Ubuntu

I've finally done it, I've installed Ubuntu on my home system. My Dad had just installed it on his little Atom system so I decided now would be a good time to get back into it again. The only difference between the two distributions is that mine is the 64bit version and my Dad's is the 32bit version. So I'm planning to see how much difference there is between the two versions and if I get much performance out of it.

Just a quick run over of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an operating system based on the Debian/Linux distribution. The word itself, is a zulu word meaning 'humanity', which relates to the ubuntu philosophy "I am who I am because of those around me". It's free and open source software, meaning users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software under the terms of the GNU GPL licence.

Anyways I'm hoping to get more into programming again and get more involved in what linux has to offer. So far, I've installed the main distribution and made the recommended updates. The main problems I've had so far have been trying to update the drivers for my graphics card and my sound card. I've got an nVidia GeForce 8800 graphics card and a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card. Both companies provide Linux drivers that should work. After downloading nVidia's drivers off their website, I proceded to try and install it all, their method is an awkward one, until I found the Synaptic program within Ubuntu which would do the installation for me without any problems. Using glxgears I was able to confirm that the fps went from 433fps to 6800fps which is a signiifcant increase. Now glxgears isn't the best benchmarking tool, but it'll do for the moment, I'll get better tools as I progress.

I thought the sound card was an easy one to install. I downloaded the drivers off Creative's website and installed it as instructed. Then I simply changed the sound settings in Ubuntu to output to my sound card instead of the on-board sound card. This worked straight away. However, after a reboot, it doesn't work, so I've done something wrong somewhere, I just need to figure out what's going on. Looks like I've plenty to learn and plenty to write up about on my way.

For now I want to learn more about Synaptic, it sure beats apt-get for updating and installing new software/drivers.