The last poster wins

[ub3rman123]

Heh, I've been using this mouse for around three years now, I think. I only got a new one because most motherboards don't have enough slots for the old PS/2 mouse. I think it's a Keytronic. I've never really had a need for more than three buttons on a mouse. Maybe it's like three monitors where you don't realize the need until you actually have them available.

 

And I can't pass up buying mice five for ten dollars.

 

Edit: Woah, I found the mouse! Mine has a gray-ish stain over most of it because of the acid I used to remove the Goodwill price sticker, though.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826561001

 

'Scroll wheel' is listed as a feature.

 

Some day, fortune will shine down on me and I'll find an IBM Model M at Goodwill.

[K00L]

Wow... So I was looking at the negative reviews of Rust and saw one where a guy was banned from Facepunch's forums (he deserved it, but it's not the review I wanted to mention anyway). He said something at the bottom about people posting on his profile about his review, and I was intrigued so I had to take a look. I reported him after seeing his profile.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/testicularcramp

I also really doubt he's as old as he claims to be, considering his use of... internet speak (among other things). Also I find his interest in deporting Justin Bieber peculiar since he doesn't seem to be from the United States (mentions euros in a few reviews and there were two or so that were in German). I do have a sneaking suspicion he's not actually in Europe (also that he's just trying to get people irritated).


Edit: Pissed off about my bank...

 

So my bank decided to implement a new fee (this month) for paper statements. They never sent any notice of it, though it was apparently mentioned online, which I rarely ever look at. The best part is, this is the bank where I actually have no money in my account (my mother took all of it... but that's a whole other deal). So my account is actually in f***ing overdraft... I owe the damn bank $3 (not much but still... greedy bastards).
And now it won't let me sign into my account. I literally just changed my password less than a week ago (because I got a statement and I thought it looked wrong... because it said $2.80- and I thought I had deposited a check for more... turns out that was the balance after the charge for the statement). I even wrote my password down. So I decide to try and change it, and surprise! My account "isn't set up for a password reset."
Gah.... I'm pissed. Now I have to drive 16 miles to town just to give them $2.80 and tell them they're assholes they need to stop sending me statements and PREFERABLY SEND OUT A LETTER WARNING OF NEW FEES.

 

Edited February 19, 2014 by K00L

[Thor.]

 

I just go to Goodwill and buy five mice at a time, and use the best one.

 

lol.

 

You'd probably save money by buying on really good mouse. I bought a G9 Logitech in ~ 2007 that's as good as the day I bought it, and is the oldest surviving component in my rig. It's not going anywhere either; there are zero technical issues with it, the case is still clean and it's good for another couple of years yet.

 

I've got a similar story with my Razer Naga; it does duty with my laptop and replaces the G9 when I play MMORPGs(the G9 lacks a keypad) The Naga would be going on three years old, and it's absolutely immaculate. Like the Logitech, it can be dismantled which means it's easy to keep clean; just unsnap the grip and give the whole thing a wipe-down. Again, absolutely no mechanical traumas; it's still under warranty, too.

 

Both cost < $100 USD and have given more than two years loyal service; the Logitech has given about eight and the Naga is rated for about that as well. I can really recommend the nicer mice; you get what you pay for, and the Naga and G9X are both absolutely exemplary.

 

Here we have one of a slew of Naga models. Prices range from ~ $28 USD to this, the $99 Ultimate. The Ultimate is ludicrously customisable, and smarter than some computers I've owned. You can adjust everything, in real-time, and even have the mouse intelligently change settings based on a variety of factors. You can even change the lights to any colour in the spectrum or have a rainbow effect. Plus, it's really comfy to hold; it's all soft and velvety.

 

http://img1.digitalversus.com/produits/117/10808/razer-naga-epic.jpg

 

I have a G5 mouse and it hasn't failed me once, its going on 3 years sense i bought it. Those laser mouses are built to last.

http://static.bootic.com/_pictures/1546804/280x350/logitech-g5.jpg

 

I take it back, its been 6 years sense i bought it. I remember i was a early adopter, when they came out the prices where around 120$ for a mouse. Worth every penny.

If you want a tried and tested mouse, that's durable and lasts a life time, Logitech is the way to go.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Thor.

[Iv000]

 

I wanted to install a dual boot of Ubuntu, then I got reminded that my mouse won't work with it and I gave up.

