[ubuntu-uk] JOB: Scalability Engineer/Senior Linux Systems Administrator
Please make sure you reply to j...@dbeducation.co.uk and not the mailing list if you reply. == Job Description: == We currently have a vacancy for a highly skilled Scalability Engineer/ Senior Linux Systems Administrator (permanent), to be based at our offices in central Brighton, a stone's throw from Brighton station. The successful candidate will join a team of three existing Systems Administrators responsible for the management and upkeep of our live infrastructure, including around 75 servers, comprising of web, database and email clusters. Our systems has 1.7 million users and handles 5 million hits and 130,000 mail deliveries a day. They will also be involved in recommending and implementing technologies to improve scalability, performance, monitoring and reliability. The role will involve liaising with Customer Support and Development teams. == Skills Range: == The successful candidate would ideally be experienced working with Ubuntu/Debian, Tomcat and MySQL in a large scale multi-tiered, multi-server J2EE web application, although experience of alternative technologies would be acceptable. They must also have experience of Apache, Exim, TCP/IP, network security and scripting (shell and, ideally, one of Perl or Python). You should also have knowledge of working with large scale systems and modern techniques for horizontally scaling web applications, including data partitioning, caching strategies and distributed file storage systems. Additional consideration will be paid to candidates with knowledge of BGP and OSPF routing on Juniper (or Cisco) routers, VLANs, Xen, DNS using Bind and PowerDNS, IMAP using Dovecot, server monitoring using Nagios and Munin, Java, PHP, SSL and public key encryption, LDAP, Linux virtual server, automatic server installation using debian-installer pre-seeding and puppet, Debian packaging and server hardware. This is an excellent opportunity to learn any missing skills in an enterprise-level setting. You need to be comfortable working in an environment of rapid development, within a multi-disciplined technical team, and be expected to actively contribute to the evolution of working practices and processes. == Salary: == 27K - 35K depending on experience. == About DB Education: == DB Education Services Ltd is a leading provider of Learning Platforms for the UK Schools market and a supplier of software products to the Education and Local Authority market. See Products page for further details. We supply Regional Broadband Consortia (including the VLE contract for the leader in this market, LGfL), LA’s and Schools across England and Wales. All products are designed and written from our base in Brighton, the UK’s leading e-learning city, by a vastly experienced team of developers. DB designed the UK’s first large scale Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), the first specialist Primary School Learning Platform for a LA (the much acclaimed Starz programme for Cambridgeshire LA) and now the first Learning Platform, DB Primary, designed solely for Primary Schools. == Additional Information: == Previous applicants need not apply. Strictly no agencies please! We really do not recruit via agencies. No, really. == How to apply: == If you feel you have the necessary qualities and skills then please email us your CV with a short covering letter (including salary expectations, and where you found this job advertisement) to j...@dbeducation.co.uk. -- David Pashley da...@davidpashley.com Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] MBR
The machine I am writing this on has been playing up for a long, long time and each time I switch on I wait in trepidation to see whether or not it will actually boot up. Usually it does but I have to accept that it is coming to the end of its life. I have a Windows XP machine, which I've never actually opened up. I propose to remove the master drive from the Linux machine on which Ubuntu is installed and insert it into the Windows one. It will then become the slave drive. What I would like to know is how to create a new MBR on the Windows machine as I shall wish it to boot up into Ubuntu for 95% of the time. Any advice/assistance will be gratefully accepted. Keith. --- Keith Bowerman, Prestwood, south Staffs, England. Using Ubuntu 8.10 on a Linux only machine. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
