Seeking opinions on XP / Vista

[stryd_one]

Let's not descend into OS wars here gentlemen ;) We all know that they have their advantages and disadvantages, and that we like or dislike them for different reasons, most of which are valid and the remainder are definitely chat room fodder.

Anyhoo, I've gathered that you're running an ATI card guys... Story is like this (95% explanation and 5% answer):

If there's one beef people often have with ubuntu, it's that they are really strict on the open-source thing. Really. One effect of this, which attracts the negative response, is that the binary-only (closed-source) drivers such as those which ATI and NVidia release, aren't included out of the box. So your video goes all funky. Yes, it's a pain in the ***, and yes it busts up the "just works" factor, and I guess that your opinion on whether it's a good idea will depend on how you feel about open source. Let's not go there, but I thought maybe you'd like to know "why", and not just "what"

The good news is that it's very easy to sort out. It's a three step process, but it's not as bad as that makes it sound. One of them you have to do in windows too (patch it), and one of them you'll want to do anyway if you want to easily install stuff like say... Eagle (enable closed source stuff). This is them:

First thing to do would be to enable the Universe and Multiverse repositories. Don't know if you used it long enough to know this, but the idea is that rather than downloading an exe and installing an application that you want on your system, you use a single GUI or command line tool to select apps you want and install them. The apps are made available to you in package 'repositories', and enabling these two repo's makes lots of extra handy stuff available, like eagle, and closed-source video drivers. There's nice doco here on how to add the repositories . It's either editing a text file, or about four mouse clicks in a GUI.

I then recommend installing all the updates which are available online .You'll be prompted with a red icon in the tray when you're online... this is the same deal as running windowsupdate when you first boot a new windows system. It's good to do this before the next step not only for security reasons, but because they'll probably include a kernel update that wants a reboot to apply it. If you install the video driver before this reboot, you'll install a driver for the old kernel. It's kinda like a win98 driver might not work on winME.

You can then install the drivers, and yes again, there's a nice gui for it, as well as a command line. For either ATI or NVidia drivers, the easy way to go is with a package called EnvyNG. It's a tool that will detect your card and install the correct driver and all that cool stuff. If you look at the top link above, it shows you how to install software, just type envyng into the search box, it'll find it, and then you can install it. If you want extreme details, you can visit the EnvyNG FAQ. Once it's installed, you can run it from the menu. The rest is all happy GUI goodness. You can also do it from the command line if that's your thing ;)

So yeh, that was a very long version of the story. I wanted to explain why it's like it is. Aside from the fact that it's crippled by the strict open source policy, you can see that it actually has a lot in common with windows. It seems kinda alien at first, but when you know the whole story, you realise that the reason it seems rough is not a failing or strength in either OS, but just good ol' familiarity with windows. So, if I remove all the stuff that is effectively the same on both OS, the difference between them as far as getting the video to behave is this:

Install EnvyNG.

Two word summary. I shoulda just gone with that. :D

[cimo]

Hi

afaik no change on the repositories is needed to install the proprietary driver for the video card, at least for mine, i ll check it out soon.

Simone

Let's not descend into OS wars here gentlemen Wink

I ve nver fought a fight in my whole life, i dont like watching football and i am not interested in politics, and i played Risiko maybe a couple of times, so lemme play my favorite game: OS wars

[stryd_one]

afaik no change on the repositories is needed to install the proprietary driver for the video card

No you don't, that's true... The drivers themselves are in the Restricted repo: http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=ATI&searchon=all&suite=hardy&section=all

...But you do need it to get envy, which is by far the most user friendly way to deal with the whole video driver "thing", and will get you later drivers, and find related tools, auto update for you, etc... And seeing as you're gonna want to enable those repos anyway.... Just seems the easiest way :)

so lemme play my favorite game: OS wars

Don't make me send you to the naughty boy's chair.

[Echopraxia]

Might as well add to the post. I have been using vista 64 ultimate for a few months and it has been pretty solid. I got it because I splurged on a quad core and 4gb of ram and was thinking I would probably want 8gb or ram in the future. I was thinking about going back to xp aswell but maybe just going to vista 32 bit is the way to go. My 64 bit vista has problems when it comes to installing software or just plain using it. Besides that it is very nice but the speed increase with 64 bit is barely noticable and the quad core kicks much major ass anyways. If you wanna use VSTs, quad core is the way to go. if your using hardware synths and effects just get reg xp or vista as cheap as possible and try reaper as your sequencer. Its free to try and I think its more productive than major sequencers. or just use MBSEQ and be happy.

[Just Phil]

also there are quite a few really solid versions of xp floating around on the forums, i run Unattended Windows XP Unlimited Edition.

and it came with all the drivers i'd ever need, great utilities, (like right+click image resize) and other goodies. i just use my existing xp cd-key to register it...

on my other computer i have a great edition of Tiny XP that only uses 81mb ram on fresh install. and you can choose not to install WMP, Messenger and a few other bits. while installing many needed codecs for watching dvd's, firefox, and winrar. it also disables all unnecessary services. and keeps my computer running really snappy, and its GREAT for music production....

PM me and i can help you find what you are looking for...

there are also versions of vista that are meant for 256mb ram. but i'd still suggest xp...