Try Ubuntu 14.04 from a live USB, support for Sharkoon mice has been added with Linux 3.11.2 and 14.04 is on Linux 3.13.0 so it should work without a problem (sadly, 13.10 is using Linux 3.11.0). Trusty is going stable in two months (currently in development stage, should be frozen soon), it's unstable compared to Debian Wheezy but it's a marvel of stability compared to Win8, so I'd say it's good. And the best thing is, it has a 5 year support cycle starting from April. :thumbsup:

 

There's also another way - you could recompile the kernel yourself with the needed fix (#define HID_MAX_USAGES 64000) on an older Ubuntu version, then remove linux-image-generic and linux-headers-generic packages, that way you don't update your kernel/headers from Ubuntu servers and stick to your own, no need to recompile the kernel on each update. You stick to your own and don't have to recompile even if you leave the packages since custom kernels always stay on top of the GRUB boot list, but if you remove those two you have less stuff to download when updating.

 

Note: Compiling the kernel on Ubuntu can occasionally be a pain in the arse, so if you ever think about doing it, download Ubuntu's linux-source package through apt (apt-get download linux-source-3.13.0) and not the one from the kernel archives. It also takes quite a while to compile the image/headers and pack them into a deb archive, nearly 30 minutes on my octa-core while Debian's kernel compiles in 10 minutes.

 

 

Thanks, I'm glad 14.04 adds Sharkoon mouse support finally, thats news to me.

 

I tried recompiling the kernel but I failed the first time. That was months ago though, maybe if I try again it'll work now.

 

Do you know which Linux distros support Sharkoon mice maybe?

 

 

And as for mouse recommendations, not Sharkoon :P

[billyro]

 

Ok, serious question, but what is the appeal of Linux? It has compatibility issues with both software and hardware, requires effort to make it work and just... seems like a waste of time. Okay, so I don't know much about Linux (very little in fact) but I do know that it has a lot of customisation available to those who wish it. Is that the main reason for getting it?

 

As you have probably deduced over the months, I am a very lazy person. Setting up an operating system that requires me to put work into my computer, doesn't function with a lot of programs and accessories, just so I can make it look pretty... is not my thing. :confused:

 

Someone enlighten me: why use Linux?

In a spoiler cause it's a big text.

 

There are four reasons why I use Linux - stability, hardware support, freedom of customization and OS support. Also security (unless you deliberately activate one, you can't get a virus on Linux), trust issues (I got no faith in Windows, I only ever had problems with it), and the fact that I hate using something that doesn't fit the way I use my machine.

 

Let's take Debian for example, Debian Stable (currently Wheezy) is regarded as a "workstation operating system", the only OS that comes close to it in stability is Red Hat (again, Linux-based). Issues with software are a subject to debate, while some software doesn't exist for Linux, there are very often alternatives, sometimes even more useful alternatives (Windows for example has partitioners that are unavailable for Linux, but none of them come close to Linux's parted and fdisk, or it's GUI-based GParted). Plus, suftware issues are OS dependent, while Ubuntu and Fedora may have problems with software, Debian won't, software packages are tailored on per-OS basis, not every OS has an identical package.

 

Linux also features a large plethora of programming languages out-of-the-box, which is why it's regarded as "programmer's OS".

 

When it comes to hardware support, some hardware is unsupported but hardware that is performs spectacularly well. While Win7 can't make full use of a quad-core and Windows server can run a total of 128 concurrent threads, any Linux-based system can take full advantage of up to 64 threads per x86 processor (I think it's somewhere around 128 threads for ARM and Sparc/Loongson units). It's fully multithreaded, so my 8-core is utilized to it's full potential. Another thing is RAM - Windows 8 can utilize up to 128GB of RAM, Linux can utilize up to 64 petabytes of it. Regular hardware (aka, what most PC users use) is mostly supported, and once configured correctly it will run just as well as it does on Windows.

 

Linux is also lightweight which is something I like, and some Linux systems can run from as little as 52MB RAM and a 300MHz CPU. Full-blown systems run blazing fast on modern machines, somewhat on-par with OS X in responsiveness and light years ahead of Windows 7. As I'm writing this, Debian uses 432MB RAM and 1% CPU using all threads, Win7 on my system uses 3% CPU and 1.7GB RAM the moment it boots, and that's just using two cores, open a program and Linux registers activity on all cores while Win7 is still stuck on two. And it can also run without a hard drive, from a live media like a CD/DVD or a USB flash drive (among others). Plus, Linux runs in microwaves, fridges, cellphones, GPS devices, TVs, even most modern cars, that's how much hardware it supports.

 

It also supports something I very much like to tinker with - Arduino. It's a small computer-controlled electronic circuit for making advanced circuitry and devices that is fully supported on any modern Linux system, even older ones. For someone who likes to fiddle with electronics, it's an awesome little thing to play with.