On Tue, 2009-02-03 at 12:36 +, keith wrote: The machine I am writing this on has been playing up for a long, long time and each time I switch on I wait in trepidation to see whether or not it will actually boot up. Usually it does but I have to accept that it is coming to the end of its life. I have a Windows XP machine, which I've never actually opened up. I propose to remove the master drive from the Linux machine on which Ubuntu is installed and insert it into the Windows one. It will then become the slave drive. What I would like to know is how to create a new MBR on the Windows machine as I shall wish it to boot up into Ubuntu for 95% of the time. Any advice/assistance will be gratefully accepted. Keith. Keith if your using your ubuntu on the machine 95% of the time I would set the ubuntu hd as the master. If you take a look at /boot/grub/menu.lst I believe there is an example for a windows boot option. You can copy it and modify where appropriate. -- Seek That Thy Might Know http://www.davmor2.co.uk signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
Hi Guys, This may sound like a silly question but will the GRUB boot loader only allow you to configure to dual boot if multiple OS's are installed on the one HDD. Regards, Jai 2009/2/3 Dave Morley davm...@davmor2.co.uk On Tue, 2009-02-03 at 12:36 +, keith wrote: The machine I am writing this on has been playing up for a long, long time and each time I switch on I wait in trepidation to see whether or not it will actually boot up. Usually it does but I have to accept that it is coming to the end of its life. I have a Windows XP machine, which I've never actually opened up. I propose to remove the master drive from the Linux machine on which Ubuntu is installed and insert it into the Windows one. It will then become the slave drive. What I would like to know is how to create a new MBR on the Windows machine as I shall wish it to boot up into Ubuntu for 95% of the time. Any advice/assistance will be gratefully accepted. Keith. Keith if your using your ubuntu on the machine 95% of the time I would set the ubuntu hd as the master. If you take a look at /boot/grub/menu.lst I believe there is an example for a windows boot option. You can copy it and modify where appropriate. -- Seek That Thy Might Know http://www.davmor2.co.uk -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
On Tue, 2009-02-03 at 12:55 +, Jamie Pow wrote: Hi Guys, This may sound like a silly question but will the GRUB boot loader only allow you to configure to dual boot if multiple OS's are installed on the one HDD. Regards, Jai Yeap :) -- Seek That Thy Might Know http://www.davmor2.co.uk signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
And does that a) I asked a silly question or b) That GRUB only allows configuration for multiple OS's on the one hard drvie. Regards, Jai 2009/2/3 Dave Morley davm...@davmor2.co.uk On Tue, 2009-02-03 at 12:55 +, Jamie Pow wrote: Hi Guys, This may sound like a silly question but will the GRUB boot loader only allow you to configure to dual boot if multiple OS's are installed on the one HDD. Regards, Jai Yeap :) -- Seek That Thy Might Know http://www.davmor2.co.uk -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
No you can have OS's installed on a number of hdds and grub will multiple boot them all Kev Dave Morley wrote: On Tue, 2009-02-03 at 12:55 +, Jamie Pow wrote: Hi Guys, This may sound like a silly question but will the GRUB boot loader only allow you to configure to dual boot if multiple OS's are installed on the one HDD. Regards, Jai Yeap :) -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
cheers for the info 2009/2/3 keith ke...@grumpyface.me.uk Thanks for the reply Dave. Not yet having opened the other machine I don't know how much room there will be to rummage around in it. Presumably there's then the question of fiddling about with the dip switches. Still I'll certainly consider what you say when I get round to doing the deed. Cheers, Keith. --- Keith Bowerman, Prestwood, south Staffordshire, England. Using Ubuntu 8.10 on a Linux only machine. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
On 03/02/2009 13:06, keith wrote: Thanks for the reply Dave. Not yet having opened the other machine I don't know how much room there will be to rummage around in it. Presumably there's then the question of fiddling about with the dip switches. Still I'll certainly consider what you say when I get round to doing the deed. Cheers, Keith. If it's the old IDE then you'll possibly either have to change jumper settings on the drive (Master/Slave) or if you're lucky and have UDMA66/100/133 cables (the 80 wire/40 pin cables - if the PC is less than about 9 years old you may well have this type of cable) you could try setting both drives to cable select, it will then automatically sort out the Master/Slave combination. I've found it usually works when you have an UDMA IDE cable. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
