Daniel15's Blog

Recently, heaps of people have been going crazy over the new Vista RC1 release. I decided to dowload Vista, and try it myself. Unfortunately, I didn't have any blank DVD's at hand. Nevertheless, I discovered that you can install Vista without burning it onto DVD. Here's how you do it:

• Partition your hard drive. Resize your Windows partition to leave at least 15-20GB available for Vista. You can do this through utilities like PartitionMagic, or through a boot CD such as the free Ultimate Boot CD. If you don't know how to partition a drive, you're probably not the kind of person who should be installing Vista.
• Install the free DAEMON Tools if you don't have it already.
• Download the DVD ISO from the Microsoft site
• Once the download is done, mount the ISO file with DAEMON Tools (using the DAEMON Tools icon in the system tray. Right-click it, and go Virtual CD/DVD ROM --> Device 0 --> Mount Image
• If Autorun is enabled, the Windows Vista setup will appear. If not, go to 'My Computer', double-click on the virtual DVD drive, and then double-click 'SETUP.EXE'.

If you've done everything correctly, this should start the Vista installation wizard. When prompted to choose a partition, choose the one created earlier. The setup program will then copy over all the files, and reboot your computer (to continue the setup).

One notable thing is that the DVD is only required for the initial step (copying the files), and that's why you can do it this way. Previous version of Windows required the CD throughout the whole setup (and don't even remind me of the 20 or so Windows 95 floppy disks 😛)

Anyways, after looking at Vista for a while, it's definately overrated. The graphical effects in Compiz are much better than anything that Vista could ever achieve. Vista is bloatware, that's all there is to it. After Vista's release, more and more people will start realising the benefits of Linux over Windows (especially the price, and overall performance), and make the switch. At least, that's what I'm hoping.

Update: Since I made this post in September 2006, things have changed. Compiz-Quinn has changed its name to Beryl, and up-to-date installation instructions are available for Ubuntu Edgy and Ubuntu Feisty

Well, I got my laptop on Friday (15th September). I must say, the Inspiron 6400 was definately a good choice. The only thing I don't really like about it is the reflectiveness of the TrueLife screen, but I suppose I'll get used to it (the colours are definately more vivid, and it has better contrast... The screen looks absolutely awesome when playing games!). Anyways, one of the first things I did was partition the drive, and install Ubuntu Linux 😃. Once I did this, the first thing I did was install i8kutils and Gkrellm (so that I could control the speed of the fan, to make sure it doesn't overheat), and then install the ATI Drivers for the X1400 (called 'FGLRX'). Everything was working excellently (see screenshot)

After everything was done, I thought about what to install. I remember my friend telling me about something called 'Compiz', but I couldn't remember how to install it. After searching for a while, I found a nice tutorial on installing GLX/Compiz. It appeared to be quite easy to do, so I followed the instructions on the tutorial. And, it works perfectly! 😄 It comes with heaps of themes, and there are some similar to the upcoming Windows Vista. Take a look at this:

Look at the title bar of the 'Home Directory' window. That's called a 'glass effect', and is quite nice...

Another thing implemented in Compiz is window transparency: You can make a window semi-transparent. For example, look at this screenshot of my home directory on top of Opera (with the Google site open). I've faded the window out a bit, so it's partially transparent:

Nice, huh? Yet another thing in Compiz is multiple desktops. Sure, Linux has support for multiple workplaces in-built (the selector on the bottom-right hand side of Gnome). However, Compiz improves on it vastly, making all the virtual desktops into one large cube:

I thought the cube was interesting, but something really interesting is if you run VMWare in fullscreen mode. You can make it appear as if you're running multiple operating systems at once... Take a look:

In addition to all of this, Compiz has heaps of other effects which I couldn't take screenshots of (including wobbly windows - windows wobble as you drag them, windows 'zoom in' when you start a program, and 'zoom out' when you exit it, and a lot more)... If you'd like to get Compiz working, and have an ATI graphics card, first get the ATI Linux drivers (FGLRX) working (see http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Dapper_Installation_Guide for a tutorial. Make sure you follow the second bit of the tutorial, to install version 8.28.8). Then, follow the Compiz tutorial, as found at http://www.compiz.net/topic-389-1.html (I followed the second howto, as I personally think it's better to have Compiz as a seperate session... Have fun! 😃

Anyways, I think this is probably the longest blog post I've written, ever 😛

Well, last Friday I finally ordered my Dell laptop... I'm so happy 😃

I ended up ordering an Inspiron 6400, with these specifications:

• Intel Core Duo 1.73 GHz
• 80 GB Hard Drive (free upgrade from 60 GB)
• 1 GB Memory (free upgrade from 512 MB)
• 15.4 inch XGA display with TrueLife - 1280x800
• 256 MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 Hypermemory
• 8X DVDRW
• 9-cell battery

Plus:

• Dell Optical USB Mouse
• Free Belkin 'Wireless G' router
• Dell Large Backpack

And for comparison, here's my current desktop PC:

• Intel Pentium III 866 MHz
• 120 GB Hard Drive
• 384 MB Memory
• 17 inch BenQ LCD screen (FP71G+)
• Intel i810 Graphics Card (with 0 MB of onboard memory! 😛)
• 52x32x52 LITEON CD-RW
• A4Tech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

I think that this was an excellent offer (Dell's price was great). I'll finally be able to emulate Nintendo 64 games properly (unlike my current computer, with all the stupid graphics flaws 😛)