Posts by yossarianuk 515 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2008
The arch wiki (and to a lesser degree the gentoo wiki) are some of the best tools to look for info - regardless of what distro your using IMO
https://wiki.archlinux.org/
If your a sysadmin who has to deal with 100+ Redhat based servers I suggest spacewalk - it is by far the best tool of its type.
Here's a nice one liner - shows top 10 highest connections through iptables (using for a bridging firewall..)
tcpdump -tnn -c 20000 -i br0 | awk -F "." '{print $1"."$2"."$3"."$4}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | awk ' $1 > 100 '
You would have to be some sort of special case you actively go out your way to install Adobe reader on Linux when so many better alternatives exist.
The default Reader in KDE (okular) is far far far faster, uses less resources, and don't come with the special adobe sauce that renders all security obsolete.
Even the poor gnome users (one step away from windows8) have a far better default browser.
I used to hate pdfs when I used Windows, not so on Linux. (same goes for general life)
If you do the following I bet you performance is better (to do this you need to choose advanced setup when building a vm - if using virt-manager)
- Use Virtio for Disk bus (and net)
- Set 'Performance Cache settings to . Cache mode 'none'. IO mode 'native' (this is with LVM however also works for qcow images)
- Set Linux vm's io scheduler to noop and set the KVM host scheduler to deadline.
Try it - I bet your performance will increase (by as much as 50 - 60 %) in IO speed.
I see VMware as the Windows of visualisation.
KVM performs better, in the sense that performance is better inside the vms on identical hardware/same amount of vm's per server.
The only are KVM is lacking is management tools - OVirt 3.2 will be out shortly and will support live (usable) snapshots (i.e not an LVM / SAN snapshots) but actual live snapshots that can you used as a full backup without turning off the VM on a standard SATA drive - something I don't believe VMware can do...
The lack of ANY license costs is a bonus too.
Yes you can, you can disable UEFI on most devices...
Apart from ANY ARM based Windows 8 device, its mandated (for anti fair competition reasons) that you cannot disable Secure boot (which uses UEFI).
ANY Windows 8 ARM device you have no choice... (but its your fault for buying such a piece on unusable crap.) As well as preventing you run Linux wil also prevent you running any older version of Windows.
Most kernel vulnerabilities require local access....
This is the main difference between Windows and Linux critical vulnerabilities.
Windows you just have to be plugged into the net to be owned - most Linux kernel vulns require physical access or even a non root account in the first place.
I have a crappy Samsung netbook. It came with Windows7 starter, this was completely so slow it was unusable.
Ubuntu faired a bit better but was still so slow.
I tried Bodhi Linux (which uses E17) and its insanely fast! Really snappy, in fact its like your using a different machine - more responsive than most people's Win7/Ubuntu installs...
If you have an old netbook try Bodhi Linux, you may surprise yourself.
Another reason to stick with KVM. The amount of developers working on KVM is increasing....
Aside from the :-
-better performance
- the lack of any license costs (quite a major thing really)
- the flexibility (sorry vmware doesn't come close)
- the ability to take live snapshots, not like VMWARE live snapshots as mentioned here http://bulldogdata.com/2012/08/why-vmware-snapshots-are-both-good-and-really-really-bad/ - real full online disk snapshots (that can be used as a full backup)
i.e : http://www.linux-kvm.com/content/first-look-virtual-machine-online-disk-snapshots-coming-fedora-18
Ovirt 3.2 will be out in the matter of days which is comparable to the vcentre app.
2 major differences with Micrsoft.
1. Apple don't have 80 - 90 % desktop market share - Microsoft got their monopoly when there was no viable competition - now Microsoft do their upmost to prevent fair competition - the tactics are fully outline in the Halloween Documents - patent attacks against Android and secure boot are prime examples of these tactics
2. All tax payers fund Microsoft whereever they like it or not - Apple not so much.
Another example of why using free opensource software is better.
It doesn't matter it supporting something is economically worth it, there is far more change of a minority language being supported in KDE than any other desktop I have seen.
Most distro's still ship with ddate (the discordian calendar) ....
Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 62nd day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3178
> Acrobat Reader is another example of "free" meaning "not as good as something there's a market for"
If you run a Linux distro the native pdf readers are infinitely better than Adobes piece if crap reader, far faster (I mean far far far faster), less memory usage, far less size file in the app and generally far less exploits than the official adobe reader.
i.e KDE uses okular, Since running Linux I barely even hate .pdf format any more.
p.s We can have the official adobe reader also on Linux but you would have to be messed in the head to do so.
All the people I know who complain about Firefox's memory usage are Windows users.... Maybe its because your using a 32bit version (unlike 64bit Linux users).....
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/11/64-bit-firefox-for-windows-should-be-prioritized-not-suspended/
Chrome is o.k however for working with nothing beats Firefox imo, I never have issues with memory (apart from crappy Flash) with Firefox on 64bit Linux systems and haven't for at least 5 years.
The fact that a majority of software for 64bit Windows is still32 bit is proof of the damage Microsoft's monopoly is having for technological progress - they didn't start supporting 64 bit in any serious way until 2008(ish).
Even a lot of webserver based software is stuck with 32bit packages in the Windows world i.e PHP
http://windows.php.net/download/#php-5.4 - only x86 packages available for Windows ... in 2012..