 

Customization is not there only to make it pretty, it's there so you can tailor the system to your needs. You can turn it into anything you want, and by that I do mean anything, you can even change the way the internals of it work. It can range from a programming OS, workstation, CLI system, a multimedia station, server, supercomputer system, anything - Linux works the way you want it to work. And if you want it to look pretty, there are nearly a hundred different GUI overlays with tens of thousands of themes and tweaks - thinner/thicker taskbar, multiple taskbars, icon/pointer appearance, color scheme, internal workings of a GUI shell, anything can be modified.

 

As for OS support, those who support Linux systems won't ask you to turn your PC off then on again, those guys have years of experience with UNIX/Linux systems and they know every tiny bit about them, even the source code. If they can't help you get the system up and running, not even god can help you. You break a Linux system and you can fix it, there is no "if it doesn't work, re-install it", no lost data. And when a new OS version is released, you simply update the repository cache and download the upgrade, no re-install needed.

 

Finally, it's free in every sense of the word. I can't actually argue against something that costs me nothing, gives me freedom to do anything I want to it, and still makes stuff work perfectly. I even bought hardware with complete Linux support when built my current machine, now any Linux works perfectly out-of-the-box while Windows chokes and needs drivers for wifi/LAN/USB and support patches for AMD's FX-series (so much for Windows hardware support, eh? :laugh:).

 

To me, those are the reasons I use it. Not to mention the only time I experienced a crash (be it software or system crash) is when my RAM started dying which is hardware fault, Debian has been completely stable from the day I installed it and shows no signs of going bonkers. I'll take stability over simplicity any day, I lost too much data I cared about in Windows' fits. I got the time to learn how to use and modify Linux, and I got the smarts, so I thought what the hell and it turned out alright.

 

By the way, there's Ubuntu and Linux Mint for those who don't like to fiddle with their system and like things simple, they work pretty much like Windows - install and go, Mint even looks similar to Windows.

 

 

Whoa, I wasn't expecting such a comprehensive response. :P

 

Stability definitely sounds worth it. Take my windows 7 laptop for example: I had it only for about 10 months before it got "critical hard drive problems", and I'm concerned that any day it'll fizzle and die, taking all my precious files with it (I do have the most important files, like university stuff, backed up on Dropbox though).

 

Programming isn't really my thing. I like to visualise things as I'm making them, and programming just doesn't suit my preference. Also, I have to do programming for university again (Python and Java) and they both drive me insane, and Linux would probably make my brain explode. :yes:

 

Hardware support is something that would trip me up, though. I'm the kind of person who walks into a shop, finds something that will do the job (preferably either the cheapest or most powerful option), then buys it. It does sound nice that hardware works efficiently, but the possibility of stuff not working pushes me away from Linux.

 

I do like the fact that Linux is lightweight, though. Windows feels really clunky, even with a powerful build.

 

When it comes to customisation, I'm not too picky about it. As long as my set-up looks clean, efficient and not crap, I'm pretty happy with it.

 

That's pretty cool how Linux simply updates without all that restarting business. Windows is a punk how it has to restart so god-damned often and the fact that Linux just pops in and works is very appealing.

 

Freeeeee! Free is a beautiful word. :laugh: You can really tell that the Linux people are good guys when they give out their OS for free.

 

And yeah, Windows is notorious for support patches. Everything needs support patches, pretty much (and subsequently a reboot :dry:).

 

 

Well, I'm still not sure about it. I don't think Linux is for me, but it definitely has features that I would use. At the moment, I'll stick with Windows simply because it's all set up and ready to go.

 

 

 

 

And, on a less "point fingers at" topic, Shimsil is done!

 

 

http://puu.sh/724rj.jpg

 

 

... Unless, as always, there are any improvements I can make? Sorry that I keep asking, but I like making things as good as they can be. :smile:

Damn, that looks awesome. :ohmy:

 

And damn, you keep reminding me that I suck at making textures. :facepalm:

 

Thanks. I'm not really a texturer myself (this is just a bunch of layers slapped on each other until it looks nice). :sweat:

 

I actually stuffed up the UV map a little bit and had to stretch some of the textures, but at least it looks ok in-game.

 

 

 

 

I just go to Goodwill and buy five mice at a time, and use the best one.

 

lol.

 

You'd probably save money by buying on really good mouse. I bought a G9 Logitech in ~ 2007 that's as good as the day I bought it, and is the oldest surviving component in my rig. It's not going anywhere either; there are zero technical issues with it, the case is still clean and it's good for another couple of years yet.

 

I've got a similar story with my Razer Naga; it does duty with my laptop and replaces the G9 when I play MMORPGs(the G9 lacks a keypad) The Naga would be going on three years old, and it's absolutely immaculate. Like the Logitech, it can be dismantled which means it's easy to keep clean; just unsnap the grip and give the whole thing a wipe-down. Again, absolutely no mechanical traumas; it's still under warranty, too.

