After a long while, I finally decided to upgrade my linux installation to the latest Gutsy Gibbon -- touted as a big step forward with its ease of installation. Furthermore it is now possible to write to NTFS partitions and it is always great to have a backup OS especially in case Windows messes up. Popping in the live CD, and rebooting, I was greeted by the simple desktop from which I can play around with or install to hard drive.
Starting the install process, I was given an intuitive screen to choose my location.
Next I decided to manually choose which partition to install ubuntu on.
There is an interesting new feature that is able to import WinXP users profiles to your linux user.
Proprietary drivers where required, such as Nvidia and ATi card drivers, are automatically prompted to the user for download and installation. Another nice feature is that when playing proprietary codecs such as mp3, the player will prompt the user to automatically search for the required codec. After running a system update, I proceeded to grab the standard programs that I commonly use, like the tetex latex engine, video lan client, etc, using the Synaptic package manager. For those unfamiliar, linux distributions maintain software repositories (repos) from which you can grab common software from with a few clicks. Of course it is also possible to download them off a webpage and install them. Something that I had to do for adobe's flash-plugin for Firefox since the version in the repo was corrupted.
Everything works more or less okay with the exception that I had to edit some configurations for my sound card driver to get my line in to work. For the first time, I actually managed to receive tv on my tv tuner using tvtime. So I proceeded with the juicy part. Getting 3D desktop effects to work. This was now supposed to be as simple as flicking a switch in the Appearance configuration screen. Apparently, with all the advances in this area, using ATi cards still suck for 3D effects on linux. Firstly, I had to go through some steps to install the latest ATi drivers from AMD because at the time of Gutsy's release, ATi drivers did not support AIGLX (something used to render the effects). The 3D effects seem quite slow for my machine. Probably something to do with AIGLX (it was fast previously under Xgl) or not so good ATi drivers. Then, the other downside is that videos can only play in full screen mode. Again this is somewhat a regression from my previous Xgl enabled system. Nevertheless, the Compiz window manager does give some cool effects and if these issues can be tidied up, the desktop is clearly far superior to what Vista provides. Below we have a application switcher in action.
This auto-tiling feature to select the application you want is similar to what OS-X gives. You might notice Picasa. It works for linux but currently uploading to the web albums do not work on the stable version. That is only available on the latest beta 2.7 version of Picasa.
The wall allows you to drag windows from one desktop to another.
Finally, it is always nice to see your desktop raining.
Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon has come a long way since 6.06. But sadly, if 3D effects are desired with ATi cards, configuring these will probably turn off many. Otherwise, most things work nicely out of the box.
Starting the install process, I was given an intuitive screen to choose my location.
Next I decided to manually choose which partition to install ubuntu on.
There is an interesting new feature that is able to import WinXP users profiles to your linux user.
Proprietary drivers where required, such as Nvidia and ATi card drivers, are automatically prompted to the user for download and installation. Another nice feature is that when playing proprietary codecs such as mp3, the player will prompt the user to automatically search for the required codec. After running a system update, I proceeded to grab the standard programs that I commonly use, like the tetex latex engine, video lan client, etc, using the Synaptic package manager. For those unfamiliar, linux distributions maintain software repositories (repos) from which you can grab common software from with a few clicks. Of course it is also possible to download them off a webpage and install them. Something that I had to do for adobe's flash-plugin for Firefox since the version in the repo was corrupted.
Everything works more or less okay with the exception that I had to edit some configurations for my sound card driver to get my line in to work. For the first time, I actually managed to receive tv on my tv tuner using tvtime. So I proceeded with the juicy part. Getting 3D desktop effects to work. This was now supposed to be as simple as flicking a switch in the Appearance configuration screen. Apparently, with all the advances in this area, using ATi cards still suck for 3D effects on linux. Firstly, I had to go through some steps to install the latest ATi drivers from AMD because at the time of Gutsy's release, ATi drivers did not support AIGLX (something used to render the effects). The 3D effects seem quite slow for my machine. Probably something to do with AIGLX (it was fast previously under Xgl) or not so good ATi drivers. Then, the other downside is that videos can only play in full screen mode. Again this is somewhat a regression from my previous Xgl enabled system. Nevertheless, the Compiz window manager does give some cool effects and if these issues can be tidied up, the desktop is clearly far superior to what Vista provides. Below we have a application switcher in action.
This auto-tiling feature to select the application you want is similar to what OS-X gives. You might notice Picasa. It works for linux but currently uploading to the web albums do not work on the stable version. That is only available on the latest beta 2.7 version of Picasa.
The wall allows you to drag windows from one desktop to another.
Finally, it is always nice to see your desktop raining.
Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon has come a long way since 6.06. But sadly, if 3D effects are desired with ATi cards, configuring these will probably turn off many. Otherwise, most things work nicely out of the box.
2 comments:
It's good to have read your blog about Ubuntu 7.10. I'm just curious to know what brand & model of TV tuner Card do you have ? Which you mentioned works fine using your TV Time.
It is an old analogue Hauppauge Card. It works with MythTV as well using Mythbuntu, but the quality is worse than TVTime. If only TV Time can record...
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