tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28200531765355482992024-03-05T04:21:25.681-08:00PCLinuxOS - the Big Daddy of Desktop LinuxDesktop relevant reviews, tips, tweaks and rants related to Linux in general and PCLinuxOS in particular.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-24917561146009051202015-11-03T19:53:00.000-08:002016-02-04T22:27:22.506-08:00Stoning the Glass Windows, Microsoft's OS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg74WJKDhF-ny51NrwRWW5ImYsW1ABsdpNxb008UgPIsiTRES37nP9gxRsku0ogGkFgKqG8WNGHsQQiLdt9EvnI1SzZd0V0vomcpDsF6Ygks7Mn0D8EpxLvNem9oZax-gqUaAmsWfeHSxau/s1600/Broken-Microsoft-Windows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg74WJKDhF-ny51NrwRWW5ImYsW1ABsdpNxb008UgPIsiTRES37nP9gxRsku0ogGkFgKqG8WNGHsQQiLdt9EvnI1SzZd0V0vomcpDsF6Ygks7Mn0D8EpxLvNem9oZax-gqUaAmsWfeHSxau/s320/Broken-Microsoft-Windows.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
It's been 6 months in my current organization, GrocerMax, an <a href="https://grocermax.com/">online grocery retailer</a> by veterans in the retail industry. But I could use Windows initially only for a week, then I had to retreat to the cozy comfort of CEntOS whereas the IT infrastructure here have been predominantly Windows, except for a few laptops where Ubuntu sits on, in the development bay. Windows, the OS, is no more a means to do some task, it's a road block. Most often I see people working for the Windows, not on the Windows. Put Windows on how shiny or superb hardware you've, it will soon crawl on the knees. Ours are mostly i5 dominated laptops with (unnecessarily) nVidia 820 gpu for graphics. Forget the heavy-lifting on these machines, most are barely able to use them. I'll explain the reasons for this bad experience, and how we're planning to break open the windows for a greener vista outside. For starters, we've to struggle on spreadsheets ridden with macros and formulae. Follow the run.<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Ever-growing footprint</b>: For the sake of compatibility Microsoft has been offering the full stack of 32bit libraries even if you're running a 64bit edition. The result is heavy footprint of several GBs, on the upper side of 30GBs or so. The scenario is so worse that you can't have a pure 64bit experience and get the benefits of performance. Gross! If delve down, you'll know there are thousands electronic waste bytes. A proof - Windows 10 still supports 16bit executables, has a heavy compatibility layer for this architecture.</li>
<li><b>Vendor appeasement</b>: Microsoft parasites mostly on OEM subscriptions and enterprise copies in this side of the world, south and central Asia, where 90% of the self & retail installations are pirated copies. So, to appease vendors you must have support for their devices, for this get drivers ready in the install base. Take any Windows, 7, 8, 8.1, or 10, you'll find 1000s of residues. Your specific computer may have 10 something subcomponents for audio, video, internet and communications. On the brighter side, Windows won't ask you for drivers if you put on old hardware, say 5 years or more. But on the downside, you have to carry along the truck load of device drivers. Besides, OEMs slug the system down further with their home-brewed bloatware. Take Dell for example, it bundles more than a dozen of its applications in its preinstallations, which nobody uses.</li>
<li><b>Controversial decisions</b>: Surprisingly Windows XP still sits on 14% of the consumer user base. And has a cult following. It was an insecure shit hole, a virus paradise for sure, however, it opened the world to a trusted paradigm of computing, the start screen and menu, feather-weight install base and almost guaranteed unobtrusive operation, till a virus/malware took the control. Then on, the world has seen controversial decisions starting with Vista, be it the moronity called metro interface of tiled shit that gave a Halloween experience on the press of a start button, or the never ending upgrade trips consuming hours of your productivity.</li>
<li><b>Insecure by design</b>: Gates offered Windows, sounds punny? Not so if I say, Bill Gates put together Microsoft Windows. His was a good idea, bring an appliance like model to the Unix dominated computing space. He gave passengers the steering wheel, or put them on auto-pilot mode. Yes, that's what you do if you give the user user all the administrative rights including adding/removing software with that click-click-go or bingo pattern. Sadly, viruses and malware are also some software, albeit malevolent or faulty, they take the administrative rights too. Of course, windows has options to create a local user without administrative privileges and changing the accounts to that effect, but average Joe doesn't know or care. Do you know Windows is the only OS that requires an antivirus software, and the reason for the boom of many IT companies baking these contentious software? Apple went a different route, re-engineering unix base and building on it. The Mach kernel on your Macbook borrows heavily on Unix. Inherently more stable and safe. And it brims of commercial gloss on the outer layers.</li>
<li><b>Growing entropy</b>: For the sake of ease and familiarity (not UI, but operations) Windows has been patching here and there. It has become so cluttered that there is almost no way out to fight the devastating Windows rot (a popular term that describes how Windows gets slower with time). In windows world there's no way to uninstall an application fully and cleanly, removing the entries from registry and killing the configurations from the accounts folder (that Applications and Settings directory). Windows updates from one version to another is highly unreliable and take up lots of disk space. After you update it, I bet you'll get orphan bits from previous version at many places. Sadly on Windows 10 most updates are shoveled down your throat, choosing and managing your updates is very tough, though not impossible. And the real safe mode went for a toss in the recent versions. It's there, but nested deep inside. It's really difficult to debug, and Microsoft's operations are so vast that they are not approachable.</li>
</ol>
<br />
What to do?<br />
<br />
<b>The Microsoft way</b>: Nliting/Viliting (taking unnecessary bits out from the install image/iso). Deploying that on user desktops/laptops. Administering the machines with proper group policy, moderating the user rights, imposing active directory, filter/saving data through a proxy server.<br />
<br />
Or the <b>Unix/Linux way</b>: Success is not guaranteed. But cultural shock is for sure, because most are unfamiliar with this platform. And those in the know use a Toy, Ubuntu (Microsoft wannabe of Linux world). The real tool CEntOS is not that easy though it's a saner alternative that requires blue pills initially. CEntOS install routines and customization is definitely more difficult. Some components are not supposed to work right out of the box like it does automagically (wrong word with a right meaning) on Ubuntu. But once done, you get 10 years of support, painless computing and much goodies on the way.<br />
<br />
Be it *Buntu or CEntOS, transition from Microsoft Office to a certain alternative such as LibreOffice or WPS Office is tedius. I'm sure getting a hang of power-user options on these free suits will be time-intensive. And there's a certain amount of FUD if all can emulate their Windows habits.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-91406861883655198652014-04-09T23:50:00.001-07:002015-01-18T21:15:07.188-08:00Linux Desktop - Zealotry does more harm than good<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKxM-JoJRVJJeohHCrhzBSEcCXmINLkVpUhpMOXHd2LRPeS4526oLpPbGbNr4nKtxesE2kseQDPZ-TrVQ3Spwkx_lOtfBJWYaVWIvtsAwVNtJWocPHp9c8IJae4TaTkRwM0yiK4xm3t1g/s1600/linuxzealot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKxM-JoJRVJJeohHCrhzBSEcCXmINLkVpUhpMOXHd2LRPeS4526oLpPbGbNr4nKtxesE2kseQDPZ-TrVQ3Spwkx_lOtfBJWYaVWIvtsAwVNtJWocPHp9c8IJae4TaTkRwM0yiK4xm3t1g/s1600/linuxzealot.jpg" height="320" width="261" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Is Microsoft and/or Apple holding Linux back? May be, to some extent. However, the real problem is the Linux World itself - the platform and the community. The platform, because it is really not ready for the desktop. The community, because it constantly pushes "holier than thou" attitude for itself and the platform.<br />
<br />
The Platform<br />
<br />
It's great the way it is. But it's definitely not for the majority. And it's not bad in being so. By design it's a diy, modular, reveal-all, extremely scalable and customizable platform. If you love computers you'll love Linux on your desktop too. Hands down, it beats the competition in performance and security (the server space). It powers the web. It is a winner in the mobile space through Android where it's all about UX and apps (millions), no freedom of choice/chaos is there in terms of system components, it's extremey dumbed down, even to the extent that most users don't know it is powered by Linux kernel, let alone their knowledge of the subsystems.<br />
<br />
As a Desktop OS Linux suffers from serious problems. They are all well documented by Artem in his herculean compilation: http://linuxfonts.narod.ru/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html<br />
However, it's good as long as it serves some users. Technically, it is better in many respects. But that doesn't mean we'll forcefully shovel it down someone's throat.<br />
<br />
It is as different as any other OS is from another. It's rewarding too, if you love to work for your desktop, and don't mind occasional glitches. Forget the brain-fucked "Desktop of the Year" aspiration for the rest of your life. However, arguably it deserves better visibility and more adoption than what it enjoys now. Had there been no zealotry, it would have been sitting on lot more desktops.<br />
<br />
The Community<br />
<br />
Satisfaction is something that matches our preoccupation or exceeds it. Disappointment is something that falls short of the expectations or preoccupations. It applies to products, people and services. Often the evangelists would say Linux is best in terms of performance, usability, security, stability, beauty and couple other superlatives. Whereas there is no basis to boast that, definitely no quantifiable method to reach that conclusion. Had the evangelists not touted Linux out of proportion and bashed the corporates for no reason, it could have created a better impression. The approach should be - "If you won't mind investing some time, use it and check for yourself whether it fits your needs. It's different than Windows or OS X."<br />
<br />
Geeky era has gone. It's not fashionable any more to show the compiz cubes to your girlfriend, if you don't mind losing her. Price and Security don't cut it much in favor of Desktop Linux either, though it's inherently more secure. People work on application software, not on OS. And most popular FOSS software is available for those other OSes too. Bashing of Microsoft, Proprietary software and Corporates is not going to help you, until you create a unified/cohesive experience on desktop. (It reminds me of the 80-90s bollywood masala flicks where most of the protagonists were poor, and the bad guys were always rich. Ridiculously, the climax, the showdown was always staged in a godown. Stereotyped so much - some took that rich people were always bad... )<br />
<br />
When driven by false ego and/or obsession, please get down your high horses, understand it's just another OS.<br />
For fun let's see the tone and approach of the community. Here I'll site some examples from muktware, followed by my comments. Rest it's all up to you to judge.<br />
<br />
#1<br />
<br />
Will free Windows make Microsoft bleed to death?<br />
http://www.muktware.com/2014/04/can-microsofts-free-windows-compete-linux-android/25059<br />
<br />
The title hides much than it shows. And what it shows is an utterly biased interpretation of the kind told million times before on those FOSS (FUSS) websites, and none saw the light of the day. Please read the post.<br />
<br />
Foremost, Microsoft is not going to offer its pot-boiler OS for Desktops and Servers for free. Microsoft did made a statement about offering it's OS for Mobile devices to the ISVs. Besides, desktop is not going to die any time soon. FYI, the corporate is not worried by linux community, because it knows the latter's direction-less approach. Given the current model of linux desktop, every ISV is damn sure that the community will never get its priorities right when it comes to desktop. What worries it is Google. No denying of the fact. If google adds some offline mainstream applications plus some options to window listing/switching, it'll definitely make a huge dent to the MS dominance.<br />
<br />
#2<br />
<br />
Reasons why Windows XP users should upgrade to openSUSE <br />
http://www.muktware.com/2014/03/reasons-windows-xp-users-upgrade-opensuse/24418<br />
<br />
It's somewhat OK if you change the title to "Reasons why Windows XP Home users should upgrade to openSUSE". That "Home" in the suggested title is about "Home Users" and not "Windows XP Home".<br />
Similarity in looks is only thing that I could relate to in that post, nothing else. So much QA, bug fixing and years later XP is almost perfect (though reached EOL), it beats OpenSuse in polish, performance and stability. And please don't go by GIMP, LibreOffice, PiTiVi at workplace. A compromising home user may probably switch to OpenSuse KDE. Most of your XP machines can accommodate Windows 7/8 quite well, if you can take some time to nlite/vlite them. Google is your God. Do it to know how.<br />
<br />
#3<br />
<br />
What are Chromebooks? And why you don’t need Windows any more...<br />
http://www.muktware.com/2014/03/chromebooks-dont-need-windows/23561<br />
<br />
True, only if you're a web-junkie. Else you'll still need Windows for a wide variety of tasks, the author somewhat reveals it at the end. Grossly misleading if you go by the title and lacking substance.<br />
<br />
#4<br />
<br />
Microsoft to cut on software development, focus on ads<br />
http://www.muktware.com/2014/03/microsofts-cut-software-debelopment-focus-ads/22321<br />
<br />
What's newsworthy here? Microsoft is a for-profit organization. Wealth creation is no sin. And around Microsoft millions of people are employed. It's prospering them too. Ok, let's admit the company has done enough development already, and it tries to outdo Google in marketing. What's so wrong in that? 98% of users don't bother what this company does as long as they are happy with its products.<br />
<br />
Finally, the world view you have is quite different from the real world.<br />
<br />
#5<br />
<br />
Indian state drops Windows, switches to Linux <br />
http://www.muktware.com/2014/04/indian-state-drops-windows-switches-linux/25011<br />
<br />
Yes it did. So many others did too. And then some have undone. The rest will follow. For the reasons best described by Artem.<br />
<br />
#6 <br />
<br />
London borough drops Windows, goes with Chromebooks, saves around £400,000 <br />
http://www.muktware.com/2014/04/london-borough-opts-google-chromebooks-saves-around-400000/25121<br />
<br />
They are considering the options, and it's one of them. But they have not moved yet. Besides, what good does it hold to inflate figures? The calculation also deliberately ignores the bulk licensing and corporate customization part.<br />
<br />
That's a few from one website who is SAVING THE HUMAN RACE from certain Microsoft or Apple epidemic. The web is littered with tons such pedestrian FOSS literature.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-57414666359221844702014-03-16T12:13:00.002-07:002014-03-25T06:26:08.670-07:00Fedora 20 64bit Mate Review: Sacrificing a Virgin<b>Prologue</b><br />
<br />
Once upon a time I gifted one of my friends a Fedora 10 LiveCD. Five years went by. I met him on facebook three days back. Asked him about his Linux experience. Got a funny reply:<br />
<br />
I had so many problems on linux<br />
finally I solved them all..............<br />
............................................<br />
............................................<br />
.......... I installed Windows.<br />
<br />
Any kind of review is intimidating. Reviewing an Open Source Operating System is more so. You need to have enough information and knowledge (the two are different) of OS basics and UX. Goes without saying, the reviewer must have flair for writing - should know how to put it all together. The readers expect some precision, grammatical rules and meaningful/practical information. For the reviewer it means pulling out his/her own intestines. In case of Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X any release is an epic event and any review on them is very much mercurial. But most of the Linux distribution reviews are trash - impractical, ego-laden surface-scratching. Sometimes it seems the reviewers are not qualified for the job, other times it feels the releases are non-event owing to their frequency and buggy character. Also changes between successive releases are not so ground-shaking.<br />
<br />
