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Re: [LUG] VBox version 4.2

 

On 22/10/12 19:33, bad apple wrote:
>>
> The VBox additions are in a right state at the moment, with flaky
> support for everything from OpenGL to DirectX when it comes to graphical
> acceleration of your guest systems - 2D support works fine as usual, but
> this will cause problems for people like yourself who are trying to use
> it to full-screen demo potential new distros. The 4.2 version has only
> just added support for more recent Xorg versions which is causing me a
> lot of pain in my various testing distros (bleeding edge versions of
> Arch, Gentoo, Rawhide, etc), especially as the new "support" is
> terrible. Lots of screen tearing, artifacts, etc, if it even works at
> all (totally broken on Gentoo currently).
> 
> You have multiple options:
> 
> 1: in place upgrade your outdated Mint install so you can get recent
> software. There's no excuse to be running Maverick anymore.

This is the reason for checking out various distros via VBox. I realise
that I need to move on from Maverick as soon as. By the way I never go
via upgrades, I always completely install any new distro from scratch.

> 2: install the Lucid version - I haven't tested it, but I'd be surprised
> if it didn't work properly. You must apt-get purge your current version
> first though.

I am beginning to feel that I won't bother, I will just choose whichever
distro to go for and install it.

> 3: VMWare workstation 8/9 - I've never been a fan, but currently it's
> pissing me off a lot less than VirtualBox which previously I've really
> loved.
> 
I have looked at VMware in the past and did not get on with it, probably
because I am so used to VBox.

<snip>

</snip>


> Alternatively, save yourself a bunch of effort and realise you're going
> to have to upgrade your OS anyway:

Agreed.

 as you seem to be a Debian-based
> system user, let's face it, you're either going to end up using Mint,
> Ubuntu or Debian, probably in that order of likelihood.

I have never tried Debian. My usual distros are Mint KDE or Kubuntu. I
have also used Mint Xfce and Xubuntu on laptops.

 Either way,
> you're probably going to end up installing Cinnamon or Mate desktops
> unless you like Unity/Gnome3.

I have looked at Cinnamon, again via VBox, and did not like it. And I
hate Gnome with a passion. So whichever distro I end up with will use
KDE or possibly Xfce.

 I'd recommend just biting the bullet and
> installing Debian Testing.

I will do some research on Debian Testing but the work 'Testing' worries me.

 Ubuntu is a clusterfuck, Mint is a polished
> turd (it's just crappy Ubuntu underneath the polish, and has issues
> doing in-place upgrades) so just go to the source and grab Debian.
> 

As I said, I don't do upgrades.

> Whatever you do, get off your current system immediately, it hasn't
> received upstream support/bug fixes since April and I know of multiple
> exploits targeting outdated Ubuntu systems - there are a lot of them out
> there as 10.10 was the last release pre-Unity so a lot of people are
> still resisting upgrading. Which is very, very stupid.
> 

So, even more urgent than I realised!!

Thank you for taking the time to give me all this help and information.
I really do appreciate it.

Neil


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