 

Both cost < $100 USD and have given more than two years loyal service; the Logitech has given about eight and the Naga is rated for about that as well. I can really recommend the nicer mice; you get what you pay for, and the Naga and G9X are both absolutely exemplary.

 

Here we have one of a slew of Naga models. Prices range from ~ $28 USD to this, the $99 Ultimate. The Ultimate is ludicrously customisable, and smarter than some computers I've owned. You can adjust everything, in real-time, and even have the mouse intelligently change settings based on a variety of factors. You can even change the lights to any colour in the spectrum or have a rainbow effect. Plus, it's really comfy to hold; it's all soft and velvety.

 

http://img1.digitalversus.com/produits/117/10808/razer-naga-epic.jpg

 

I have a G5 mouse and it hasn't failed me once, its going on 3 years sense i bought it. Those laser mouses are built to last.

http://static.bootic.com/_pictures/1546804/280x350/logitech-g5.jpg

 

I take it back, its been 6 years sense i bought it. I remember i was a early adopter, when they came out the prices where around 120$ for a mouse. Worth every penny.

If you want a tried and tested mouse, that's durable and lasts a life time, Logitech is the way to go.

 

 

This is my mouse:

 

http://www.logitech.com/assets/19678/19678.png

 

At first, I was a little bit sceptical about the design, but it's actually pretty comfortable. Also, it's wireless (my first wireless mouse) and it hasn't had any problems regarding connectivity. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

... And, this is a big post! :laugh:

[Thor.]

Logitech is the king of Mice. the most durable and long lasting on the market.

 

Also i found some cat 7 Ultra High Quality Ethernet cable amongst the mess of cable I'm giving away to Good Will. Better connection stability, and note better Ethernet equals better sound quality. Packet loss matters.

With a crap internet connection, you can still manage to watch 1080P youtube because the chances of packet loss is very slim, if none at all.

780kbps connection, upload 200kbps you can still watch HD because of the quality of the packet signal.

 

I highly recommend it for gaming on the ps3 or any console that requires a stable connection.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Thor.

[billyro]

Sword of Agustas, still WIP.

 

 

http://puu.sh/73cx8.jpg

 

 

This sword isn't going to be a claymore like its Morrowind counterpart - it's going to be a longsword because I wanted a very practical looking one-handed blade in my pack. I'm planning on having some Nordic engravings on the crossguard and pommel, and some grooves up the sides of the blade and other decorations. Also, I might even make the hilt metal a bit lighter to better match Morrowind's Nordic weaponry.

 

 

EDIT: Okay, these designs are hard to make. I've tried heaps of different looks and I just can't make one that looks right. :dry:

 

EDIT 2: I've decided against doing a decoration on the crossguard. It looks much better plain, anyway.

Edited February 20, 2014 by billyro

[Vindekarr]

Speaking of consoles I was looking at some figures yesterday, and the PS4 is absolutely kicking butt! I guess there is some justice in the world; even in the US the Xbox is getting it's posterior pugilised, with the Ps4 outselling it by ~1.1 million units. Good to see gamers supporting the PS4, I haven't been able to get one yet(EB's PS4 stock is sold out into the 41st millenium), but atleast I'll have a healthy community to join when they become available. And given devs go for what's hot at the moment, there'll probably be a lot of good games.

 

Speaking of good games, I found a little free-to-play gem on Steam called Victory: age of racing. It's like someone sat a forum of car lovers down at a coffee table, gave them cookies, and asked them to list everything they wanted in their perfect racing game. And then went and made what the racers suggested. Normally I'm not into "Arcade Racers"(such as Mario Kart) but this is so beautifully balanced and so much fun online that I'm quite completely hooked.

 

It's a brilliant little game: the best feature is the car creator. Building your own Formula One car is any racer's dream, but the car editor itself is a truly elegant bit of game design. It's like an RPG character screen, except Int, Vit and STR are replaced with car attributes such as Horsepower, Torque and Braking. There's also an items system that trades Breastplates and Swords for Engines and Tyres; it takes something astronomically complex and makes it accessible even to those without much knowledge. And that is skilled design.

[Werne]

Whoa, I wasn't expecting such a comprehensive response. :tongue:

 

Stability definitely sounds worth it. Take my windows 7 laptop for example: I had it only for about 10 months before it got "critical hard drive problems", and I'm concerned that any day it'll fizzle and die, taking all my precious files with it (I do have the most important files, like university stuff, backed up on Dropbox though).

