The Day, Or Year, The Linux Desktop Died - InformationWeek

[nicholas]

I can't really be ersed with "pimping" linux GUI, to be honest. gnome works fine for me

Yeah but you do have umpteen bazillion cpu cores.  Even Slowlaris would seem fast on that box!

[cecilia]

I use the drivers directly from nVidia as they provide all the various libraries I need to write software for the GPU.

Installing them is actually fairly easy, but as it's not from the repository you need to rebuild them every time you have a kernel update.

Installing just amounts to running the downloaded file in a root shell. You need to not have the X server running too:

1) Boot into "safe" mode, then select "root shell"
2) change to runlevel 3 (type: telinit 3)
3) log in as yourself
4) sudo as root
5) run the installer package (sh .run)
6) agree that nVidia isn't liable for the unexpected end of the universe
7) let it try to download a kernel module, if that fails let it build it
let it install the legacy 32-bit opengl stuff if you have a 64-bit driver
9) let it backup and replace your xorg.conf
10) restart

if all has gone well, you now have drivers that support your hardware properly. One downside is, you also have a tainted kernel, if you care about such things.

yeah, that sounds very similar to what I have seen on the ubuntu forums. my nVidia GeForce4 440 Go doesn't seem to have a specific driver on the nVidia site, but it's years old so i am not surprised.

I'm just not comfortable with doing all that - at least not right now.

thanks, tho

[Kaminari]

This is the future of "desktop" Linux.

The PS3 alone has been responsible for the revival of Linux PPC development since the MacIntel snafu.

[stefcep2]

BTW: I doubt that computing can get any "untechier" than with Ubuntu...

have they fixed dial up ppp on Ubuntu yet?  yes you MIGHT need dial up, especially if like me you have mobile broadband modem which Ubuntu wouldn't pick up so i had to use a dial up modem to get the driver for the mobile modem, but dial up simply would not work: used wvdial gnome ppp, nothing worked.  But having said that dial up was fine on Mandriva, but having said that the mobile broadband package that i downloaded was for Ubuntu..i got mobile broadband to work eventually with ubuntu, but it was not fun..

[Karlos]

yeah, that sounds very similar to what I have seen on the ubuntu forums. my nVidia GeForce4 440 Go doesn't seem to have a specific driver on the nVidia site, but it's years old so i am not surprised.

I'm just not comfortable with doing all that - at least not right now.

thanks, tho

Actually, if you are looking at a GeForce 4 generation card, the open source nv drivers probably have it covered. It's only once you get to the G80 generation and above you really need to use nVidia's drivers to get the most out of your hardware

[Karlos]

Other linux fans will probably burn me for this but as I said, there's still plenty wrong with linux as a desktop OS from a novice user point of view. It is getting better but it has some way to go.

However, I'll take it over windows for my day to day needs any day.

[cecilia]

Actually, if you are looking at a GeForce 4 generation card, the open source nv drivers probably have it covered. It's only once you get to the G80 generation and above you really need to use nVidia's drivers to get the most out of your hardware

I believe the recommended number from the open source nv drivers is something like "96" - this off the top of my head.

If I recall correctly i think I tried it once, rebooted to a black screen and had to bring my laptop to a friends place who connected the laptop to a monitor which could see the screen. as there was no time for tweaking we just removed the offending drivers.

someday when I have the time I'll try this again.

Ubuntu works fine even without this added stuff. and yes, it's not perfect, but so far it works for me.

[nicholas]

I believe the recommended number from the open source nv drivers is something like "96" - this off the top of my head.

If I recall correctly i think I tried it once, rebooted to a black screen and had to bring my laptop to a friends place who connected the laptop to a monitor which could see the screen. as there was no time for tweaking we just removed the offending drivers.

someday when I have the time I'll try this again.

Ubuntu works fine even without this added stuff. and yes, it's not perfect, but so far it works for me.

If you have no need for hardware 3D then the standard 'nv' driver is more than adequate for your needs Cecilia.

There is the 'nouveau' xorg driver (Which comes as the default driver in Fedora 11) but I can't see you having any use for that either.

If you really need the hardware 3D stuff then it's simple to switch to that using the 'Hardware Drivers' program in Ubuntu.  No fannying around with the command line needed.

You can find it on the GNOME menu bar under 'System->Administration->Hardware Drivers'.

Just click to enable the binary NVIDIA driver and reboot.

[nicholas]

Other linux fans will probably burn me for this but as I said, there's still plenty wrong with linux as a desktop OS from a novice user point of view. It is getting better but it has some way to go.

However, I'll take it over windows for my day to day needs any day.

I know this 'Disinherited demi-Geordie' that used to swear by Win2K and didn't see any use for Linux on the desktop!