Grub can be configured to boot an OS from a separate hard drive. I did this when upgrading my hard drive, I put the old drive in on another SATA port and the new drive on the first SATA port. I then installed Ubuntu and configured Grub to boot Ubuntu from the old drive. Can't remember exactly what I put in the menu.lst at the moment as my machine isn't working (dead motherboard) but it is possible. I have a machine with 2 SATA drives, Ubuntu on one and Windows on the other, which will boot into Ubuntu unless Esc is pressed at the start of booting. The additions to menu.lst must be recorded somewhere and I will try to find them. Norman -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] OT : Need stuff
Hey, My computer monitor just died. :( Booo. So I'm in the market for a new TFT screen. Just wanted to garner some opinions about good value monitors. Also I don't think my current graphics card can handle a larger screen, it can only just cope with basic desktop effects! So I'll likely be needing a new graphics card too. Now I know this means going with ATI or nVidia, both of which have either rubbish open drivers, or dodgy evil closed ones. I've used nVidia before, and they seem to be less painful. However I again have no idea about which graphics cards are good value. It'd be great if there were any commercial cards with open drivers that'd be great. Essentially I'm lazy, and open drivers tend to be less hassle. Any ideas? Ciarán -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
snip I have a machine with 2 SATA drives, Ubuntu on one and Windows on the other, which will boot into Ubuntu unless Esc is pressed at the start of booting. The additions to menu.lst must be recorded somewhere and I will try to find them. Here it is :- At the very end of menu.lst title Windows root (hd1,0) savedefault makeactive map (hd0)(hd1) map (hd1)(hd0) chainloader +1 This may not be the most elegant way of doing it but it works for me and has done for more than a year. Hope it helps. Norman -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT : Need stuff
On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 3:04 PM, Ciaran Mooney general.moo...@googlemail.com wrote: Also I don't think my current graphics card can handle a larger screen, it can only just cope with basic desktop effects! So I'll likely be needing a new graphics card too. Now I know this means going with ATI or nVidia, both of which have either rubbish open drivers, or dodgy evil closed ones. I've used nVidia before, and they seem to be less painful. However I again have no idea about which graphics cards are good value. I have an ATI card with my new HP. The closed source driver works fine on Ubuntu 8.10, but not under mythtv. The open source driver works fine on both, but is a bit slow. There are some audio/video sync problems when showing video. If I had to do it all again I'd go with nVidia. I had hoped the open ATI driver would be a bit more mature in Ubuntu. cheers, Bruce -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT : Need stuff
2009/2/3 Ciaran Mooney general.moo...@googlemail.com: Hey, My computer monitor just died. :( Booo. So I'm in the market for a new TFT screen. Just wanted to garner some opinions about good value monitors. Also I don't think my current graphics card can handle a larger screen, it can only just cope with basic desktop effects! So I'll likely be needing a new graphics card too. Now I know this means going with ATI or nVidia, both of which have either rubbish open drivers, or dodgy evil closed ones. I've used nVidia before, and they seem to be less painful. However I again have no idea about which graphics cards are good value. It'd be great if there were any commercial cards with open drivers that'd be great. Essentially I'm lazy, and open drivers tend to be less hassle. Any ideas? Ciarán -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ I just boght 2 of these 19 monitors from tesco http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-4733.aspx resonable price and the screens are very bright. max resolution is 1440x900. as to graphics card. i have nvidia in my desktop and ati on one laptop and intel in other laptop. was not happy with the open drivers for nvidia or ati so closed source it was. all seem to work resonably. only problem i had with intel was that there was no opengl support hope you find the help you need. azmodie -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT : Need stuff