 

Programming isn't really my thing. I like to visualise things as I'm making them, and programming just doesn't suit my preference. Also, I have to do programming for university again (Python and Java) and they both drive me insane, and Linux would probably make my brain explode. :yes:

 

Hardware support is something that would trip me up, though. I'm the kind of person who walks into a shop, finds something that will do the job (preferably either the cheapest or most powerful option), then buys it. It does sound nice that hardware works efficiently, but the possibility of stuff not working pushes me away from Linux.

 

I do like the fact that Linux is lightweight, though. Windows feels really clunky, even with a powerful build.

 

When it comes to customisation, I'm not too picky about it. As long as my set-up looks clean, efficient and not crap, I'm pretty happy with it.

 

That's pretty cool how Linux simply updates without all that restarting business. Windows is a punk how it has to restart so god-damned often and the fact that Linux just pops in and works is very appealing.

 

Freeeeee! Free is a beautiful word. :laugh: You can really tell that the Linux people are good guys when they give out their OS for free.

 

And yeah, Windows is notorious for support patches. Everything needs support patches, pretty much (and subsequently a reboot :dry:).

 

 

Well, I'm still not sure about it. I don't think Linux is for me, but it definitely has features that I would use. At the moment, I'll stick with Windows simply because it's all set up and ready to go.

Again, in spoiler, big text and all that.

 

 

 

Take my windows 7 laptop for example: I had it only for about 10 months before it got "critical hard drive problems", and I'm concerned that any day it'll fizzle and die, taking all my precious files with it (I do have the most important files, like university stuff, backed up on Dropbox though).

Depending on what the problem is, it might not be that the drive itself is failing. I saw several machines that were reporting bad sectors on the hard drive under Win7 and XP, even showed the same issue under Linux's GParted once the partition is selected. But when I'd scan it with a non-destructive badblocks test (software for detecting bad sectors) from a Linux live USB, it would show no problems with the drive, which confused me to no end.

 

Afterwards it happened to my own hard drive (3 months old) and after a lot of fiddling, it turns out that a corrupt NTFS partition can make the partitioner think the disc has physical damage on the plate. It may fool the partitioner but once the drive is scanned with a program that's actually designed to detect bad sectors, it shows as 100% clean. Once I reformatted the drive, it was completely fine and had no issues since.

 

So yeah, if Windows reports bad sectors it might just be that the partition is corrupted, not the drive itself. :thumbsup:

 

Hardware support is something that would trip me up, though. I'm the kind of person who walks into a shop, finds something that will do the job (preferably either the cheapest or most powerful option), then buys it. It does sound nice that hardware works efficiently, but the possibility of stuff not working pushes me away from Linux.

Ok, let me put the Linux hardware support this way:

 

Essential parts (CPU/mobo/RAM/HDD/SSD) - all 100% supported, some mobo LAN chips may require drivers (then again, they need them on Windows too). My mobo failed to initialize USB and PCI ports under Debian (worked on Ubuntu) but the solution came down to turning on two options in BIOS (EHCI hand-off and one other I can't remember at the moment). It was the mobo throwing fits, not Linux.

 

Wifi cards/USB drives - 90% of Atheros based wifi cards work out-of-the-box, Ralink based cards/dongles need firmware (can be obtained easily, 99% chance you'll find it in official repository (Ubuntu even comes pre-packaged with them so you don't need to get them), Broadcom wifi cards/dongles are supported and may need drivers/firmware, Realtek based chips are sometimes problematic in regards to drivers/firmware but you can make them work.

 

Peripherals (mice/keyboards/touchpads/graphical tablets) - All cheap Chinese mice/keyboards are supported (Chinese have excellent support for Linux), gaming peripherals like Sharkoon gaming mice have issues that require fiddling, gaming keyboards may have non-functioning multimedia/programmable keys if unsupported (the important stuff works on all keyboards, it's just the extra crap that makes problems), a lot of cheaper graphics tablets are 100% supported.

 

Optical drives - 99% of them are fully supported out-of-the-box, I use Sony Optiarc which are supported by Linux since the dawn of time.

 

In the end, there are only two things Linux has problems with these days - sound cards (support has been improved massively lately but there are still some that don't work or use software acceleration (aka, CPU instead of sound card processor)) and TV cards/dongles (there are a lot of supported ones and a lot of unsupported ones). There are also multimedia codecs that are hard to obtain on some distributions, thogh Ubuntu has them in official repos and Debian has them in deb-multimedia repo.

 

There are also things that will work on Linux and will fail to work on Windows. Older braillers are a great example (if you don't know it's a screen that pops up braille letters for the blind so they can read from a PC) that only have XP support will not work on Win7/Win8, but they will work just fine on Linux. I had to set one up for my friend's wife, works on XP and Linux but fails on Win7. There is also other specialized hardware that will have problems on Windows and not on Linux, but I doubt you can come across those in your everyday computer shop.

