Maximum PC

A really good video / presentation:

http://lunduke.com/?p=429

I thought it was great that it took 5 minutes and 30 or so seconds to get the multi-monitor settings right.

"... I don't recall anyone having these problems on Windows."

Priceless.

I liked the video, and I liked his ideas, but I got a bit lost. I'll try watching it again when I'm more awake. 36 hours awake can be brutal.

It is nice to see there are several people that don't think that Linux is the holy grail of awesomeness and that it can use improvement.

My biggest issue right now is all of the f***ing updates!

Every time I sit down to my Linux machine there are a slu of new updates to install. Get's old.

Agree. My main hassle is switching from a dual monitor setup to just a laptop screen and then to a projector.

As for updates, that just depends on the distro.

I really thought he nailed what was wrong with Linux. Xorg is a mess but the devs have done great work with it, audio, wifi, and other hardware issues are annoying as hell, and he's spot on about certain specialty apps. QCAD and GIMP are no match for their proprietary rivals.

I'm not sure of his solutions though. I agree that we should be donating to our favorite projects. Every dollar counts. However, part of the biggest draw to Linux is that everything's free. If some of the specialty applications that many people need start costing money, the only way that companies or individuals will use the Linux OS and apps vs Windows or Mac with their apps is if the Linux apps cost a whole helluva lot less.

I do totally agree with his views on packaging though. Pick one package format, and stick with it.

Biggest problem I have with Linux, and it's a show stopper, is no IM client that supports web cams. Pidgin is a great little program but their faq states clearly that it does not support a web cam and has no particular interest in adding support any time soon. It would be nice if Logitec or some other web cam manufacturer, would take up the matter. Probably be an afternoons work for them.

Wine?

Anyways, that is a great presentation. I learned a lot.

Of course they aren't going to make it pay-to download but they will make it so it's more obvious that they need donations. One day when i'm rich i'm going to donate a crapload of money to these projects.

With so many netbooks and laptops out on the market that feature a built-in 1.3megapixel web-cam, I can't imagine how they don't have an appropriate app to take advantage of one.

Yeah- though for the multi-monitor stuff, Ubuntu 9.04 handles it seamlessly out-of-the-box now- when before I had to hack around to get two monitors set up, I was pleased to see that I didn't have to do this when I did a fresh install of 9.04 on my system.

That was my thinking also. Since everybody I am interested in chatting with already has a Yahoo account YahooIM is the only one I am really interested in.

http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/

I do use skype for long distance callsI love it. I can call the US from Korea for two cents a minute. But the people I want to chat with don't usually have access to skype. They generally use internet cafe's and such. BUT.

The point has been rendered academic. Kapote, part of KDE, supports web cams and microphones. A member of a Thailand centric forum pointed me to it in their off topic section. I have set it up and it recognized my web cam just fine. I haven't been able to check the mic yet because none of my contacts are on line at the moment.

The only hoop I had to jump was installing the Jasper Library, which for some reason is not done by default when you install KDE. Which I had to do as I'm using Ubuntu rather than Kubuntu. I found directions for doing that in the Kapote help file. Use the synaptic package manager and search for Jasper. There are only three hits, click to install them all. Wham bam, you're in business.