Hardware Analysis - Its DirectX stupid

Re: Its DirectX stupid

DublinGunner — 2008-01-15T20:54:15-05:00

I've a small bit to add - I love OpenOffice. Use it exclusively at home for all office related tasks, and it supports an absolute myriad of file formats

Re: Its DirectX stupid

_MD_ — 2008-01-15T15:41:47-05:00

Charles said:

I am in no way affiliated with Ububtu or Microsoft.

But how come you propagate only Ubuntu distro... there are plenty of others... My personal favorite is Slackware for example. It is known to be the least user-friendly and unforgiving distro, yet if you start learning linux on Slackware (like I did), you get down to the core and build a strong base of knowledge for future. I also use suse and fedora core in my corporate environment but also knoppix and of course backtrack live cds on my laptop for penetration.

Windows is pretty darn good too...just pricey. Especially if you want to use several computers (I run 5 in my home network).

How is it pricey to use windows for networking? You mean only license-wise? I am yet to meet a person who buys several licenses for a home use...

Re: Its DirectX stupid

Charles — 2008-01-15T14:15:32-05:00

Ubuntu...let's remember...it's FREE.

Unlike MS, noone's trying to "SELL" you on it. So all the comments like "Until they this...or until they that really irks me. It's like saying "I don't care to help....but work your behind off for me for free, and when I decide you've satisfied me, I' may try your free product". Get over yourself and use it for what it is or buy MS. Fortunately, this pervasive "me me me" attitude has not diminished the project.

I use both. It's hard to explain, but there's something rewarding about using Ubuntu. It's a "feel" or something. The OS is beautiful and using it has a much different feel than MS products (well duh!) and if you've never used it it's hard to explain, but the best I can say is it "FEELS" very nice to move around in and use. For Internet and most non-gaming PC functions it is wonderful.

No, Ubuntu is not a gaming platform....sorry. However, for MANY people who still think Solitare is THE ultimate PC game (and there are many), it has quite a few simplistic games including Solitare that will satisfy that large group.

But I can see a HUGE place for it in business Offices where you can do nearly all the normal Office functions on it without paying nearly a grand for it. OpenOffice (Thank you SUN and all contributors) is awesome and I haven't had to use MS Office (or buy it) for some time now. I actually prefer OpenOffice. The people who worked on it should be seen as heroes.

I believe in time, as more people become aware of and use it, there will be more people available to help out those needing it. The overall effect of Ubuntu will be wiser PC users and lots of 7 year olds who can work in a Unix/Linux shell. Windows was VERY much like that back when Windows 95 was new.

If you want an OS that gives you lots of PC functionality (not all...but lots), is absolutely gorgeous and has a warm, user friendly feeling (once set up properly) or you don't mind a little bit of tinkering and learning to get some things as you want them, then Ubuntu is great. The argument that it can be difficult to set up at times is true. Some things require a knowledge of the Linux OS or at least the URL of the Ubuntu support forums (which are VERY helpful). But overall even that is improving. It USED to be that EVERYTHING required that knowledge. More and more it's becoming more user friendly.

There's an old saying, "you get what you pay for".....in the case of Ubuntu and Microsoft that old adage is tested.

I am in no way affiliated with Ububtu or Microsoft. Just a VERY satisfied and grateful Ubuntu/Open Office user. Windows is pretty darn good too...just pricey. Especially if you want to use several computers (I run 5 in my home network).

Re: Its DirectX stupid

DublinGunner — 2007-07-31T10:15:54-05:00

Really? Maybe they should take a lesson from Apple lol

Anyone who wishes to upgrade their PC (software or hardware) should know what they're doing first.

There's always an issue with certain things when upgrading your OS, this has always been the case.

3.11 - '95, '95 - '98, '98-2000, 2000 - XP, XP - Vista.

In fact, my transition to Vista has been an easier experience than I've had previously.

A lot of people seem to have very short memories, or they've never upgraded their OS before.

Re: Its DirectX stupid

ian elliott — 2007-07-31T01:17:21-05:00

Microsoft needs to learn about backward compatability.

Re: Its DirectX stupid

CrAsHnBuRnXp — 2007-07-31T00:24:32-05:00

Tom Sheets said:

I have never tried linux, wanting to, but never have taken that leap. I don't want to deal with the programming side of it to get everything working. I don't like vista either due to the fact that not alot of software works with it. My friend has one of the new hp machines with windows vista premium on it and nothing works. He can't even get it to play his commercial dvd's on it. That is one of the reasons I don't like vista. Too many woes on incompatibility on it. I'll stick with XP Pro that i have now.

Thats because he didnt do his research on Vista to make sure everything he has is compatible. I own 30+ games for my Windows Vista based PC (which is Vista x64) and every game works flawlessly and so do all of my applications. I can play DVD's just fine. Its all about what software you use to play it. In fact, I have a Windows Vista codec for WMP11 that allows me to watch movies in that.

