Ubuntu 8.10 tempts KDE lover to switch

Is there any reason to read the article?

Quoting:Although I've been a staunch KDE advocate over the years, this slick new release is strongly tempting me to convert to Ubuntu!

Dude, you can install KDE on Ubuntu. You don't "convert" from KDE to Ubuntu. This is precisely the sort of unnecessary confusion that is likely to drive new users straight back to Windows.

+1 bigg --

After reading the article to see whether the blogger was just being lazy -- mistaking KDE for Kubuntu (and giving him/her wide latitude in the benefit-of-the-doubt department) -- I wanted to believe that the blogger just made a simple error and meant to say, "I want to convert to GNOME on Ubuntu," which is Ubuntu's default environment.

But no. -1 to the blogger.

The blog reads as if KDE is an operating system. If this mistake were made in the Catholic school I attended many years ago, the blogger would be writing "KDE is a desktop environment" 500 times under the watchful eye of a nun who eerily resembled a penguin (those Sisters of St. Joseph -- great habits).

The blogger also says this: The new X version allows " 'the great majority of users to run without a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file,' according to the Ubuntu.com website." Users may be able to run without it, but what about the operating system itself? Granted, the blogger is [mis]quoting[?] the Ubuntu.com Web site, and maybe I'm bitter because I just spent the last couple of years getting the hang of tweaking my xorg.conf file, but I'd be willing to bet that xorg.conf still exists in the $filelocation and the need to tweak it may be reduced or eliminated.

Reduced I understood. As far as I know Xorg doesn't run without a configuration file, or I have really missed something.

Quoting:Reduced I understood. As far as I know Xorg doesn't run without a configuration file, or I have really missed something.

Actually the newer versions will attempt to run without one by using the auto detect stuff for the vid card and monitor. I've done it a few time when testing boxes. Now whether it runs PROPERLY without one is a different matter....

Yup. For a lean and mean Xorg config, delete it, see what works on autodetect and then only add the bits that the autodetect doesn't detect at all or detects wrongly. For good measure you may want to add a script to /etc/X11/xsession.d to detect how many monitors you have running and set up xrandr properly. Useful if you often change monitors (i.e. laptops).

See my blog for an example: http://www.jejik.com/articles/2008/10/setting_up_dual_monito...

> Actually the newer versions will attempt to run without one by using the auto detect stuff ...

But doesn't the autodetect process create an xorg.conf file, which xorg then uses?

Probably it creates a config file somewhere (or in /proc? ), but not in xorg.conf anymore I just found out. Rather interesting.

I just installed it on my laptop because suspend worked out of the box, It hasn't done that in a while.

It autodetected my 1280x768 screen as a 1600x1200 one and when I tried to set it at a lower resolution the screen would get all jumbled, I just want to throw in that I think it's dumbed that they didn't include an accept or test feature if you set the resolution and it screws up, you are SOL. The fix for my resolution problem was to add the screen subsection into the xorg.conf with the appropriate resolution.

I think it uses the xrandr auto detect stuff. Which is great if it detects your hardware correctly, but they have removed all of the configuration utilities, besides xrandr which I could get to work for setting any settings.

I understand not wanting to include the config stuff in the default install to not scare away new users (maybe), but removing it completely from the repos seems silly.

Oh well, now I have suspend working on my laptop.