Apparently it’s Ubuntu day for me. Wondering if you can switch to Linux? Here’s a nice article on how to do so. Published in Maximum PC magazine, it’s clear and current with Feisty Fawn, released just less than a month ago. Good stuff.
Really liked this article. Linux Audio Players, Tested and Graded. I’m working my way through the Linux equivalents of Windows apps. I’ve used iTunes under Windows because it would talk easily to my iPod. I tried Rhythmbox but it was out immediately. I want to keep my songs on a network-attached storage drive. Basically, the SimpleShare is a hard drive with an ethernet port. I don’t expect it to be as vulnerable to attacks as Windows XP. I don’t have to punch holes in its firewall that might allow people to get control of my Linux box or my wife’s Mac. Rhythmbox wants import all my music to one local location. No. ...
One thing that was kind of exasperating about Ubuntu was the (weird( version numbers. The successor to 6.06 was 6.10? The next version was 7.04? Huh? Fortunately, somebody finally blogged about this: What’s With the Ubuntu Version Number Scheme? – Johnny’s Thoughts No big secret: the first number is the year and the second is the month. So 7.04 translates as 2007 and April or month 04. Now I can sleep at night.
Was reading Deep Jive Interests about Dell’s Crowdsourcing More Than Hype: Tells Microsoft to “Suck It!” I’ve spent some time the past 10 days or so putting Ubuntu 7.04 on 3 PCs, all of them dual-booting some flavor of Windows. Obviously there’s a lot of interest in doing this on Dell’s site but it’s not clear at all that Dell is going to reduce the price just because they don’t install Microsoft. I still don’t have hibernation working properly on my desktop - haven’t tried on the kids’ or my laptop yet - so I’m a lot more interested in paying the same price as a Windows box just to have hibernate and wireless work without a glitch. ...
I installed Vista on my home desktop machine. I say “installed” rather than upgraded because Microsoft’s installation routine refused to let me upgrade. I spent a couple of hours on trying to figure out how to get around that and, in the end, decided that I’d rather install FireFox, Acrobat Reader, iTunes and the other programs that I want or need. It so happens that Thunderbird 2 beta 2 was released recently. I tried “nightlies” or alphas and it was a little too experimental for me. No lost mail but just some inconsistencies in how things worked. Fair enough, they’re alphas. And beta 1 had issues with message filters. So I dropped back to 1.5 In the meantime, I’ve started using IMAP and procmail and message filters are less important. ...
Ran across a reference to libraries using Open Source programs like Linux and Open Office. Neat. Useful, the program that the library uses, sounds neat but it has the lame “we won’t tell you the price” approach typical of many companies. At least Fonality sort of tells you a price. I really like the idea of locked-down Linux running sessions with keyboard and monitor rather than individual machines. One machine to maintain per location, hopefully. Have another couple of machines at the central library for relatively immediate replacement if a machine melts down. ...