[TriLUG] Best Linux Desktop and Desktop Apps?

[David McDowell]

Until recently I also had a T42 and Ubuntu 5.10 hibernate was working
fine.  I never did bother with suspend or sleep.  Unfortunately,
although it worked fine, it was still S L O W in comparison to the way
XP hibernated... and I mean extremely slow, especially the wake up
process.  That's ok, it did work perfectly, so the speed will come. 
Hibernate didn't work in 5.04 and the sleep functions took some
tweaking: http://www.turnpike420.net/linux/IBM_T42_acpi.txt ; so 5.10
made huge strides.  :)

David McD


On 3/10/06, Jason Tower <jason at cerient.net> wrote:
> get a thinkpad t42 and install ubuntu (then install kubuntu-desktop).
> you really can't go wrong with this combo - everything works (with the
> possible exception of suspend/hibernate which i never use myself).  if
> you just gotta run windows apps, install vmware-player and run them in a
> virtual machine.  i don't do much multimedia stuff so i'll leave those
> app suggestions to future posts.
>
> jason
>
> Tarus Balog wrote:
> > Okay, this topic is a little long, so let me apologize in advance.
> >
> > My 12" Powerbook turned 3 last month, and it's time to think about a
> > new laptop. The Intel Powerbooks are too new for me (if I get one of
> > those I'll probably wait until this summer or if possible after the
> > Developer's Conference in August) although the one we have in the
> > office is screaming fast.
> >
> > While I love my Powerbook, I am getting a little nervous about the
> > direction that Apple is taking with respect to DRM. I used to have an
> > Alfa Romeo, and when a saw one in a movie I rented (they still sell
> > them in Europe) I want to send the picture to a friend to figure out
> > the model. So I placed the DVD in my Mac, paused on the frame with  car,
> > and tried to take a screenshot.
> >
> > A dialog popped up saying that I couldn't do that.
> >
> > What? I can understand taking steps to protect against ripping an
> > entire DVD, but a picture from it? Get real. I brought up VLC and  took
> > the picture anyway, but it did tarnish the love affair I was  having
> > with my laptop (no comments from the peanut gallery, please).
> >
> > Next, Mac hardware is just so darn expensive. Even the switch to  Intel
> > won't do much for that, and it looks like AMD is taking names  in the
> > speed department in any case. We bought an AMD64 powered  Shuttle for
> > demoes that is crazy fast.
> >
> > Finally, the Linux desktop, quite frankly, has gotten much, much  better
> > in the last three years. I usually run Debian on my servers  and have
> > little interaction with a graphical desktop, but I find it  easier to
> > use CentOS on 64-bit machines, and when I am using KDE on  those systems
> > I have been pleasantly surprised at how nice it is.
> >
> > So - before I buy my next Mac I was thinking about playing with using
> > Linux as a desktop again.
> >
> > On to the questions:
> >
> > 1) What should I look at in terms of a nice, clean, powerful desktop?  I
> > like KDE. Is there a distro out there that is stable enough to use  in a
> > mission critical application (i.e. my desktop) that is current  enough
> > to contain lots of cool, bright, shiny things? I think Debian  is out
> > since I don't want to run sid. CentOS? Ubuntu? I doubt anyone  has
> > duplicated the usefulness of Exposé, but one can hope.
> >
> > 2) Recommended apps? I believe I will have to have CodeWeavers just
> > because my job requires access to Office and I'd like access to  iTunes,
> > but others:
> >
> > Office: OpenOffice, KOffice?
> > iTunes: xmms?
> > Photoshop: Gimp
> > Mail: Thunderbird
> > Browser: Firefox
> > Widgets: ?
> > Calendar: ?
> > Address Book: ?
> > Adium: ?
> > iPhoto: Gallery?
> > iMovie: ?
> > iDVD: ?
> >
> > 3) Connectivity: How is the current support for wireless (I love the
> > "Location" feature of OSX) and bluetooth? iSync?
> >
> > I make my living with open source software and I truly believe in it.  I
> > think that the community has done a great job of porting standard  Linux
> > apps to OSX and creating new open source offerings for the  platform.
> > But there is something in the back of my mind that keeps  nagging me
> > that Apple may be turning evil, and now would be a good  time to figure
> > out if there are some alternatives. I may have grown  too comfortable
> > with my Mac "just working" but it is worth a shot.
> >
> > Thanks for any suggestions.
> >
> > -T
> >
> > -----
> >
> > Tarus Balog
> > The OpenNMS Group, Inc.
> > Main  : +1 919 545 2553   Fax:   +1 503-961-7746
> > Direct: +1 919 647 4749   Skype: tarusb
> > Key Fingerprint: 8945 8521 9771 FEC9 5481  512B FECA 11D2 FD82 B45C
> >
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