Ubuntu Linux

[npal]

All this for MIDI support (and IF it works in the end)?

Is the MID format licensed or something? Since Linux, due to resource use, is better for older systems, something as old as MID files should be supported by default.

I'll try it once I have time, and IF it works, I hope it's system-wide. Kind a major shock that something as stupid (right now) and old as MID is not supported in Ubuntu. Something makes me want to roll on the floor laughing at Ubuntu. Thank God it supports WAV...

[grey_moon]

Originally Posted by npal

All this for MIDI support (and IF it works in the end)?

Is the MID format licensed or something? Since Linux, due to resource use, is better for older systems, something as old as MID files should be supported by default.

I'll try it once I have time, and IF it works, I hope it's system-wide. Kind a major shock that something as stupid (right now) and old as MID is not supported in Ubuntu. Something makes me want to roll on the floor laughing at Ubuntu. Thank God it supports WAV...

Yeah I was pretty shocked by it too. But the good thing about Ubuntu is that they do seem to add in support for stuff pretty quickly (if there is enough outcry).

I'll check if it is the same with my SuSE box when I get a chance

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

For servers, I usually change the line
id:5:initdefault:
to
id:3:initdefault
in /etc/inittab. Then the machine boots up into text mode and doesn't waste any resources on X or window managers .

You can always type "startx" from the command prompt if you need to run the GUI. Most of the time I'm using ssh to talk to these machines remotely anyway. And, with X-Windows, if I need a GUI application, I can run it on the remote server and display it on my local workstation. You can even use X tunneling in ssh to have the entire session be encrypted.

Beryl is pretty, but it put too much load on my meagre 2.6 GHz Celeron and 512M. I went back to the standard KDE window manager.

yeah, I used to do that when machines didn't have so much elbow room. But its pretty rare I'm running so tight on the specs anymore so I'll usually let a really lightweight window manager run (and just be sure its not accepting remote) because I just like being able to run multiple terminal windows for various tasks.

In other news: heh... the MIDI thing is quite a flatfooted oops if it isn't there ... I haven't used a midi file in ages -- will have to find one and check it out. Was that just within an emulation environment (aka a WINE/VMWARE connector oops?) or it won't play via Ubuntu itself?

[npal]

No, that's a system worldwide problem which I knew was going on but I didn't think WINE couldn't emulate MIDI at all without the system itself being configured to play them. As it is, most of the things I tried didn't work. I mean, Kmid seems to play the file, but no sound is produced. Amarok, Totem and Rhythmbox are unable to even open MIDs.

Since my X-fi doesn't have drivers, I'm using my onboard, which is a Realtek ALC888. Timidity doesn't seem to work and the case may be that too few cards are supported for MIDI on Linux.

... Hmm ok I managed to get some sound with Fluidsynth, since I'm using my onboard for sound (Creative and her X-fi linux drivers...) Well... Better than nothing but the sound is a bit ridiculous, although I'm not sure if it's the configuration that's problematic or the onboard synthesizer. Then, I need to find a way to have MID support load on startup. Some mids play, some don't... Oh well...

To put things in context though, Vista isn't much better. I mean, you can't change default MIDI devices anymore and the only way my MIDI files can play as they should is in Mediasource, because of Creative's drivers. Otherwise, WMP plays them as horribly as Ubuntu (although with much less trouble).

[SeijiSensei]

A quick search for 'linux midi' at Google brought up a number of pages, including the Linux-MIDI HOWTO and a series of articles at Linux Journal. These articles are all a bit old, though; the HOWTO dates from 2004. Still there might be a few useful nuggets of wisdom there.

[npal]

Yes, I googled that, too, and managed to get a crappy MIDI sound in the end Even Microsoft's GS in Windows is wonderful compared to that sound but whatever. Then, there's also getting this thing to load every time, so I'd rather stick to Windows where Creative has drivers and MIDI works.

[Vexx]

In other news, the latest version of Windows Media Player under XP refuses to play my region 1 purchased DVDs because "my video driver is not DRM-capable" XP suggests I upgrade.... though I have the latest nVidea and other drivers, latest XP patches.

