The other day I was trying to adjust the resolution of my Kubuntu Feisty install on my Dell Inspiron 6400 (e1505) laptop and lost the entire xWindow GUI. Instead of going back in to the system to do some minor hacking to bring the xWindow back I decided to shop around for another distro.
My experience with GNU/Linux goes back to S.u.S.E. 8.2, when my brother gave me a copy to take back to YWAM Barbados. I have for the very most part been faithful to SUSE even up to 10.2. I have only found that the YaST system became bulky and seemed to always crawl slower than some of the other lighter distros on the market. I also was shying away from the comlex dependency conflicts that seemed to occur on a frequent basis when trying to customize my system. I had tried Fedora and way becoming impressed with this but always went back to SUSE because of my familiarity with it.
Recently, surrounding all the hoopla of Kubuntu I decided to give Feisty a try. This was when I decided to switch my allegiance. It was lighter, faster, less complex and remained customizable enough for me. My only hangups were that I could never get it to change my resoution to 1280x800 and the constant re-initializing of my ipw3945 wireless each time I switched from hard-wire to wireless. Nevertheless, I was sold.
After loosing the xWindow of Feisty, I shopped around and ran across LinuxMint http://linuxmint.com/. The only thing I can say is, WOW!!. If this holds up, I found my new desktop.
LinuxMint 3.x is nothing more than a glorified Ubuntu Feisty. So, why LinuxMint? Because, on the install, it found my ipw3945 wireless drivers, set up my resolution at 1280x800, installed many proprietary drivers and software, plays my encrypted DVDs, and even rips to storaged the encrypted DVDs with K3B. It also plays G4TechTv, CNN.com News, and Apple QuickTime Trailer videos. I have only had difficulty getting the video along with the sound on FoxNews videos.
Basically, LinuxMint has less setup time. It uses the Feisty repositories among some others. The KDE version is still in beta but the Casandra full Ubuntu version can be installed and then KDE desktop added after.
LinuxMint
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FoxNews Video in LinuxMint KDE
Well, I found a way to get the video to show in Firefox in my KDE version of LinuxMint. I installed the Windows version of Firefox, Flash Player, and Shockwave with wine. I now see the video. Not only that but I can now see ABC.com full episodes which I could not previously do with the Linux version. I still use the Linux version of Firefox primarily but now know I have the wine version if needed.
"transformity" not "conformity" then you will understand things as with a new mind
Never thought of that...
Dear metamorphousthe,
Never thought of installing the Windows Firefox under Wine. Do you you know what plugin Firefox wants for Fox? The native Flash 9 plugin works perfectly for Linux BTW.
I use Wine with success to use Internet Explorer as there is an accounts package that ONLY works with IE. IE 6 works well with ies4linux (http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page) it even makes a stab of installing IE7 (very limited success).
Glad you are happy with MintLinux. I am happy with Kubuntu!
Kevin
Firefox Plugins
Yeah, I prefer KDE over Gnome more for the allowance to do more. Gnome seems to tie you down a little.
As for the particular plugins that Fox.com uses, I think is Flash 9 but not sure. What I might do in a day or two is compare apples to apples with both the Firefox Linx and Windows version's plugins to see what's missing or conflicting as to why I only get audio and no video in Firefox Linux on Fox.com. I know that ABC.com's full episode video player is Move and ABC.com would not allow me to use Firefox Linux. It said it only supported Windows OS with Firefox. But it does work in Firefox Windows with wine, and it automatically installed the Move video player plugin with wine too.
I too use ies4linux also and have installed the IE7 version (really, IE6 with the IE7 scripts so sites read the browser as IE7).
The only plugins I have installed manually were the Flash Player and Shockwave for Windows with wine. I just know that it works. Move installed automatically (with wine) when I went to ABC.com.
I wish I could take credit for the Firefox Windows idea, but I found that in a blog when I Googled how to install Shockwave for Firefox in Linux (which there is none).
This is a list of the Firefox (Windows) plugins currently installed:
Move Media Player
File name: npmnqmp07061050.dll
npmnqmp 07061050
MIME Type............................................Description..........................Suffixes..............Enabled
application/x-vnd.moveplayer.qm..........npmnqmp............................qmx,qpl..............Yes
application/x-vnd.moveplay2.qm...........npmnqmp.......................................................Yes
application/x-vnd.movenetworks.qm.....npmnqmp......................................................Yes
Mozilla Default Plug-in
File name: npnul32.dll
Default Plug-in
MIME Type.............................................Description........................Suffixes...............Enabled
*.............................................................Mozilla Default Plug-in.......*..........................No
Shockwave for Director
File name: np32dsw.dll
Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 10.2
MIME Type.............................................Description.........................Suffixes...............Enabled
application/x-director.............................Shockwave Movie................dir,dxr,dcr..........Yes
Shockwave Flash
File name: NPSWF32.dll
Shockwave Flash 9.0 r47
MIME Type............................................Description.........................Suffixes................Enabled
application/x-shockwave-flash................Adobe Flash movie.............swf........................Yes
application/futuresplash........................FutureSplash movie............spl.........................Yes
"transformity" not "conformity" then you will understand things as with a new mind