Why on earth? The whole FFB is part of Microsoft's DirectX API, if dx is supported in Vista, why FFB isn't?
Why on earth? The whole FFB is part of Microsoft's DirectX API, if dx is supported in Vista, why FFB isn't?
[sarcasm]The OP has totally made me not upgrade to Vista, ever[/sarcasm]
Slightly OT: Will there ever be a way to get FF to work on Linux or is there some physical limitation?
how could there be any physical limitations if it runs fine on the exact same pc in windows ?
Yes, it is entirely possible, just need drivers!
Well my question is why are they not available and AFAIK in development? Surely it can't be that no one able has deemed it worth while to write drivers for them?
It is this Immersion and patents I believe, to make drivers you would need to pay money, that is how I remember thing being when I did read from from here somewhere.
So Vista is then as good as Linux for me when looking from LFS perspective, well I would get more LFS with Linux, lol.
I need seriously start testing these other things in my Linux box, in 2 years it could be that I need to really start to switch over.
All this praise for Linux is irrelevant to about 95% of the pc user base. For example, I consider myself a fair bit of a power user, I tweak XP so it works for what I want it to do etc etc, and I usually have no problem building and getting a pc going in a couple of hours.
I too have tried Linux, and from my point of view, it was more hassel than it was worth. Drivers can be very hard to find, then when you do find them they end up depending on various modules you havnt got etc. You have to bash out numerous shell comands to install things, it took my a whole evening just to get SUSE 10 installed and running with nvidia drivers, and audigy drivers, and even then sound only worked as root. (Dont get me started on video/audio codecs).
Then you get to the software, yes its free, and generally pretty good, for exmaple the GIMP etc. But, its still not entirely compatible with Windows, and if you ever need to take your work to another environment, guess what the probabilty is that you'll have to use a Windows machine
This brings me now to Vista. I put the dvd in, followed about the simplest OS install instructions ive seen yet, 30 mins later (I think less time than it took to install XP), vista is up and running. No messing.
So my imediate thoughts are, urgh I'm going to have to set up everything again, find drivers, hope they work with vista, god only knows if my tv card will work etc.
To my suprise, its already detected my hardware and made the relevant changes to the system settings, ie simple things like setting the res to the correct size automatically etc.
Then I go to updates, vista finds the latest drivers for my graphics card, sound card, and tv card, no issues, 1 minute later and everythings up to date.
Now for the average home user, that is just the thing they need, no messing, just a plug and play system.
I'm not trying to come across as a Vista fanboy, it just angers me every time poeple say "USE LINUX", because it really doesnt apply to most people. Fair enough, if it does the job you need to do, then of course use it.
And finally as for saying MS copy Apples ideas, they just listen to what the public want. What are they going to do? Not implement those ideas, and fall behind Apple? I dont think so.
I too have tried Linux, and from my point of view, it was more hassel than it was worth. Drivers can be very hard to find, then when you do find them they end up depending on various modules you havnt got etc. You have to bash out numerous shell comands to install things, it took my a whole evening just to get SUSE 10 installed and running with nvidia drivers, and audigy drivers, and even then sound only worked as root. (Dont get me started on video/audio codecs).
Then you get to the software, yes its free, and generally pretty good, for exmaple the GIMP etc. But, its still not entirely compatible with Windows, and if you ever need to take your work to another environment, guess what the probabilty is that you'll have to use a Windows machine
This brings me now to Vista. I put the dvd in, followed about the simplest OS install instructions ive seen yet, 30 mins later (I think less time than it took to install XP), vista is up and running. No messing.
So my imediate thoughts are, urgh I'm going to have to set up everything again, find drivers, hope they work with vista, god only knows if my tv card will work etc.
To my suprise, its already detected my hardware and made the relevant changes to the system settings, ie simple things like setting the res to the correct size automatically etc.
Then I go to updates, vista finds the latest drivers for my graphics card, sound card, and tv card, no issues, 1 minute later and everythings up to date.
Now for the average home user, that is just the thing they need, no messing, just a plug and play system.