Generally a linux desktop review starts with a nice picture of a desktop-cube effect or a pretty login screenshot. That's it. Then the rundown is predictable - the livecd experience, the looks, the install routine, the responsiveness and the resource usage. Plus personal bias thrown here and there. The reviewers have a different (may be distorted too) world-view. For them, every new feature is shinny. They almost always suggest their readers to update for any tiny change in version number. They are unaware of the vast non-Linux user base who update only when there is a real need, only when something is pressing. I've seen people happily using Windows XP even till date. Often the update to Windows 7 was forced up on them via new devices.<br />
<br />
Having said that, I must add Linux desktops don't shun me. Because, perhaps I don't mind "working for" a system, whereas most users "work on" a system. I don't bother random annoyances, whereas 98% of users will flee away. Because I know Linux desktop is ridden with bigger and more serious perennial problems. That's why, in comparison, the random annoyances are kind of non-existent.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-hB_G-wW8EWJXcPm9946dnRZG9Big9z7DcXirq87ZkV5TmahF-MEo-FdTUKsLpldESLxgzYdwKlZGy9-QVdKlC13Y0IHVctiU8xP0rv0YLQK_d189Zvb5mAgOe9NLiWuOoHw8q1PwkKK/s1600/Screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-hB_G-wW8EWJXcPm9946dnRZG9Big9z7DcXirq87ZkV5TmahF-MEo-FdTUKsLpldESLxgzYdwKlZGy9-QVdKlC13Y0IHVctiU8xP0rv0YLQK_d189Zvb5mAgOe9NLiWuOoHw8q1PwkKK/s1600/Screenshot.png" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Let's start our Fedora 20 Mate Spin review. Shall we?<br />
<br />
Touching 2014 CEntOS 6 started showing its age. Partly because I bought a new system, and partly because many of my favorite mainstream proprietary applications either did not work, or did very badly. Then some other applications required the latest glibc. I was damn sure such a critical package will never be pushed as an update. Of course, I was flirting with Debian Wheezy and a few other distributions. Sadly, none could offer that gnome2 "usability:performance" combination. Often, it was a trade off with one or the other. Now that Mate desktop has made way into Fedora official spins, I found it's a worthy candidate. Chances were pretty high that I'll be on the bleeding edge of gnu tool chains, latest kernel, glibc, and of course, the application software. On top of all these, there's Mate desktop.<br />
<br />
<b>The Test Machine</b><br />
<br />
A Gigabyte H68 board, G2120 proc, Nvidia GTX graphics, Atheros Lan, Huawei modem, Logitech HD webcam, Samsung DVD RW drive, Western Digital 2TB green hard drive.<br />
<br />
<b>The Good</b><br />
<br />
Downloading Fedora 20 64bit Mate spin took an hour. Installation was pretty fast. The freshly booted system looked familiar pre-fedora 14 like. The panels, the icon set, control-center and that ugly gnome effects were all there. Then I pulled in my usual application stack - a media player, a screen recorder, a voice recorder, ffmpeg, an offline dictionary, webcam recorder, disc burner, flash and other popular multimedia plugins. With rpmfusion repo configured, the installation of these apps was breezy. That's a good thing about Linux software management. You've a great package manager, centrally managed repo structure, and a fairly large base of software. Installation and removal of software is almost always clean, unlike Windows that leaves so much residues at places you can't sniff or suspect.<br />
<br />
All my devices were recognized and configured well. By default the system was using onboard Intel graphics. That was just perfect for everyday purpose. But later I installed nvidia non-free drivers.<br />
<br />
Yum in Fedora 20 is a great improvement over Centos 6 and earlier Fedora releases. It does the best use of delta management, and package cleaning. I am falling for systemd, another definite improvement over the traditional sysv. I am surprised by its speed and parallelization powers. It takes much of the process onto itself and does a great job at it. I'm fan of its masking and unmasking safe manageability.<br />
<br />
<b>The Bad</b><br />
<br />
So far, so good. But I was not comfortable with the setup. Something was missing. The system was not as responsive as CEntOS 6. That much touted "Mate Desktop", I'm afraid, needed an alien army of other mates, mostly gnome 3 stuff, to keep working. Taming and managing Mate Desktop was tough. There were Gconf and DConf, metacity and marco, nautilus as well as mate file manager, and some other such redundancies. Especially network manager, network applet, login manager, and some application software needed a weird combination of toolkit packages, windows manager, file manager and some bits and pieces from other desktop environments. Not that coherent, unified and prestine like gnome 2. Mate seemed still in early alpha phases. Perhaps the whole environment is caught between gtk2 and gtk3, and gnome2 - mate -gnome3 package resolutions. Mate roadmap says it's work in progress for full wayland and systemd integration. So, expect Mate to be in transition for rather long.<br />
<br />
In the broader sense it shows how the UX is badly affected by the plural culture in things as crucial as toolkits such as qt, gtk, wxWidgets, FLTK, AWT/Swing and Tk. An application may look totally different in the presence or absense of one or more of these stuff, as per the case. Quality of the outer layer of GNU/Linux (DEs, Windows Managers, Toolkits, Login Managers, Icon Set, Themes, etc.) shows that it's developed by unpaid volunteers. Because everyone is busy with the "sexy" features galore; and none gives a flying fuck to the usability, uniformity and cohesiveness.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0YAjvaY2wYL9PDl37-bma2mCQwmIs08kliMU6kNDLOZVTm5STrSTY2uNbnKJBy_5l5oaAyeIj9TboHBlHezpQPxl-_65hb7vbDYWhhsKOT4yQAMHYrfQ5vq4HYhQv7f-QdToFxwoV1K9B/s1600/Screenshot-Appearance+Preferences.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0YAjvaY2wYL9PDl37-bma2mCQwmIs08kliMU6kNDLOZVTm5STrSTY2uNbnKJBy_5l5oaAyeIj9TboHBlHezpQPxl-_65hb7vbDYWhhsKOT4yQAMHYrfQ5vq4HYhQv7f-QdToFxwoV1K9B/s1600/Screenshot-Appearance+Preferences.png" height="248" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
As a workaround I removed all those alien mates of Mate desktop. The side effect - loss of some necessary applications such as brasero, network manager, lightdm, cheese. The next step in the process was to find the replacements of those applications that don't have any such weird dependencies. I went for gtk-recordmydesktop, audio-recorder, mpv, guvcview, xcdroast, artha, cdm. And I'm happy with what I did. Now I'm using the good old Bluecurve theme with Redhat "start here" startup menu. I curated it by adding some more icons, creating a theme file and customizing metacity window manager. The curation was a must as the new notification system, application menus and toolkits have changed a lot from what they were in good old Redhat days. Finally it's worth it.<br />
<br />
<b>The Ugly</b><br />
<br />
I started experiencing some intolerable annoyances. Every time I booted the system my mobile broadband would refuse to connect. I had to plugout and plugin on successive boots, then it would connect. Later I came to know the culprit was systemd 208. After I enabled rawhide repo and updated to systemd 211, that problem was gone.<br />
<br />
Among other problems, slow boot, high memory consumption and overall slow performance required immediate fixing. After masking unnecessary systemd units and removing unnecessary mate-session startup applications, the system became very fast and responsive. Fresh booted system consumed some 251mb memory. The average boot time from grub selection (mine is a Windows 7 / Fedora 20 dualboot mode) to fully active mate desktop was ~9 sec. Both the results are amazing. Here's some data.<br />
<br />
memory consumption:<br />
<br />
free -m<br />
<br />
total used free shared buffers cached<br />
Mem: 7902 418 7483 27 25 142<br />
-/+ buffers/cache: 251 7651<br />
<br />
that means, just 251mb for a 64bit OS with 8gb physical memory, amazing!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4JGhzknfL5eZZUdGOyDfZPUcLOaMXmVgL0ejN0c_KzEUmlRMAMNw3O3wmffFTVDCyxjJzmKWguf6KSWbPalfN97JhX0mhmn4L_zc3SCZ6lzMRqbZkWri1XmP13Tdj_UCg9oPe7SK9Gmv/s1600/Screenshot-Startup+Applications+Preferences.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4JGhzknfL5eZZUdGOyDfZPUcLOaMXmVgL0ejN0c_KzEUmlRMAMNw3O3wmffFTVDCyxjJzmKWguf6KSWbPalfN97JhX0mhmn4L_zc3SCZ6lzMRqbZkWri1XmP13Tdj_UCg9oPe7SK9Gmv/s1600/Screenshot-Startup+Applications+Preferences.png" height="273" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
boot speed:<br />
<br />
systemd-analyze <br />
Startup finished in 2.004s (kernel) + 1.088s (initrd) + 6.190s (userspace) = 9.284s<br />
<br />
systemd-analyze blame<br />
1.682s lightdm.service<br />
1.608s NetworkManager.service<br />
1.515s accounts-daemon.service<br />
1.411s systemd-fsck-root.service<br />
1.086s polkit.service<br />
730ms systemd-vconsole-setup.service<br />
729ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service<br />
716ms systemd-remount-fs.service<br />
481ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service<br />
408ms udisks2.service<br />
387ms ModemManager.service<br />
374ms rtkit-daemon.service<br />
321ms kmod-static-nodes.service<br />
254ms systemd-readahead-replay.service<br />
239ms tmp.mount<br />
202ms systemd-udev-trigger.service<br />
152ms systemd-sysctl.service<br />
118ms systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service<br />
113ms systemd-readahead-collect.service<br />
83ms systemd-random-seed.service<br />
82ms user@1000.service<br />
73ms systemd-logind.service<br />
35ms fedora-import-state.service<br />
4ms systemd-journal-flush.service<br />
3ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount<br />
3ms sys-kernel-config.mount<br />
3ms systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service<br />
2ms systemd-update-utmp.service<br />
2ms systemd-udevd.service<br />
1ms systemd-readahead-done.service<br />
941us systemd-user-sessions.service<br />
<br />
<b>Pleasant Surprises</b><br />
<br />
While updating systemd from rawhide, I had a chance to read the "check-update" data. I could see updates to glibc (2.19.90), mesa (10.1), xorg (1.15) and mate desktop (1.8). Crossed both the fingers and updated these packs. Overall it was a good decision on my part. Full HD movies, and games like Torcs ran very smooth. There was barely any frame drop, if at all.<br />
<br />
The problem with open-source graphics on Linux is that the driver stack is not self-contained. The components are scattered in the Linux kernel, DRM library, Mesa, the X.Org DDX and VA-API et al. That means updating to bleeding edge versions can be risky. May be I'm lucky this time around. And it's all playing very nice. DPI scaling, fonts antialiasing and windows shadowing were not that much of a pain. The defaults were good enough.<br />
<br />
<b>Current Software Galore </b><br />
<br />
To achieve a pristine just-Mate desktop I had to do much rpm transaction, sometimes nitpicking a few packages from rawhide (Please don't do that!). Right now my install base is touching only 3gb with the following software:<br />
<br />
Accessories<br />
- Artha dictionary<br />
- Engrampa archive manager<br />
- Mate calculator<br />
- Pluma text editor<br />
- Mate search tool<br />
- Mate screenshot<br />
- Caja file manager<br />
- Mate terminal<br />
- Bleachbit disk cleaner<br />
<br />
Games (All for my son, Piyush)<br />
- Gcompris<br />
- Childsplay<br />
- Trigger (packages from OpenSuse)<br />
- Torcs race<br />
<br />
Graphics<br />
- Eye of Mate image viewer<br />
- GIMP<br />
- ImageMagick<br />
<br />
Internet<br />
- Firefox<br />
- Pidgin<br />
- Uget<br />
<br />
Office Suite<br />
- OpenOffice 4.0.1 (I found it more responsive<br />
than Libreoffice 4.2.2)<br />
Multimedia<br />
- Audio recorder<br />
- gtk-Recordmydesktop<br />
- Guvcview webcam utility<br />
- Ffmpeg + Winff media manipulation pack<br />
- Xcdroast disc burner<br />
- Flash and other popular multimedia plugins<br />
- Mpv media player (It's more refined, fast and<br />
hassle-free than VLC and Mplayer)<br />
<b><br />Conclusion</b><br />
<br />
So, what's the gain after so much pain? Immense. If you value the theory of freedom as proclaimed by GNU/Linux. In real world scenario, you'll also get some benefits in terms of pure computing. For example, on the other OS you can only dream of the scripting capabilities of bash in combination of linux utilities. I was looking for a practical solution to digitize my favorite VCDs gathering dust. Running a nice ffmpeg batch script I could enhance and convert yesteryears classics into modern h264/aac formats that can be readily playable using any standalone device, smart phones or your desktop computer. In init 3, on a dumb terminal, ffmpeg took some 8 hours (in the night) to process more than 20 vcds.<br />
<br />
Among others, I am really surprised at the modularity of Linux, here Fedora 20 Mate. A great kernel, full bundle of productivity suite, multimedia suite, internet suite and some nice system utilities were accommodated in a sub-3gb drive space. The system booted in ~9 sec, and the initial memory foot print was just 251mb. The boot time could still be reduced had I installed it on an SSD. And the entire package base (system software and application software), manuals for each bit and piece and a vocal user/developer community are there on your fingertips. On top of it all, you are enjoying a very secure computing. All that for free, if time is not a premium for you. That's a great feat in any stretch of imagination. That you can never achieve on Windows or OSX.<br />
<br />
But the point is, how much these so called goodies concern a lay-user who is addicted to commercial gloss on Android, Windows, iOS and OSX, and who never cares about knowing the system internals, or who never buys your libertarian theories? IMO, none. But the bad UX, bad integration and loose pieces are enough to ward them off. Linux developers should know that an average Joe uses applications, not the OS. There's less benefit in showing bones of an Oh-So-Great OS.<br />
<br />
<b>Plea</b><br />
<br />
Those who don't agree with me on the "bad integration" of Linux Desktop please have a look at the design of linux graphics and audio stack, see the mess of multiple layers. Then take a fresh look at the incohesive approach to put together the toolkits, desktop environments and notification systems. For proof you may visit various bugzillas (gnome, kernel, xorg, pulseaudio, mesa, kde, the list is endless) and confirm for yourselves about the bugs that should not have occurred at the first place.<br />
<br />manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-40789689132990985212013-04-03T23:23:00.000-07:002014-02-26T10:41:58.835-08:0032-bit Ghost Still Haunts on Linux Desktop<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxilO_zZOz0Izi9aa7GuO3SNmt-DACXnbmcKe9jFGQ8_t_yJLet9wRWiGz1jH5znkeYUpipeTSRIp4PuqO5j3_dJZSaKO32nc9j-g7up2oh9a8hoCgHB1dlXn8yCtA6b0Am9pz4hyeKVV/s1600/32-bit-64-bit-linux-problems.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxilO_zZOz0Izi9aa7GuO3SNmt-DACXnbmcKe9jFGQ8_t_yJLet9wRWiGz1jH5znkeYUpipeTSRIp4PuqO5j3_dJZSaKO32nc9j-g7up2oh9a8hoCgHB1dlXn8yCtA6b0Am9pz4hyeKVV/s320/32-bit-64-bit-linux-problems.jpg" height="263" width="320" /></a></div>
People hear something about computers and repeat it mindlessly without understanding the world around them. One such example is the support for 32-bit architecture. For them a home desktop performs better on any 32-bit OS + native 32-bit applications than their 64-bit counterparts, and the user should restrict to it. It's somewhat true if that mythical user never goes beyond web browsers, word processors and media players. That's very much it. If he/she jumps into some database work, media encoding and some other CPU-intensive task, the power of 64-bit shows. It almost revolves circles around 32-bit thingy.<br />
<br />
So, what's holding 64-bit arch from replacing everything 32-bit? There are many reasons; the two most important ones are - 1) there are many 32-bit hardware still scattered around, and 2) very crucial of all, people have developed an adamant inertia for 32-bit. They'll keep sticking to it. That's why some popular software come in 32-bit only, such as Skype, Teamviewer (I know there's a 64-bit version, but inside it's still 32-bit, 64-bit is only the wrapper) and AnyConnect. Good news is - on Windows 64-bit one can easily enjoy the mix of 64-bit and 32-bit applications.<br />
<br />
Because:<br />
#1 Windows is targeted squarely by all the ISVs at its vast userbase, and<br />
#2 Microsoft through its skilled developer base is able to feed and keep alive an old dinosaur of 32-bit libraries and compatibility layers inside 64-bit OS versions to support both the arches ensuring that point-n-click usability.<br />
<br />
On Linux desktop, 64-bit architecture has it's own set of irritants. And when you try to run a mix of 64- and 32-bit apps it misbehaves. There are some endeavors like multi-arch in Debian, but it's still not there.<br />
<br />
On my CentOS-Windows (both 64-bit) dual-boot home pc, it was an uphill task to install some 32-bit-only applications on CentOS, whereas on Windows it was like a breeze.<br />