Interestingly, PowerDVD is just fine with things...
I took it as my first look at a Brave New World of DRM-cripple ahead for many. Me, I'm putting WMP in a dim little corner with all the extensions taken away from it. Which will probably work til some other patch forcefully retrieves them.

[WanderingKnight]

Me, I'm putting WMP in a dim little corner with all the extensions taken away from it.

Haha, I think I did that a long, long time ago. I could never stand WMP, even before turning into a Windows-hater of sorts.

[Epyon9283]

I remember trying to get midi files playing on Linux. I think that eventually support was added for my sound card so I didn't need timidity to play them. IIRC I had to download some soundbank or something so it took a lot more effort than it should have.

I recently (last weekend) removed Ubuntu on my PC and replaced it with Fedora 7. I also did the same thing on my PC at work. I'm really trying to figure out why these distributions keep setting Evolution as the default mail client. Its god awful. Crashes constantly. I can't add more than 3 contacts to the To: line on an email without evolution crashing. I accidently put the incorrect username in the LDAP address book configuration window and after that every time I went to the address book it'd continuously prompt me for a password to a user that didn't exist. I could not get back into the configuration since the only way to do that was though the address book window and I couldn't do anything in that window because of the constant password prompts.

[grey_moon]

Personally I like Thunderturd, and I get around the pda sync issues with Funambol <- although I need to try PPC sync in Ubuntu so I might not even need that!

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Epyon9283

I'm really trying to figure out why these distributions keep setting Evolution as the default mail client. Its god awful.

Because it's a clone of Microsoft Outlook. A lot of effort from places like Novell has gone into making Evolution a program that can mimic Outlook and connect to Microsoft Exchange.

I find it puzzling, too, that a distribution like Fedora makes Evolution the default, just as I find it annoying that GNOME is the default desktop. I could understand it being the default on a distribution like RedHat Enterprise 5, where conformance with corporate standards is a big selling point, but the target for Fedora always seemed to me to be non-corporate.

After all these years the big issue remains calendaring. Outlook/Exchange handles it well; all the free clients running on Linux and living in a Windows world don't. If you're in a purely KDE world, Korganizer is a pretty nice program. But if you're in a mixed Windows/Linux world, compliance with Exchange is often a must.

[grey_moon]

I guess it could be due to the ximian plugin which allows for Exchange connectivity...

It also is a groupware product, but I guess that Mozilla suite kinda is, but Mozilla doesn't hook easily into Exchange or anything else that has collaboration.

[Epyon9283]

If Evolution wasn't such a memory eating, bloated, buggy POS it'd be a fine mail client. You'd think that with companies shipping this as the standard client they'd at least make an effort to have it not suck as badly. I don't really see how its improved since Ximian open sourced it.

I'd love to be in a purely KDE world but I need firefox. I really like to keep all my apps using a single toolkit so the look and feel remains consistent. Its annoying as hell to move between gnome and KDE apps constantly because stuff is so different (button order, item placement within menus, etc.).

[Epyon9283]

Originally Posted by grey_moon

I guess it could be due to the ximian plugin which allows for Exchange connectivity...

It also is a groupware product, but I guess that Mozilla suite kinda is, but Mozilla doesn't hook easily into Exchange or anything else that has collaboration.

I wasn't even using the exchange connector in evolution and it still crashes like crazy. The Exchange support is terrible even with that plugin. It uses outlook web access to get mail and calendar stuff. That means to even use it your exchange server needs to have OWA enabled and running. Even when it works its slow as hell.

Nothing easliy hooks into exchange because exchange is proprietary as hell. If all you want is email, any imap client will work fine. Set up the address book to use LDAP against AD and you've got contacts. Calendar is the only sticking point and personally I've never had a need for it.

[grey_moon]

I got to say that when comparing IMAP support on email clients, I've been most impressed with Thunderturd's. Nothing annoys me more then when Outlook freezes when it has trouble connecting.

I think even M$ realise that the collaboration is moving towards the way of the Yahoo groups (web based). They recently the last place I worked a special deal to join their Live scheme. All the techies went "consider other options PLEASE!!!!!"