I'm not trying to come across as a Vista fanboy, it just angers me every time poeple say "USE LINUX", because it really doesnt apply to most people. Fair enough, if it does the job you need to do, then of course use it.
And finally as for saying MS copy Apples ideas, they just listen to what the public want. What are they going to do? Not implement those ideas, and fall behind Apple? I dont think so.
pb32000 - totally know what you mean. I kinda feel stuck between a rock and a hard place, Windows is far too nannying and DRM embracing, Linux is determined to only be operable by Linux geeks.
I had SuSE 9 installed for a while, until I tried the online updated, all downloaded fine, prompted to reboot, rebooted, and was left with a command prompt upon boot-up. Great.
Haven't put the disk back in since.
XP on the other hand, I spent longer than it took to install removing everything I didn't want it to install (but didn't get the option to not install), turning off services and generally tidying up the mess. I've a copy of Vista that I'm somewhat dreading to install but I figure switching is an eventuality (unless something genuinely better AND USABLE comes along) so I might as well wet my toes for now.
I had SuSE 9 installed for a while, until I tried the online updated, all downloaded fine, prompted to reboot, rebooted, and was left with a command prompt upon boot-up. Great.
Haven't put the disk back in since.XP on the other hand, I spent longer than it took to install removing everything I didn't want it to install (but didn't get the option to not install), turning off services and generally tidying up the mess. I've a copy of Vista that I'm somewhat dreading to install but I figure switching is an eventuality (unless something genuinely better AND USABLE comes along) so I might as well wet my toes for now.
No, LFS is the true linux geeks distro :P (Linux from Scratch)
all modern operating systems suck donkey poo.
with the possible exception of QNX, but that is a whole different beast.
if you had seen what i've seen, you would want to vomit at the incompetence worthlessness (?) and utter resource hogs that 'modern' operating systems are (And, respectively, modern computing in general)
all to hell.
with the possible exception of QNX, but that is a whole different beast.
if you had seen what i've seen, you would want to vomit at the incompetence worthlessness (?) and utter resource hogs that 'modern' operating systems are (And, respectively, modern computing in general)
all to hell.
ah yeah .... did that and the grub installer was rubbish ... took me quite a while to figure it out and even then it forgot all my settings after a system update
Ok, haven't tried it myself, only heard good things about it. I like to be in control of things and configure stuff by hand, that's why I use Gentoo. But then I've used Linux for like 15 years, so I have no problems fixing issues.
Goood choices there, I really like Gentoo and specially portage, worlds easiest way to get programs installed, but installing and configuring Gentoo, that will scare noobs to death and kill after that. Well there are good instructions, but installing is too much for 99.9999% of PC users, even those with skills can't bother as it is very time consuming process.
Kubuntu is my latest installation and it has really good implementation of apt, but still not noob friendly, you need to manual add lot to sources list to get it really useful, then also you have graphical tool where you can search stuff what to instal real good.
But I have not yet found single Linux where designing of whole enviroment has been done from average user perspective, but there will be such in future, I'm pretty sure of it.
Currently average user needs expert to setup and maintain Linux, using programs is pretty good already, you can also get your work with you and use Windows machine to continue etc. that is no more problem.
Also it is better forget playing games, unless expert knows how to setup emulation and games are possible to make work with emulation, in practise gaming can be forgotten.
Anyway Linux is very possible alternative for Vista at the moment and when Microsoft kills XP activations in future I better have something to move on as I will not jump into Vista wagon.
ok. I am not gonna do Vista after seeing this thread.