<br />
<u>32-Bit (Un)Success story and some How-To's</u><br />
<br />
Showstoppers: Cisco AnyConnect, Teamviewer, Skype<br />
<br />
Unresolved: Cisco AnyConnect. It installs quite well, but doesn't work at all. Looking for a workaround using OpenConnect. You may suggest your fixes, if any.<br />
Installed/Fully resolved: Teamviewer (<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">yum localinstall Teamviewer.rpm</span></span> or whatever the name of that 32-bit rpm, it will pull in a few 32-bit dependencies)<br />
Partially resolved: An old version of Skype (thanks CentOS Wiki, resolved partially, because you never know when the next update will break it all. <br />
<br />
Skype installation procedure:<br />
<br />
The latest version doesn't work. Please download a bit older static build (mentioned below) that's still available.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> yum install glibc.i686 nss-softokn-freebl.i686 alsa-lib.i686 libXv.i686 libXScrnSaver.i686 libtiff.i686 glib2.i686 libSM.i686 libXrender.i686 fontconfig.i686 pulseaudio-libs.i686 alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686 libv4l.i686</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">cd /tmp<br /> wget http://download.skype.com/linux/skype_static-4.0.0.8.tar.bz2</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">cd /opt<br /> tar xjvf /tmp/skype_static-4.0.0.8.tar.bz2<br /> rm /tmp/skype_static-4.0.0.8.tar.bz2<br /> ln -s skype_staticQT-4.0.0.8 skype<br /> ln -s /opt/skype /usr/share/skype<br /> ln -s /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3 /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4<br /> ln -s /opt/skype/skype /usr/bin/skype<br /> LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /opt/skype/skype</span></span><br />
<br />
That's it!manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-88122017934925297112013-02-27T20:29:00.000-08:002014-02-26T06:43:23.893-08:00Debian Wheezy - feather light and rock solid<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgegXQHj4YCbjBLUUiBNqiQolz998J-jwZcnWnm-11ZxfA-9EF18VYYiR0cFakCNbzVjZql2P2dvtW6FyBBOojcysVxPI_H6Y59nQquY13Lq5ppMsgkvqVhVbA_k1glSQ4OrZG1fQQvJ6P/s1600/Screenshot+from+2013-02-28+09:48:02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgegXQHj4YCbjBLUUiBNqiQolz998J-jwZcnWnm-11ZxfA-9EF18VYYiR0cFakCNbzVjZql2P2dvtW6FyBBOojcysVxPI_H6Y59nQquY13Lq5ppMsgkvqVhVbA_k1glSQ4OrZG1fQQvJ6P/s320/Screenshot+from+2013-02-28+09:48:02.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Question: Why do I like Debian?<br />
<br />
Short Answer: It gives me a "Debbie Does Dallas" experience. Addictive like pristine porn - no nonsense and predictive. The rest gazillion other lady-like distributions invigorate you with too much Viagra but don't show up at THAT moment.<br />
<br />
Long Answer: Read this review and/or comb the web for so many other reviews.<br />
<br />
From early days, sitting on version 4.0, that's right Etch, it flirted me. It was neither too easy, nor too beautiful, but always rock solid. Then followed Lenny and Squeeze only to reaffirm and sometimes spice up that experience.<br />
<br />
With that prelude follow the run.<br />
<br />
Wheezy from it's very alpha and beta phases put so many Debian lovers into suspicion. Whether it'll default to XFCE or Gnome; why it jumped into that gnome 3 mess; and if it'll stick to the proclaimed "2-years - one release" schedule. With the release of RC1 it certainly proved that it sticks to the schedule. Also confirmed that gnome3 is not that much of a holly mess the jerks make it out to be. Little obsolete as per Fedora and Ubuntu standards, but the latest Debian is very modern and polished.<br />
<br />
<b>Installation</b><br />
<br />
After cd/dvd drive started behaving mad while still under warranty I didn't go for a replacement. Not wise to add to plastic waste. Better use USB drives - for sharing data and creating bootable media. Debian is infamous for creating USB bootable media. Unetbootin didn't work as expected. But now you don't need it anymore. Bytecopy procedure works like a charm with netinstall images. I picked up a 64bit all-nonfree-firmware loaded netinstall image and created a usb install media with dd. In my case, it was:<br />
<br />
dd if=firmware-wheezy-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=4M; sync<br />
<br />
Change the device options as per your setup.<br />
<br />
Butter smooth install routine, as expected from a Debian installer! I chose my first SSD, an OCZ Octane SIII as / partition and dedicated a donkey 2TB WD HDD for /home. No swap (who needs swap when you've 16GB of RAM). Went for some SSD options - noatime and discard. Then followed the sane default package selection and user account creation, MBR selection, et al. Boring, it may sound, if you're accustomed to ugly surprises during installation.<br />
<br />
Install routine completed. Poweroff. Night set in. I went to bed.<br />
<br />
<b>Post Installation</b><br />
<br />
Next morning I woke up to a nice Debian Wheezy on gnome-shell. Seductive as they say, but not slutty. Never experienced any crash, gnome-shell nuisance or kernel-panic stuff. There were some minor annoyances which I hope will be fixed with the Final Release. Mind it, it's still an RC1!<br />
<br />
Everything worked. Network sharing with Windows 7 on my Asus EEE 1215b, data sharing with my ntfs partition on Windows 7, mac filesystems on a hackintos (never tell mac people), on that same machine. Then some more, bluetooth, WiFi and all.<br />
<br />
For the first time, multimedia experience was very smooth. Just install libavcodecs-extra package and you're there. Throw anything at it, it plays. And for those abominable porno stuff with some esoteric format there's always the venerable VLC. In short, the days of bad multimedia experience is over. Basement dwellers and FOSS purists may complain though, for this non-free move.<br />
<br />
<b>Resource Usage</b><br />
<br />
Very frugal. No sudden clock ups and downs. CPU stays at ~1-5% throughout till you don't burn it with intensive gaming, program compiling and media encoding.<br />
<br />
Very low footprint of memory. Freshly booted system uses ~320MB, with all effects - bells and whistles on and mysql, apache services (and what not) still enabled (for my wife) on runtime.<br />
<br />
<b>Do that foreplay. Fix bugs and bad things!</b><br />
<br />
Wheezy at RC1 has its share of bugs and problems. However, none is a showstopper. You can live with them without any fix, cos most of them will be fixed automatically in the Final Release. If you like you can fix them very soon with a few minutes of dirtying your hands in the command line. First fire up terminal and be a root user - use su or sudo, whatever you're used to.
<br />
<br />
#1 - "cannot set freq 16000 to ep 0x86"
<br />
<br />
During booting the screen fills with "cannot set freq 16000 to ep 0x86" error messages and stops for around 4 secs (it might vary in your case) and then the login windows appears. This bug is related to Logitech HD quickcam. The easiest fix is to update kernel from Unstable Repository. Enable unstable repo in /etc/apt/source.list. Upgrade kernel and disable, or better delete that entry from the sources.list. Never fiddle with testing and unstable.
<br />
<br />
#2 - no sound
<br />
<br />
While Intel Azalia HD sound card worked nice on first boot, consequent boots were without any sound while the audio mixer button was still showing active.<br />
Permanent fix for this annoyance is to put:<br />
<br />
options snd-hda-intel model=generic<br />
<br />
at the end of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
<br />
<br />
#3 - enable poweroff option:
<br />
<br />
Default gnome-shell 3.4 doesn't show poweroff option if you don't press Alt key with still point the mouse to the suspend option.<br />
<br />
The easy fix is to edit /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/userMenu.js
<br />
<br />
Look for "this._haveSuspend = this._upClient.get_can_suspend();" and replace the same with "this._haveSuspend = false;" (don't use those quotes, they're here to distinquish commands/config text from human English)
<br />
<br />
#4 - [warn] PulseAudio configured for per-user sessions ... (warning)
<br />
<br />
This pulse audio message is not fatal. But you can fix it too:
<br />
<br />
edit /etc/default/pulseaudio
<br />
<br />
look for
<br />
<br />
PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0
<br />
<br />
and change it to
<br />
<br />
PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=1
<br />
<br />
That pretty much ends this review.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-47160824675327993402013-01-29T20:53:00.001-08:002013-09-02T01:35:46.520-07:00Improve KDE4 Performance: Disable Nepomuk and Akonadi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31OKmoB6zDqxSZSitc4G4WZUfxG0JOjbR_Bx2co8_ZnIVYOcCf4JXH0v7Nnno47IrkfiI5KOrTvzZq8BJq2GYNA45gkFATvEU0M3gvBHig6_90iGuKx-zx_8S87K-ArUZG2bPcO3uSxxt/s1600/KDE4-Optimize.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31OKmoB6zDqxSZSitc4G4WZUfxG0JOjbR_Bx2co8_ZnIVYOcCf4JXH0v7Nnno47IrkfiI5KOrTvzZq8BJq2GYNA45gkFATvEU0M3gvBHig6_90iGuKx-zx_8S87K-ArUZG2bPcO3uSxxt/s320/KDE4-Optimize.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
KDE 4.9 (and above) workspace comes as a great relief when the major distributions resort to some fu**ing desktop environments (such as gnome and unity) and/or spin some lame reiterations (such as cinnamon, mate and a ton others). The latest KDE workspace is way too much polished than unity and gnome3 - highly usable, customizable and not so resource-hungry. But you can still make it lighter and faster if you don't rely much on desktop search function and KDEPIM stuff like kaddressbook, kmail and the rest. Amaik, very few people use them anymore, and can be done without them. Just a working set of thunderbird, pidgin and firefox, and you can very well dump kdepim + akonadi + nepumok + strigi.<br />
<br />
By "Dump" I mean "Disable", cos you can't remove those packages as they are deeply integrated into the workspace. Here's how you can disable:<br />
<br />
<br />
#1 Add these lines (if they don't exist, else make necessary changes in them) to <span style="color: blue;">~/.kde/share/config/nepomukserverrc</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;">[Basic Settings]<br />Start Nepomuk=false<br /><br />[Service-nepomukmigration1]<br />autostart=false<br /><br />[Service-nepomukstrigiservice]<br />autostart=false</span></span><br />
<br />
#2 Then add these lines (if they don't exist, else make necessary changes in them) to <span style="color: blue;">~/.config/akonadi/akonadiserverrc</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;">[QMYSQL]<br />Name=akonadi<br />Host=<br />User=<br />Password=<br />Options="UNIX_SOCKET=/home/manmath/.local/share/akonadi/db_misc/mysql.socket"<br />ServerPath=/usr/sbin/mysqld-akonadi<br />StartServer=false</span></span><br />
<br />
#3 Open <span style="color: blue;">~/.kde/share/config/kdedrc</span> and set "autoload" to false for nepomuksearchmodule<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;">[Module-nepomuksearchmodule]<br />autoload=false</span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"></span><br />
<br />
#4 Finally, remove the file <span style="color: blue;">nepomukcontroller.desktop</span> and <span style="color: blue;">akonaditray.desktop</span> from<span style="color: blue;"> /usr/share/autostart/</span>, if they exist.<br />
<br />
Log out or restart your system to experience the lightness and speed of your sexy KDE workspace.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-23178930212963881872012-12-08T21:28:00.003-08:002013-01-27T08:05:43.511-08:00Linux is Free and it Shows<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAn272w_vDZQutvCYJ3VTJz6LGmnlMdlullzfj0NlQz9ruH0i4DvYuBkI2siicd0P63x2YeG7OW9eu872K6lqghpLGT1q_Nry5asMU-qCXNJSnwiDgz60PGxSGl7260vhqaa3MvI-rFfDp/s1600/linux-chaotic-development.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAn272w_vDZQutvCYJ3VTJz6LGmnlMdlullzfj0NlQz9ruH0i4DvYuBkI2siicd0P63x2YeG7OW9eu872K6lqghpLGT1q_Nry5asMU-qCXNJSnwiDgz60PGxSGl7260vhqaa3MvI-rFfDp/s400/linux-chaotic-development.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
"Year of Linux Desktop" has always been a delusion of grandeur, or the so called pipe dream at best. It'll remain so for the future n-number of years, cos Linux is free and it shows, feels and works like everything free, with a connotation of "Cheap".<br />
<br />
There's no problem in its being free and open source as long as it works for the majority of userbase, which it certainly doesn't. Why? Because it lacks the commercial gloss people are used to. Against popular belief, you won't have to practice closed/proprietary means to achieve that polish and gloss. All that's important is certain orderly and cohesive approach to how software work, in both users' and developers' point of view, and a clear direction. For example, Android is both opensource and free, yet it brims that much desired commercial gloss, courtesy the big G's focus on user experience. The Big G knows what to flaunt, what to hide, and so on.. and on..<br />
<br />
On Android you don't bother which bootloader to load - grub or lilo, which DE to choose from - KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Blackbox (there're a dozen others), how to set system initiation - systemd, sysvinit, innserv... how the sound and audio subsystems talk to the rest of the system, bla..bla..bla... Here these ugly system software work under the hood, users are unaware of it for a lot of good reasons. This is how the big G establishes order in an otherwise chaotic open source model of software development.<br />
<br />
The prevailing model of linux and the software built around it suffer from three perennial diseases due to its overtly free nature of "Fork everything and Break everything" development:<br />
<br />
#1 Shoddy quality of software: Forking model of development that leads to bad testing, rapid release cycle and unnecessary overdo. Users are often forced to fix certain problems where they should not happen in the first place. For example, a certain sound card works out of the box on a certain distribution, needs to do some manual editing of certain config file on some other in order the sound to work, wherein still others the users are forced to remove a certain component and install/build something on their own. Whereas the kernel versions, alsa/pulse components, DEs and the usual software stack are the same across all these examples. Reason? Bad integration! Morever, these type of user annoyances are not restricted to sound only, they are there in network, graphics, power usage, and then some more, in other application software too. The situations/annoyances aggravate further when every distribution puts together certain types and versions of the system and application software different from every other and in a different way, where most of them seem similar on the surface.<br />
<br />
#2 Overkill: Forking and freedom to do everything leads to unnecessary overkill of time and efforts and further contributes to shoddiness in software quality. For example, what KDE or Gnome should do? Develop DEs and a few DE-specific tools/appls, right? But that's not the case, they keep constant focus (and ignore the core activities) on things they should not do in the first place. First of all, application software should not be DE-specific, yet every DE, be it KDE or Gnome, has its own set of office suits, browsers, messengers, media players/managers and system utilities and tools. This, more often than not, results in poor duplicates of certain industry standard software. Intrigued? Just compare KOffice with LibreOffice, K3B with Brasero or XCDroast...? Everybody loves to skin a frontend, cos its' tough and boring to squash the bugs out of standard libraries such as gtk and qt, and backends such as cdrdao or growisofs.<br />
<br />
#3 Always in transition: Lastly, this forking and chaotic nature of development creates an environment where the platform is always in a state of transition. Consider the period of transition such as hal >> udev, alsa >> pulse, xserver >> wayland, module-init-tool >> kmod. Sadly, it has been so from the very beginning, and it will remain so till eternity. It is a major contributor to user annoyance. How about consolidating various forks, putting enough manhours and creating something that will just work, in stead of forking every which way possible and breaking things on the way.<br />
<br />
