So I’m still adjusting to life as a full-time linux user. I’m still unable to get my dual monitors working, which is garbage, considering that when I ran Win XP I simply plugged the monitor in and was “in business”.
BUT, worse then that, Adobe only offers Flash 7 for linux. WTF!!! Windows users can run Flash 9. Why is Adobe two versions behind on Linux???
The reason this kills me is I’m a big sports fan. And what is the number one destination for sports fans? ESPN.com. Well, espn.com doesn’t work with Flash 7 so the page looks like crap. This is what I’m missing (screenshot of espn.com with Flash 8). And that was just the main page. ESPN uses Flash “stuff” on dang near every page on their site.
When will we (linux users) get a new version of Flash???
Google for: flash 9 wine linux
Thanks Mikael… but I don’t think I want to be running Windows code on my linux box. Plus, from what I’m reading Firefox under wine is slow…
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu_flash_player
If you have a NVidia card, just read the README on the driver to get dual-screen.
I’ve got an ATI Mobility Radeon x600.
I’m not a fan of flash so I try to avoid sites that use it alot. So for me surfing with Linux has never been a real problem. Most of the sites that I get my sports news from are standard text. But then again ESPN doesn’t really get me the news I need aside from the NFL. And even then I’m rarely impressed with their coverage of the Pats. Most times I’ll just stick with the Boston Globe or the Boston Herald or go with WEEI and get to hear the players themselves.
Simply put for Linux: Nvidia good, ATi bad. 😉
When I finally upgrade my linux box, I will go Gforce/Nvidia and avoid ATI.
Howdy Mark…
One thing, like Flash or not a person shouldn’t have to avoid sites with Flash because they’re using Linux. That’s crap. That’s giving up. The support should be there. People that want Linux to blow by Windows (or just get a nice share of the pie) need to understand that for that to happen everything that works on Windows needs to work on Linux.
Erik
I agree but in both cases if the owner of those “drivers” (I know bad word for flash but I think you get the idea) doesn’t release something for linux, nothing can really be done.
If I remember correctly Apple was in the same boat when it came to certain windows formats until they were given access.
As for giving up, you are correct in most cases, for me though it just works out well. I didn’t give up, I chose not to play. Splitting hairs but there it is.
In utopia, BSD/Linux have access to everything everyone else does.
Flash 9 for Linux is in the works:
http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/
SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10) has a nice GUI for setting up dual-head display. I know that doesn’t help much if you are running Ubuntu or something else like Fedora. Ubuntu has an extremely helpful user community and Wiki which makes setting up dual head a copy-paste process for most cases, but I abso-freaking-lutely agree with the “non standard” hardware support of Linux. This is exactly why it hasn’t “blown up” yet.
I put together a fairly detailed entry for Ubuntu beginners here:
http://www.breakitdownblog.com/2006/08/03/a-manual-for-the-ubuntu-linux-beginner/
but I’m fairly sure you know most of that stuff (the basics) and here are my impressions of using Ubuntu for a week:
http://www.breakitdownblog.com/2006/07/22/ubuntu-606-long-term-review/
My imressions are markedly more positive than that now since I reinstalled using the 32-bit version of Ubuntu and discovered EasyUbuntu and Automatix.
Freespire has wonderful proprietary hardware support since it can legally provide such drivers. Ubuntu is great, but there is still too much post-install configuration going on.
When I installed Freespire, my ATI Radeon Mobile 9800 worked as well as my linksys wireless PCMCIA card (which I could never get to work in ubuntu).
You might consider Freespire and see if your dual monitor problem fixes itself.
AMAZING FEEDBACK! THANKS!!!
I’m tied up with family stuff, but I’ll be looking at all this on Sunday night and see what I can do.
Erik