After Linuxing for Few months... I Decided to Present With Linux.

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Hi guys. I've been a Linux user for a while now. I tried, Red Hat, Mandriva, OpenSuse, Ubuntu & Kubuntu.

The 1st time I started depending on Linux was with Ubuntu 7.10 for a while & then I installed KDE & when 8.04 was released I migrated for good to Kubuntu 8.04.

I have to say am a satisfied user (In general :P), I've been using Linux for months now & my dependence on Windows is going down by time.
In general, I have to say that 99% of my machine's up time is in Linux, to be honest, I never saw that coming

Today, I had a presentation in university & my plan was to start the presentation by saying that this presentation was done on a Linux machine. I actually got that from a video in YouTube, a guy telling his experience with Linux after usage for few months & how he starts his presentations by saying so.

Unfortunately, after connecting the data show cable, there was no VGA output & I was like
DAMN, it was working @ home when I used to plug an external monitor, of course I had to restart the xserver so it would detect it.

It was embarrassing not to be able to activate the VGA & I had to step off to let someone else do his presentation while I solve the issue.

So I started the system settings, monitor & display, tried to clone the desktop. Something was wrong & got the display as if it was extended desktop. Then I restarted my computer cause I was not able to change the settings. And then it was messed up & I had to write the magical code that seems to fix many problems:

Dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Then I went online & installed i810switch, which should activate my Fn + F8 key on my Dell's laptop, unfortunately, it worked at home once but this time, it didn't work, I entered the system settings again & monitor & display settings & tried to clone the desktop, restarted & vwala, it was working. But this time I had NO MOUSE.

At this point, everyone was looking at me & wondering when would I start my presentation. And I was in a complete mess.
It's the 1st time to do a presentation on a Linux machine and it was not doing anything I wanted at this certain time. And the problem is all my work is done in OpenOffice & I cannot guarantee it'll work on other's computers even if I save it in (*.ppt) format, actually there is no time for more testing. (PDF extraction worked, but I still wanted to use my Linux machine)
Finally I was able to start the presentation with no mouse, But I hated my instructor the moment he said, if you don't know how to use Linux, then don't use it.

Nevertheless, it was such an experience, I have to say, If I was to blame someone, I would either blame the ppl responsible for hot keys & maybe Intel's Video drivers :P

A lesson to learn, get a Linux compatible dedicated machine, or at least good driver support.

Even after such mess, who can't love Linux! (And who can love his instructor!)

I wonder how you would have handled this if you where in my position? 8)

[walfred]

Re: After Linuxing for Few months... I Decided to Present With Linux.


When I go for presentation, it's a must: a backup copy on a CD for emergency. Even a floppy would be nice.
Like your case, nobody can trust hardware compatibility, especially in a world that focus on compatibily for Windows!!

In your position, I would ask somebody else computer and blame the hardware 8)

[dibl]

Re: After Linuxing for Few months... I Decided to Present With Linux.

I won't even try a presentation on a Windows machine without verifying it in advance -- and then leaving the machine running with the first slide up. Too many things can go wrong, or be set up wrong before you try to run your show.

[Detonate]

Re: After Linuxing for Few months... I Decided to Present With Linux.

Over 40 years ago, I attended a course in the Army on Methods of Instruction. One of the things they stressed was, if your presentation depends on any audiovisual equipment, to always have a backup plan. I have given thousands of presentations/classes on many different subjects since then, and I can not tell you how many times that has saved me. Of course, in those days, it was 16mm projectors and overhead viewers, but the advice is still good.