I recently built a new PC for the 'rents. I used a 20 samsung, which although attracting very good reviews was somewhat disappointing, with poor colours and the worst stand ever made. It's hooked up to an ultra cheap ATI X1550, which is using the non free drivers. It has been perfectly stable, with no lockups(x64), and has enough grunt to run the advanced effects at 1680*1050. 20/22 inches is probably around the sweet spot for prices at the moment, with decent monitors available below £120. 24 ones are brilliant, but the cost is still quite high- I paid £200 for my 24 Yuraku, although that was a PVA panel model. I was under the impression that the new ATI cards were getting free drivers written with help from ATI, but I am not sure of the completeness or working state of this. On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 3:17 PM, azmodie azmo...@gmail.com wrote: 2009/2/3 Ciaran Mooney general.moo...@googlemail.com: Hey, My computer monitor just died. :( Booo. So I'm in the market for a new TFT screen. Just wanted to garner some opinions about good value monitors. Also I don't think my current graphics card can handle a larger screen, it can only just cope with basic desktop effects! So I'll likely be needing a new graphics card too. Now I know this means going with ATI or nVidia, both of which have either rubbish open drivers, or dodgy evil closed ones. I've used nVidia before, and they seem to be less painful. However I again have no idea about which graphics cards are good value. It'd be great if there were any commercial cards with open drivers that'd be great. Essentially I'm lazy, and open drivers tend to be less hassle. Any ideas? Ciarán -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ I just boght 2 of these 19 monitors from tesco http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-4733.aspx resonable price and the screens are very bright. max resolution is 1440x900. as to graphics card. i have nvidia in my desktop and ati on one laptop and intel in other laptop. was not happy with the open drivers for nvidia or ati so closed source it was. all seem to work resonably. only problem i had with intel was that there was no opengl support hope you find the help you need. azmodie -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT : Need stuff
Whereabouts in the uk are you? James Milligan On 3 Feb 2009, at 15:04, Ciaran Mooney general.moo...@googlemail.com wrote: Hey, My computer monitor just died. :( Booo. So I'm in the market for a new TFT screen. Just wanted to garner some opinions about good value monitors. Also I don't think my current graphics card can handle a larger screen, it can only just cope with basic desktop effects! So I'll likely be needing a new graphics card too. Now I know this means going with ATI or nVidia, both of which have either rubbish open drivers, or dodgy evil closed ones. I've used nVidia before, and they seem to be less painful. However I again have no idea about which graphics cards are good value. It'd be great if there were any commercial cards with open drivers that'd be great. Essentially I'm lazy, and open drivers tend to be less hassle. Any ideas? Ciarán -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Buying a Acer Notebook.....
Dave Morley wrote: On Mon, 2009-02-02 at 17:04 +, Robert Longstaff wrote: I wondered if that was a good deal, also I wondered how easy it would be to install Ubuntu on it. As it doesnt have a dvd/cd player, would Ubuntu work on it, and how would I install it? I have an Aspire One 150 and I'm very satisfied with it. I immediately wiped out Linpus and put generic Ubuntu Intrepid on it. After only a small amount of tweaking (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne is invaluable), nearly everything works perfectly. The only bit that doesn't are the card slots for certain types of HD card, though I consider that minor. Otherwise the screen, wifi and webcam are all fine. It's not brilliantly fast but not bad for a netbook. Admittedly, an extra 512Mb would be good but I gather it's something of a nightmare to install it - apparently you have to essentially dismantle the entire machine to do so! The default battery only gives about 2h time, so I've ordered a larger one which should give up to 6h. Finally, to install ubuntu, use the UNetbootin utlity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNetbootin) to transfer the ISO onto a pen drive and boot from USB. Worked fine for me. Anything else, just ask! Regards, Robert. You do have to dismantle it but it's not that hard as long as you take your time and are methodical. It's a really nice machine to dismantle see the youtube videos My cousin has an Acer Aspire One and it worked fine with Ubuntu 8.10(standard not one built for web books), picked up the wireless card with a little bit of playing about but 3g connection works fine out of the box. Very impressed by it. Regards, Daniel -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Buying a Acer Notebook.....
