Linux Counter-Rant (featuring a sub-rant)

Now that some time has passed since that rant I posted (see last post) I'm feeling a little better. Photo editing and management support is really annoying though. I haven't made any ground on what I was annoyed with last time around except that I figured out that Windows Vista Ultimate isn't the best OS to run in vmware because it's such a friggin' hog. XP works nicely as does Windows 7 (which is more awesome than any other Windows ever).

Something else that seems to have happened is I've found Ubuntu 9.04 to be troublesome verses 8.10. There are lots of new features that are better about 9.04 and mostly what I notice is the "under the hood" stuff such as my wireless connecting faster and compiz effects working just a taste smoother. 9.04 seems to have better support for Hibernate and Suspend on my laptop (Dell XPS M1530). Support for laptops is a whole different bag of worms. However, and I'm in the midst of an experiment with this, I've found that I'm continually annoyed with the performance of 9.04 on my system when I'm multitasking. For example I might be running a vmware virtual system that's running a few Adobe applications while in Linux I'm running Firefox, a few terminals, Eclipse IDE and maybe Filezilla just for kicks. I've found that doing anything substantial in the VM takes a huge toal on the host Linux system. Another strange thing is performing file operations (such as copying files from one place to another) in Nautilus (the default Gnome file manager GUI) totally owns my system. These are things that I didn't notice in 8.10 and I'm 100% positive of that. I'm quite sensitive to underperformance in computers (made up a word!) and I know that this couldn't have been how it was. So I took my windows drive and setup dual boot once again with 8.10. I still have a separate 9.04 drive that's sitting on my desk waiting for the verdict. If 8.10 really outperforms 9.04 in these areas I'm going back until 9.10 comes out.

So far using 8.10 has been a pleasure. I had used it as my primary OS for the full 6 months it was current so I know it works good...I'd never have lasted that long otherwise. After getting around a few bugs (touchpad issues with the latest BIOS update for my laptop from Dell) the system was quick and responsive. I suppose any fresh install feels similar but certain things I noticed were better than with 9.04. I'm hesitant to talk specifics though because it could be a result of it being a fresh install. I've given it only a few days so I'll see how things are going in a week or so. So far, though, Firefox launches faster, post fresh launches of Firefox are really fast and opening most all applications seems faster than it was in 9.04. Running the vm's doesn't seem as much of a system bog as it was either.

This either shows that 9.04 isn't supported properly by some applications or that my system doesn't like 9.04 that much. I'd lean towards the first because if anything as Ubuntu and the Linux kernel advance they seem to be expanding their compatibility making it so they can claim the "it just works" title.

You know what the real clincher is though? Vmware coexists better with compiz in 8.10. It sounds superficial but compiz is a huge multitasking tool. Nothing in Windows (third party ad-ons included) or OSX can touch the quickness and smoothness of compiz's effects and multiple desktop switching support.

In 9.04 when you go to full screen with a vmware machine, switch back to linux and switch to a different desktop (rotate cube or however you set it up) the damn VM follows you to that desktop. in 8.10 it stays put like it is supposed to so you can have one desktop that's running a full screen VM and the rest for various Linux apps. I've read up on this issue and there is a work around but it involves compiling compiz from source with some lines commented out. Believe me I was tempted but I know too well that sometimes getting into those compiling from source tasks ends up taking a lot longer than expected and lately I haven't had the time to get into it. Not to mention I didn't have any desire to accidentally screw up my otherwise perfectly working compiz setup. Back to the subject, though, this issue with compiz and vmware makes using vmware really suck. That combined with another strange glitch that makes it so while running vmware I occasionally lose the use of the control, alt and windows key buttons in my linux host system (another hit to compiz effectiveness). When I'm designing or just working web development I need to be able to have that vm running and be able to count on the system staying stable. In 9.04 that just wasn't happening.

I guess this turned into a sub-rant in some ways but I'm essentially happy with my current setup. I'm dual booting Windows 7 and Ubuntu 8.10. I can do my photography work in Windows and everything else in Ubuntu. I might even shoot some head-crabs in Half-Life 2 in the Windows partition from time to time. Who knows...I'm versatile like that.