I'm sure only very few will agree with me. Cos most of the so called open source community members consider free software as a cult than a tool for general well being. For them choice (read it Chaos) is everything. And yet they expect a placebo effect to these perennial diseases of bad quality and performance. They'll poop, fork here and there, make badly integrated incohesive software tank to drive to the nearest supermall, whereas a lean street bike would have been a better choice.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-47027670698727023682012-08-27T21:25:00.000-07:002012-08-29T00:15:45.774-07:00Android is the future desktop<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhX5dptvmAqRYVckidJBj2u6_UhH7EyvzXgDn1XLIk7p1kKr1rScCAu4DREl7KTJYk8-nDVk0rD56Ybdp2SPZlN5Cx5qQtbMobJF6BAg3XMR-glmLC5_pTy3fqhHY5uhrr2FUofdnq1F7n/s1600/android-desktop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhX5dptvmAqRYVckidJBj2u6_UhH7EyvzXgDn1XLIk7p1kKr1rScCAu4DREl7KTJYk8-nDVk0rD56Ybdp2SPZlN5Cx5qQtbMobJF6BAg3XMR-glmLC5_pTy3fqhHY5uhrr2FUofdnq1F7n/s320/android-desktop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Linux on desktop was a fantasy; it could not gain significant mind-share in last two decades of its existence. And it won't attract any more user attention if the development continues the way it has been so far. Bad integration, fragmentation, in-cohesive development, and the so called freedom to fork (or fu**) warded off ISVs, OEMs and users. Linux as a kernel is great, but the OS build on top of it is a toy thing. X and everything on top of it suck like hell. That bad/breaking approach towards development, design and delivery is not going to change, cos the community doesn't treat it as a tool, or a means to an end; for them, it's a culture, a religion. As a user you need to learn a lot of rules just to get your daily chore done. It's more so, if you are going to develop something for the linux desktop. General perception now is Linux serves best when it runs headless, i.e., when it's a server.<br />
<br />
But I feel, sooner or later, Linux will start dominating the consumer desktops with google power, in a form similar to Android. For quite long I've been following android-x86.org, a community effort to port Android to x86 platform. So far it's been non-yielding. None of the release is feature-complete. However, the good thing is - this project is less fanatic about open-source. I'm sure google will bet on it and make it big by building a consistent development environment wherein the new desktop will consist of highly-integrated subsystems backed by a simple application distribution system. Google will strip as much ugly stuff as possible off the OS, hide the rest from the users, and put a bright layer on top of the customized linux kernel. Of course, the hard, the hobbyist, and the raw fragmented-linux desktop with full of choices will be there for the basement dwellers.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-17344614803242164932012-07-13T06:37:00.001-07:002012-07-13T06:42:25.611-07:00what's value of linux being modularWhat's value of linux being modular if it needs so many duplicate and different versions of the same libraries.<br />
<br />
I am running debian squeeze which has almost 50% packages from wheezy such as xorg stuff, kernel, drm, mesa and some application software. However, accidentally I found that I've bewildering number of duplicate libraries. It's insane, can't even remove those duplicates as they are dependencies for a variety of packages. In the normal world a later package should override an older version, but it's different in linux, sadly. Even if I've deborphan and debfoster I see tons of different versions of libraries such as: libavcodec, libavdevice, libavfilter, libavformat, libavutils, libdb,
libjpeg, liblzma, libmatroska, libnspr, libntfs, libssl, libswscale,
libusb and libx264. Please have a look at the youtube video to know what I mean.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1sJw3SwjK_c/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1sJw3SwjK_c?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1sJw3SwjK_c?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<br />
<br />manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-53569420868696108042012-06-20T02:28:00.000-07:002012-06-20T02:48:12.676-07:00GIMP 2.8 on Linux: a Story of Pride and Pain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX82mLqRGjkbji6V-Z-9HB3UJx86iF4eIWl2Va8044HabM8Ncc9QXM6qxfKM_HI5Nn_Aghx5hq9rHemVGYxXnVyB0cxW0FukNWDjbGHJA08jQ0vM8GY_4IA18YVnTQk4QBklyPgN020yw6/s1600/gimp-2.8-linux.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX82mLqRGjkbji6V-Z-9HB3UJx86iF4eIWl2Va8044HabM8Ncc9QXM6qxfKM_HI5Nn_Aghx5hq9rHemVGYxXnVyB0cxW0FukNWDjbGHJA08jQ0vM8GY_4IA18YVnTQk4QBklyPgN020yw6/s320/gimp-2.8-linux.png" width="311" /></a></div>
The latest stable GIMP 2.8 is great in many ways such as the sane integration of docks, speed and some nice addons. It installs like a charm on Windows 7 and the aging XP. Getting it to work on the latest *buntu and Fedora is also easy, although both these flavors suck as far as stability and usability is concerned. But if you expect it to play nicely on your reliable CentOS 6.2 or Debian 6.0.5, forget it. Cos you may fuck your entire system just to get it installed.<br />
<br />
I was very much at home with my mighty Debian untill I was lured by GIMP 2.8.<br />
<br />
I knew Debian Squeeze repo will never have it. So, looked for backports. Nothing there too. Then tried backporting it myself. It is not as easy as:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
wget ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/v2.8/gimp-2.8.0.tar.bz2<br />
mv gimp-2.8.0.tar.bz2 /tmp/<br />
tar xf gimp-2.8.0.tar.bz2<br />
cd gimp-2.8.0/<br />
./configure<br />
make all && make install</blockquote>
<br />
there's much more. Compiling it is really tough, you'll be flooded with errors related to missing packages, flags and lots more. Then I took the easy path of pulling it down from testing repository by adding:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ testing main</blockquote>
<br />
in /etc/apt/sources.lst<br />
<br />
<br />
then configuring apt pin priorities to make testing version as additional to prevent distribution wide updrade by putting:<br />
<br />
Package: *<br />
Pin: release a=stable<br />
Pin-Priority: 700<br />
<br />
Package: *<br />
Pin: release a=testing<br />
Pin-Priority: 650<br />
<br />
in /etc/apt/preferences<br />
<br />
followed by:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
apt-get -t testing install gimp</blockquote>
<br />
Result:<br />
<br />
Holy shit! It almost installed truck loads of packages from testing. Finally I fucked my Debian Stable. It now feels slow, sound stopped working, it shows tons of boot error messages.<br />
<br />
Dear linux distribution enthusiasts please bring out some api/abi that doesn't change every fortnight. 99% users love stability more than the shiny non-working stuff that doesn't bring any perceivable difference to their lives.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-18075502791608379832012-06-12T04:14:00.002-07:002012-06-12T04:37:06.846-07:00My Mighty Debian Squeeze 64-Bit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxI9mDk3coeNdYugJUfPK0HCoGMH6pjC8S1e1y19CoOhVxTTHJ40lQyhBiUR3CKCpEQiwnb2cvycXBdRMGlqrthA4pGghjhGX1b9si2E9fVDVWmMvbNrc_Mnse5BpdINqND9TrfY2afHk4/s1600/debian-squeeze-64bit-optimized-for-speed.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxI9mDk3coeNdYugJUfPK0HCoGMH6pjC8S1e1y19CoOhVxTTHJ40lQyhBiUR3CKCpEQiwnb2cvycXBdRMGlqrthA4pGghjhGX1b9si2E9fVDVWmMvbNrc_Mnse5BpdINqND9TrfY2afHk4/s1600/debian-squeeze-64bit-optimized-for-speed.png" /></a></div>
People always run after high performance and less resource-hogging computers and operating systems. In that run they stumble upon barely usable linux distro forks with lxde or xfce environments, or go for big muscle hardware such as core i7 extreme processors, latest intel chipset mobos, discrete graphics cards and the latest maximum memory modules. May be out of ignorance.<br />
<br />
I'm also a speed freak. Here's my take for speed.<br />
<br />
Hardware: Intel H61 board, Pentium G620 processor, 8GB Corsair DDR3 1333MHz RAM, Atheros LAN Card, Intel HD 2000 Graphics on the same die of the CPU, 32GB Kingston SATA II SSD as / partition + Western Digital Blue SATA II TB HDD as /home partition.<br />
<br />
OS: Debian Squeeze 64Bit, backported 3.2 kernel, mesa, drm and xorg manually backported from Debian Wheezy repository.<br />
<br />
Package Repos: Debian squeeze, backports, mozilla-debian, debian-multimedia, google and debian wheeze.<br />
<br />
Desktop Environment: Gnome 2.30<br />
<br />
Software: LibreOffice 3.5, Gimp 2.6, Mplayer and Totem with all codecs and browser plugins, Iceweasel (Firefox) 13, Icedove (Thunderbird) , Sun Java and Netbeans full suite, GCC + G++ along with Code:Blocks, Full Wine suite, and the fat repertoire of media players, audio/video editors, remote access/desktop sharing tools, mysql server, client and admin, a plethora of games and tons of system utilities and recovery tools.<br />
<br />
Speed benchmarks: Booting 8 secs, libreoffice startup 1 sec, firefox 1 sec, gimp startup 2 secs, and surprisingly netbeans startup 3 secs. Initial memory footprint is just 130MB. You can't expect more.<br />
<br />
Tweaks I did: Optimized SSD to use trim (noatime,discard option in the /etc/fstab of the ssd drive), disabled ipv6, changed /etc/hosts to look for localhost whenever possible instead of searching and reaching there, removed swap partition, removed initram disk, put all my driver modules directly into the kernel so as to avoid seeking initram. Finally cleaned all the unnecessary locale files, symlinks, orphan files and then a few tweaks on gconf-editor. Finally cleaned the gnome config residues (after installing all the software I needed) with gconf-cleaner.<br />
<br />
Here's the testimony video, watch it in HD 720p format full screen:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/i-NY64OpzYs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-36210985012227401272012-05-11T06:30:00.000-07:002017-03-06T04:09:05.183-08:00Caitlyn and Linux Hardware SupportOnly this morning I saw a post by Caitlyn Martin on tuxmachines.org. About "Linux Hardware Support Myths and Legends" <http: 05="" 2012="" broadcast.oreilly.com="" linux-hardware-support-myths-a.html="">. Funny as always - flaming, ranting and what not!<br /><br />Come on Caitlyn, admit, Linux is still not ready for consumers. It's never going to be considering the control, complexity and its nature of development. We all love linux. We can tinker our way to use it at our homes and offices. We'll keep on using linux, and we are not sad or sorry if linux doesn't make it to the mass adoption. But your adamant post is laughable at the best. Numbers tell, if there was a pinch of truth in your statement linux desktop would have enjoyed comparable marketshare like the one from Redmond. But 1-2%!<br /><br />You wrote, "Linux is compatible with more hardware than any other OS bar none. That certainly includes Windows. Try installing Windows 7 on some random laptop from scratch and see how much is missing or unsupported without third party drivers. My experience doing Linux installs for my customers is that a lot of off the shelf hardware "just works" and the rest needs proprietary drivers downloaded to make it work, just like Windows. There is, indeed, some hardware that doesn't work with Linux and years ago that was a real issue. The fact is that more and more manufacturers are supporting Linux well and other drivers have been adequately reverse engineered."<br /><br />Partly right, linux does support maximum hardware out of the box. But that other OS supports all of the hardware, though not all out of the box. Besides, the maximum number of hardware that linux supports is not as good or simple as it is in that other OS. Compare the installation procedure and performance of modern ATI and NVidia graphics cards on linux with that other OS. Linux fails from a long margin. Moreover, the support is both complicated and buggy most of the time, and not feature-complete.<br /><br />Caitlyn, please try any of the recent Northern or Southern Island ATi Radeon graphics card on your favorite linux box. Do the same on that other OS. Compare the performance and installation procedure. On that other OS, all you've to do is to pull in the software (just one executable file) from AMD and install it. Your favorite distribution with modern kernel and gallium drivers will readily support the Northern Island ATi chip out of the box. But the performance will be shoddy at best. Then you will search your distros repo or browse the manufacturer's website for proprietary drivers. Download and install the packages. Graphics still won't work the way it does on that other OS. Then you will look for vaapi wrappers, configure the media player settings, bla..bla..bla.. In linux it's not just a driver package, you've to fight with xorg, kernel, drivers, wrappers and decoders. After this big fight your distribution may play your 1080p hd stuff. But again, not as good as on that other OS.<br /><br />Audio driver scenario is no different. The point is, Sound and Graphics support in linux is very complicated and is always in a catch-22 stage. Admit it!<br /><br />Here's a copy of the discussion thread on her post. Just imagine how mis-informed and adamant Caitlyn is in comparision to the mature, practical and realistic Jack.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">By Jack on May 10, 2012 11:21 AM<br /><br />Having used Linux since the end of the 90'ies i certainly agree that hardware drivers are not really a big problem. But for some, it really is.<br /><br />Therefore one should never claim "pick this or that distro - it works out of the box" unless one in fact has experience with the exact combination.<br /><br />If you do recommend where you should not, you are likely to be the creator of a user very hostile towards Linux, thus a true credibility killer.<br /><br />Another wrong thing to do is recommending Linux with the ambition to make a Linux enthusiast out of the victim. Recommend (and if possible assist in installing) Linux on basis of the potential users needs and capabilities.<br /><br />Forget your own preferences - it's all about the potential user, as long as you are sure that you are able to assist.<br /><br />Now, I've got some shocking news!!<br />There are no perfect Linux desktop environment, and there are no perfect Linux distribution. There are probably 20-30 distros and 4-5-6 desktop environments that are technically suitable and has the potential, but none of them are really there.<br /><br />We, as enthusiasts, are able to tweak a distro or a desktop environment into submission. The regular users who just want a neat piece of equipment to work well are not.<br /><br />Where are the distros for consumers? They don't exist.<br /><br />By Caitlyn Martin in reply to comment from Jack on May 10, 2012 12:58 PM<br /><br />Jack: I have some shocking news for you. Any of the major Linux distributions are consumer-ready. That's been true for at least a decade. Any of the major Linux desktop environments are consumer ready. That's been true for at least a decade as well. The current generation of desktops on Windows and even on MacOS are based on ideas that first appeared in Linux. See my recent article on the subject. If those Linux distributions aren't "really there" then certainly Windows and MacOS are even less ready for consumers. You are certainly right that there is no perfect Linux distribution or desktop. There is no perfect OS, period. Linux is in no way more flawed or less ready for consumers than the other options out there.<br /><br />I see the second part of your comment the same way I see the articles proclaiming that Linux hardware support is terrible: as spreading more fear, uncertainty and doubt for no good reason.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Seems, evangelists like Caitlyn are more of problem than solution to the badly integrated and ever-forking open source OS.</span></span></http:><br />
<http: 05="" 2012="" broadcast.oreilly.com="" linux-hardware-support-myths-a.html=""><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></http:>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-P6zccfX-dLmR3Qy4QRAgX8fElOpQ4WahyF__Av-Z5LHXDj6V5LjWaldv7vaOb9EJ5IKYDpN0mr5ne0WYo21bkApx3x2ISjbgpFhdpsyS-CU9xCSv6pUgdMmAp8Z0Jbuftz0i1tyUDNO/s1600/adtech.png" /></div>
<http: 05="" 2012="" broadcast.oreilly.com="" linux-hardware-support-myths-a.html=""><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></http:>manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-40343301397705440662012-05-08T21:19:00.002-07:002012-07-11T20:03:51.798-07:00Why Opensource Xorg/Gallium drivers suck on linux desktop<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaHTIxh9-Jxc0yY4qjIpnM2AxvcHeFD0Oj91Id9G5QKfR3UXOVfkNSkKMyajxp2d_XCWyQByB2aOkCyXc_eMfyO77zh-BoCaKHn0aLsJzcpV4-41q_ByZaMqxd4tlD8x1oUTPVBTYBp0VT/s1600/xorg-gallium-sucks-ati-radeon-linux.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaHTIxh9-Jxc0yY4qjIpnM2AxvcHeFD0Oj91Id9G5QKfR3UXOVfkNSkKMyajxp2d_XCWyQByB2aOkCyXc_eMfyO77zh-BoCaKHn0aLsJzcpV4-41q_ByZaMqxd4tlD8x1oUTPVBTYBp0VT/s400/xorg-gallium-sucks-ati-radeon-linux.png" width="400" /></a></div>
They suck for sure. Nothing much required to prove than showing up the status of xorg/gallium drivers for ati radeon as of 9th May 2012. Have a look at the stuff (marked red) that's not working perfectly. The current situation in modern ati graphics chips almost wards off anybody from using linux. And it doesn't seem to go anywhere till couple of years. The current status shows only a fool will buy ATI graphics to rely on open source drivers and run linux on it. What's more enthusiasts say even if the listed features are completed, the performance will no way be comparable with its catalyst counterparts. Pity!