If people would learn to do their research before purchasing a product they know nothing about, they could avoid a lot of headaches and not blame Microsoft for their own (not Microsoft's) shortcomings.

Re: Its DirectX stupid

Tom Sheets — 2007-07-31T00:19:39-05:00

Re: Its DirectX stupid

White Fang — 2007-06-21T01:26:04-05:00

I have to agree with the others. Microsoft is a user friendly environment for the basic layman. This is why people buy this plug and play OS. I am not going to get in a hurry to buy Vista until I really can utilize the system. I am using XP pro and it is doing everything that I need to until there are more applications that require DirectX 10.

Re: Its DirectX stupid

DublinGunner — 2007-05-14T14:11:27-05:00

Well Bobby, its not quite as simple as having a 'middleman', essentially, the DX10 calls would have to be decoded down to machine code, and then executed in an OpenGL or possibly C++ or whatever wrapper.

This will essentially void any of the benefits that DX10 offers, mainly efficiency, and less CPU overhead.

Essentially, the DX10 calls that do not exist in OpenGL or DX9 etc would be executed via software on the CPU, and the results sent to the GPU.

I would imagine those with less than a powerhouse of a machine would struggle quite a bit.

Also remember, the API is only 1 element, the drivers are something else completely

Re: Its DirectX stupid

Iowaseven — 2007-05-14T13:20:40-05:00

See I dont think that �70-�80 for Vista premium 64 OEM is a bad price to pay.
I know the limmitations of OEM, but for a gamer thats not a problem at all.

Re: Its DirectX stupid

carl 0ski — 2007-05-13T19:50:28-05:00

i do wonder if youve even used the aforementioned distro at all

Most distros point and click doesnt work but Ubuntu has pulled i off 90% of the time.
http://picasa.google.com/linux/download.html

unless you wish to use bleeding edge software there is no need to use any command lines in ubuntu
I have never manually editted a file in Ubuntu.

however Suse, Mandriva, previous versions of ubuntu
and even latest kubuntu editing files were necessary.

I'm not even going to both mentioning Gentoo we all know how that pans out.

Re: Its DirectX stupid

andrew kairis — 2007-05-07T21:33:22-05:00

Originally Posted by Kurz
So I am to take that XSOS v4 wont have DX10?
Curious why not make a plugin for Direct10 and have it under a different license. So as soon as microsoft pulls the plug all you have to do is get rid of DX10? Unless you arent allowed to distribute DX10 by itself.

Reply by Project head nn_step:
DX10 is too closely tied to the Windows API and is literally systematically covered by over 231,619 patents. The only way a DX10 Game will work on Linux is if about 50 of the API's system calls are not used."

of course info regarding frequency of use of those calls (used every 10 lines or used every 10 years) is not given. So that could mean its actually very easy or quite quite hard.

also no information as to WHY microsoft would let this happen was given except hersay along the lines of they know their market share could be in jeopordy in the near-ish future. Hope I'm wrong but it sounds like just a bunch of open sourcers making a big whoplaa about something which will never be done.

some people say the leader is on MS payrole, others say its on thier own time.

that said, we do have this little site for directX nine.

http://appdb.winehq.org/

but dx10 is all new and different so.... is it moot?

but on topic, no linux (unbuntu or otherwise) won't take over microsofts majority market share regardless unless the big OEM's all begin to bundle it with the cheap systems - I'm sure MS has incentives programs going to prevent that from happening. Or someone clones DX10 which as stated above is covered by patents.

Also in my previous post about how we don't have the standardization in linux or in drivers needed to make it happen technically (as opposed to patents preventing it from being done legally)

Re: Its DirectX stupid

Sean Costello — 2007-05-06T00:13:47-05:00

XtremeSytems is doing it:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=139208

Re: Its DirectX stupid

Bobby — 2007-05-05T21:23:55-05:00

andrew kairis said:

umm. I'm all for prodigys and all that stuff but umm... a single 19 y/o programmer working on something thats taken MS how many years and how many FULL time paid programmers??

Easy - DirectX was already there for this guy. All he had to do was create a "middleman" program to allow Linux and DirectX to communicate to each other.

Re: Its DirectX stupid

andrew kairis — 2007-05-05T21:14:47-05:00

umm. I'm all for prodigys and all that stuff but umm... a single 19 y/o programmer working on something thats taken MS how many years and how many FULL time paid programmers??

EDIT: hmm.. I would imagine that this is what people had to do before directX...(just the commands from EACH program would be what needed to be translated) as more features are implimented wouldn't something like this become exponentially more difficult to maintain?

Weren't there some GLIDE wrappers back in the day that translated glide to d3d ?

thing is this is d3d calls to machiene code.... something between API and driver calls is where this thing would have to sit unless it bypasses drivers (possible?)

What I'm stuck on is, ok we have d3d API on one end, which goes into d3d complient driver on the other right? this would be plugging into the d3d api on one end and.... many different video drivers on the other end (linux drivers, xp drivers, bsd etc. let alone ati vs nvidea parts vs matrox underneath the OS)