God-damn Barbarians.
Some of here don't run Windows at all.... Its not like those who do can easily get rid of IE in its entirety, with Windows8 you can turn it off, not remove it easily.
Time and time again Microsoft leave known vulnerabilities in their software sometimes for months/years, I would simply not trust my security in the hands of the McDonalds equivalent of the software world.
That's one of the main problems about non open source software, you are completely at the mercy of one company to fix any known bugs - Known bugs are generally fixed far faster in the opensource world.
> but given Mint is a spin off of Ubuntu without the crapware, I shouldn't have too many problems, right
As far as i'm aware that's correct...
However you will find FPS faster in KDE if you disable desktop effects (something you cannot do in cinnamon 3d) - however the new driver (not in Ubuntu yet) has apparently sorted issues with compositing desktops (and thus doubled users fps. - as I already did 2 simple tweaks (suspend desktop effects for fullscreen apps and disable VBLANK in nvidia-settings byy FPS were already doubled from a normal user)
Well that is the really great thing about Linux - if you don't like the direction a company is talking the desktop - just jump ship to another desktop - Unlike say Windows or Mac you have a choice.
I think Kubuntu is fine - all the applications you have for Ubuntu will still run (being the same underlining base). The default look is a bit crap but if you spend about 20 seconds you can sort that out.
It you spend most of your day logging into Linux servers your missing out by not using desktop Linux - Putty is just crap in comparison.
Kubuntu, which uses the extremely stable KDE desktop is a very nice 'workhorse' - in our office about 70% of people are running Kubuntu - Windows 7 on the same machine is slower at pretty much all tasks I do (and you can;t do a lot of things I want to) - the more you use KDE the better it becomes - unlike gnome3//unity where the most you use it the more you realise they your prevented on using the desktop as you like - unlike the other 2 KDE allows you to tweak most settings (if you can be arsed)
Cinnamon is pretty and is far better than other gnome3 based desktops but for working with KDE is the best desktop I have used on any OS , each release since about 4.2.x has been just that little bit better than the previous one.
> * UEFI Secure Boot is an industry option, not a MS technology
Yes that is always what they do - they keep their monpoly not by playing fair and competition fairly, they hijack existing standards (hey might as well let some other bugger do the hard work) then use their monopoly position to prevent fair competition.
Or even better stop forcing tax payers to fund Microsoft in the first place.
All tax payers fund Microsoft whereever they like it or not.
And its things like this that prove do not allow fair competition - thats the reason we're forced to fund Microsoft through taxes in the first place.
They got their monopoly when there was no viable competition - now Microsoft do their upmost to prevent fair competition - the tactics are fully outline in the Halloween Documents - UEFI is yet another example of those tactics.
Slowly but surely the are losing their grip though...
I'm almost 100% sure that the drivers will just enable the 'correct' settings for the desktop (that was previously cutting 50% of fps for the average user (see previous post)).
i.e the drivers were not hobbled, just mad insane default desktop settings in kde,gnome3,unity thanks to bad ati drivers the settings are not the default.
i.e - enable 'undirect fullscreen windows'
i'm pretty sure people who used the 'correct' settings anyway will notice no speed up (as we were already running 50% faster..)
I play a game based on the quake 2 engine, digital paint - dplogin.com
Unless I disable Sync/VBlank the game is unplayable - yes it sticks at 60fps but that make the game nearly impossible to play, its almost like there is a really slow lag on the controls.
As soon as I disable that option I get fps 400 - 1000 fps, its not the fps though, its not possible to play (well) unless I disable it.
Valve already stated their engine was faster in Linux than Windows
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/
But speed really depends what desktop you using and if it is composited or not.
I.e games in E17, LXDE are about 50% faster than in Unity/KDE (default settings)
I imagine all the driver is really doing is just forcing the desktop to use the sensible settings in the first place.
Here is a previous post I had made about this very subject (for Nvidia users):-
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Right now in most Linux distros 'out the box' Nvidia users has to do 2 things or games with be slow, have a lag that makes games unplayable, have graphic anomalies
I really can't tell you enough how much this makes the difference to gaming... Without do these options many games are unplayable in Linux.
(1) Enable 'unredirect fullscreen windows' in CCSM (compiz setting manager) / enable 'suspend desktop effects on fullscreen apps' for KDE
- Without this various games just don't display correctly.
Here is one good example..
The Unigine heaven 3.0 benchmark
http://unigine.com/products/heaven/download/
If you run this out the box in unity its not only 1/2 the speed it should be the graphics are not actually correct.
However if I enable 'unredirect fullscreen windows' then the speed is normal.
(2) disable 'sync to vblank' (openGL settings) with nvidia-settings (this is really important or all games appear laggy)
- Now some people moan that doing this creates tearing... All I can say is since Driver version 302.17 games are **not playable** unless I disable that option ... - I don't mean lack of FPS, its like all controls are laggy, fps's are hard to aim, etc.
Desktop Linux needs to make these options **the default** to vastly improve Linux as a gaming platform for everybody.
Basically I urge **any** openGL gamer that plays fullscreen games to try the options (you can always switch back) as it makes Linux being crap for gaming -> -> Better than Windows7.
I bet no one that is running a Nvidia card will say doing these changes hasn't improved gaming on their system.
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