John, Here is a copy of my posting to this forum on 14 Nov 2008. I am still of the opinion that this is a brilliant little machine :- Rob, You may remember replying to a post of mine last week about the Acer. I bought mine from a Tesco store for the same price as Tesco direct, although it is cheaper at amazon and play.com. It has 1 GB ram and a 120GB hard drive. I installed Ubuntu eee (which is v8.04) via usb stick and everything just worked. The only drawback is the volume of the sound, some people might want it louder. There is a workaround, but I understand v8.10, with a later version of alsa, will fix this so it's not a problem for me. Cheers, I have subsequently upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 with no problem. Keith. --- Keith Bowerman, Prestwood, south Staffs, England.-- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT : Need stuff
On 2/3/09, Ciaran Mooney general.moo...@googlemail.com wrote: Hey, My computer monitor just died. :( Booo. So I'm in the market for a new TFT screen. Just wanted to garner some opinions about good value monitors. Also I don't think my current graphics card can handle a larger screen, it can only just cope with basic desktop effects! So I'll likely be needing a new graphics card too. Now I know this means going with ATI or nVidia, both of which have either rubbish open drivers, or dodgy evil closed ones. I've used nVidia before, and they seem to be less painful. However I again have no idea about which graphics cards are good value. It'd be great if there were any commercial cards with open drivers that'd be great. Essentially I'm lazy, and open drivers tend to be less hassle. Any ideas? Ciarán -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ I'd go with a recent nvidia card as my experiences with ati haven't been great. An 8400gs is cheap, will have enough power for desktop effects and recent drivers have added acceleration for video playback which drastically reduces the load on your cpu. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=articleitem=nvidia_vdpau_gpunum=1 As a bonus you can get fanless versions of the 8400gs if noise is an issue. The nvidia-settings app also makes setting up dual displays etc very simple. As for displays I'm not that clued up but I've found even cheap no-name brand ones to be reliable, although they sometimes look a bit washed out. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
ah! so A) then lol 2009/2/3 Kev ubu...@talktalk.net No you can have OS's installed on a number of hdds and grub will multiple boot them all Kev Dave Morley wrote: On Tue, 2009-02-03 at 12:55 +, Jamie Pow wrote: Hi Guys, This may sound like a silly question but will the GRUB boot loader only allow you to configure to dual boot if multiple OS's are installed on the one HDD. Regards, Jai Yeap :) -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
Thanks for the reply Dave. Not yet having opened the other machine I don't know how much room there will be to rummage around in it. Presumably there's then the question of fiddling about with the dip switches. Still I'll certainly consider what you say when I get round to doing the deed. Cheers, Keith. --- Keith Bowerman, Prestwood, south Staffordshire, England. Using Ubuntu 8.10 on a Linux only machine. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] MBR
On 03/02/2009 13:00, Jamie Pow wrote: And does that a) I asked a silly question or b) That GRUB only allows configuration for multiple OS's on the one hard drvie. Regards, Jai Grub can be configured to boot an OS from a separate hard drive. I did this when upgrading my hard drive, I put the old drive in on another SATA port and the new drive on the first SATA port. I then installed Ubuntu and configured Grub to boot Ubuntu from the old drive. Can't remember exactly what I put in the menu.lst at the moment as my machine isn't working (dead motherboard) but it is possible. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] OT : Need stuff
Hi, Thanks for the opinions. I'll stick with nVidia for the time being, until ATI release open drivers anyway. I'd go with a recent nvidia card as my experiences with ati haven't been great. An 8400gs is cheap, will have enough power for desktop effects and recent drivers have added acceleration for video playback which drastically reduces the load on your cpu. As a bonus you can get fanless versions of the 8400gs if noise is an issue. The nvidia-settings app also makes setting up dual displays etc very simple. That sounds perfect to be honest. Thanks! Whereabouts in the uk are you? Midlands Ciarán -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