<br />
<ul>
<li>"DONE" means that it is implemented and relatively bug-free.</li>
<li>"MOSTLY" means that it is implemented but has some known bugs.</li>
<li>"WIP" means that someone has started on the initial implementation.</li>
<li>"N/A" means that the feature is not supported by the hardware.</li>
<li>"N/N" means that the feature will not be implemented, because a better alternative is or will be available.</li>
<li>"TODO" means that someone needs to write the code.</li>
<li>"UNKNOWN" means that the current status of this item isn't known.</li>
</ul>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr valign="top"><td>2D features</td><td>Evergreen</td><td>N.Islands</td><td>S.Islands</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Kernel Modesetting</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Max Supported Display </td><td>2-6</td><td>4-6</td><td>6</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>DRI2</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Page Flipping</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>ShadowFB</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>2D Acceleration </td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>Gallium</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Textured Xv</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>Gallium</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Decode on 3D engine</td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Decode on UVD</td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Hybrid Graphics</td><td><span style="color: red;">MOSTLY</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">MOSTLY</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">MOSTLY</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Mesa 3D features</td><td>Evergreen</td><td>N.Islands</td><td>S.Islands</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>3D Driver</td><td>r600g</td><td>r600g</td><td>radeonsi</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Primitives</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Stippled Primitives</td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Smooth Primitives</td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Textures</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Hardware TCL</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Vertex Shaders</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Fragment Shaders</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>GLSL</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Texture Tiling</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>S3TC decompression </td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>full S3TC</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Tessellation Shades </td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Geometry Shaders</td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Anti-Aliasing </td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Anti-Aliasing </td><td>DONE</td><td>not tested</td><td>not tested</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Anisotropic Filtering</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Hyper-Z</td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>OpenGL Compliance </td><td><span style="color: red;">3.0/4.210</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">3.0/4.210</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">3.0/4.210</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Output</td><td>Evergreen</td><td>N.Islands</td><td>S.Islands</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Dual-link DVI</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>XRandR 1.2</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>TV Out</td><td>DONE</td><td>N/A</td><td>N/A</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>DisplayPort</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>HDMI Audio</td><td>DONE</td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Power Saving</td><td>Evergreen</td><td>N.Islands</td><td>S.Islands</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Engine reclocking</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Memory reclocking</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Voltage adjusting</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Thermal sensors</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Other</td><td>Evergreen</td><td>N.Islands</td><td>S.Islands</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Suspend Support</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td><td>DONE</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>CrossFire </td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>Compute</td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">WIP</span></td><td><span style="color: red;">TODO</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-61772021798308936782012-05-05T19:40:00.002-07:002012-05-05T19:43:27.847-07:00Desktop: Debian vs. CEntOS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFGgS9ZYRToGGKqkxq1gSOMVhPK3OYzxdrgiKB2rFPXTUdpKimFSXiTSn8i_yc-BV2nMY02KRt7BbxepeLUq7XUJx9G3K9bevkF4UZnp-IvZfA635Tszsb0Vknx5lb7DHwS9KxLyZKc8J6/s1600/debian-vs-centos-on-desktop.png" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="263" width="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFGgS9ZYRToGGKqkxq1gSOMVhPK3OYzxdrgiKB2rFPXTUdpKimFSXiTSn8i_yc-BV2nMY02KRt7BbxepeLUq7XUJx9G3K9bevkF4UZnp-IvZfA635Tszsb0Vknx5lb7DHwS9KxLyZKc8J6/s400/debian-vs-centos-on-desktop.png" /></a></div>
While every *buntu and *edora moving towards Unity, Gnome3, Cinnamon or MATE, only two distributions remain practical for desktop productivity and fun, they are CentOS 6.* and Debian 6.*. They both will support the good old gnome2 line at least couple years more. However, they are a lot different from each other. Here's a short description on each of them vis-a-vis desktop use.
<br>
<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<tr valign="top"><td> </td><td><font color=blue>Debian</font></td><td><font color=blue>CEntOS</font></td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td><font color=green>Pros</font></td><td>#1 clean package management. With backports repo now merged with main debian repos and debian-multimedia being very compatible with debian, you can install whatever you like without the being scarred of any adulteration, conflict or breakage.<br>
#2 largest no. of packages, roughly 30,000+.<br>
#3 flexible installation options - from netinstall, base cd to kmuto backported images, full CDs and DVDs.<br>
#4 less memory footprint and disk space usage.<br>
#5 support highest no. of architecture - from arm to amd86 and beyond.<br>
#6 frequent updates and point releases.<br>
#7 larger community and better/quicker support.<br>
#8 better hardware support out of the box with unofficial backports/kmuto installation images.<br>
#9 very flexible system offering easy customization as per individual needs</td><td>#1 very responsive (better than debian) system as a workstation.<br>
#2 quicker updates to major productivity suites for office use such as - openoffice, mozila suite.<br>
#3 better tested/trusted set of packages.<br>
#4 longer (more than debian) support period</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td><font color=red>Cons</font></td><td>#1 sometimes updates lose the previous configurations, especially printer, though reconfiguring manually resolves the issues</td><td>#1 repo conflicts and occasional breakage of package base as rpmforge, rpmfusion, elrepo, remi, elrepo, epel and atrmps don't always work in sync.<br>
#2 lesser no. of packages in the repo.<br>
#3 no easy customization as per individual needs.<br>
#4 smaller community and less no. of contributors</td></tr></table><br>
Debian on desktop: 9 pros + 1 con = 8 points<br>
Centos on desktop: 4 pros + 4 cons = 0 points<br><br>
Of course, the list is not complete at all and may reflect my bias towards Debian. If so, please correct me sending you feedback that'll help me revise the list.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-3456938545656067582012-05-04T00:31:00.000-07:002012-05-04T16:55:59.571-07:00Too much of freedom = Chaos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvVSxNTulM2VlDMeosLOGhucnMmwl3XrCznXd3LLKPHZQp2oYgqIcpSx9O3oFQoalL_jYIYgOarX4Os31lZU8po0b2fzHqpt0rQDhOZ3kPBbYPrqZDnNVrVHQC9j5V_E8zcn1qQy10moiz/s1600/linux-freedom-of-choice.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="204" width="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvVSxNTulM2VlDMeosLOGhucnMmwl3XrCznXd3LLKPHZQp2oYgqIcpSx9O3oFQoalL_jYIYgOarX4Os31lZU8po0b2fzHqpt0rQDhOZ3kPBbYPrqZDnNVrVHQC9j5V_E8zcn1qQy10moiz/s400/linux-freedom-of-choice.png" /></a></div>
Q: Why FOSS on Linux desktop did not get traction the way it should?<br>
A: It started up with a Utopia - freedom of choice.<br><br>
Windows powers around 90% of the desktops worldwide. It doesn't offer much choice. And the little choice it offers is limited to a few application software. For more than 15 years we have just two GUI for Windows - Luna (Pre-Vista) and Aero (Post-Vista). Ask average Windows users about the desktop environment they use. 99% of time you will get a shock response - they have no idea. Or at best the answer will be "Windows". They have just one word "Windows" for the OS, for the desktop environment and everything else. What does it mean?
<ul><li>people are not so fond of software, they just want to get their job done using some software (often reluctantly), crying "choice" aloud just frightens them</li>
<li>they don't worry about the source code and the RMS freedom associated with it</li></ul>
99% of normal people don't know how to program and don't give a damn about source codes and freedom of choice. They skip any reference to "source code" and "EULA". Free software is ok, but saying "you can have a look at source code" is definitely not an effective point. Very often freedom of choice becomes a costly affair if you consider the time invested to get your way through these choices before settling at one.<br><br>
That's precisely why after so much trumpeting of the advantages of FOSS it's struggling to register in the mindshare of the masses. The often said "Resistance to change" is not the only reason holding the opensource platforms back. It's the lack of standards, simplicity, coherence and good applications, plus the ever growing chaos in terms of fragmentation and multiplicity in every possible form.<br><br>
You need to clean the clutter by dumping 90% of the stuff that make up for freedom of choice. Then you need a benevolent dictator who can apply an adamant standard and QC system to really push FOSS on the Linux desktop forward, but then it won't be FOSS anymore.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-68402232332000470852012-05-03T09:50:00.001-07:002012-05-04T00:34:57.932-07:00It's not the same linux across distributionsMany times I've read this in a lot of prime linux fora - It doesn't matter which distribution you're using as long as it's linux. Then the usual preaching of choice and freedom runs till the end of those particular threads. I don't buy to this generalized statement. Read on to know why, but first let's see how this statement surfaces from the so called evolved linux gurus.
<br><br>
An enthusiast Windows/Mac user jumps on linux enlightened by a friend or being encouraged on the web. He/she tries a so called popular distribution, if unlucky faces multiple problems related to the stuff on the outer layers, the gnu stuff and other OSS stuff which in combination with linux make a distribution. Then googles for a while, visits some fora, gets suggestions from seasoned and noob users to change his/her distribution with some other, where the issues in question are resolved but may face some other bugs. Then some guru drops in and says - linux is linux, doesn't matter which distro, it's best to use one that suits best for his/her particular needs.
<br><br>
Now on to the topic. In theory every distribution is the same, but in practice they are not. A developer or a long time user might feel it same after cleaning the clutter and sorting everything to his or her liking. But the average Joe is not that skilled and doesn't have that patience to tame the OS. A minor quirk that comes in the way might make him/her feel distro A is different from distro B which is quite different from distro C.
