Improved desktop

Off late, I was not satisfied with my desktop i.e. how it looked. One of the main things I like it to have is display fonts small but still crisp so i can comfortably read them. I like small icons, small window border, etc. This makes me have more stuffs on my small 14″ display. I was even thinking of trying other desktop managers/window managers.

Yesterday when me and Onkar shinde were discussing about something else, he told me about the availability of Intel drivers as the default one. He asked me to install the driver and try. So did I, installed ‘xserver-xorg-video-intel’ and restarted X. The main aim was to get a better resolution option and ability to reduce my resolution at times when projectors ask for a 800×600. When I logged in back, I was surprised to see everything a bit smaller than what they were. Suddenly my desktop seem to be more spacious and I just love it.

Even the font rendering has changed, now I see crisper fonts (am not sure, I feel so). But surely I have more space on my desktop to keep stuffs. I was also trying out gdesklets (on my KDesktop) and with the new drivers, everything seems to be perfuct for me.

If you have an Intel video card and using the ‘xserver-xorg-i810′ driver, then give up a try with intel driver. But remember to edit xorg.conf in the “Device” section as shown below,

Section “Device”
Identifier “Intel Corporation Mobile Integrated Graphics Controller”
Driver “intel”
BusID “PCI:0:2:0″
EndSection

The Comparison

The hot news I heard from Digg today was about the new “Compare” site from M$ as a replacement of its famous “Linus Hate Site”. I was curious enough to look at the fresh load of charges on Linux under a new cover.

In contrast to the older version, now there is not direct tabular comparison at all. Each category is filled with case studies from firms who have turned up to using M$. But looking at the stories in many of the case studies I tried reading,

I feel that the stories are too ancient. One of them talked about moving to Microsoft from using Red Hat 9 servers and another one talked about trying to use Staroffice. It reads ” using a Linux/open-source solution would have necessitated an “unmanageable migration expense,” especially because individual Microsoft Office documents and solutions would not have been convertible“. Eh!? Which world are they living in?

There is no mention of Debian servers as far as I read. There is no mention of other Open Source softwares like Blender, not even OpenOffice anywhere. The reason for the new comparison site is stated in a corresponding article as “It turns out people wanted 3rd party validation in addition to people’s experiences making OS purchasing decisions so in addition to customer case studies, research reports that compare platforms the site will also offer guidance around best practices, web casts, etc.“

Should I stop and laugh, or keep my ass moving along not minding these poor jokes ?