This seems strange to me, I thought this was open-source.  See link:

www.on-disk.com/index.php/cPath/28_135

I looked at the thread, but I'm not sure what I'm looking at. It's for something called Ubuntu, which has no apparent connection to Blender (the program that this forum centers on). It says that it's open-source, but you also have to pay for it. That's a contradiction in terms.

Oh well. I won't be able to use it, anyway, because it's for Linux.

Ubuntu is a linux distribution, a very popular one. As open source Ubuntu is free, you can find it on cover mounted dvd on magazines, you can download it from the internet and burn a dvd to install from, you can also buy versions of it - so on a cd or dvd because you don't have adsl or with printed manuals and so on, you're paying for someone else to have put in onto media, stick it in a box and post it to you - not the OS itself. <download for free from here - http://www.ubuntu.com/ >

Some variants of linux can also be bought with support from a company for example redhat - means you pay for the distro but have the chance to pick up the phone and get help if things go pear shaped.....

Personally I use Suse but I've considered swithcing to ubuntu or mandriva just to see what they're like. Each distro has it's own little quirks and different set up out of the box.

Ubuntu is what led me back to Blender.  I tried Blender in the past and couldn't get the hang of it.

In March this year I downloaded Ubuntu (free, BTW) and liked it so much that I have it on 2 of my PCs and on my laptop.  I've only kept Windows on one machine, and only because of Poser, which doesn't run well under Linux (for me, anyway).

But I've decided that I like Ubuntu so much that I'm going to ditch Windows altogether. That means no more Poser, so I've been forced to try a bit harder to learn Blender.  And so far, I'm loving it.

I've found that Ubuntu is faster on a slow machine than XP on my fast machine.  When I go back to my Windows computer, it feels slow and clunky now, just as Poser feels slow and clunky compared to Blender.

For me, Ubuntu and Blender are going to be the way forward, so far as any 3D work is concerned.

PS - the Linux licence means that that it's available free, but it's not illegal for people to sell it (if they can find anyone willing to pay for what they could get for free!)

In free/Open Source software, the 'free' is generally taken to mean 'free as in free speech, rather than free as in free beer.'  But it does generally tend to be free as in free beer too.

You'll find the best definition of 'Free' software at the website of the Free Software Federation, HERE.

Okay, thanks for clearing up the confusion. I'm a pure Windows user, so I didn't get that at all.

Um - sorry, I didn't mean to sound so much like a Linux evangelist!  Linux has its down sides.  I had a few weeks of computer hell until I started to get the hang of it

But in general, I love it, and I get a bit over-enthusiastic sometimes when describing it.  :)

Hello everyone. 

I saw this link in our stats, so I hop you don't mind me poping over to see what's going on. 

Yes, On-Disk.com sells discs, but what most people don't realize is that for every Ubuntu CD ordered the Ubuntu Project receives 1.5 euros and 5.5 euros for the DVD version. 

For other indie Software Developers and indie artists, we're also putting their works on CD/DVD and they also earn cash to fund their projects.  See our Developers Portal for more info on how we do that. 

Because the one thing that's a universal truth is that nothing is truly free.  (think bandwidth to offer the free download) and we're doing as much as we can for Free and Open Source software to keep it as free as possible. 

Karlie Robinson
Owner, Webpath Technologies
http://On-Disk.com

Thank you everybody for clearing some things up. :biggrin:

Morphy I didn't think you were over enthusiastic.
I have heard a lot of good things about Ubuntu, and you just motivated me to try it.

Gog, I never thought about it like that. Not having broadband, that makes good sense.

kasuro, No I didn't know that. I'm glad to hear that you're supporting the project.

DramaKing, I am an all Windows user also, but what I have been hearing about Vista. I think it might be time to think about changing.  Besides, I'm getting tired of bugs and viruses. something I understand linux doesn't have so much of.

Well here's some good news...

I checked my PCLinuxOS software download tool (Synaptic) and blender is just a couple clicks away. 

And you know, I almost forgot how plagued Windows is.  There just aren't any threats to Linux right now so I don't even think about it. 

I could go on and on about the software you can get for Linux (like OpenOffice, The GIMP, Inkscape...) so feel free to PM me if you want to chat about it.  I hate to take an OT thread even farther off topic. 

Karlie

Quote - I checked my PCLinuxOS software

I'm using PCLinuxOS on my desktop. I think it's great.

One thing that used to be a problem with blender in linux is the lack of accelerated drivers.
I haven't kept up with this, but when I used Suse (9.?) there was one available. But it wasn't installed when the system was first set up.  I had to download it from the ATI (the other major graphics chip mfg is Nvidia) site.  This may have changed; I've read that binaries are now pretty generally available. But if you load blender and it runs slooooow.  That's probably your problem.

I have at Radeon 9700 Pro running find under Suse2 10.2, but a general thing is that ati doesn't handle IMHO opengl as well as nVidia (in windoze or Linux)  - my next card I'll be switching back even thought some of the image quality when I bought it was better then the nVidia equivalent.

The one thing that has come a long way with Linux is accelerated Drivers and major graphic improvements overall. 

You can get Beryl (check out a neat little vid at Youtube) on almost every new release and it will skyrocket your desktop, so I'd assume that it shouldn't be a problem tapping those for your 3D art. 

~Karlie

Beryl is only on gnome isn't it ? - I've always tended to use kde

Nope - it's working on just about everything these days.

Some are coming with Beryl ready to go like Sabayon.  Others like Knoppix you'll have to grab it from the repos. 

Sabayon is a really sweet system based on Gentoo  and you can run beryl in live disc mode*
~Karlie

*Live disc - the entire OS runs from the CD/DVD.  Pop the disc in the drive.  Turn your computer on.  The OS will begin to boot.  Do what you like.  When you re-boot your computer without the Live disc in the drive you'll be right back to what you were using before - no changes will have been made and nothing installed.  Sort of like taking a new car out for a test drive to see if you like it. 

I did read something about better driver support.

Can you get Beryl to work on Ubuntu Studio?

Reddog9, your the first person I've heard of on this site, that uses PCLinuxOS. Four months ago I got that operating system, but when I asked about it.  No one's ever heard of it.
I might have to make a couple petitions, and see what operating system I like best.

I use PCLOS on my personal system! 

I also know that Ubuntu Studio is a version of Ubuntu... so all the Repos and software that's available for Ubuntu is available and will work with Studio. 

So with that in mind, if the componants for Beryl aren't already included with studio, you should be able to get them and install them fairly easily.

Karlie

Quote - Reddog9, your the first person I've heard of on this site, that uses PCLinuxOS. Four months ago I got that operating system, but when I asked about it.  No one's ever heard of it.
I might have to make a couple petitions, and see what operating system I like best.

I've been away from this site for a while. I just go PCLOS about 4-6 months ago I think. I download about 5 different LiveCD's to try. I liked that one the best. Knoppix was one. I haven't tried Ubuntu, Debian or any of the more familiar ones. I like the KDE Desktop. There are some issues with the OpenGL support. One thing I noticed before (I'm running a new mother board now then I had 4 months ago, so it's a little different), when I was running Blender in PCLOS, the screen res was running by default at 16bits and Blender was a little slow. When I changed it to 24bits, it made a big difference with Blender's speed.

Gog, I have a Nvidia 6200 video card, and I am having a lot of compatibility problems. I am thinking about going back to ATI. The card that I am looking at now is: ATI Radeon X1650 Pro, 512MB, 8x.
Does anybody have this card? I'm just wondering if anybody is having any kind of problems with this card?