Desktop OS: To be or not to be...

[Smokin Chevy]

On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 8:27 AM, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 4:41 AM, Smokin Chevy <chevy4x4burb at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Anyway, I finally switched my main desktop to Ubuntu 64bit Desktop.
>
> What version?
>

10.10





>
> > I would
> > have to say after a week of running it that I do not think that Ubuntu is
> > fully up to speed to be a desktop OS.  Atleast not past a standard
> desktop
> > computer.  My biggest complaint is that in order to drag a window across
> my
> > four LCDs I have to enable Xinerama.  Xinerama is not compatible with
> compiz
> > so there goes any visual effects including the proper display of Docky.
>
> Works fine for me. I'm running 10.04 with an old free 256MB nVidia
> 7800GTX card, the latest nVidia drivers from Ubuntu's repos, and
> Compiz works fine.
>

If you are using nVidia drivers, though, you should be using their
> TwinView feature, not Xinerama. Xinerama does work but I've not needed
> it in 5y or something. It belongs back in the Matrox, 2D desktop era,
> for me. Certainly I've had a composited multihead desktop working fine
> for 2-3y now.
>
> Twinview is not what I wanted.  Twinview stretches the desktop across the
two monitors on each card.  My panel will be stretched across and if I
maximize a window, it will stretch across.  If I want to drag a window from
screen to screen, I am limited to the two on a card.  I can not drag across
multiple graphics adapters without xinerama.





> Docky, OTOH, I found broken beyond belief. I have tried every
> GNOME-compatible dock I have heard of and the only one that is barely
> usable, to me, is ADeskBar, and then only as a task switcher. Most of
> its advanced functionality is broken (notification area & volume
> control don't work at all; drawers work but could find no way to put
> anything in or on them; the clock works fine but is non-interactive,
> e.g., it doesn't display a calendar when clicked, a core function for
> me.)
>

I will try that one out.  Thank you for the suggestion.

>
> > Other quirkiness appears from time to time.  I may have the
> > audio unmuted and it will display so in 2 or three monitors and the
> others
> > will show in the panel that the sound is muted.
>
> You only have one sound system. You /can/ only have one sound system,
> really. So having >1 volume control makes no sense. If you have volume
> controls on every desktop, you have an irrational setup & I would not
> expect it to work.
>
I know.  But if you have the display set to seperate X sessions, it will put
the panels on all sessions which include the volume controll/icon.


>
>
> >  I can have a Screenlets
> > daemon icon on one monitor but none of the others so it requires going
> > through the menu to add a widget to a desktop.  To top it off about 20
> > minutes ago I tried highlighting something that I had typed on google and
> > the mouse started spastically fluttering around three of the four screens
> > like little gnats.  The digital clock stopped and froze.  I knew at that
> > point that X had left the building.  The lights were on but nobody was
> home.
>
> I think I've had X crashes about 3 or 4 times since I moved to Ubuntu
> 4.10 in 2004. But then, I've never tried quad-head using 2 cards. I
> run dual-head and have done for about 12-13yr now. Originally on a
> pair of Matrox Millennia, then on a G400, then on a G550, then on
> various old free nVidia cards.
>
> My cards are a pair of 8800s from PNY.  I think that they are the GTXs.
Not sure.  They are the 512MB version.




> > My thoughts are that Ubuntu is probably the closest and being mainstream
> > desktop ready but they just aren't quite there yet.
> >
> > Anyone with constructive thoughts?
>
> Well, it works for me, in some quite demanding roles, and it's working
> for about a thousand customers and clients of mine so far, so I'd say
> that for my money it is ready, yes.
>
> I would have to point out that what you are trying to do is far from
> ordinary, by the sound of it.
>

Years ago I had 7 monitors hooked up to one of my towers with windows xp.
It took a dual head AGP, two dual head PCIs, and a single head PCI that I
had laying around.  Can we say "PCI bus saturation"?  lol




>
> --
> Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
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>
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