Friday, July 16, 2010

More fun with Linux

This is getting annoying now. DirectQ works, but I'm getting less than 1 FPS. That's OK, it may just be the case that I'm going through software emulation. But I seem to have no way of finding out. Even if I did find out, how do I enable hardware acceleration? Hell, I don't even seem to have any way of finding out the make and model of video driver it's using. DirectQ tells me that it's an NVIDIA FX 5600 which is quite odd as I certainly do not have an NVIDIA anything in this box.

What the hell is going on?

Right now I'm spending much more time battling with the OS than I am spending actually doing things with applications. That's not good, and it's not productive. Gah! It's still a long way from being "Linux for Humans" I think. Or even for IT heads.

I've managed big networks for 12 years, repaired faulty DNS servers, recovered Oracle databases, built Cisco router configurations, and many other fun things, so I'm reasonably confident that I am not stupid when it comes to this kind of thing, but every time I try anything it's just throwing more obstacles in my face.

So I'm shutting it down now. I might get back to it later on, but at the moment I'm no longer inclined to spend time on it.

I wonder do Linux people have the same kind of experience when confronted with a Windows box?

(As a sidenote, it's also quite ironic that my fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 was about the same size as my fresh install of Windows 7 - bloatware, anyone?)

5 comments:

Nyarlathotep said...

Originally I wrote a long post in response to this, but Google seems to have devoured it. This will be the Cliff's Notes.

* Install mesa-utils through the package manager, run glxinfo, peek at output. Or turn on compositing, see if it works. I usually leave the latter off since it's in a perpetual state of development hell, and the overhead of handling the desktop without 3D is hardly greater than doing it with.

* I still volunteer to test DirectQ with Wine on my Linux system. Dreadfully sorry to see that Ubuntu failed you so catastrophically... though honestly, I never cared much for it myself. See below.

* This is not said from the perspective of a Weenix Loony, but after using my Linux system these are things I notice and immediately dislike: the lack of a C compiler, a competent command-line in pre-7 releases, the sluggishness of Windows Update, the registry, stupid services being enabled by default, disk defragmenting, and the cottage industry of applications specifically designed to work around Windows' sometimes-perceived but more often glaring shortcomings (cruft cleaners, disk defragmenters, anti-malware, 400 MB printer drivers, &c.). To say nothing of identifying and fixing malware infestations, or the dreaded backup-flatten-reinstall routine.

I say all of that as someone who administers three Windows systems in his house. It's a useful computing platform that runs nearly everything under the sun, but the list I slapped up in the last paragraph is a jealous shadow of one I could create given proper motivation. A lot of the time it boils down to loyalty to the devil you know...

And yes, Ubuntu's a slobbering pig. My Slackware 13.1 install isn't svelte in terms of disk usage, but it sips memory, and with the right knowledge it's also frighteningly capable out of the box. Unlike Ubuntu it doesn't try to impress with largesse, then disastrously fall over its own toes when you ask it to do anything out of the ordinary. It just does what it's asked and stays out of my way... and lets me work. :)

Like I said, I'll submit a bug report or two, and once (if?) the Taste of Ubuntu* has been rinsed out of your mouth maybe you'd be interested in giving it another try.

* Kinda like stale coffee, I'd reckon.

Nyarlathotep said...

Finally, almost incidentally, Wine 1.2 was released just today. May be worth a shot.

gnounc said...

I say dont sweat it.
There are openGL quake engines out there,
Quake can run on linux natively, dont sweat it.

Rook was talking about a linux port for Qrack, Darkplaces will run, lxndr has Quore, if someone wants to devote time to a linux engine that would be sweet, but in this instance I think its just spreading yourself too thin and has the potential to quickly make a mess of an engine codebase you keep optimizing.

mhquake said...

Slackware gives me the horrors; maybe it's no longer the case, but the thought of a minimal more Unix-like OS is not appealing. I prefer my OS to get out of the way while I run apps.

I've managed 1500 Windows desktops and 70-80 servers in my time; generally there is no problem so long as you work with the Windows way of doing stuff instead of fighting it. But now is not the time for a pissing match...

I'd be delighted if you'd test through Wine. You can grab the recent release (which actually does work), or alternatively drop me a PM on either I3D or Q1 and I'll shoot you a WiP build. :)

DrLabman said...

On your side note, you do get a lot more value for your bloat on ubuntu vs windows 7 in terms of actual applications installed.