<br><br>
It's a pity reality. Linux distributions are so loosely integrated that a minor mistake in putting stuffs together will create major problems. Doesn't matter even if that distribution is byte by byte a recompiled copy or just a derivative of some popular distribution with minor changes here and there. Most often even if the derivative distribution shows superficial changes in skins, branding, selection of default apps or choice of desktop environment, it might influence components lying much deeper in the bundle. For example, take the case of audio stack (click on the image below) on a typical linux system. Look at its complexity and relationship with various components and imagine what can happen with slight mishandling.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3q7QDzuYDCMBoc3mwgAJCupRNAPn02OJfPH3UpeLJG_pYsqPRpuL1C-Yv8jYR9XWJirexjVRAZ0lHb1maBHWRGyvBeYIWNx-r0DWEPSINybTttdj5GaMkOifdpVyzVEAVvw7gI0SGQMfr/s1600/linux_audio.png" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="329" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3q7QDzuYDCMBoc3mwgAJCupRNAPn02OJfPH3UpeLJG_pYsqPRpuL1C-Yv8jYR9XWJirexjVRAZ0lHb1maBHWRGyvBeYIWNx-r0DWEPSINybTttdj5GaMkOifdpVyzVEAVvw7gI0SGQMfr/s400/linux_audio.png" /></a></div>
Here's an interesting case of Scientific Linux 6.2 and Centos 6.2, both are free recompiled versions of RHEL, both aim to be as much close to the upstream as possible. I started with Scientific Linux, the installation was literally a non-starter on a Dell Optiplex 380. Checked mdsum, changed media from CD to USB to network. No go! However, CentOS had no such problem on the same PC.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-62596456952337919142012-04-02T19:55:00.001-07:002012-04-17T21:29:20.111-07:00Android-x86, Just a Hobbyist Project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj03sr2kzCgh5BlWRLowObj838p6FsFD3y8s0kPh5uFCEDONoC7MR6-PAfAibDwutWoU9Wd-JdD67ZhLpLdji5pk5sc6br-lRJyBK2R-uRyDIk8kVE0DqpkewYC4XDtkqXiQ4_o72_Lbaok/s1600/android-x86-a-hobby-project.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj03sr2kzCgh5BlWRLowObj838p6FsFD3y8s0kPh5uFCEDONoC7MR6-PAfAibDwutWoU9Wd-JdD67ZhLpLdji5pk5sc6br-lRJyBK2R-uRyDIk8kVE0DqpkewYC4XDtkqXiQ4_o72_Lbaok/s320/android-x86-a-hobby-project.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Started at mid-2009 <a href="http://www.android-x86.org/">Android-x86</a> project has not been able to offer a well-rounded release so far.<br />
<br />
Then, it was a welcome relief for all those loved Android on mobile devices and wanted the same usability, performance and security on their x86 devices such as netbooks and computers.<br />
<br />
I was an early adopter of Android-x86 for three basic reasons:<br />
<br />
#1 it pumped vigor to some aging PCs (PIIIs, PIVs and Atoms)<br />
#2 it was a tightly integrated project (not like fragmented Linux ecosystem)<br />
#3 performance was great (expected being a mobile OS)<br />
<br />
Till date the project has been delivering on those basis reasons, but has not been able to come up with a version worthy of consumer adoption. It always tries to catch up with the upstream, and pushes out unfinished releases (RCs) pretty close to the android releases. But before it could resolve all the issues and bring out a final bugfree release, Android jumps one version or one point up, and Android-x86 people drop it right there and sit together to work on the new upstream offering. Buggy RC stays just there. From Android 2.3 through 4.0, you get just unfinished RCs. I don't dare guess their future releases.<br />
<br />
Here's the timeline of recent releases:<br />
<br />
- <a href="http://www.android-x86.org/releases/releasenote-4-0-rc1">2012-02-27: Android-x86 4.0 RC1</a><br />
- <a href="http://www.android-x86.org/releases/releasenote-3-2-rc2">2011-11-23: Android-x86 3.2 RC2</a><br />
- <a href="http://www.android-x86.org/releases/build-20110828">2011-08-28: Android-x86 2.3 RC1</a><br />
<br />
Each of the releases has been plagued with one or more of the following issues:<br />
<br />
#1 Suspend and resume doesn't work on some targets.<br />
#2 No Ethernet support.<br />
#3 Camera and bluetooth don't work.<br />
#4 Camera recorder doesn't work.<br />
#5 Wifi and Ethernet cannot be turned on simultaneously.<br />
<br />
Is it just a product for developers to learn packaging for Android? Or for those hobbyists who don't expect anything more than being able to tinker?manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-73583307835038806172012-03-22T21:50:00.006-07:002012-04-10T17:45:16.493-07:00I don't need sex, gnome 3 fu*ked me in the brain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPu9gSAlj3y512H7m-0U_AASfQ62eQ3TK7qpjiw55mysgJVjbHwWjuSa6-8087I8ZmWku7NAzNdzPKquZERRf78yKNh0aYsV4LpdRdQRu4TPWLXNZNqm0oHVJzlvMIrIkho6NeiRRzU2qd/s1600/GNOME+3+%7C+GNOME+2012-03-23+09-40-47.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPu9gSAlj3y512H7m-0U_AASfQ62eQ3TK7qpjiw55mysgJVjbHwWjuSa6-8087I8ZmWku7NAzNdzPKquZERRf78yKNh0aYsV4LpdRdQRu4TPWLXNZNqm0oHVJzlvMIrIkho6NeiRRzU2qd/s1600/GNOME+3+%7C+GNOME+2012-03-23+09-40-47.png" /></a></div>I am not just another gnome 3 hater in the most fashionable and popular way. That's, though I don't like the way it defies the traditional workflow, the biggest problem for me, is something else. It's the shoddy quality of the software, even after one year of its initial release.<br />
<br />
Forget the usability, still the gripes are many, ranging from its integration into the system to how it talks with various other core components such as graphics, desktop effects, and the overall stability.<br />
<br />
As for usability, I'm ok with putting a few extensions to tweak the desktop behavior, but not, if my graphic card crawls on this new desktop. Searched every forum, tried with gallium3d, failed. Installed catalyst plus vaapi with gstreamer and vlc backends. Still no-go. I am sorry, it's not for me. Moreover, my system wearing this new gnome skin coughs every now and then. Sometimes it stays irresponsive for quite long. That's simply unacceptable.<br />
<br />
My Radeon HD 6310 flies on both gnome 2.32 and kde 4.8. I know I may achieve the same performance after some more workaround. Same with system irresponsiveness. But who cares!<br />
<br />
Shoddy software quality, defiant community and bad usability = Gnome 3<br />
<br />
How has been your gnome 3 ride? Please don't flame on the task management and workflow, just mention how stable the whole stack has been so far?manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-34015668973090169752012-02-01T03:07:00.004-08:002012-04-02T21:34:26.145-07:00MCLinuxPC 2012 - The Whole Kitchen SinkKind of bubble sort, distributions come up, tumble down, some grow, some die unmaintained. First we had Slack, then Redhat, Mandy, Mepis, Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS... and now Mint. Most often the popularity of a distribution depends on the degree of "out of the box" functionality it offers, plus how well it integrates the various bits and pieces. IMO, only three distributions championed in this regards - Mepis, PCLinuxOS and Mint. <br />
<br />
Now on to the business. Here I am reviewing MCLinuxPC 2012, a remaster that comes from one of my favorite distributions that manages rpm packages on synaptic, by Sefy. No awards for guessing. But I won't reveal the name for two obvious reasons: first, this remaster has gone too far in including the software not allowed to be legally redistributed, second, it's not been publicly announced.<br />
<br />
The good thing is, that legality neither applies to him in Israel, nor me in India. Besides, Sefy has taken all care to rebuild some base packages related to lsb, issue, grub, etc., altering every reference of that famous distribution. For now, the remaster is floating across a few close friends.<br />
<br />
Hope it doesn't violate any rule.<br />
<br />
Here's the review.<br />
<br />
I'm a big time fan of that popular distribution for one solid reason - it never failed on my hardware. It's neither the most beautiful, nor the most cutting edge distribution. Stable, and may be a little conservative, but it just-works, you won't have to fiddle much. You are ready to go the very next minute after installation. Having said that, seems it's a great feat for the remaster to maintain that quality, after loading so much extra stuff.<br />
<br />
I won't repeat here the livecd experience and the installation. It's pretty much similar to that big distribution. So, fast forward to the installed environment.<br />
<br />
<b>Hardware</b><br />
<br />
As of now the remaster has been running on four different set of hardware at my home and office - a Dual Core Pentium Dell Optiplex 360, an old PIV Compaq, an Asus Eee PC 1215b with AMD Fusion C-50, and an Intel Essential D410PT nettop. Some of those machines have housed Debian Squeeze, Arch and Ubuntu Natty also. Let's see how well MCLinuxPC fares against those veteran distros.<br />
<br />
<b>Booting</b><br />
<br />
As always, no surprises here. MCLinuxPC booted just fine across all the four different configurations. Of course the bootup time was a few seconds more than Arch and Debian, it's the price for its heavy customization. The freshly booted desktop seems to be pimping Windows 7 and Mac OS on top of the default KDE 4.6.5. Under the hood there's a bfs patched 2.6.38 kernel. The application software selection is huge and all-encompassing, we'll see later. The look is quite different from its parent distro. It doesn't do blue and gray that much. <br />
<br />
<b>Memory Consumption</b><br />
<br />
Memory consumption right after booting was around 350MB on all the machines, except that EEE PC 1215b, where it was around 400MB. No bad for a KDE 4 remaster.<br />
<br />
<b>Performance</b><br />
<br />
I can't site any numbers here. As far as my perception goes MCLinuxPC is as responsive as Natty, Arch and Squeeze on all the machines except Eee 1215B. Squeeze was the most responsive of all on this tiny computer. 1GHz Ontario C-50 APU is not enough for KDE 4, may be.<br />
<br />
<b>Desktop Experience</b><br />
<br />
No surprises here. For the first time my Eee 1215B worked as expected. Graphics, Touchpad, Wireless, Webcam and Bluetooth behaved smooth. The other three machines worked well too including my old PCI Hauppage analog TV tuner on a dated PIV system. Apple Trailers, Microsoft Media Server, flash videos, MP3 et al played. Oh the good xbmc, the local media files were shelved the way they should be. MCLinuxPC does a very good job of managing additional languages through its Localization Manager. For the rest, there's good old MCLinuxPC Control Center.<br />
<br />
The systems are stable - I've been working on the machines for last 4 days, so far no crashes related either to KDE or kernel. <br />
<br />
<b>Applications</b><br />
<br />
MCLinuxPC outshines almost every other distribution in this department. There is the whole kitchen and sink. The system utilities, internet suite, productivity suites, multimedia suites + xbmc + codecs + media converters, graphics suites, games, emulators, and believe it or not, the universal computer learning suite comprising the full jdk, gcc, g++, assembly, mysql. Wow! A superb selection. Be it sharing your stuff, using internet, doing some serious office work, converting your media, syncing your devices with PC, managing security, cleaning the system, sharing peer desktops, or whatsoever, you name any popular modern system software or application software, it's all there. Also, there's a balance of the software - not much duplicity. Under 2.6GB it packs so much applications that the good old synaptic seems an overdo. You can live your life without using it ever, except for updating the system, if you like.<br />
<br />
Here's a list of applications that comes with MCLinuxPC, sorted items menu-wise:<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr valign="top"><td><u>Communication</u>:<br />
qtadb for android<br />
barry backup<br />
synce kde pda manager<br />
<u>Configuration</u>:<br />
ATI catalyst manager<br />
3D acceleration configuration<br />
cairo dock<br />
chbg<br />
compiz manager<br />
emerald<br />
ezswitch<br />
firewall<br />
floppy formatter<br />
google gadgets<br />
kde grub manager<br />
gtk theme switch<br />
hardware information<br />
install MCLinuxPC<br />
localization<br />
libreoffice manager<br />
network center<br />
ntfs configuration manager<br />
nvclock<br />
partition manager<br />
pulse audio manager<br />
redo mbr<br />
samba configuration<br />
unetbootin<br />
user administration<br />
kwallet manager<br />
<u>Development</u>:<br />
diff/patch configuration<br />
teamviewer<br />
kompozer<br />
complete gcc, g++, nasm, assembly (nasm), sun jdk, mysql<br />
<u>Text editors</u>:<br />
medit<br />
vi<br />
kwrite<br />
<u>File tools</u>:<br />
bleachbit<br />
krename<br />
krusader<br />
midnight commander<br />
kleansweep<br />
<u>Games</u>:<br />
complete bundle from arcade, board games, puzzles, strategy, etc.<br />
<u>Graphics</u>:<br />
imagemagick gui<br />
gimp<br />
kolourpaint<br />
kamoso<br />
gpicview<br />
digikam<br />
picasa<br />
ksnapshot<br />
xsane<br />
kruler<br />
<u>Sound</u>:<br />
amarok<br />
songbird<br />
kscd<br />
kradio<br />
timidity<br />
cd ripper<br />
nvidia tv output<br />
floola<br />
volume control<br />
sound recorder<br />
<u>Package management</u>:<br />
dupclean<br />
synaptic<br />
libreoffice manager<br />
opera widget manager<br />
</td><td><u>Emulators</u>:<br />
wine - Windows Emulator<br />
desmuke - Nintendo DS<br />
dosbox - DOSbox<br />
epsxe - Playstation One<br />
xgngeo - NeoGeo<br />
nintendo - Nintendo<br />
hu-go! - HuGo<br />
pcxs -<br />
virtualbox<br />
visualboy - Advance Gameboy<br />
winetricks<br />
gsnes - Sega Master System & Genesis<br />
yabause - Sega Saturn<br />
zsnes - Super Nintendo<br />
<u>Monitoring</u>:<br />
thinkpad battery monitor<br />
desktop widgets<br />
netapplet<br />
removable media utility<br />
system monitor<br />
xkill<br />
view disk usage<br />
<u>Terminal</u>:<br />
konsole<br />
xterm<br />
<u>Archiving</u>:<br />
acetoneiso<br />
k3b<br />
nero<br />
ark<br />
file roller<br />
iso master<br />
nepomuk backup<br />
p7zip gui<br />
<u>Internet</u>:<br />
google earth<br />
qbittorrent<br />
filezilla<br />
dropbox<br />
teamviewer<br />
firefox<br />
chrome<br />
opera<br />
kdesktop sharing krfb<br />
thunderbird<br />
kopete<br />
kppp<br />
groupware<br />
blogging<br />
putty<br />
tightvnc<br />
xchat irc<br />
tkpppoe<br />
<u>Office</u>:<br />
libreoffice<br />
note taking tools<br />
time management<br />
adobe reader<br />
personal organizer<br />
artha<br />
calibre<br />
<u>Video</u>:<br />
imagination<br />
cheese<br />
coriander<br />
me tv<br />
xbmc media center<br />
tv time<br />
realplayer<br />
vlc<br />
video4fuze<br />
mobile media converter<br />
kplayer<br />
winff<br />
gtk-recordmydesktop<br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<b>Conclusion</b><br />
<br />
Question: So, what's so good about Sefy and his remaster?<br />