I am going to stick with the Windows XP Professional 64bit edition
I am going to stick with the Windows XP Professional 64bit edition
ive been brought up with dos when i was like 6 and i learned autoexec and config settings at atorung 10
so its kinds hard for me to get into linux ... took me at least a month to _not_ type dir first and now after using linux at uni quite a lot im at the point where i type ls in windows shells ... its a curse really
anywho the point is im having a really hard time getting into linux and while i have a system that running more or less fine now for all i know it could be spying even more than vista and ps doesnt help much with figuring out what is running (not that taskmanager is much better but at least i know where to look in windows)
i guess i could figure it out but i really cant be bothered to wait hours for the installation to finish only to find outs it doesnt run any faster than a generic i386 build
ubuntu has about the best automatic downloader ive seen so far (apart from that it ruins grub settings) but as youve said its still far too complicated
why cant the linux community just agree on a standard for packet management and offer generic builds for all tools directly on the wesite without having to toy around with download source lists
i wouldnt hold my breath ... in the end of the day linux is coded by geeks for geeks ... theres just a very obvious lack of any designer involvement or general pubilc input on it for the most part
good luck finding drivers for that
~/.bashrc
alias dir='ls -lF --color=auto'But yeah, it took me a while too when I got into Linux to learn the commands and filesystem layout. So no doubt that someone who's never tried Linux before will have some trouble getting around.
It's true that it takes a while to install, and every program you install must be compiled, and that takes some time too. Gentoo is a source based distribution, as there are no precompiled binaries being installed. It's all being compiled and optimized for your computer. Portage is the heart of this. To quote from the Gentoo website:
"Portage is also a package building and installation system. When you want to install a package, you type emerge packagename, at which point Portage automatically builds a custom version of the package to your exact specifications, optimizing it for your hardware and ensuring that the optional features in the package that you want are enabled -- and those you don't want aren't."
So yes, Gentoo is not for the typical user, but more for those experienced Linux users who wants the most configurable and fastest Linux system available.
Blah. I've had enough of Windows. 18 days uptime didn't do any good for my (18 months old) xp install, now dvd burning fails over 50% rate, i couldn't set up a lan between two computers and ethernet cable, etc, etc..
Next week I gather all data I need to backup, and TRY to burn them on dvd's. Then I reinstall this crap, drivers and lfs, and NOTHING MORE. Oh yes, and Ubuntu of course.
Next week I gather all data I need to backup, and TRY to burn them on dvd's. Then I reinstall this crap, drivers and lfs, and NOTHING MORE. Oh yes, and Ubuntu of course.
OT - I'd quite like to try Linux, is there any simple way I could install it and dual boot with XP reliably without reformatting my (unpartitioned hard drive)?
yup, just partition it, or use the Linux Live CD (for a quick taster)
just about any linux partitioner can resize partitions nowerdays ... all youll have to do is defrag it and make sure you have a few gigs of free space for linux ... or get a hold of partition magic somehow if you have more trust in that than in some linux partitioner
I use a years old version of Partition Magic, does the job flawlessly as long as your HD's healthy. I always re-format the / & swap partitions using the distro's installer though.
Personally I dual boot Fedora Core 6/XP, but as wireless support under Linux is so borked at the min I never use it anymore. Its a Belkin Wireless G Desktop Card (F5D7000) if anyone has experience in getting this damned thing to work.
Personally I dual boot Fedora Core 6/XP, but as wireless support under Linux is so borked at the min I never use it anymore. Its a Belkin Wireless G Desktop Card (F5D7000) if anyone has experience in getting this damned thing to work.
Most of the things I use my computer for could be done on Windows 95 - does that mean I should go and dig out the old CDs and reinstall it? If you don't want Vista, don't buy it. I don't see the point of complaining about it.
You're right. I don't get your point. If you *upgrade* to Vista then you trade in your old copy of XP to get a discount on Vista. You no longer own the licence. You've sold it back to MS for the discount.
If you buy your new, non-upgrade copy of Vista at full price then you own both copies and can carry on how you want. What's the problem? If you don't want to pay, use a free OS.
For the record, I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm not for or against any operating system. People should choose what works for them and get on with it. To me it makes perfect sense that Vista will be more resource hungry. If you don't want the new stuff that's in there, don't buy it.
Don't bother with all that. Get VMWare's server/player and download one of the pre-installed virtual machines. There's a few distributions available (e.g. ubuntu), and it's the easiest way to try it. If you don't like it your WinXP install will be as it was.
Links to the software and the Virtual Appliance Marketplace (where you can download your preconfigured machines) is all on this page:
http://www.vmware.com/products/free_virtualization.html
It's all free, just requires registration.
**Read this before you buy Windows Vista**
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