ncomputing x300 on Kubuntu 8.04

[MatheoDJ]

Does anyone know of a way to run ncomputing software for the x300 system (three user setup) via kubuntu 8.04? I just bought it and it works great under windows, but I'm having trouble locating the necessary resources to run it on any Linux distro, let alone Kubuntu.

From what I've read, it will run on Ubuntu 7.10. The manual claims support for Linux; however, there were no Linux installation instructions with the user guide or manual, and as far as I can tell there are no Linux compatible binaries on the disc that came with the hardware. The ncomputing website (http://www.ncomputing.com/) is of little help... links to software downloads that I've found on the web are now defunct, and I can't find mention of it on the site now. Any ideas?

[askrieger]

Re: ncomputing x300 on Kubuntu 8.04

As far as I can tell from their website Linux support is in beta. It works only on specific versions of Ubuntu (7.04, we're now on 8.04) and Suse, only. It works ony with Gnome, so it won't work at all with Kubuntu. It is available only to corporate users. My own opinion is that this is more wishful thinking than reality.

[MatheoDJ]

Re: ncomputing x300 on Kubuntu 8.04

I know... There's no end user support at all for Linux :P Which IMHO is stupid, stupid, stupid. It says "Linux" on the box and in the manual... a terribly botched marketing job.

They had a bunch of great press recently for helping African countries deploy Ubuntu Linux across their entire school structures by hooking up several workstations to each computer. So it CAN be done. That they could provide something and don't just makes me mad.

The worst part is, there used to be support... I can find posts on Ubuntu Forums with links to the drivers for 7.10, but they're dead now. The only logical thing I can think of is that there was something in 8.04 that broke the software, and it became too much of a hassle constantly telling people "No, you have to go back to 7.10 to run our software. Yes, I know you just installed everything on a freshly formatted hard drive, but if you want it to work that's the only solution" so they just pulled all support entirely...

I might see about signing up for the beta program through work. If there was a way to do it w/ FOSS I'd much rather do it that way... and I've already invested in the hardware (which works great under windoze... sigh)

As for running it on Kubuntu, I pretty much knew that was wishful thinking, but you never know who might have cobbled something together out there... I see it all the time. what a great community!