Answer: MCLinuxPC is godsend for all those who love linux but can't stand the annoyances and pains that come with it. Yes, it's fat, it's not as clean and swift as a default Arch or Debian setup. But that's a small tradeoff for the amount of goodies you get. You only need to download just the remastered iso, and have a secure, modern, entertaining and productive life without the need for any extra bit or piece. Another big point is this is the only Linux with "out-of-the-box" adb pre-configuration for immediate access to Android phones.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-68634392778455043292012-01-16T06:49:00.000-08:002012-01-16T07:03:12.471-08:00AMD Opensource Gallium is a PITALast night I was reading an article comparing proprietary catalyst drivers with opensource gallium drivers. It was an eye-opener. Cases such as this shitty/shoddy performance of gallium drivers is the reason why people prefer proprietary blobs to FOSS bits and pieces. Here is just an example. For more, please visit http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_rv770_linux31&num=2<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGlOVOrGFRWBDRIEUIKHkULVVdMuyCuR4SyAWuciWNZTiJ6RVVZYnHQk4QvIZ-auRWdx2B9rmyAp5UqGyxuygOU5ZuUmUflhKPw9YQaxt9WrRqpX6ZVM6v3Ns0SpwbsuACh-rsCbN3gqH/s1600/AMD+Catalyst+vs.+Radeon+Gallium3D+On+Linux+3.1.1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGlOVOrGFRWBDRIEUIKHkULVVdMuyCuR4SyAWuciWNZTiJ6RVVZYnHQk4QvIZ-auRWdx2B9rmyAp5UqGyxuygOU5ZuUmUflhKPw9YQaxt9WrRqpX6ZVM6v3Ns0SpwbsuACh-rsCbN3gqH/s320/AMD+Catalyst+vs.+Radeon+Gallium3D+On+Linux+3.1.1.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwrQctX-SN6j9HFWllF5-zdebS-PYMSVqWI_XzDeK5jhtS4w1sYT_5lSO7mtTsA-ZuMoK0p-Yt8j_rR9KEAPoYNo53IB5VDmHfGHipNww9lZWik8aidnemn9vFwctl6v7Xy6pLPdz4P-FL/s1600/AMD+Catalyst+vs.+Radeon+Gallium3D+On+Linux+3.1.2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwrQctX-SN6j9HFWllF5-zdebS-PYMSVqWI_XzDeK5jhtS4w1sYT_5lSO7mtTsA-ZuMoK0p-Yt8j_rR9KEAPoYNo53IB5VDmHfGHipNww9lZWik8aidnemn9vFwctl6v7Xy6pLPdz4P-FL/s320/AMD+Catalyst+vs.+Radeon+Gallium3D+On+Linux+3.1.2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRcVq1O1E6YMvnZqAioMHOmMbTu2yWPLDbsSC8ADlYUU8wfAD64fNXGoXxfdFEkJD8iff93N67IBpq50bI2uzm0guKfKhWO9XpvVXw-R2u0ekq3JN0B67KdttwHjISso40v5hTDXCquiHh/s1600/AMD+Catalyst+vs.+Radeon+Gallium3D+On+Linux+3.1.3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRcVq1O1E6YMvnZqAioMHOmMbTu2yWPLDbsSC8ADlYUU8wfAD64fNXGoXxfdFEkJD8iff93N67IBpq50bI2uzm0guKfKhWO9XpvVXw-R2u0ekq3JN0B67KdttwHjISso40v5hTDXCquiHh/s320/AMD+Catalyst+vs.+Radeon+Gallium3D+On+Linux+3.1.3.png" width="320" /></a></div>manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-21082676470865396192012-01-03T21:01:00.000-08:002012-01-04T19:46:08.408-08:00Did Linux Abandon Netbooks?Four years back when Asus EEE PC line surfaced with its 7" netbooks, it was told that Linux is reviving on home computing. The first EEE PC models came with a certain modified versions of Xandros, the then popular commercial desktop linux. Popularity of those tiny computers inspired almost every other hardware vendors to come up with comparable models. We saw followers in HP, Lenovo, Sony and Acer, among many others. Keeping pace with the hardware we also saw many customized Linux distributions that gave full support to Asus EEE PCs, Acer Aspire One PCs and HP Mini Notebooks.<br />
<br />
The prominent distributions among them were eeebuntu, eedora, debian eee pc, Jolicloud and UNR. Suddenly, the trend reversed in favor of XP and Win7. Now I see most of those hobby projects abandoned, though there's no official statement regarding the same.<br />
<br />
Here are the screenshots of EEE PC support projects from two prominent distributions, Fedora and Debian, taken today. The screenshots (click on them to see them at full resolution) speak a lot about their status.<br />
<br />
First, Debian EEE PC. The screenshot is about the support models. As you can see, there's none of the most popular models that came last year.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4GT0vpbDpxHMj4dvMm_YDn_Cln9iygI2itWZhOO_fe88fke71AD5I6XKB28s8Lw0nF5z5f8IwMVPS_A5y2Qv0eia-pqvLyDj2AKFa7k9ymtvuB74ofj85TljsDgZ8tq9TcbuEfNQY3ba9/s1600/Screenshot-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4GT0vpbDpxHMj4dvMm_YDn_Cln9iygI2itWZhOO_fe88fke71AD5I6XKB28s8Lw0nF5z5f8IwMVPS_A5y2Qv0eia-pqvLyDj2AKFa7k9ymtvuB74ofj85TljsDgZ8tq9TcbuEfNQY3ba9/s320/Screenshot-2.png" width="320" /></a></div>Second, Fedora Netbook. It tauts of supporting entire EEE PC line (sadly on 2.6.35 kernel). I have tried with latest (ridiculously, that's 7 month's old) fedora notbook kernel and eee-control package, none of them work on modern EEE PC or Aspire One models.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlGHK8faVtXRJRHMXmtjspRmK0N7xAgYBrXAw7tT1hLMyJmSsWzvJm0IaDYn-ttFqnVgAfQPe39pdIumcSk4VurUXWXHWnkzskxVCtNvl4xY91agw_Jwda7C-mBm3-itPcw9KvddCJt4-S/s1600/Screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlGHK8faVtXRJRHMXmtjspRmK0N7xAgYBrXAw7tT1hLMyJmSsWzvJm0IaDYn-ttFqnVgAfQPe39pdIumcSk4VurUXWXHWnkzskxVCtNvl4xY91agw_Jwda7C-mBm3-itPcw9KvddCJt4-S/s320/Screenshot.png" width="320" /></a></div>Third, Eeebuntu, now Aurora, has not been updated for last one year. The release page reads "Aurora Gnome Edition will be the Primary Release from......" That "will be" kills the mood. Have a look at the screenshot.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8XQibAGWmghXp-vnASVrj6SJ_Z7xlIf7NxGOgAZtoUM0Irwe1ARcHzGDyRSYeL85W85mf95_39OkdqNQiTerv6T6SSM_PrXgOR1xEe-GfqpTAuERTG6xhdyJVFqK-WPT0dBIJJ_APNhLf/s1600/Screenshot-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8XQibAGWmghXp-vnASVrj6SJ_Z7xlIf7NxGOgAZtoUM0Irwe1ARcHzGDyRSYeL85W85mf95_39OkdqNQiTerv6T6SSM_PrXgOR1xEe-GfqpTAuERTG6xhdyJVFqK-WPT0dBIJJ_APNhLf/s320/Screenshot-3.png" width="320" /></a></div>Of course, you don't always need these customized distributions for your netbook. Many of the models work quite well on the current stock releases of Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu. But the tragedy is most often, the special features of these gadgets such as hotkeys and power control don't work on the official releases of these mainstream distributions. Funny but true, android works better on many of these models, though the lack of productivity apps turns off the users from deploying it on their netbooks.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-32206160626135454212011-12-30T22:37:00.001-08:002012-04-17T21:47:51.059-07:00No Rants Just Sincere Concerns for Linux at Home<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoM7ukPudye2Jpth_s2Y7NgpmgqK6XUGxHaXZRiuABO4Ks5FD7a6C9VI3gedSqjdKHFToEdvUkr9oBmJwrXeoBm1fsSmncFlSFFZgv4bX1-kPSRgmlMHb3SvelGefH4LWNApmUD3F34xKE/s1600/linux-2012.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoM7ukPudye2Jpth_s2Y7NgpmgqK6XUGxHaXZRiuABO4Ks5FD7a6C9VI3gedSqjdKHFToEdvUkr9oBmJwrXeoBm1fsSmncFlSFFZgv4bX1-kPSRgmlMHb3SvelGefH4LWNApmUD3F34xKE/s320/linux-2012.png" width="320" /></a></div>2012 is a few hours away. Thankfully, no one is claiming that "Year of the Linux Desktop" anymore across OSS fora or other social media on the web.<br />
<br />
Linux Desktop is not going to die, but it won't win more home desktop users either. The present stack of servers will continue to work day and night in the racks, linux servers will power my office website, Android cell phones will probably gain more users, Windows 8 may go unnoticed on the mobile platform, million other appliances may definitely run on linux, more linux distributions will surface, some will die unmaintained, there will be hue and cry about the major improvements in some of the core and sub-core components of linux, four new kernel versions will be released, gnome shell will ride v. 3.6, we'll see some more forking of gnome and other desktop environments as well as distributions... so on and so forth. But the usershare will dwindle roughly at 1%.<br />
<br />
There'll be arguments and counter-arguments - Windows comes preinstalled, Resistance to change, Lack of games on linux platform, Lack of drivers, Lack of marketing, Microsoft and Hardware vendors are partners in crime and on and on...<br />
<br />
Are these arguments valid? If yes, how much? Moreover, are they going to bring any change? A big NO. Why?<br />
<br />
I smell there are far more serious issues than the lack of application software, device drivers, games, lack of adverting/marketing or microsoft's ill practice. I've seen vast improvement in all these areas. Where Linux and the community lag behind is putting the basics of home computing right. In other words, the platform suffers from bad integration of components. How?<br />
<br />
Gone are the days of dirty commands on a text console. In 2012 99% users are going to use computers as just other electronic appliances. They are not going to worry what's going under the hood as long as it works. I'm using Linux for more than a decade (two of my home PCs are linux - Debian and PCLinuxOS, 100's of my office workstations are linux - CentOS and Fedora), even administered some desktops for sometime. Here are my list of the basics that go wrong in Linux, always.<br />
<br />
- Bad Workarounds<br />
- Overlapping Packages/Procedures<br />
- Problematic Sub-core Components<br />
- Fast Moving Base and Major Components<br />
- Ever Changing Desktop Metaphor<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Bad Workarounds: For appliance-oriented present world, either it works or it doesn't. Anything in between is an annoyance. Device drivers in the kernel stagging area, especially for graphics and wifi, fall in the user annoyance category. Here're a couple of issues from my personal experience. Let's first talk about Radeon HD 6250 graphics that came with Asus Eee PC 1215B. AMD proclaimed it had opensource drivers (in kernel 2.6.38) ready for all the Fusion APUs (my graphics driver falls into this category), besides, it had proprietary binary linux drivers too. Sadly, driver support in both the cases are workarounds, far from being comparable to their windows counterparts. Open source drivers were damn slow, lacked much of the features of the device, even power management was shoddy. Installing proprietary driver was cryptic. It should confirm to a certain version of xorg, require libva and xvba-va-driver packages, require the mediaplayers to be set to xv or x11 or opengl (can't recall the exact one). After all these be prepared to see some conflicts with your desktop environment. I had similar experience with my Atheros wifi card. First, there was no opensource driver support, but it worked on ndiswrapper. Then one morning it broke, opensource b43 drivers superseded it. I had to blacklist it and then finally switched to windows drivers which would on/off on its own like a pain in the ass. Finally with Linux 3 kernel it worked as supposed. In my view the device maker or the community should not taut that "it works" or "it is supported", if it doesn't work the way manufacturer's specs claim. Users are not worried about whether it's opensource or closed. All they expect is not to see any ugly surprise. For your information, the opensource radeon hd 6250 driver performance is poorer than x3150 igp that comes with any atom pinetrail cpu.</li>
<li>Overlapping Packages/Procedures: Choice is good as long as the procedures don't multiply/overlap. Human life is too short to waste time reinventing the same wheel. All the distros are free, but the time involved to settle at one after a little bit of hopping is not. There is no benefit in learning multiple procedures for doing the same thing which should otherwise happen unnoticed. For example, take a look at the package management. In your distro-hopping you're likely to interface terms such as apt-get, yum, pacman, ppa, official repo, unofficial repo, free, non-free, restricted, local installation, remote installation, package pinning, compiling from source, so on... The other day, a linux guy at my office was dabbling yum commands on my debian squeeze (apparently none worked), he's just too used to yum in CentOS, no one to blame. Similarly, you'll see a bewildering multiplicity of commands/tools/packages for configuring your desktop, setting network and doing user administration. Overlapping packages is even funnier. Can't remember properly if it was on Ubuntu - after installing both KDE and Gnome I saw network-manager-kde and network-manager-gnome in my installed list of packages. But only network-manager-gnome would work on kde and gnome. There're a dozen other packages just to monitor/show/configure your network. It's not funny, it's ugly. You might see similar multiplicity in your desktop in sound components - alsa, pulse, oss, bla..bla.. bla... Multiplicity in application software such as office suites and graphics software is ok. They don't change across distributions.. But there should be certain degree of order in desktop configuration tools/packages. For now the situation is a mess.</li>
<li>Problematic Sub-core Components: Consider the subcore components such as sound, graphics, network devices, printers, etc., and their integration on top of linux. In Windows you need to install a certain driver (100% time it is supplied by the manufacturer). That's it. But in Linux proper sound is not just about something called drivers - it involves kernel, alsa, oss, pulse, and some packages to wrap those packages with each other. What's worse, even after all these packages talk to each other well, sometimes you can't hear any sound, send the output across hdmi, or the sound is too choppy. Then of course, you fiddle with setting sound channels, reconfigure alsa and what not! You are overwhelmed by the presence of six items in your application menu just for sound such as pulse-volume manager, alsa-mixer, audio-manager, sound, etc. Same thing with graphics, there's no such thing as just graphics drivers, it's a set of packages - kernel, xorg, proper modules, proper players, plugins, proper wrappers, etc. You take some time to figure it out, and put them together well. You're happy till an update breaks them all.</li>
<li>Fast Moving Base and Major Components: Frequent release of base and major components often wards off the prospective linux users. It's like world's fastest roller coaster that never stops, there's no option to ride it. Consider the desktop environments Gnome and KDE. There was an almost perfect KDE 3.5. Then came the disaster KDE 4.0 final (quite sometime after the official alpha, beta and rc releases). The final 4.0 was worse than industry standard alpha release of most software. And took roughly 3 years to bake further to be usable by all. Same thing can be said of Gnome 3. The point is linux community doesn't let a stable, good working major component stay for long enough to be used. Major percentage of the software timeline here is a kind of never-ending work-in-progress. Any major upgrade of software-stack in GNU/Linux world, even after it comes with usual alpha, beta and rc cycle, is far from being usable/stable/bugfree; bugs outweigh features. Compiz, pulseaudio and many other major packages have had similar buggy health long after they had been touted final versions.</li>
<li>Ever Changing Desktop Metaphor: Some ways it's similar to the previous issue. At some point in the Linux history KDE 3 was very popular. It kept on improving and became rock-stable by 2008 through its 3.5.9 iteration. Then came the unholy KDE 4 in Fedora 9, it smelled more pungent than Sulphur. Even some KDE fanboys, after getting stuck with KDE4 for couple of months, left the camp to saught refuge in good old Gnome 2. Sure, it was not way too much configurable as KDE3 but it worked. Alas! Gnome team gave a similar jerk with their 3.0 release in Fedora 15. Nobody always likes spending time configuring the desktop when it never gets quite right. You'd be at the neck of some urgent work and your system would fuck the hell out of you. The desktop environment design people should understand that users develop a workflow and keyboard/mouse habit, get used to certain tweaks/tricks and settle into an environment. Challenging the same for the heck of it, in my opinion, is the worst one can expect. Users will go away looking for their familiar working desktop metaphor.</li>
</ul><br />
I'm sure the situation is not going to change. I will still be using linux at home and office. 99% will be using Microsoft or Apple products, despite Linux being inherently more secure.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-66690483115387140652011-11-03T10:13:00.001-07:002012-04-12T22:26:50.082-07:00Debian Squeeze on Asus Eee PC 1215B<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhalsH4u2V7qlfIM6htfS4Z26YBfKr-rWv93aMw7cZfbBGA5Ld08GdPm4U5Dxp9ysvlZA4V5bBdjb3sK_r1mfJ1ztpt_jUDz7q1SA7dwdZ0220eab2BWdOWGZiBTmwI8pbnwAlwEXlq7jK/s1600/debian-squeeze-on-asus-eee-pc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhalsH4u2V7qlfIM6htfS4Z26YBfKr-rWv93aMw7cZfbBGA5Ld08GdPm4U5Dxp9ysvlZA4V5bBdjb3sK_r1mfJ1ztpt_jUDz7q1SA7dwdZ0220eab2BWdOWGZiBTmwI8pbnwAlwEXlq7jK/s320/debian-squeeze-on-asus-eee-pc.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="top"> <td>Device</td> <td>Status</td> <td>Workaround</td> </tr>
