HTPC Brought My Buddy Back to the Battlefield

aso3 — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:53:00 GMT

I call him Tux. He's a PC "expert". We fought side-by-side in our battles with xfree88 3.3 under Debian Potato during our college days. But just years ago, he stopped using linux cold-turkey and became a die-hard Windows fanatic.

He has built numerous PC's and earned money on the sides doing so or fixing other people's PC. He talks alot, brags alot about his Vista and MCE with conviction...until one day when he got himself a new 52" LCD HDTV and decided to go dual-monitor.

He called me and asked about dual-monitor setups. Judging by the tone of his voice, I could already sense something didn't go right. "Sure!" as I acknowledged to help him out, but I wondered "why me?" He knows I don't own a Vista.

Turns out non-issue at all. He was running dual-monitor on "extended" mode and just didn't like what was happening. He mumbled "If linux can do it, why can't Vista?", referring to my MythTV setup in dual-monitor mode, NewEgg'ing on my primary monitor while watching TV on a 21" Vizio HDTV secondary.

He could launch MCE at the bigscreen but coudn't get the mouse pointer back to the primary monitor. I told him "Tux, if you surf Vista forums right now, you'll find out it's a minor issue. MCE jails your mouse, but you're supposed to use your MCE remote control!". He didn't have one. He built the system himself. Anyway, he showed me he can mouse back to the primary monitor if MCE is running windowed-mode, so I asked "What's wrong with that?" He frustratedly answered "won't do justice" to his LCD bigscreen". Oh well...

"How about dual-monitor in clone-mode?". He did not like it either. He's sold to dual-monitor in extended display but wants the primary screen back. "Well, Tux" I said, "Hasta la Vista...Go Linux!"

Now he's back, tinkering with his new toy happily ever after, and renamed his PC "Tux II".

A typical Gnome Startup.

MythTV started, Eggxpert forum on the other.

Watching news and playing with Compiz on the other.

Tux's Bigscreen on linux.

Tux II in action, 1920x1080, native mode (no expansion)