Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Xmas platter:

What do you do when you have too many spare HDDs?

Create a Xmas tree out of them!


Check out the page my pal Trigger put up with pictures and videos. It even spins!

http://www.nzgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81672

Good work!

Kubuntu 8.10 with KDE4

As we are winding up here in Holland (only 3 more days of work for me), I am consolidating all the data I have scattered over 3 laptops down to just the old Acer.

I did a clean install of Kubuntu 8.10, and upgraded with to all the latest updates. I had a few reservations about KDE4:
  • Is KDE4 going be fast on this hardware? Though badged as such, this is not "Vista capable" even with 2Gb RAM.
  • Will it support hardware accelerated video? If not, is the performance in 2D mode OK?
  • Is it usable yet?
Well the answer is YES to all; KDE 4.1.3 is surprisingly good!

The whole UI runs smoothly with hardware accelerated video and compositing. KDE4 is complete: it has all the major features going, and is very stable, no crashes or lockups.

In short, I am really impressed! Theres not many widgets, themes etc. yet. I want a widget that does CPU and network statistics if anyone knows of one..

But build it, and they will come. Give it a few minor point revisions and KDE4 could be suitable for most desktop situations; I would be comfortable developing with it.

This release of Kubuntu, which has a recent current kernel, supports all the important hardware in the Acer. The webcam is the only problem hardware, still only experimental drivers.