FreeSoftwareMagazine takes a look at Debian as a desktop system, and they conclude: "I feel that Debian Etch is as good on the desktop as it is on the server. It has a long rich history, a strong community, is amazingly stable and is a great fit for both my servers and my laptop. I urge everyone to give it a go on the desktop."
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Member since:2006-11-08
Member since:2006-09-24
Member since:2007-03-26
No problems! oh well:
Add
http://ftp.debian-unofficial.org/debian/ and http://www.debian-multimedia.org to the sources list. If you would like Opera, Flash or Acrobat you have to (?) chroot it. Don't get scared! I manage to do it and I only got a year as a Linux noob.
I must say I like Debian. I've tried, and liked, Kanotix, Suse and Kubuntu but Debian Sid is the most stable dist so far!!
Member since:2006-01-07
Strange though...
Same position here - Debian 4 x86_64.
Most problems where solved with
dpkg -i --force-architecture some32bitprog.deb
Shame on Skype and Opera for not makeing 64 bit versions of their othervise wonderfull programs (esp. Opera).
I was astonished when I've tried to play wmv, or mov, or mpg or mp3 or DVD files - no problems at all. And no sound problems, which annoyed me.
Debian rocks. I love this game... i.e. distro 
Member since:2005-07-06
It is not just a Debian problem: it is an issue with most operating systems (except maybe for OS X, but we must wait for Leopard before we can really be sure. Also SUSE has one of the most mature 64 bit versions).
So I solve the problem the easy way: I install the 32 bit version.
Member since:2006-01-10
I had been running AMD64 Debian Sid for quite awhile (I'm currently giving Fedora 7 a run for it's money, for some things I like it better (seems to have more games, etc packaged, especially xu4 (love Ultima 4)) and I had no problems getting all multimedia stuff working within a short period of time.
nspluginwrapper is what you need for flash, works flawlessly. Java web plugin works with the gcj version (though it's now quite as full-featured as Sun's so your mileage may vary). Skype you just need to --force-architecture. Also, I just snagged the ffmpeg from www.debian-multimedia.org and it supports wmv, wma, etc. I still don't have support for those under Fedora either (for some reason the one package of win32codecs I tried to install in it, wouldn't compile the package, and kept giving me an error. Not too familiar with rpms though, except the fact that usually they're slow and the db would get corrupted, but Fedora 7 so far has fixed the first issue.)
I really love Debian though. I think really the only thing so far that is keeping me playing with Fedora for more than a day or two is it seems to have some more packages made for it (as previously stated) Though I think I'll start working around getting some rpms converted to .debs 
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
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"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
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Member since:
2006-03-10
Debian rocks, but I didn't manage to get the multimedia part working on it on my amd64 system. So skype, java, playing mp3, wmv and other files are not possible for me.