dougalkerr
April 20th, 2009, 11:26 PM
Well guys I have my new Dell Studio 15 with superhigh res 1920 x 1200 screen for displaying on external monitor when I can afford one so I can work on my fotos easier.
Tips on how to add and setup an external monitor welcomed. (Ah, just noticed the 'Detect displays' button on screen res util...
So, I have an Intel P9400 Core 2 running at 2.53GHz, 4 Gb RAM and ATI HD3450 with 256Gb videoRAM. Have installed Ubuntu 8.10 64 bit and setup Compiz window manager after updating the video driver. Only thing is I don't seem to have a little prog to actually configure Compiz. I know it works coz the Windows wobble when dragging but, that's it. Can't find prog for setting up the cube and such.
So, far so good.
Firefox 3.0.8 on and running.
OpenOffice 3 on and running.
Wine on and tried PowerDVD through it for my commercial DVDs but, no joy. The control facia shows the play button but, when I click it the other control buttons highlight for a moment then fade out again then a few moments later PowerDVD goes grey and unresponsive and I have to close it down.
I'll have to catch up with Dell tech support about the laptop DVD/CD player buttons not working.
They work when I am in Windows (yep I got the machine with Vista installed but as yet I haven't had to use Vista for anything but, looks like I may have to for my DVDs. You'd think Dell would pay the license for the DVD player. It seems so petty for such a major ommission and makes it one of Linux's failings which must be overcome in order for the OS to win over more people.
Everything else seems to be working wonderfully so far.
I have used the GIMP briefly before my old laptop started to misbehave and I am looking forward to getting to grips with it again and doing some real work with it. One of the main reasons for getting this laptop with a relatively good performance spec was to make working with RAW foto files quicker and more satisfying. Here's hoping...
I must say the screen is very sharp and this helps tremendously with the small dpi of the fonts and enables me to get a lot on the screen at one time.
Sound through the speakers is very limited compared with even my old laptop but, through my Grado headphones it sounds very good and clear. I don't think I will listen to many music cds though coz like a lot of laptops the sound of the electric drive of the cd player can be heard whirring up to full speed. Only to be expected as it is not a hi-fi piece of kit. Although if I was to rip a cd or two to the hard drive I bet the sound would be very enjoyable.
Now that I am starting to appreciate Linux properly with having a decent machine what's the advice about installing new versions of Ubuntu as they come along? I think I will be able to follow the install instructions as I believe the commands are along the lines of like, update this and that, etc. So, shouldn't be too difficult.
I have a query about the Synaptics touchpad - how do I activate things like scrolling, is there an Ubuntu equivelant applet for setting movement and control?
Okay so that's me for now. Glad to be back to Ubuntu. I would have liked to install Freespire as well to compare the two but, couldn't get it to load. Kept stalling at the laoding screen... oh well, that says it all I guess. The tech support wasn't very good anyway. My posts wern't answered and searching for solutions to questions was difficult. A shame really as it did work well on my old laptop compared with ANY other Linux version.
Till my next post then... ta, ta.
Tips on how to add and setup an external monitor welcomed. (Ah, just noticed the 'Detect displays' button on screen res util...
So, I have an Intel P9400 Core 2 running at 2.53GHz, 4 Gb RAM and ATI HD3450 with 256Gb videoRAM. Have installed Ubuntu 8.10 64 bit and setup Compiz window manager after updating the video driver. Only thing is I don't seem to have a little prog to actually configure Compiz. I know it works coz the Windows wobble when dragging but, that's it. Can't find prog for setting up the cube and such.
So, far so good.
Firefox 3.0.8 on and running.
OpenOffice 3 on and running.
Wine on and tried PowerDVD through it for my commercial DVDs but, no joy. The control facia shows the play button but, when I click it the other control buttons highlight for a moment then fade out again then a few moments later PowerDVD goes grey and unresponsive and I have to close it down.
I'll have to catch up with Dell tech support about the laptop DVD/CD player buttons not working.
They work when I am in Windows (yep I got the machine with Vista installed but as yet I haven't had to use Vista for anything but, looks like I may have to for my DVDs. You'd think Dell would pay the license for the DVD player. It seems so petty for such a major ommission and makes it one of Linux's failings which must be overcome in order for the OS to win over more people.
Everything else seems to be working wonderfully so far.
I have used the GIMP briefly before my old laptop started to misbehave and I am looking forward to getting to grips with it again and doing some real work with it. One of the main reasons for getting this laptop with a relatively good performance spec was to make working with RAW foto files quicker and more satisfying. Here's hoping...
I must say the screen is very sharp and this helps tremendously with the small dpi of the fonts and enables me to get a lot on the screen at one time.
Sound through the speakers is very limited compared with even my old laptop but, through my Grado headphones it sounds very good and clear. I don't think I will listen to many music cds though coz like a lot of laptops the sound of the electric drive of the cd player can be heard whirring up to full speed. Only to be expected as it is not a hi-fi piece of kit. Although if I was to rip a cd or two to the hard drive I bet the sound would be very enjoyable.
Now that I am starting to appreciate Linux properly with having a decent machine what's the advice about installing new versions of Ubuntu as they come along? I think I will be able to follow the install instructions as I believe the commands are along the lines of like, update this and that, etc. So, shouldn't be too difficult.
I have a query about the Synaptics touchpad - how do I activate things like scrolling, is there an Ubuntu equivelant applet for setting movement and control?
Okay so that's me for now. Glad to be back to Ubuntu. I would have liked to install Freespire as well to compare the two but, couldn't get it to load. Kept stalling at the laoding screen... oh well, that says it all I guess. The tech support wasn't very good anyway. My posts wern't answered and searching for solutions to questions was difficult. A shame really as it did work well on my old laptop compared with ANY other Linux version.
Till my next post then... ta, ta.