Moving to LInux Update 1

I am still having trouble with my wireless connection. The culprit seems to be the Realtek RTL8187 USB wireless NIC and associated drivers. From reading the posts in the Launchpad and Ubuntu forums, there seems to be a work around available using NDISwrapper (he said, cluelessly), but I have to wait for tech support (ie. my son-in-law) to walk me through the installation process.

Other than the wireless problem (right now I'm hard wired into the router, and that works just fine) I really like the Ubuntu flavor of Linux. Boot times are about a minute which compares very favorably to the interminable boot sequence in Windoze. The more I learn about Linux, the happier I am. However, a note to the masses: You need to have a modicum of computer smarts (read skills) to successfully move to a Linux O/S. Either that or you need to be in an environment where you have a network admin person who can deal with things which need to be dealt with using the command line. Ah, the command line; makes one think back on the days of DOS. Now, don't get me wrong, you can do most everything you need to do in Linux without having to refer to the command line...unless you want to install new hardware or new software, and even there a great majority of the time you wouldn't need to access the command line. However, there are going to be times with Linux when the command line becomes a necessity. So, if typing arcane commands into a computer worries you, then you might want to hold off on leaping to Linux. In that case you will be condemned to the Windows dungeon, and you have my sympathy.

Moving to Linux

Yesterday I loaded Ubuntu Linux on my stealth notebook. (It is called “stealth” because my darling wife doesn't know about it...yet. I have to pick a propitious time to inform her of its existence.) Anyhow, it came loaded with Windows Vista, and I am one of those who is of the opinion that Vista sucks. So, after years of threatening to jump ship for Linux, I have finally made the leap, and as Delmar (I think) from the movie “Brother Where Are You” (check on this) said, “Come on in, boys, the water's fine!” My game plan is to run Linux for about a month, and, if it proves to be stable and I can learn its foibles well enough, I will then repartition the hard drive to dump Vista into the trash heap of history. If things keep going like they have been for the last two days, I would give that possibility about a 99% degree of certainty. My only concern right now is how Ubuntu is connecting to the wireless router; it seems to be sort of unstable in that sometimes it works great and other times it doesn't seem to be connecting. When I get that straightened out, I think I will be well on the way to conversion to a Linux geek.

I am writing this little note on the OpenOffice.org word processor, which behaves almost exactly like Microsoft's Word or Corel's WordPerfect.

}As an aside, I always thought that it was a sin that programs like WordPerfect, Lotus, and a raft of others were buried by Microsoft's less than perfect software. And I have to admit that I was one of the people who enthusiastically climbed on board with the whole Office suite concept way back when Windows 3.1 finally made its appearance. Of course, I was an old AppleWorks user who had (with the rest of the business world) migrated to the PC and was eager for an integrated software solution. If I had only known then what I know now...{

OpenOffice.org has a nice little suite of applications, or packages as they are known in the Linux community (actually, I'm not 100% sure about that: could be that you install packages but you use apps or software or whatever...I'll have to work on my jargon.), which does everything Microsoft's Office does and the major files can be read by either.

So, I'm running Ubuntu Linux which uses Firefox as its web browser (and I can get Opera for Linux if I desire), Pidgen for my IM/chat software and I am working on the rest of the software I use regularly (like a streaming music player and a graphics editor for my pictures. I can see that I'm going to need to get a portable USB hard drive so that I can put my music and my photos on that and easily move them between Windows and Linux machines. Actually, what I really need to do is set up a home network that has both Linux and Windows clients. I foresee upgrading one of my old boxes enough to refurbish it as a Linux network server. Then I get my Dell tower and my wife's Dell notebook to run whatever they need to connect to the Linux server. Of course, all this is predicated on the my ability to integrate my NetGear router into the picture. However, I figure that, if I can learn the skill set necessary to do this by the end of the summer, I can get Paladin Business Services up and running. Because having that skill set will actually make me a Linux guru, and it would be nice to be back near the cutting edge for a couple more years...

The other thing I want to comment about is this Gateway notebook I'm using. Gateway has had a terrible rep over the last ten years or more (now that I think about it, my brother was complaining bitterly about his Gateway desktop way back in the mid-nineties), but this little machine seems to be doing just fine. Admittedly, I have only had it for a little over a week, but it is a nicely designed and set up machine. Ooops, here is another little bump in the road to Linux; the touchpad scroll function is a little too sensitive. Hmmm, lemme see...Actually, I'm not sure its the touchpad's fault. Seems Ubuntu has two desktops that you can move between. On this desktop I could have my word processor and a couple other windows open, and then I could have porn running on the other desktop. Should somebody wander into the room, I could then switch between desktops and keep the porn out of sight. OK, so actually its Mahjongg, but the former makes me...I dunno...more dangerous.

And now to brave the Linux file system and store this in the correct directory...

Its all about fear

Fear is playing a big role in my life right now. I am confronting fear on a number of different levels, and I am finding that it is sapping my energy. On the macro level, I have all the big fears, both legitimate and manufactured, that are confronting all of us; Global Warming, general environmental decay, overpopulation, the world economy, the national economy and the upcoming election. The manufactured fears created by the Bush administration which revolve around terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have to be addressed even though they are totally the product of our current occupant of the White House. On a more personal level, I am dealing with my fear of change in my personal life (I really, really have to move on from my current job in retail). And then there is my fear of fucking up my new computer when I install Linux.

Ah, Linux. On the one hand it is so far superior to Windoze as an operating system that the choice of intalling it should be a no brainer. On the other hand, there is that damned command line interface, and the need to be able to communicate with your computer on a more basic level than the GUI. All of that, plus the fact that I am about to do this installation on a laptop, which is the most difficult environment to install Linux into, leads me to approach this with trepidation. In other words, I am very worried that I am going to do something that will fuck up this machine irrevocably. (Well, irrevocably enough to require me to flat out reformat the HD and then reinstall the hated Vista.)

OK, I've already reapportioned the HD so there is a partition on it that is totally empty and ready to be reformated and loaded with Linux. What I really want to do is create a dual-boot machine so that I have a fall back available should something go south with the Linux installation. So, maybe I should read a little more just to be on the safe side...(dither, dither). Eh, there will be more to come on this. However, Redmond should be very afraid also because if this old man can dump Windows and move on to Linux, then a majority of the Windows users out there could do the same thing. And that should make the Evil Empire quake in its boots.