very nice
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick Dec 02, 2009 11:38 AM EDT |
+1, I concur, and all that. |
| dinotrac Dec 02, 2009 12:46 PM EDT |
Yes, but... There is an undercurrent that shouldn't be ignored. Linux is an OS, but distributions come with tons of non-OS material, and that non-OS material competes with all ithises and Microsoft/Oracle/Intuit thatses, except that... they don't. Mac has killer video and graphic apps. Mac as a multimedia platform rocks. Linux can do multimedia. Etc. |
| gus3 Dec 02, 2009 3:24 PM EDT |
Being cynical here... In the primarily Microsoft world, what's the diff between "bells & whistles" and "cr@pware"? Because that's what is on the system when you carry it out of Best Buy. I'd rather go with an opt-in model, where I install what I want, than with an opt-out model that requires me to clean up what I don't want. |
| azerthoth Dec 02, 2009 5:27 PM EDT |
Thats kind of a funny thing, we get so used to linux shipping with advanced editors, OOo, kate, gedit, etc.. With other odds and ends for productivity, we tend to loose track of all the necessities that Windows doesn't ship with. |
| tuxchick Dec 02, 2009 5:32 PM EDT |
az, the thing I always wonder is what miraculous means does MS employ to use so many gigabytes for so little functionality? |
| Bob_Robertson Dec 02, 2009 5:46 PM EDT |
> we tend to loose track of all the necessities that Windows doesn't ship with. Speaking of which... I couldn't get the XP restore disks to work in my 2003 laptop, which ran Linux beautifully for 6 years but has been recycled for the wife and kids. Yes, it's the "it's got to run Dora the Explorer" syndrome, and VirtualBox doesn't do DirectX. So anyway, the XP restore disks worked fine 6 months ago, but now NOTHING. Nada. Poopers. However, Win7 did install. But no wired network, no wifi, no Nvidia AGP, nothing. I'm lucky it recognized the keyboard! Three different USB and a PCMCIA wifi, nothing. For the one for which I had a driver disk, "That driver is for a different version of Windows." Someone posted a driver for one of the USB chipsets to a Win7 forum, luckily Win7 did recognize USB thumb drives, and once Win7 was able to phone home it pulled down a plethora of updates including for the wired and wireless in-box hardware. But not for the screen. "Your vendor does not allow non-vendor specific drivers for your GPU." Say what? So over to Sony, but they support XP and Win2K for that model only. Period. Nothing else. So Out Of Luck. Win7 comes with ... nothing. The only nice thing is easy wireless, I admit that everything I've tried on Linux doesn't work as "k-i-s-s" as MSs subsystem does, although wicd comes closest. I wonder who they bought/stole it from? Note to self: Never Sony again. |
| bigg Dec 02, 2009 5:55 PM EDT |
> VirtualBox doesn't do DirectX It doesn't? http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/virtualbox-3-directx.html |
| Sander_Marechal Dec 02, 2009 6:09 PM EDT |
Wine also does DirectX. Not to mention that there are plenty of Dora the Explorer flash games on the nickjr.com site which run fine on Linux in Firefox :-) |
| tracyanne Dec 02, 2009 6:16 PM EDT |
> VirtualBox doesn't do DirectX I seems to with my current Video card. It promised to on my old video card, which was barely up to 3D on the host. |
| caitlyn Dec 02, 2009 6:38 PM EDT |
I agree with tuxchick that the author gets it. The problem is that the general public does not. All the discussion of Windows' failings is irrelevant to a public that largely thinks PC == Windows and anything else is strange and alien. Windows success and dominant market position wasn't built on "just works" or getting out of the way. It was built on marketing, not on technical superiority or any sort of facts at all. The circus the author refers to is marketing hype. Marketing hype works. It sells. Just working doesn't sell. Sad, really... |
| jdixon Dec 02, 2009 7:14 PM EDT |
> It doesn't? Not well enough for most games, in my experience. I'll take another look at it this weekend. |
| techiem2 Dec 02, 2009 8:44 PM EDT |
I just tried in Win2k and Win7 and don't get full acceleration in either. I get DirectDraw but not Direct3D. I don't know if that's due to using VB OSE or due to my card being too new (GeForce 8400GS) or something else. |
| Bob_Robertson Dec 02, 2009 9:43 PM EDT |