 

In my case, everything works out-of-the-box. I always go for the cheap stuff, and cheap stuff is made by Chinese which have bloody marvelous support for Linux, they support it better than Windows (hence why Windows craps out on my PC while Linux doesn't even need graphics drivers). :D

 

That's pretty cool how Linux simply updates without all that restarting business. Windows is a punk how it has to restart so god-damned often and the fact that Linux just pops in and works is very appealing.

That's why Linux runs on over 60% of web servers and over 90% of supercomputers, it can have a massive uptime without restarting (3-6 years for CLI and up to 4 years if it has GUI). Installing software doesn't need restarting, updating doesn't need restarting either, restarting is optional (if you know how, you can replace running software with updated version in realtime without a restart :wink:).

 

It's also fast regarding program installation, since the install package is basically a compressed archive with instructions and info, it can install programs in seconds. GIMP, along with another 20 required software packages, installs in under 30 seconds and is ready to be fired up.

 

Speaking of software installation, you don't have to scour the web to find software - it's all in the official repository. You fire up a program that shows you all currently available software (software selection can be extended by adding additional repositories) and once you go install a program, it automagically downloads all requirements along with the program and installs them in a correct order.

 

Once you remove the program, you can purge every package from it's requirements that is no longer needed (remember how Windows becomes bloated over time, it's because it doesn't remove everything). Similarly, if you remove one of the program's requirements, it will warn you that the program will be broken and if you proceed, it will remove the broken program to avoid future problems, it's a smart system. This is how that program looks on Debian (Ubuntu's Software Center is much more user friendly, but I care little cause I install my software through command line):

 

 

 

And yeah, Windows is notorious for support patches. Everything needs support patches, pretty much (and subsequently a reboot :dry:).

You don't say. Last time I installed Windows for some guy it took three hours just to get it up and running. Around 45 minutes to install (rebooted 4 times), and more than an hour to update and install all the support patches (rebooted another 4-5 times). After that came drivers, and those went on and on and on (with another 4-5 reboots). And the worst thing is, that thing takes a lifetime to boot and loads software forever after it shows the desktop.

 

While Windows was still installing, I installed Ubuntu on three computers for sale one after the other with drivers and all (Ubuntu even installs graphics drivers, multimedia codecs and flash player druing OS installation), all three were ready to be fired up and used immediately. By the time Windows finished it's first set of updates I already had ads for those PCs up. I played Tetris on one of them them while Windows was updating to Service Pack 1 cause I was bored to death from waiting.

 

By the way, I use Linux on for-sale PCs for a reason - legally obtaining Windows is expensive (used licenses go for $50-75 and new goes for $150 and up) and going illegal would likely end up with me in jail. I don't care how will the guys install Windows after they buy the damn thing (if they even install it), I ain't risking a visit from police, had enough of those.

 

 

 

Thanks. I'm not really a texturer myself (this is just a bunch of layers slapped on each other until it looks nice). :sweat:

 

I actually stuffed up the UV map a little bit and had to stretch some of the textures, but at least it looks ok in-game.

I used to make my own textures but that turned out, well, bad. So I tried something else - using stock photos for base then modifying them to fit my model. And that turned out better than expected. I can't see much stretching on the model, so it's all good. :thumbsup:

 

And I think I should start modeling again. :smile:

 

Do you know which Linux distros support Sharkoon mice maybe?

Any with Linux 3.11.2 and up, that means recent distros or cutting-edge ones.

 

These are the ones I know of - Ubuntu 14.04 (Linux 3.13), Arch (Linux 3.13), Gentoo (likely Linux 3.13, maybe even mainline 3.14), Fedora 19/20 (Linux 3.13/3.14 respectively), Debian Jessie/Sid (Linux 3.12), and openSUSE 13.1 (Linux 3.11.6). There are likely more but I don't know.

[billyro]

Alright, massive reply time...

 

 

Whoa, I wasn't expecting such a comprehensive response. :tongue:

Stability definitely sounds worth it. Take my windows 7 laptop for example: I had it only for about 10 months before it got "critical hard drive problems", and I'm concerned that any day it'll fizzle and die, taking all my precious files with it (I do have the most important files, like university stuff, backed up on Dropbox though).

Programming isn't really my thing. I like to visualise things as I'm making them, and programming just doesn't suit my preference. Also, I have to do programming for university again (Python and Java) and they both drive me insane, and Linux would probably make my brain explode. :yes:

Hardware support is something that would trip me up, though. I'm the kind of person who walks into a shop, finds something that will do the job (preferably either the cheapest or most powerful option), then buys it. It does sound nice that hardware works efficiently, but the possibility of stuff not working pushes me away from Linux.

