im finally going to go linux

[Ronnie]

i installed openSUSE 10.3
and im a total n00b with linux, i need to know the best software to mess around for it i need things like..
media player
im client
desktop (i remember some kind of badass cube program for your desktop that i really liked)
how to use things like wine or cidega
and just anything you guys think i should mess around with.

thanks in advanced
-The Faded One

 

[Brinson]

Media Player- VLC or Totem for Video, AmaroK or Rythmbox for Music. AmaroK is for KDE, while Rythmbox is for Gnome.

Im Client- Well, Pidgin is always good.

The cube program you're talking about is called compiz fusion.

I'm pretty noobish myself, too.

Welcome to the club.

 

[Greg]

Media Player- VLC or Totem for Video, AmaroK or Rythmbox for Music. AmaroK is for KDE, while Rythmbox is for Gnome.

Amarok works great under Gnome as well, it's what I use. (I assume you can use Rythmbox in KDE?)

Get to know your way around a little bit better before you start screwing with WINE. Sometimes it works fine, but 80% of the time it's more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Brinson]

KDE in gnome is very resource inefficient, though, because it loads both KDE and Gnome things to make it run.

 

[Greg]

It's worth it, though. Amarok kicks Rhythmbox's butt.

 

[Brinson]

It's worth it, though. Amarok kicks Rhythmbox's butt.

Amarok and how it forces you to create a que annoys me, though. Why can't it just start playing when I click on it? Then my que gets 800,000,000 songs long and its all confusing.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

I prefer VLC myself, though I care more about a good EQ than a detailed library, as I usually just have a few songs that I like in a folder and drag them into the player, but VLC's 2-pass EQ is incredible for getting deep bass and high notes too. VLC also can do video clips and DVD's if you install the right codecs.

As for messenger, I use pidgin, it's great, supports nearly every protocol out there.

The desktop cube is part of Compiz Fusion, comes preinstalled in Ubuntu, idk about OpenSuse. I prefer Ubuntu because all this stuff is incredulously easy to install, even audio/video codecs and DVD support can be installed with Automatix, and Synaptic is really easy to learn and use. I also like the Restricted Drivers Manager which automatically notifies you of any manufacturer-created drivers that are necessary for your hardware and then installs them.

 

[Greg]

Amarok and how it forces you to create a que annoys me, though. Why can't it just start playing when I click on it? Then my que gets 800,000,000 songs long and its all confusing.

Huh?

Playlists > Collection > All Collection

Then just click as song and it'll play with 0 other songs in the queue.

 

[Schecters]

though I care more about a good EQ

This is what frustrated me when searching for a music player. One of the like 5 or 6 I tried out had an eq. And it was a terrible one at that. A good eq is a must. So yeah I never found one and just gave up. I ended up just using rhythmbox.

But to the topic starter, it depends on what you are wanting to do. If you are wanting to watch dvd's, have fun with that. It was a huge hassle getting dvd's to play. I got all the right codecs and made the changes every website suggested, but dvd's just wouldn't play right. I switched back and forth between VLC and mplayer.

I agree with Greg. Get familiar with Linux before you start diving into something like "windows emulation". You're just going to get really frustrated when things don't work (not really talking about wine in particular) and you have no idea where to find anything on your linux partition/how to make changes.

 

[Nitestick]

i've gone away from VLC because the software volume control on it seems to distort audio if it's set above about 50-60%. not a huge problem but just annoying enough to make me stick to MPlayer.