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

[Liam Proven]

On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Smokin Chevy <chevy4x4burb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> 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.

No it doesn't. You misunderstand what it does. It splits the desktop
so you have multiple independent ones. I am looking at my settings
right now as I write. I have no split panels, maximisation is to just
that screen not to all of them, and so on.

>> 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.

You have to download it - it's not in the repos.

>> > 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.

Then use Twinview!

>> >  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.

Not tried multiple nVidias under Linux, I must admit, but they should work fine.

It /might/ be worth trying to update the video ROMs under Windows.

>> > 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

Wow! I'm impressed. I never went beyond AGP+2 PCI cards, and after
early experiments, I always stick to 1 vendor. I *have* got nVidia +
ATI to work, but it was nightmare.
>
>
>
>>
>> --
>> 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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-- 
Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508