Secretly we were all dreading the need to sync our passwords with something hosted by M$, not that we wouldn't trust them with our info, honest!

[hobbes_fan]

might not be the right thread for this, but I was looking for a pros and cons of vista vs ubuntu and linux in general and a quick look on google brought up a potential M$ lawsuit against linux for 200 or so patent infringements. The general opinion seems to be this is just M$ scare tactic. I do hear that pro-linux orgs are prepared to go through and counter sue M$ as well. I guess really what I want to know is whether I should be concerned or not.

BTW Ububtu install went down smoothly, its not as intuitive as I'd like but not too bad, but hey it's all free for that I'm willing to learn. Only thing messing me up is the Asus bluetooth dongle.

[grey_moon]

Those who need to be concerned are peeps like IBM, Novell and actually Microsoft. We have already seen what has happened to one company that tried to sue it's customers.

Sure they may hint that they will sue the end user, but realistically it's the providers who would be at fault if they could prove anything. The scare tactics are aimed at large corps to stop them from considering OSS and stay on the proprietary path.

Conclusion unless you plan on making a huge living out of OSS, then you shouldn't be too worried. Actually I would be more worried about the antics of the RIAA more then anything else.

About the 200 odd patients case.... Well the general feeling seems to be is that if M$ really has it then they should show the world and have it out. Thier excuse for not doing so is that there is too much paper work.... If that is the case how do they know that there are these patients being violated?

Ubuntu V Vista???

That one really is up to you. I always recommend The List. Make a list of what u need (applications and hardware like tv card), what your hardware can support, and what u need to invest.

Then pick the one that suits you the most.

I won't be going for Vista ultimate as I am cheap, I've got Vista business and I was not too pleased at its resource hogginess (I know its not fair statement as I don't have a high end machine to run it on). But to be honest my next PC purchase will be from efficientpc.co.uk... Its soooo cheap and its black and its running Ubuntu!!!! Oh more importantly I don't need to slice up my arms building my own box for what is now very little saving. (I normally build myself medium to high end rigs, even for gaming, I go for best punch per pound)

[hobbes_fan]

I already went ubuntu after looking at how taxing vista is. It's on my desktop PC. I will keep xp on the laptop just because I think that its still worth having a windows environment just in case some stuff won't run under linux (if any) and it's still under warranty (not sure where I stand if I suddenly run ubuntu on this). This asus laptop is Vista certifed but being the last generation of solo core laptops I still don't want to try my luck. Yes I'm cheap too, hence my love Asus, AMD hardware. Plus I think its good learn something a little bit different and the lack of viruses/malware etc is really a godsend for me who handles a lot of photos. I'm also fearful of rumours that M$ will start charging for an annual license like Norton AV .

[grey_moon]

I was reading up all the reviews of everyone who brought a Dell Ubuntu laptop and their only complaint about it (once they fixed the poorly set resolution), was the sticky mark they had on it where Dell had pealed off the Vista sticker

I keep my lappie as XP for the same reasons as you, but I have ubuntu installed on a usb hdd and it boots from that. I would have done it the other way around but u have to dump n hack the xp install disk to get it working (shudder).

Booting Ubuntu from a usb hdd is really easy, if u check the forum, read the first page and last page and bobs your uncle. I'm even lazy as well as cheap and I boot from the live CD and do everything from there (they tell you to get the safe-mode disk, but there is no need to)

You just need to substitute in /dev/sda1/etc/blah blah for /etc/blah blah

The only hard part is if u try to use vi and are not used to it (you will hate Linux with a passion if u do that!).

Glad to see us cheapos think alike, I am a major fan of AMD and ASUS too... My main box is my A7N8X Deluxe and I got that when it first came out

[WanderingKnight]

might not be the right thread for this, but I was looking for a pros and cons of vista vs ubuntu and linux in general and a quick look on google brought up a potential M$ lawsuit against linux for 200 or so patent infringements. The general opinion seems to be this is just M$ scare tactic. I do hear that pro-linux orgs are prepared to go through and counter sue M$ as well. I guess really what I want to know is whether I should be concerned or not.

Microsoft already chickened out from his final user suing intentions. It's pretty obvious that it was a FUD tactic.