And - Done!

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello

Just to proudly inform everyone who cares to know - i have finally done "it" today. My main machine now runs exclusively Ubuntu 8.04 as it's one and only OS.

Thunderbird with Webmail and Hotmail add-ons actually does sync my Hotmail accounts (it doesn't like the "live.com" one tough) BETTER than Microsoft's "Windows Live Mail Desktop" which is supposed to do just that......

Last quirks still to be solved - my IrDA thingy works, i can see it there in "lsusb" but i can't get it to receive or send any files...... a bunch of text messages coming from "network manager" when shutting down, apparently this one shuts down AFTER some other things which it actually relies on.... it's a bug, i'm sure the Ubuntu folks will have fixed it soon, no solution as of yet. Oh, and that wretched TV-out issue. For now everytime i want to watch something on the TV i'll have to change the resolution of the monitor to get cloned output working correctly...... maybe some day a genius can provide a solution (or i get so good at this command line stuff that i can do it myself).

Cool things: My scanner, err... printer, all-in-one thing with a screwed-up printer part. No driver installation! (Major headache to get THAT one to work in Vista and XP with HP's mega-suite - 160 MB "driver" required!!) Linux? Plug in, turn on, WORKS. Strange but true, it worked right out of the box, no setup, NOTHING. And scans perfectly to Xsane, in as MUCH better quality than under Vista (same resolution!) so probably HP produced a shitty driver for Windows.

Moving around USB things - under Windows, plug the same USB thingy (bluetooth!) in a different port and it'll ask for the driver CD. Linux? Narda, just works.

Oh, and the internet is faster!!! No bullsh!t. Using uTorrent under Windows, i got full download speed what my connection is supposed to give, but UPload i got about half that - max some 40 kB/s up. Under Linux, i still use uTorrent (in Wine) as Linux's native apps just lag features i am used to (love Deluge - but no "stop" button?? Just "pause"??? Come on....) and this uTorrent under Wine under Linux gives me a full 50 kB/s - which is the limit i've set. NEVER reached that high under Windows, XP or Vista!

I still have my Vista/XP hard drive, safely tucked away in one of those USB enclosures - if Linux decided to break some day, i'll be up and running in minutes again. Fingers crossed i won't need that HDD again

Best regards....

Thanh

[Richard-BKK]

Yes the latest Ubuntu is great, and yes HP products work better with Linux. HP is one of the leading Linux supporters.

[dave_boo]

Well, when I put my SuSE machine on the company's intranet, it can print to the network printer when the server goes down--even though the local Windows machines can not.

Your clone mode probably should be switched to dual view. This would prevent the problems with having to have the same crappy PAL resolution on both monitors.

One thing you may wish to consider; if you have external drives formatted NTFS and you don't dismount them properly for whatever reason the journaling may make Ubuntu complain about it. Reformatting them to a 'real' filesystem will solve this since Linux will be able to perform a file check on it.

[dave_boo]

Well, when I put my SuSE machine on the company's intranet, it can print to the network printer when the server goes down--even though the local Windows machines can not.

Your clone mode probably should be switched to dual view. This would prevent the problems with having to have the same crappy PAL resolution on both monitors.

One thing you may wish to consider; if you have external drives formatted NTFS and you don't dismount them properly for whatever reason the journaling may make Ubuntu complain about it. Reformatting them to a 'real' filesystem will solve this since Linux will be able to perform a file check on it.

[Richard-BKK]

Hi Than-BKK,

You maybe want to look at Medibuntu Repro to install the W32 codec files and DVD library. With this, and Mplayer installed you are able to play Microsoft files

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello

Thank you for reply. As for the NTFS formatted drives, for now i'll keep them that way - i just started using Linux full-time yesterday and it has to "establish" itself with me before i make the next step and convert these drives. As it is now, if *something* happens, i can pull the data HDD out and hook it up to any Windows machine to have my data. If i format them to a Linux-native format, this is not the case (yes i know there's a tool to let Windows access Linux-native partitions - have you tried it? Installing it on Vista fuc_ks up the system in a way that you have to do a system-restore! Been there, done that - just three days ago!)

