new to linux but i am very impressed

[fabes253]

recently i have downloaded the ubuntu from the official website and burned the image to disc. i am going to be installing it on a spare partition to test it out. however, there are some questions i have. first of all the only reason i want to run this OS is because i seen the Ubuntu / Beryl vids on youtube.com and i am totally wanting to use it. My first question is i have seen there are different versions?? of Ubuntu? Fiesty, Edgy and some others.. how do i know what mine is and what are the differences. Also from what I have read it sounds like Compiz took over beryl? or some merge or somthing? so should i try to use beryl or compiz? thanks for the help in advance, hope to be a proud linux user soon.

[RYX]

Hi fabes253!

recently i have downloaded the ubuntu from the official website and burned the image to disc. i am going to be installing it on a spare partition to test it out.
Very good decision :)

however, there are some questions i have. first of all the only reason i want to run this OS is because i seen the Ubuntu / Beryl vids on youtube.com and i am totally wanting to use it.
Cool ... just keep in mind that all this software hasn't reached a 1.0 version, so things are not always as perfect as they should be (and will become).

My first question is i have seen there are different versions?? of Ubuntu? Fiesty, Edgy and some others.. how do i know what mine is and what are the differences.
That would be a good question for the ubuntuforums ;) ... "Edgy", "Dapper", "Feisty" and so on are codenames for the different versions of Ubuntu Linux. Any of those should work for you, but "Feisty" is the latest version (7.04). The version numbers have the format "year.month" so you can easily predict when the next version comes out (Ubuntu release cycle is 6 months so there are always .04 and .10 versions - only for your curiosity).

Also from what I have read it sounds like Compiz took over beryl? or some merge or somthing? so should i try to use beryl or compiz?
Not exactly. Beryl was a fork of compiz. It added some things (mostly plugins/apps) to it, but basically most parts of it were identical to compiz. Therefore both communities/projects are about to re-unite into one community/project because it makes most sense for both. (Note: this is a rough explanation of what happened, there are a lot of tiny bits that are too difficult to explain ... different people, different opinions ;))

thanks for the help in advance, hope to be a proud linux user soon.
Hope I was a bit of help ... :)

[fabes253]

wow thanks for the fast reply, your post really helped thank you..


so. are compiz and beryl compatible mods?

basically i will still probably use windows to get work done until i am comfortable enough with linux but i will use the ubuntu linux for all my offtime and recreation specifically because it looks so cool and has all the neat special effects... so with that said what would be the best route if i just want to mod it to heck and make the most awesome desktop and the have the coolest effects?

[RYX]

Beryl is (was) just a modified version of compiz, which still was similar to compiz in large areas. So they are not only comparable, they are basically the same and share a lot of similar code. And they are not "mods", they are window managers ...

On a Linux-system you have a "window manager" which allows the user to interact with his application-windows. The "windows" are by default only rectangular areas, drawn by the underlying graphics server. The window manager makes them interactive and adds window borders to it.
There are many window managers available for a Linux desktop (using the X11 graphics server), compiz is the most "trendy" one (i.e. the best :)) because it uses OpenGL and is lightning fast. The common "desktop environments" (e.g. Gnome, KDE, XFCE) also have their own window-managers, which currently only (pretty sloppy) support 2d graphics (yet).

Concerning your "road to Linux" I recommend installing Ubuntu on a second harddisk (or even better: a second pc) and then just try it. Ubuntu contains a very good help system and it is often really useful to consider the Help-functions. Also the ubuntu-community at ubuntuforums.org is really large and helpful.

:)

[fabes253]

excellent thanks for the tip!