I do like the fact that Linux is lightweight, though. Windows feels really clunky, even with a powerful build.

When it comes to customisation, I'm not too picky about it. As long as my set-up looks clean, efficient and not crap, I'm pretty happy with it.

That's pretty cool how Linux simply updates without all that restarting business. Windows is a punk how it has to restart so god-damned often and the fact that Linux just pops in and works is very appealing.

Freeeeee! Free is a beautiful word. :laugh: You can really tell that the Linux people are good guys when they give out their OS for free.

And yeah, Windows is notorious for support patches. Everything needs support patches, pretty much (and subsequently a reboot :dry:).


Well, I'm still not sure about it. I don't think Linux is for me, but it definitely has features that I would use. At the moment, I'll stick with Windows simply because it's all set up and ready to go.

 

Again, in spoiler, big text and all that.

Just so you know, I'm replying to your stuff in the actual spoiler.

Take my windows 7 laptop for example: I had it only for about 10 months before it got "critical hard drive problems", and I'm concerned that any day it'll fizzle and die, taking all my precious files with it (I do have the most important files, like university stuff, backed up on Dropbox though).

Depending on what the problem is, it might not be that the drive itself is failing. I saw several machines that were reporting bad sectors on the hard drive under Win7 and XP, even showed the same issue under Linux's GParted once the partition is selected. But when I'd scan it with a non-destructive badblocks test (software for detecting bad sectors) from a Linux live USB, it would show no problems with the drive, which confused me to no end.

Afterwards it happened to my own hard drive (3 months old) and after a lot of fiddling, it turns out that a corrupt NTFS partition can make the partitioner think the disc has physical damage on the plate. It may fool the partitioner but once the drive is scanned with a program that's actually designed to detect bad sectors, it shows as 100% clean. Once I reformatted the drive, it was completely fine and had no issues since.

So yeah, if Windows reports bad sectors it might just be that the partition is corrupted, not the drive itself. :thumbsup:

Ah, awesome. Yeah, I was kind of suspicious that it has been reporting this "problem" for a few months, and nothing has actually come of it. As long as I can use it, I'm happy. :smile: Functionally, this laptop works fine, which is pretty much all I need. Still, I wouldn't consider it mint-condition, as the screen is chipped, the mousepad has a scar, and the back is scratched to oblivion.

Hardware support is something that would trip me up, though. I'm the kind of person who walks into a shop, finds something that will do the job (preferably either the cheapest or most powerful option), then buys it. It does sound nice that hardware works efficiently, but the possibility of stuff not working pushes me away from Linux.

Ok, let me put the Linux hardware support this way:

Essential parts (CPU/mobo/RAM/HDD/SSD) - all 100% supported, some mobo LAN chips may require drivers (then again, they need them on Windows too). My mobo failed to initialize USB and PCI ports under Debian (worked on Ubuntu) but the solution came down to turning on two options in BIOS (EHCI hand-off and one other I can't remember at the moment). It was the mobo throwing fits, not Linux.

Wifi cards/USB drives - 90% of Atheros based wifi cards work out-of-the-box, Ralink based cards/dongles need firmware (can be obtained easily, 99% chance you'll find it in official repository (Ubuntu even comes pre-packaged with them so you don't need to get them), Broadcom wifi cards/dongles are supported and may need drivers/firmware, Realtek based chips are sometimes problematic in regards to drivers/firmware but you can make them work.

Peripherals (mice/keyboards/touchpads/graphical tablets) - All cheap Chinese mice/keyboards are supported (Chinese have excellent support for Linux), gaming peripherals like Sharkoon gaming mice have issues that require fiddling, gaming keyboards may have non-functioning multimedia/programmable keys if unsupported (the important stuff works on all keyboards, it's just the extra crap that makes problems), a lot of cheaper graphics tablets are 100% supported.

Optical drives - 99% of them are fully supported out-of-the-box, I use Sony Optiarc which are supported by Linux since the dawn of time.

In the end, there are only two things Linux has problems with these days - sound cards (support has been improved massively lately but there are still some that don't work or use software acceleration (aka, CPU instead of sound card processor)) and TV cards/dongles (there are a lot of supported ones and a lot of unsupported ones). There are also multimedia codecs that are hard to obtain on some distributions, thogh Ubuntu has them in official repos and Debian has them in deb-multimedia repo.