<tr valign="top"> <td>Sound</td> <td>Works</td> <td>Need to change settings on alsamixer to get speakers/headphone jack and mic working</td> </tr>
<tr valign="top"> <td>Graphics</td> <td>Works</td> <td>The default 2.6.32 squeeze kernel requires radeon.modeset=0 at the end of kernel line to boot properly. The resolution never maxes out 1024x768. Proper 1366x768 resolution and graphic acceleration is achieved after installing 2.6.39 kernel (<a href="http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/backports/squeeze/squeeze-custom-amd64-0808.iso">http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/backports/squeeze/squeeze-custom-amd64-0808.iso</a>) from backports repo and proprietary catalyst drivers (<a href="http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-11-10-x86.x86_64.run">http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-11-10-x86.x86_64.run</a>) from amd website.</td> </tr>
<tr valign="top"> <td>Webcam</td> <td>Works</td> <td>Works out of box.</td> </tr>
<tr valign="top"> <td>CPU</td> <td>Works</td> <td>Works out of box. Detects both the cores and steps up/down as per the load.</td> </tr>
<tr valign="top"> <td>Network</td> <td>Works</td> <td>Atheros LAN card works well on 2.6.39 kernel. Broadcom 4313 WLAN card works well after installing firmware-brcm80211 (<a href="http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/firmware-brcm80211/download">http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/firmware-brcm80211/download</a>) from non-free repo.</td> </tr>
<tr valign="top"> <td>Bluetooth</td> <td>Works</td> <td>Works out of the box. With gnome-sharing transferring files over bluetooth is absolutely painless.</td> </tr>
<tr valign="top"> <td>Hotkeys</td> <td>Don't work</td> <td>Don't work even after installing eeepc-acpi-scripts (<a href="http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/eeepc-acpi-scripts/download">http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/eeepc-acpi-scripts/download</a>) and adding acpi_osi=Linux to the kernel boot line. Eeepc-wmi may resolve this issue but it's not available yet for Debian Squeeze.</td> </tr>
</table><br />
Here's lspci info you might like to see:<br />
<br />
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 14h Processor Root Complex<br />
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Device 9804<br />
00:01.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Wrestler HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6250/6310]<br />
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 14h Processor Root Port<br />
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 14h Processor Root Port<br />
00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]<br />
00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller<br />
00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller<br />
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller<br />
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller<br />
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 42)<br />
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)<br />
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller (rev 40)<br />
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40)<br />
00:15.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)<br />
00:15.2 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 43a2<br />
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 0 (rev 43)<br />
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 1<br />
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 2<br />
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 3<br />
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 4<br />
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 6<br />
00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 5<br />
00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 7<br />
01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)<br />
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)<br />
07:00.0 USB Controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controllermanmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-38925575810395061232011-09-13T06:51:00.000-07:002011-11-03T10:18:00.833-07:00Why Linux Sucks on Desktops and How to Save Your Ass<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlqCSmprDjs-i3IY9SaX9JtLmu2WHLEemkv1P3J-g7GoUwoANaccGuyWrJV1qXI5PD3DCBvD5XyhWrLp1M8p9otBBsYx66YLG69d6qncPfT3R4iyBYHrTHKB7sk2kjuhpvQCz-Y51HSKqZ/s1600/ass-pain+copy.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlqCSmprDjs-i3IY9SaX9JtLmu2WHLEemkv1P3J-g7GoUwoANaccGuyWrJV1qXI5PD3DCBvD5XyhWrLp1M8p9otBBsYx66YLG69d6qncPfT3R4iyBYHrTHKB7sk2kjuhpvQCz-Y51HSKqZ/s1600/ass-pain+copy.png" /></a>In terms of pure resource usage, performance, stability and security Linux wins. Pick any distro (from Debian, Scientific, OpenSuse, Mint, Arch, PCLinuxOS...) and compare it with Windows 7, you'll know what I mean. Discard X-desktop and the stuff beyond, pure linux shell is perhaps the most powerful tool for computing. I've never been a Windows guy. But quite often I came back to it at odd times when I am almost pissed off by the so called direction (or lack of it) in the Linux world. So what're those minor glitches that sour the desktop experience.<br />
<br />
<b>Here's why Desktop Linux Sucks</b><br />
<br />
<u>Desktop Graphics Drivers</u><br />
<br />
If you've a plain Intel IGP on your mobo and you are not a gamer, almost always you'll have a smoother experience. Similarly you'll have a painless experience with older realtek, atheros, huwei and many other devices. But if it's new, shiny and of non-standard (as per linux driver support) you're stuck. Take for example Nvidia optimus graphics technology related to switching between IGP and discreet graphics. It's been more than two years yet the graphics stack is half-baked. ATI/AMD side of the story, especially concerning the recent Fusion series APUs, is more grim. Though AMD was much vocal a year back regarding open source drivers for its fusion series APUs, the driver support for Linux is lame at best at the moment of writing this post.<br />
<br />
I have an Asus 1215b EEE PC based on Fusion platform that sports a C-50 APU (AMD Ontario CPU + Radeon 6250 GPU). Windows 7 runs quite well and offers a thrilling graphics experience powered by UVD and DirectX 11. Linux? Fusion graphics is muddy with multiple wrappers, drivers and methods. When kernel 2.6.38 flaunted of having Fusion APU support through Gallium drivers it didn't disclose that it was limited to just decent graphics. You can't expect anything beyond, forget the support for UVD and 3D acceleration till next couple of years. For better graphics experience you're left with distro-specific fglrx drivers, xvba/vaapi wrappers and suitable xorg pieces. But the distro-specific drivers are generally dated, so, I pulled in the latest catalyst driver sources from AMD and compiled them for Debian Squeeze. I had a good-go, but the graphics performance was inferior to that of Windows 7.<br />
<br />
<u>Correct the Basics</u><br />
<br />
Blue Screen of Death is history. Modern Windows OS (XP onwards) ensures you land at least on a basic vga mode if the install disk lacks proper display drivers. Then you're ready to install the proprietary drivers. But linux graphics problems sometimes slam you with a black screen (call it Black Screen of Death), and if you are unlucky you even can't enter to a rescue shell. Sure, there are dozen of cheat codes [(nomodeset, radeon.modeset=0, nvidia.modeset=zero, intel.modeset=0, if kms is messed up) or (vesa="numeric resolution value" for a vga screen or xforcevesa) or (some similar acpi cheat codes on the kernel line)] to put you on a workable shell. Who cares with these not-so-dirty but definitely-cryptic codes? Distributions should come up with fool-proof measures to land the users on a vga desktop without much fiddling around.<br />
<br />
Desktop paradigm is gone. It's the time for mobile computing where sleep/suspend/hibernate/resume is very necessary. Linux world has been fighting with these features for years. These features work fine with standard distributions running on standard hardware. Sadly, they are far from being stable in case of very new or esoteric hardware.<br />
<br />
<u>Bewildering Choice vis-a-vis Rapid Development</u><br />
<br />
Choice is good. But bewildering choice is very bad. Mass look for a few working applications, not a million shoddy clones. Situation is slowly improving in this regards. Thanks, the leading and serious flavors such as RHEL (and its clones), Debian, Arch and most recently Mandriva following frugality as far as choice of applications and desktop environments are concerned. Less configurations and less packages means less clutter. The bewildering choice and plurality in design philosophy decrease the mindshare. It also kills much of developers' hours in re-inventing the wheel. This coupled with rapid development worsens things further. Take the most popular distributions of our time, Ubuntu. Though it pulls packages from Debian testing/unstable it puts efforts in developing a few packages and polishing them. It follows a fully automated packaging and testing. However, given a 6-months release cycle, it must not be putting more than a month towards real development. Who'll expect fidelity from such a fleeting women!<br />
<br />
Linux != Open Source. But the later is blamed for the plurality in Linux. For example, in Windows, if a certain version of package works it works. But in linux that's not always true. For example pidgin 2.7.3 on Windows, owing to the singularity of platform and API standards will be the same across XP, Vista and Win 7. But the pidgin on Fedora might behave differently than it does in Debian. The difference lies in how the particular software is packaged across various distributions. The same is true in case of some core components such as kernel. Kernel 2.6.38 in Debian backports repository is not 100% the same in Remi's repository meant for RHEL and its clones. The same trend is true in case Ubuntu, Mandriva, Arch and Slackware. Each original distribution has its peculiar set of patches for kernel, and particular build flags and dependencies for a particular software.<br />
<br />
<u>Features vs. Polish</u><br />
<br />
Firefox undoubtedly has more options than Chrome, and OpenOffice is more versatile than any other proprietary office suite. Both are feature-rich, but both lack polish. Firefox is trying to catch up chrome on desktop. But still it lacks the philosophy of chrome, frugality. Firefox still caches aggressively like a hungry beast and sometimes forgets to flush. OpenOffice is jumping from Sun to Novel to Document Foundation. It's as slow as a sloth. Performance improvement is a long due for OpenOffice (now LibreOffice).<br />
<br />
<b>So, How to Save Your Ass?</b><br />
<br />
<u>Hardware and Distribution</u><br />
<br />
1. Choose standard hardware. Save the output of your "lspci" commmand using any liveCD and post the text across popular forums to know which distribution fully supports your devices. Of the supported distributions choose a stable one from Ubuntu LTS, Debian stable, CentOS or Scientific Linux. If you're hardcore gamer, forget linux for a while.<br />
2. Pin up the critical packages. If your current setup runs your devices well pin up the core packages such as xorg, kernel, sound-base packages and other device drivers so that future upgrades won't break your setup. I've faced sound problems, graphics hells and many booting problems related to upgrading core packages.<br />
3. Don't tinker much. Choose your favorite distribution, customize it to your liking and forget. No need to always put newer bits and pieces. Newer is not always better. Even all new features may have nothing to do with you. Go by perceivable experience regarding performance, features and stability, not by numbers and benchmarks.<br />
<br />
<u>Personality and Distribution</u><br />
<br />
1. If you really want to learn linux and expect a painfree experience for a longer future, choose Arch or Slackware. The things you learn here will last for ever. And a perfect Arch or Slackware setup will rarely go wrong.<br />
2. If you want to make living out of Linux go with Scientific Linux. Because it's perhaps the most sincere clone of RHEL the present king in the enterprise world. Though it doesn't replicate RHEL in bug-for-bug philosophy, it's more predictable and open than its more popular cousin, CentOS.<br />
3. If a great no-nonsense home desktop is all you want choose one from PCLinuxOS, Mepis or Mint. All three guarantee a superb desktop experience out of the box. PCLinuxOS gathers the best from across entire Linux distros, Mint does Ubuntu much better and Mepis polishes Debian to the extremes for a hasslefree desktop experience.<br />
4. If you don't fall into any of the above and are apathetic to Windows. Choose FreeBSD, tame it with extra caution and make it your own. It's very very unix to the core and very systematically designed. If you don't want to shed that extra sweat choose OS X. Buy Apple hardware or assemble your Mac following insanelymac website and put OS X. OS X Mach kernel is heavily inspired by Unix. You will get many of the POSIX features including Bash shell.<br />
<br />
That pretty well sums my two cents!manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2820053176535548299.post-2911511506426245392011-06-09T20:22:00.000-07:002011-08-10T03:04:27.916-07:00Why AMD Fails<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4JPbhKS5MN_EdXfOnYHDVojyL5rSrbsKcF0Oer3cCD_j4Z4Ol632ZERslNhHsWHx8l3XDSjiMKUGzpRdb81xpgTZW3Ft9d5IQvZEhEWFt196xZw5nPsmLbuU8DmDvLIU4XJPN3LTsFes/s1600/intel-vs-amd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="215" width="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4JPbhKS5MN_EdXfOnYHDVojyL5rSrbsKcF0Oer3cCD_j4Z4Ol632ZERslNhHsWHx8l3XDSjiMKUGzpRdb81xpgTZW3Ft9d5IQvZEhEWFt196xZw5nPsmLbuU8DmDvLIU4XJPN3LTsFes/s400/intel-vs-amd.jpg" /></a></div><br />
With the merger of ATi and AMD the new AMD Fusion platform offers far better value for money performance than Intel. However, AMD is still no more near Intel when it comes to mass adoption. Why? The reason is twofold:<br />
<br />
1. Creates hype early but comes to party very late: Take for example the Fusion APU hoopla. AMD announced this groundbreaking technology 6 years back and kept on shelving for very long till Intel appropriated similar technology into Sandy Bridge. Sure, even now Fusion is a better proposition against any of Intel's Atom architecture. But sadly, Atom has become ubiquitous before Fusion knocks the door.<br />
<br />
2. Great hardware but poor driver/software support: Creating new technology and throwing benchmarks of the same is not everything. AMD raved for its DirectX 11 and UVD support on the Fusion platform. It's great. But failed measurable in bringing out opensource drivers in a comparable time limit. Even today opensource Fusion driver support is bad at best. Be it gallium, catalyst or the inbuilt drivers of kernel 2.6.38, none work as well as they were tauted. The whole of device innovation trashed due to lack of proper software support. Whereas, Intel has promptly provided device drivers for Sandy Bridge. Intel's open-source VA-API implementation into graphics hardware is better off in many regards than AMD's XvBA under Linux. These days, VA-API works quite well and Intel even recently introduced support not only for video decoding, but also video encoding, using the VA-API library with the new Sandy Bridge hardware. Intel's next-generation Ivy Bridge support should be the same way. The recent Intel SNA technology has boosted Sandy Bridge as well as earlier Intel IGP performance to a great extent. Here AMD lags.manmath sahuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18392773625626406680noreply@blogger.com0