About the resolotion thing, i tried "twin view" - the problem is that Linux then thinks instead of two monitors i have one large one - Windows does that, too, but on Windows i have icons, taskbar etc only on the monitor while the TV has only a wallpaper (same wallpaper as the monitor!) and i can move any open Window onto the TV to let it run fullscreen there. On Linux however, my ONE Wallpaper is stretched (!) to cover both monitors as if it were one widescreen, and so does the taskbar, AWN-dock etc. Horrible to see that. Then i rather have the monitor run in non-native 1024x768 for the time i am watching a movie on the TV-screen (my computer is my DVD player).

Best regards.....

Thanh

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi Than-BKK,

You maybe want to look at Medibuntu Repro to install the W32 codec files and DVD library. With this, and Mplayer installed you are able to play Microsoft files

Hello

You must have written that reply while i was writing mine.....

I don't know what codecs are installed on my Ubuntu but it plays everything fine already.... i think i DID get the "w32codec" something from Ubuntu's regular repository..... it was in the update if i remember correctly. I heard about the "medibuntu" one, but as i can already play just about everything....... all files and DVD's open in Mplayer, and some (like mp4) open, too, but won't play - these i play in VLC. Works fine

Kind regards.....

your Thanh

[tigerbeer]

ubuntu is really wonderful with the new 8.04. only thing is that WINE does not work for me on my machine.

[Jimmy in Bangkok]

Well done Thanh,

you were having a few issues with Linux there before and I'm glad you didn't give up on it and persevered. Great to see you get it all up and running and I hope you have many hours of enjoyment out of Ubuntu. Congratulations.

Cheers

Jimmy

[Thanh-BKK]

Thank you so much

Yeah, i am sitting in front of my Ubuntu box right now, typing away happily in a Firefox 3.0 beta that's stunningly stable for me...... i have spend many hours just reading the Ubuntu forums, seems like many people have lots of problems with 8.04 Hardy, mostly with laptops...... i have to say, no problems for me so far (touching wood).

The few Windows applications i still rely on (until i have found something equal which is Linux-native) run in Wine without complaining and i am finding little tweaks here and there to make the system better - just today i got hold of a solution for the "shutdown network-manager error messages" issue.

I am really surprised how many file types this Linux can handle "out of the box" - ok the apps that open things aren't fancy as their original apps, but it gets the job done - pdf, docx, ogg, rar, flv.... to name but a few, Ubuntu handles them ALL.

And the funniest thing is still the "Hotmail" one. Imagine - a Microsoft service fails to work, using a Microsoft application on a Microsoft OS. And then comes Ubuntu and that same Microsoft service is coaxed into working just excellent, using an open source application (T-Bird) in an open source OS (Ubuntu!)

What Microsoft would think about that..???

I experience it twice daily now - just start T-Bird and in less than a minute i have two Hotmails, one True and a bunch of G-Mails checked and properly downloaded and sorted into dedicated folders on my HDD, including all attachments. Bill, are you reading this? Such is what people want for Windows Only the one "live.com" stubbornly refuses to work with T-Bird, getting the "bad vibes" message.

Plus, heck, i like the name of this program! "T-Bird". That just sounds so much better than "Windows Live Mail Desktop".

One happy Linux-convert here.... now thinking what to do with my spare computer that was my Linux test platform. I still got that Vista DVD somewhere......... nah. They still got AGP graphic caeds at Panthip? I think i'll drop a brown note into that box and get one of them Nvidia ones with 256 MB, like i have in the main machine now, just AGP..... i have a (defunct) third computer that was supposed to be a video recorder, with a TV capture card that kind of refuses to work under the installed XP... if i could get that to work... in Ubuntu?? There's 512 MB RAM in that machine, my full-blown Ubuntu here uses a mere 340 MB, so i guess it'll fly on that machine...... hehe i see some weekend project here Just have to somehow convince it to use the TV as it's only monitor.

I'll keep plugging

Best regards.....

Thanh