I have a question about something I've seen on the internet lately.

first off... how do I get this

also, is it complicated and is it free.

I understand it's some sort of Linux distro running something that makes everything look cool and I've found some explanations online, but I'm sure there are people here that know enough to dumb it down a bit for me.

well which distribution of linux are you using? there's different ways to install it for each

I just downloaded Ubuntu. Haven't installed it yet though, but Ubuntu would probably be the one I'll use.

http://wiki.beryl-project.org/index.php/Install/Ubuntu

good guide 
Vista-like effects on Beryl  ("will you pay USD $399 for this?")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNb7gPA1JFk

That's why I won't use Vista. (Actually I gave it 14-days try already, but I don't like it!)

Even free softwares (free softwares are not freeware!) can do more than what Vista could.

Note: If you use VMWare, this won't work!

"Installing XGL + Beryl on Ubuntu Edgy Eft with an ATI card is relatively easy once you get the fglrx video driver working properly (that can be the tricky part)."

Tricky indeed, they weren't kidding. I've exactly the same setup, and apparently it does not work with my ATI video card (or at least there are a lot of complications with it). I tried pretty much every method under the sun (well, under google ) to get it to work and it won't. Luckily a friend had the same video card with the same problem so I'm gonna get him to look at it (and hopefully fix it) today.

To install Ubuntu from the CD / DVD  download, do I have to burn it to a blank disc, or will somethihng like Daemon's Tools work?

quote:

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Originally posted by atown44

To install Ubuntu from the CD / DVD  download, do I have to burn it to a blank disc, or will somethihng like Daemon's Tools work?

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Yes, you have to. Write it to a blank CD and boot it from your CD.
You'll see the menu, select "start or install Ubuntu".
From here, you can try Ubuntu (note that beryl is not yet installed) without installing it onto your hard disk.

If you think it's easy enough to use, then double-click the install icon. Follow these steps, and it will take about 20 minutes to install. Heck, it's even faster than installing Windows.

After you install Ubuntu, you can now update your source.list, get the GPG key for the repository, download the drivers, and then download beryl.

If everything go as expected, you can type "beryl-manager" and press enter, then you will be welcomed to the world of 3d desktop!

Now that I have made a boot CD (and checked the integrity) I get an error about the "X server" not being configured correctly

Looks like the CD or ISO image is corrupted... This is so normal!

You should try re-writing the CD again with other writing speeds.
If it doesn't work, you should try downloading the ISO image again.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

These distributions of Linux have beryl installed by default:

• Sabayon Linux
  
• Knoppix

I don't have any writable DVDs and my CD supply is limited. I've been reading things that tell me something about ATI having issues and I have a Radeon X600. If any of these distros were able to install without booting from the burned CD/DVD, it'd be helpful.

quote:

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Originally posted by atown44
I don't have any writable DVDs and my CD supply is limited. I've been reading things that tell me something about ATI having issues and I have a Radeon X600. If any of these distros were able to install without booting from the burned CD/DVD, it'd be helpful.

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I finally found something that helped me with getting Ubuntu going, I'll work with getting Beryl going once I learn what exactly Linux is and where my C:\ directory is.