There are also things that will work on Linux and will fail to work on Windows. Older braillers are a great example (if you don't know it's a screen that pops up braille letters for the blind so they can read from a PC) that only have XP support will not work on Win7/Win8, but they will work just fine on Linux. I had to set one up for my friend's wife, works on XP and Linux but fails on Win7. There is also other specialized hardware that will have problems on Windows and not on Linux, but I doubt you can come across those in your everyday computer shop.

In my case, everything works out-of-the-box. I always go for the cheap stuff, and cheap stuff is made by Chinese which have bloody marvelous support for Linux, they support it better than Windows (hence why Windows craps out on my PC while Linux doesn't even need graphics drivers). :D

Erm... sorry, hardware is definitely not my forte. But, I think what you're saying is that if I ever decide to get Linux, I'll make sure that I have hardware specifically designed to be used with it (just so there isn't any hassle down the road). Also, Chinese is cheap. :tongue:

That's pretty cool how Linux simply updates without all that restarting business. Windows is a punk how it has to restart so god-damned often and the fact that Linux just pops in and works is very appealing.

That's why Linux runs on over 60% of web servers and over 90% of supercomputers, it can have a massive uptime without restarting (3-6 years for CLI and up to 4 years if it has GUI). Installing software doesn't need restarting, updating doesn't need restarting either, restarting is optional (if you know how, you can replace running software with updated version in realtime without a restart :wink:).

It's also fast regarding program installation, since the install package is basically a compressed archive with instructions and info, it can install programs in seconds. GIMP, along with another 20 required software packages, installs in under 30 seconds and is ready to be fired up.

Speaking of software installation, you don't have to scour the web to find software - it's all in the official repository. You fire up a program that shows you all currently available software (software selection can be extended by adding additional repositories) and once you go install a program, it automagically downloads all requirements along with the program and installs them in a correct order.

That sounds excellent. From what I gather, Linux is the OS that makes stuff work without mucking around. Intriguing...

Once you remove the program, you can purge every package from it's requirements that is no longer needed (remember how Windows becomes bloated over time, it's because it doesn't remove everything). Similarly, if you remove one of the program's requirements, it will warn you that the program will be broken and if you proceed, it will remove the broken program to avoid future problems, it's a smart system. This is how that program looks on Debian (Ubuntu's Software Center is much more user friendly, but I care little cause I install my software through command line):

The appearance kinda reminds me of Mac, which is nice.

And yeah, Windows is notorious for support patches. Everything needs support patches, pretty much (and subsequently a reboot :dry:).

You don't say. Last time I installed Windows for some guy it took three hours just to get it up and running. Around 45 minutes to install (rebooted 4 times), and more than an hour to update and install all the support patches (rebooted another 4-5 times). After that came drivers, and those went on and on and on (with another 4-5 reboots). And the worst thing is, that thing takes a lifetime to boot and loads software forever after it shows the desktop.

The moral of the story is: Windows' speed is comparable to a snail, and no matter how much you whip it, it will go at its own pace. I've only ever installed Windows once, and it was an awful process. And the worst thing is, that you can't even be sure that it installed correctly after it's done! :dry:

While Windows was still installing, I installed Ubuntu on three computers for sale one after the other with drivers and all (Ubuntu even installs graphics drivers, multimedia codecs and flash player druing OS installation), all three were ready to be fired up and used immediately. By the time Windows finished it's first set of updates I already had ads for those PCs up. I played Tetris on one of them them while Windows was updating to Service Pack 1 cause I was bored to death from waiting.

Good old Tetris.

By the way, I use Linux on for-sale PCs for a reason - legally obtaining Windows is expensive (used licenses go for $50-75 and new goes for $150 and up) and going illegal would likely end up with me in jail. I don't care how will the guys install Windows after they buy the damn thing (if they even install it), I ain't risking a visit from police, had enough of those.

Thanks. I'm not really a texturer myself (this is just a bunch of layers slapped on each other until it looks nice). :sweat:

I actually stuffed up the UV map a little bit and had to stretch some of the textures, but at least it looks ok in-game.

I used to make my own textures but that turned out, well, bad. So I tried something else - using stock photos for base then modifying them to fit my model. And that turned out better than expected. I can't see much stretching on the model, so it's all good. :thumbsup:

Cheers. :happy:

And I think I should start modeling again. :smile:

Cool! Have you uploaded any mods with custom models and textures? I'd go and check but navigating to someone's profile on the actual Nexus game sites is infuriating.

 

 

 

Also, I think the Sword of Agustas is done.

 

 

http://puu.sh/73hvD.jpg

 

 

I think I'll move the hand a little further up the grip, but that's pretty much all I need to do. I'm also going to replicate the reflection of this sword to all my other swords, since this one's is particularly nice for some reason.