Thinkpads Forum

How good is the graphics in the X60/X60s to run these guys? I am mostly interested in Beryl, but Aero experiences should be a good indicaiton of Beryl performance as well. Does not having a discrete GPU make any difference?

Thinkpaddict wrote:How good is the graphics in the X60/X60s to run these guys? I am mostly interested in Beryl, but Aero experiences should be a good indicaiton of Beryl performance as well. Does not having a discrete GPU make any difference?

I've heard that Beryl runs quite well with the Intel graphics...however, I don't yet have personal experience. As soon as I get home and unbox my new X60s, I'll let you know!

iMav wrote: I've heard that Beryl runs quite well with the Intel graphics...however, I don't yet have personal experience. As soon as I get home and unbox my new X60s, I'll let you know!

Did you have any chance to try this yet? Let me know how it goes!

I dunno what Beryl is but I know I play WoW everyday with my X60 and all is fine

thibouille27 wrote:I dunno what Beryl is [...]

http://beryl-project.org/

Thanks, looks cool

Works absolutely smooth here on Kubuntu.

How do I install beryl in Windows XP? I have no idea what a tarball is.

proaudioguy wrote:How do I install beryl in Windows XP? I have no idea what a tarball is.

Beryl does not run on Windows. It is geared primarily at the Linux environment, although I suppose it could run on any UNIX and X11 environment.

I've tried beryl with Fedora 6 and Ubuntu 7.04 on my X60s already. Very easy install on Add/Remove component. They work fine except when i'm watching video. Sometimes the videos blink up and mostly disappear (can see nothing but blank videos with sound), so i have to switch off beryl to watch them.

Beryl has been working very nicely on my new X60s.

I'm curious why anyone would want to run linux unless they were hacking and running a firewall or something. I cannot think of a single piece of software I use that has been ported to linux. So what's the point? i'm not being sarcastic, I'd really like to know. I was formerly a Mac user but just couldn't get the software I use on Mac, so in the end had to go to Windows.

proaudioguy wrote:I'm curious why anyone would want to run linux

There are a number of reasons to run linux:
-you can control the OS and minimize its footprint
-it can maintain the functionality of an older computer whose Window's OS is no longer supported and won't run the next generation of OS.
-its security system of permissions is more functional and easier to control than that of any version of Windows
-it can cost you nothing - which can mean a lot if you're deploying to a lot of machines
-some people have philosophical problems with closed source software.

I think most people who use a computer don't run specialized software. There are plenty of programs available for linux that will fill the needs of the average user (office applications, media players, and web browser).

Personally, I find there are drawbacks to running linux on laptops so I normally stick with Windows on laptops, but on a desktop those issues fall away.

proaudioguy wrote:I'm curious why anyone would want to run linux

When you understand that the alternative is Vista, Linux becomes a lot more appealing.

Beryl runs extremely well on the 950 chipset. If you decide to run it feel free to PM me and I will send you a working xorg.conf for it.

Oh, and one more thing. Beryl is MUCH lighter than Aero, so your argument should be the other way round. Test against Aero and you know Beryl will run it.

smvp6459 wrote:

proaudioguy wrote:I'm curious why anyone would want to run linux

There are a number of reasons to run linux:
-you can control the OS and minimize its footprint
-it can maintain the functionality of an older computer whose Window's OS is no longer supported and won't run the next generation of OS.
-its security system of permissions is more functional and easier to control than that of any version of Windows
-it can cost you nothing - which can mean a lot if you're deploying to a lot of machines
-some people have philosophical problems with closed source software.

I think most people who use a computer don't run specialized software. There are plenty of programs available for linux that will fill the needs of the average user (office applications, media players, and web browser).

Personally, I find there are drawbacks to running linux on laptops so I normally stick with Windows on laptops, but on a desktop those issues fall away.

OK so are you saying you have Excel on Linux now? Just 1 small example of something i use all the time. What about Power Point?
Again I'm not being argumentative. I would love to leave Microsoft behind.

proaudioguy wrote: OK so are you saying you have Excel on Linux now? Just 1 small example of something i use all the time. What about Power Point?

Microsoft Office doesn't run natively in Linux. That doesn't mean there aren't word processors, spreadsheets, databases, desktop publishing programs, presentation programs, and graphics programs that run in Linux. They may not have all the same functionality, but most users never even scratch the surface of MS Office functionality. However, your needs may be different.

On my x60 w/ ubuntu 7.04 beryl is amazing. It's fast and it looks great. It also has some cool features.

In linux you can get openoffice. It can open and write to all the native ms file formats. You could also get crossover office (aound $60). That will alow you to install some ms software on your linux machine, like office and photoshop.

proaudioguy wrote: OK so are you saying you have Excel on Linux now? Just 1 small example of something i use all the time. What about Power Point?
Again I'm not being argumentative. I would love to leave Microsoft behind.

(emphasis added)

You might want to think your (not argumentative) argument over again.
If you want to leave, then leave.
If you like to use Microsoft apps, then stay with Windows.
It really is as simple as that.

In my humble opinion, Windows XP is currently the best for notebooks, because it has all the drivers and little tweaks to get the most out of the device.
Linux caught up very nicely recently, but it requires a lot of careful tweaking to get near the battery performance of Windows. Vista needs some more attention to detail to get the same battery time.

To get back to the argument of leaving: I would like to leave too, but I can't, because I like to play commercial games. There arent't that many for Linux yet. That and the battery issues are holding me back with Windows.

MichaelMeier wrote:

proaudioguy wrote: OK so are you saying you have Excel on Linux now? Just 1 small example of something i use all the time. What about Power Point?
Again I'm not being argumentative. I would love to leave Microsoft behind.

(emphasis added)

You might want to think your (not argumentative) argument over again.
If you want to leave, then leave.
If you like to use Microsoft apps, then stay with Windows.
It really is as simple as that.

Just because proaudioguy uses Excel and Powerpoint doesn't mean that he specifically wants to use Excel -- many of us use our ThinkPads for work, and that may in fact dictate the applications we need to use, or the functionality that we need to have from equivalent applications.

Me, I need to exchange Word, Excel and Powerpoint files with my colleagues; use Photoshop actions; analyze ODBC data using an app such as Excel; and read email from a corporate Exchange server. Add all those together, and it's pretty tough to eliminate Microsoft ... you could maybe run OS X, but still with Microsoft apps.

(And, yes, I have run several versions of OpenOffice, and I will argue it won't cut it for corporate use, unless your company standardizes on it.)