Yikes, did you backup your X11 config file first?

Yeah, but I think the trouble is occurring before it ever gets to the point of starting X windows.

Funny this gets bumped today...I literally just brought home a drive to back up all my Dr. Who files...

If I don't post here for awhile, well, it's because I'm wrestling with my Ubuntu Studio 7.10 distro...

There will be no more windows here at the end of the week.

linux is fine for network and general text file writing etc.

if you have a lot of free spare time and want to make a KILLER web server or some such, linux is a great hobby.

if you want to record bands with your computer, linux is still bullshit but a great idea/concept/aspiration

i've learned a lot from using linux/unix over the years but i never, ever use it to record bands. i want a 'tape machine' appliance, not a hobby

$0.02...flame on

I don't think there's anything flammable in your opinion

Linux was built by coders, for coders, and is perpetuated by coders.

They're starting to get the hang of helping everyone else out there, and getting rapidly closer to a day where they're interchangeable with windows/osx, but its not there yet.

I've seen/tried some commercialized distros that are much closer as well.

casey_rice wrote:
if you want to record bands with your computer, linux is still bullshit but a great idea/concept/aspiration

i've learned a lot from using linux/unix over the years but i never, ever use it to record bands. i want a 'tape machine' appliance, not a hobby

$0.02...flame on

I won't flame ya, but I'll point out that if you were going to use a computer-based digital audio system to try and make a digital record (in the wanky literal librarian sense), there is nothing on this earth that can do the critical fundamentals of digital audio architecture like linux.
Those fundamentals are:
- That the hardware can be totally abstracted from the software (done with JACK) - ie no hardware addressing at the application level
- That you have the legal right to copy, modify, re-compile, and fuck with any aspect of the software logic supporting your hardware
- That no individual other than yourself has any legal claim or input via terms and conditions on any of the audio you produce (unlike windows, for example)
- That is is extremely portable (can you say portable, Apple? port-a-ble) so you are not dependent on very specific or vendor-specific hardware

With respect, you do not sound like you have looked very hard at linux audio. Go and throw ubuntu studio on a x86 audio box and tell me Audacity doesn't impress you as a basic audio appliance. If you like pro-tools/nasa interfaces, go fire up JACK and ardour, and maybe rosegarden if you're a midi kinda guy. It is a piece of piss to set up, and I'd be happy to help you get it going on something if you wanted (PM me if so).
Or, ignore me and keep on using whatever you like using, and have fun doing it....

casey_rice wrote:linux is fine for network and general text file writing etc.

if you have a lot of free spare time and want to make a KILLER web server or some such, linux is a great hobby.

If you're using OS X, then you are already using a *nix.

IMHO, saying it's only great for networking and text file writing is sort of selling the world of Linux distros short. That's only a drop in the bucket as to the capabilities of these distros. It's no longer a hobby OS, at all. Many, many businesses rely on Linux for stuff other than what you mention in production environments.

But yes, I won't use Ardour or anything other music related distro for a while. The only reason being the complete lack of decent plugins compiled for the linux platform.

busbus wrote:

casey_rice wrote:linux is fine for network and general text file writing etc.

if you have a lot of free spare time and want to make a KILLER web server or some such, linux is a great hobby.

If you're using OS X, then you are already using a *nix.

IMHO, saying it's only great for networking and text file writing is sort of selling the world of Linux distros short. That's only a drop in the bucket as to the capabilities of these distros. It's no longer a hobby OS, at all. Many, many businesses rely on Linux for stuff other than what you mention in production environments.

But yes, I won't use Ardour or anything other music related distro for a while. The only reason being the complete lack of decent plugins compiled for the linux platform.

you think i haven't used linux for audio? it sucks so bad i use pro tools instead! think about that! yes i know OSX is [sort of] unix, ok?

and by the way!

it doesnt even count for excuses if you have 'BODY BY LINUX' ironed on in velour letters on your XXXL t-shirt.

The Web was built on Linux and Apache still has a huge share of the Web server market.

Actually, Linux has never been in a better position than now to snatch a big chunk of the desktop market away from Microsoft. Windows appears to be faltering, in danger of collapsing under its own weight and Linux has more going for it now than ever. Place a sleek, lean and fully capable Ubuntu distro right up next to that bloated, crippled deep-fried turd called Vista and you'll see what I mean.

Linux may not be the perfect OS for the average, beginning user, but it certainly offers many technical advantages over other OSs. Install one of the Ubuntu distros and you can forget about ever having to defragment your hard drive. There's virtually no threat of viruses or spyware, so you don't have to be constantly running all that resource-hungry security software. Linux is modular in design, so it's lean and efficient as opposed to Microsoft's monolithic "billion and one useless features" model. That means that under Linux, your machine will run several times faster than it ever did with Windows.

Don't let anybody tell you there's no good software that runs on Linux. You get all the functionality that you'd get with a full-featured OS like Windows, plus a full Office suite (compatible with MS Office), multiple choices of audio and video players, CD/DVD burning software, instant messaging (that includes support for all major IM networks), audio/video players, RSS feed readers, Bittorrent and IRC clients, networking tools, etc. There's a lot of other software available, too, and it's absolutely free. With a single operation, you can choose, download and install free software to provide whatever functionality you need. Just pick the programs you want off a list, then click a button and the programs will be immediately downloaded from an online network of repository servers and automatically installed.

You won't have to restart your computer after installing software, either. Linux is robust enough to install software and then begin running it immediately. In fact, Linux Web servers are often run extremely reliably for years without a single reboot. The only time you'll ever have to reboot a Linux machine is after recompiling the kernel or doing other low-level configuration changes, which really only need to be done during a version upgrade or when you change your basic hardware setup.

Even if you really can't stand to give up your favorite Windows applications, you can still run Linux and have your cake and eat it too. Using a virtualization program called Wine, you can run thousands of Win32 apps. It doesn't yet run 100% of Windows programs, but it can certainly do most of the popular ones. Of course you also have the option of setting up your computer as a dual-boot box with a separate Windows installation, so if there's a Win app you really need to run, you can just reboot into Windows for that purpose.