopping the animation of the desktops and the annoying funnel effect when minimizing windows). Then, I have to get all my equipment configured, install some programs, etc.
At least I’m not wasting my time fooling around with virus scans, anti-spyware, and such.
One thing that I can’t figure out is why .swf files play automatically in Konqueror, but you need a plug-in for Firefox.
Comment by Eric Ptak — December 1, 2007 @ 4:46 pm
Regarding the flash, I believe that Firefox uses its own plugin, separate from whatever Konqueror uses. I think it’s just the way it works out.
As for the effects, I’m not sure how many of those are done with KDE itself, or if the distribution uses something like XGL. Either one should be easily turned off, though not being a KDE user I’m not sure how.
I hear ya about the virsuses, though. It’s nice being able to use your computer for other things than running anti-virus software, and still not having to worry much about an infection. I love going through the shitload of spam I get without any worry of infection. Who knows, maybe the virus writers will target *nix a bit more in the future, but they don’t seem to yet.
Comment by Ben — December 1, 2007 @ 5:44 pm
I went to download the flash plugin and the shockwave plugin. Adobe makes a Firefox flash plugin for Linux, but not a shockwave plugin. Let’s blame adobe.
The funnel effect is an option I turned on somewhere, just to see how it works. It’s one of those things that you think are cool for a minute, but when you don’t want it anymore, it’s difficult to remember how you did it. I think I have to be logged in as root to turn it off.
Comment by Eric Ptak — December 2, 2007 @ 12:00 pm