No, Bigg, it doesn't, and I got into a lot of trouble for asking about it. Serious RTFM responses. And I'm using the full version "for private use". The acceleration they're doing is OpenGL, not DirectX. Yes, I expect they are working on it, but that's not what they are "doing" now. I tried under WINE, but there were severe artifact problems. The problem of no sound support is also quite a difficulty in the game department. I don't have a USB sound "card" to add. Not in my bag of tricks, sadly, although external DVD is, but this machine won't boot off of USB. Anyway, thanks for the NickJr.com pointer, I hadn't thought of that. That does work, but again no sound. I haven't tried Linux KVM or qemu to see if DirectX works through them. Any suggestions? |
| jdixon Dec 02, 2009 10:20 PM EDT |
> I get DirectDraw but not Direct3D. Did you install the guest additions in safe mode? That's required to get the Direct3D. It may also only be a feature of the free but closed version. Given it's experimental nature, and obvious commercial application, that seems likely. |
| techiem2 Dec 02, 2009 11:20 PM EDT |
I uninstalled them and then reinstalled in safe mode for the win2k machine. For the Win7 machine I installed normal. Both ways give the option for the 3d support in the installer, but no direct3d either way. *shrug* The options shown are exactly the same as that page showed, so I would assume it is supposed to work in the OSE version (otherwise I would think the 3d accel option in the vm settings wouldn't be there). |
| hkwint Dec 03, 2009 5:31 AM EDT |
AFAIK the non-free version >=Virtualbox 3.0 has 'experimental' support for Direct3D, but not officialy supported. Like Bob suggests it's in section 4.6 of the manual. |
| jdixon Dec 03, 2009 11:02 AM EDT |
> Both ways give the option for the 3d support in the installer, but no direct3d either way.
*shrug* Yeah. I get the same screen shots he shows, and DirectX installs and tests OK, but the two games I tried (Pirates and The Sims 2) say DirectX isn't there. :( I'll try out a couple of other games when I have time and see how they do. > The options shown are exactly the same as that page showed, so I would assume it is supposed to work in the OSE version... No idea, but I agree that you'd think the option wouldn't be there if it wasn't actually present. |
| techiem2 Dec 03, 2009 11:05 AM EDT |
I found a forum thread last night (don't have the link on me here at work) listing people's experiences with it, and many were running OSE.
So apparently it does work in OSE...for some people/windows versions.
lol. |
| Sander_Marechal Dec 03, 2009 4:33 PM EDT |
@jdixon: Did you try installing DirectX? Perhaps VB just has the possibility to support DirectX but doesn't install it itself. |
| jdixon Dec 03, 2009 5:05 PM EDT |
> Did you try installing DirectX? Yes. DirectX 9 installed with no problems, but the games say it's not there. |
| Sander_Marechal Dec 03, 2009 5:24 PM EDT |
Perhaps you could try an older version like DirectX 8? I can't imagine Dora being so graphics intensive that it requires DX9-specific features :-) |
| jdixon Dec 03, 2009 9:32 PM EDT |
> I can't imagine Dora being so graphics intensive that it requires DX9-specific features :-) I'm not the one trying to run Dora. That's Bob. |
| montezuma Dec 03, 2009 10:59 PM EDT |
See Bob make Dora run. Sorry. |
| Bob_Robertson Dec 04, 2009 1:03 PM EDT |
Even the Dora games are DirectX9, sorry. And, as mentioned, DirectX installs under VB without errors, but then doesn't work. > See Bob make Dora run. Run, Bob, Run. Caitlyn has an axe. |
| azerthoth Dec 04, 2009 3:31 PM EDT |
cry havoc and let slip the ferrets of war! |
| caitlyn Dec 04, 2009 3:50 PM EDT |
When you hear a squeak you know you are in trouble. When a ferret is really upset it lets loose with a very non-threatening (except to other ferrets), high pitched squeak. I've heard it all of two or three times in 13 years as a ferret owner. It's actually funny. One time we bought a toy called a "treat tumbler". It was shaped like a plastic bear and rocked back and forth and had a small hole where a treat could fall out. Once Ker Avon discovered his favorite treat was inside if any other ferret approached it he would squeak and make clear he would defend it with his life. Since poor Avon was low ferret in the pecking order and he couldn't wrestle to save his life all this meant was that he got agitated while other ferrets got the treat. Once we understood what was going on and looked up the "viscous attack squeak" of the ferret we did away with that toy -- that same evening. So much for the ferrets of war. Mine are so domesticated that they are more likely to lick you to death to say how happy they are to have a new playmate than to ever lay a tooth on you. |
