I got Suse Linux 8.0 installed. Installation was smooth, and Yast seems nice.
However, the acid test for me with Linux is simple - how well does it handle multimedia (i.e. what happens when I stick one of my cd's loaded with mp3 files into the CD-ROM)?
I insert disc. No auto-run. Ok - didn't expect it. I open up the file K file browser. I click on an mp3 file. It appears to start a cd player of some kind but nothing happens. I push the play button - nothing happens.
Ok - I'll try a stand-alone player. I try using one of the CD players that came with this distro - doesn't work. Ok - eject cd-rom and start over. Nope - won't let go. Try using gui to eject - nothing happens. As root, do 'eject cdrom' - nope - get I/O error of some kind.
Yep - same old Linux. It still can't effing touch BeOS in the multimedia department, and BeOS hasn't had a release in over 2 years. I mean COME ON PEOPLE!
So, it's back to Windows for games, BeOS for multimedia and Linux for programming. Sigh...
That said, multimedia support is hard. Comparing Linux to BeOS for multimedia isn't all together fair. BeOS was designed for multimedia and Linux wasn't (probably never will be as good as BeOS). I'd love to see Linux support something like the digital audio & MIDI recording system from Cakewalk called Pro Audio. This is will take a lot of money, I suspect. Heck, even Winders has issues with complex sound apps. Like I said, it's trickier than it appears.
BTW, BeOS will automagically play a data CD with mp3s? Wow.
Re:Linux Multimedia support is notoriously lacking
djberg96 on 2002-04-30T13:11:52
I just want an OS that satisifies all my needs - gaming, multimedia, development and peripheral support. Is that so much to ask? Apparently, it is.I can only imagine what would have been if BeOS had managed to get the dual boot options that MS screwed them out of all those years ago. You gotta figure by now that BONE and OpenGL would be well established, and libraries would be such that you could build Perl, Ruby, MySql, etc, without a hitch. Dual processor systems would be slightly more common (which would have been a boon to Intel) and I'd be considering a quad CPU motherboard as part of my next system. I'd probably mainly use BeOS, with a small Windows partion for gaming.
I can dream, can't I?
BTW, BeOS will automagically play a data CD with mp3s? Wow.
Uh, no, but I think Windows does. Like I said, I didn't really expect it. BeOS requires that you mount CD's manually (via a right-click on the desktop). This is a minor annoyance that probably would have been changed in future releases.
I'll send you (and anyone here) a copy of BeOS 5 Pro if you want. Any C++ hackers lurking around here will undoubtedly enjoy the API. I'm hoping Jarkko will get Perl 5.8 to build successfully on BeOS/BONE.
:)
