Ubuntu: Lucid Lynx

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by onix

Talk about Gentoo, I started using it since the day that you have to install everything from source and config everything manually. Yeah, my machine took nearly 2 days to compile everything (8 years ago I think). Don't use Gentoo anymore, but must admit that I have learned from that experience a lot.

If you want to take that a step further, you can do Linux From Scratch. I wouldn't use an LFS system for regular use because package management would be a headache, but it's a useful exercise to go through at least once.

 

[imatlas]

Originally Posted by javyn

Yeah. On my desktop I enabled Compiz Fusion effects. I'll post a screenie later if interested. 1. Disable Nautilus from drawing the desktop (Important so Compiz's Wallpaper manager can take over from Nautilus, thereby letting you choose a different wallpaper for all 4 sides of your cube via Compiz. edit: To do this, go into Configuration Editor, choose "apps", then "nautilus", then I believe it's under preferences...unclick "show desktop". 2. Enable Compiz cube, enable rotation of the cube, enable "cube gears", then set the cube to 40% transparency while rotating. You can also set your upper and lower cube 'caps' as well as background image while you are rotating the cube here. 3. Enable Ring Switching (I like this a lot) 4. Delete top panel of Gnome desktop, it's unnecessary. 5. Remove unnecessary icons from bottom panel, shrink bottom panel, center it, autohide. 6. Enable Gnome-Do. Turn on Docky. Docky on autohide takes the place of the top panel. 7. Enable Compiz window close, open, minimize animations. 8. Go into Wallpaper manager in Compiz, select 4 wallpapers. Done.
If you worked for me, and I saw this on your desktop, I'd fire you on the spot for crapping around on company time. edit: not really, but it seems like a really pointless waste of your time.

 

[milosh]

IMHO, compile everything distributions are a waste of time and electricity. I like and use Arch which has a nice system of binary packages(you can compile them if you wish) and a user driven repository of packages called AUR.

 

[javyn]

Originally Posted by imatlas

If you worked for me, and I saw this on your desktop, I'd fire you on the spot for crapping around on company time.

edit: not really, but it seems like a really pointless waste of your time.

All of that took about 2 minutes, and I don't run Ubuntu at work. What's your deal?

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by milosh

IMHO, compile everything distributions are a waste of time and electricity. I like and use Arch which has a nice system of binary packages(you can compile them if you wish) and a user driven repository of packages called AUR.

The point of something like LFS is as a learning tool, not practicality. You really learn a lot more about how everything fits together. Generally speaking, distributions with good package managers are a huge boon to productivity, and are frankly very good for security in general, as I'm assuming most people don't have the time to watch bugtraq every day for vulnerabilities that affect packages they're using. Arch is a great distribution because of its "add only what you want" approach. Slackware is similar.

 

[javyn]

Using a dock, application launcher, and enhanced alt-tab switcher are also boons to productivity. 10x more productive than relying on the old Windows Start Menu / Task Bar. Atlas' comment still has me scratching my head.

 

[GQgeek]

If you say so. You might think that having a rotating cube is neat, but you'll have a hard time convincing me it improves productivity by even a little bit, let alone 10x. Unless you spend more time switching between applications than actually doing work, I don't see how, even if your ubuntu setup is marginally more effective at task switching, it would make you 10x more productive.

 

[javyn]

Nah the cube is for goofing off. Again, for the 3rd time, I run Windows at work. And I do a lot at once, with at least 7 windows open at all times.

Having a clean desktop is a Godsend now. Thanks to launchy, vistaswitcher, and rocketdock. (No cube on Windows).

When you have a lot of windows open at once, trust me, a good alt-tab switcher REALLY helps.

 

[imatlas]

Originally Posted by javyn

Nah the cube is for goofing off. Again, for the 3rd time, I run Windows at work. And I do a lot at once, with at least 7 windows open at all times.

Having a clean desktop is a Godsend now. Thanks to launchy, vistaswitcher, and rocketdock. (No cube on Windows).

When you have a lot of windows open at once, trust me, a good alt-tab switcher REALLY helps.

That's what I was responding to. I just don't have the "I want to mess around with my computer to make it do really cool, but essentially pointless stuff" gene. To me a computer is a tool, and in the same way that I wouldn't spend time engraving curlicues on my hammer, I don't spend time fiddling around with making my desktop look cool. It especially has no place in the workplace, IMO.

I'm not trying to harsh on you, I'm just reacting to a pet peeve.

PS I get that you're doing this on your own time, but I'd submit that you're actually less productive trying to multi-task 7 different things at once than you would be doing a smaller number of tasks serially. This has been studied extensively - the time you lose from switching mental gears consumes more "cycles" than you are gaining.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by javyn

Nah the cube is for goofing off. Again, for the 3rd time, I run Windows at work. And I do a lot at once, with at least 7 windows open at all times.

Having a clean desktop is a Godsend now. Thanks to launchy, vistaswitcher, and rocketdock. (No cube on Windows).

When you have a lot of windows open at once, trust me, a good alt-tab switcher REALLY helps.

When I am screwing around with my cisco gear i'll have 10-15 terminal sessions of the same program open at once. They all collapse onto a single icon on the windows 7 taskbar. I don't really use alt-tab when I have a huge number of windows open. I just hover over that one icon and the window previews that pop up to find the correct one. When I hover over that one taskbar icon I'll see previews of all of the 15 windows along the bottom of my screen with their window titles and hovering my mouse over any one of them makes them active so that I can see their contents. Finding the right window can be done extremely quickly by just dragging my mouse over the previews since they cycle near-instantaneously. It probably takes me less than 5 seconds and a single click. I've never once felt I needed any sort of enhanced switcher.

Also, +1 to what imatlas said about multi-tasking. You can't really focus on multiple tasks at once. At any one time, you can only be reading one report, or working in one spreadsheet, or writing code for a single program, or responding to a single email at one time. If you are working efficiently the time it takes you to alt-tab between windows is irrelevant. If you have to look at lots of information at once, you'd do much better by buying more resolution, either by upgrading to a 24" or getting a dual-monitor setup.

 

[Matt]

Originally Posted by javyn

Yeah. On my desktop I enabled Compiz Fusion effects. I'll post a screenie later if interested.
Interested!

 

[javyn]

Thing is, I have to have those windows open at once. I'm a paralegal in charge of the firm mail page (ms access), docket (abacus), and usually have to have multiple drafts of word and wordperfect docs open at all times, sometimes excel. Also I have to have my billing software open at all times as well to keep up with my hours as I go. Outlook open all the time is a given too.

I'll post a screenie when I get home

 

[Matt]

people still use WordPerfect? Hadn't really heard of it since I was like a college freshman in 94...

 

[javyn]

Originally Posted by Matt

people still use WordPerfect? Hadn't really heard of it since I was like a college freshman in 94...
Yeah a handful of Federal Judges like to require Wordperfect drafts of anything filed in their courts. Pain **********. Of course, 90% of our office drafts everything in Word, so I have the fun task of converting it over to WP. Never used Win 7 but good for them grouping icons on the taskbar. Still, I like my dock setup. I'll take screenies later.

 

[javyn]

Screenies from my desktop at home, "Howardux". edit: Looks like a little clipping going on on that cube there heh.