Installing Second Life on an EEE PC

I've been playing with an EEE PC lately. This 299€ (in Portugal) GNU/Linux ASUS laptop is awsome, and I'm really happy that ASUS did it. They did some mistakes, like using Xandros Server 2.0 as base for their distro, making me think, for instance, that if I had one of these I would replace their Operating System with something like Debian Eee PC, eeexubuntu or even eeedora. I might write about my thoughts on EEE PC later, but for now, a quick HOWTO (because I think this isn't documented nowhere) on installing Second Life on EEE PC.

HOWTO Install Second Life on an EEE PC:

1. edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change DefaultColorDepth 16 to DefaultColorDepth 24
2. restart your X (press control+alt+backspace, for instance)
3. edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and add this lines:

   
   deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/pub/debian testing main contrib non-free
   deb http://apt.byteme.org.uk/apt/ unstable main
   

4. in a terminal (CTRL+ALT+t) write sudo aptitude update && aptitude install slviewer
5. Remove the added lines on /etc/apt/sources.list and in the terminal run aptitude update to go back to the state you were
6. Your Second Life is now installed. To run it write slviewer in a terminal.

Regarding to using Second Life itself, you'll notice that the windowed view assumes a bigger resolution than the one you have, so I recommend you to start by going to the options, changing the ratio scale and remove the windowed mode. Et voilá, you're on Second Life!

Four down, zillions to go

First it was Novell:
http://mindboosternoori.blogspot.com/2006/11/novell-dont-sue-us-sue-our-beloved.html

Then it was Xandros:
http://mindboosternoori.blogspot.com/2007/06/one-less-linux-distro.html

Then it was Linspire:
http://mindboosternoori.blogspot.com/2007/06/microsoft-eats-yet-another-linux-distro.html

Yesterday they nailed TurboLinux:
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-22MSTurbolinuxrdPR.mspx

Way to go, Microsoft, you killed four Linux distros. Now, go to http://distrowatch.com/ and prepare your minions: there are zillions of others in the battlefield.

Microsoft eats yet another Linux distro

Linspire was called Lindows, Microsft sued them. Now, following their moves with Novell and more recently Xandros, Microsoft made a patent deal with Linspire.

As for me, it's just yet another dead Linux distro.

One less Linux distro

As far as I'm concerned, Xandros is dead, as much as SuSE is.

From TechCrunch:

Microsoft has announced a new deal with Linux outfit Xandros that is similar to the Microsoft-Novell tie-up of last year coming complete with Intellectual property assurance.

So, who will be the next ones to sell their souls?