| jdixon Dec 04, 2009 5:01 PM EDT |
> So much for the ferrets of war. I remember the big to do in the DC area when some kid stuck his fingers in a ferret cage at a pet store and got bitten. You'd have thought they were ferrets of war. |
| caitlyn Dec 04, 2009 6:00 PM EDT |
@jdixon: Some kits (young ferrets) do need to be nip trained. Ferrets are used to wrestle and play with other ferrets who have tough skins. When you nip train a ferret you don't teach them not to use their teeth: that's part of how they communicate. You teach them not to bite down. Anyway, a kid sticks a finger in the face of a caged animal and startles the animal. What on earth do you expect? I had a ferret named Pertwee. The pet store couldn't sell him because he was a "terrible biter". I took him home and nip training took exactly one weekend. The problem at the pet store? Pertwee was deaf. They didn't know it. Grab a deaf ferret from behind, perhaps not so gently, and startle him. Guess what happens? Pertwee was a great pet and once he got used to us we could grab him from behind and rather than get a fearful reaction he took it as as invitation to play. Much better. We even trained Pertwee to come when called. We'd tap the floor three times, he'd look at where he vibration came from, we'd wave him over and he'd come running. Oh, and yeah, Pertwee did bite someone later and even drew blood. He was the most medically challenged ferret I've ever had and he spent way too much time at the vet's office where he was poked and prodded. He came to associate the vet and white lab coats with pain. The only place he ever lashed out was at the vet's office and, thankfully, our vet was a ferret specialist who understood exactly what was going on. Anywhere else Pertwee was fine with people, strangers, kids, you name it... Everybody was his friend so long as it wasn't the vet's office. Any animal that feels threatened will bite. |
| jdixon Dec 04, 2009 7:30 PM EDT |
> Anyway, a kid sticks a finger in the face of a caged animal and startles the animal. What on earth do you expect? Exactly what happened. The store even had a sign up warning folks that the ferrets might bite. You'd have thought it was the worst thing to ever happen though. The parents wanted to have the ferret killed and tested for rabies. They even went to court and had the a store employee thrown in jail for refusing to turn over the ferret (which was by then safely in other, unknown, hands). They wound up getting rabies shots for the kid. |
| caitlyn Dec 04, 2009 8:17 PM EDT |
Poor kid being put through that for nothing. All the major ferret breeders vaccinate for rabies and give the first distemper vaccine as well. The store almost certainly had a certificate of vaccination because it's normally given to the new owners. Parents do tend to get hysterical when it comes to their kids, often understandably so. |
| azerthoth Dec 04, 2009 9:55 PM EDT |
Anyone remember the story of the Australian tourist in Alaska who bypassed all the safeguards so she could get a closer picture of the polar bear. Binky carried her red shoe around for a rather long time. Everyone in the state was all for charging her for the medical care for the bear too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binky_(polar_bear) |
| jdixon Dec 04, 2009 9:58 PM EDT |
> ...often understandably so Not in this case though. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the ferret. The kid simply stuck his fingers where he wasn't supposed to. Well, maybe the experience taught the whole family a lesson about reading signs, but I doubt it. |
| montezuma Dec 04, 2009 10:46 PM EDT |
azernoth, Sounds like payback for this incident with a US tourist in Australia: http://www.finefishing.com/1freshfish/aawhereto/australianew... Ghoulishly referred to as "A touch of ginger" |
| jdixon Dec 04, 2009 11:01 PM EDT |
I remember walking along a wooden overpass above a swamp in SC one time and watching the gators below. I couldn't help but think that at least one of them was thinking, "sooner or later, that railing has to break". :) |
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