If you come here often enough, you have already heard that I have been bitten by the Ubuntu Bug. I not only like it but am loving it to the point that I may well only keep one windows box around in the near future. If you are thinking of trying Linux, these three links may be of use to you.
Oh yeah, I was gonna keep it short.
Thanks again for sharing your brain Chris. And yes folks, I am a Chris Pirillo fan boy. I make no bones about it, I think he is a great resource.
I am not alone in being fussy and making a switch. This article is about switching to Kubuntu.
Before you upgrade - Some great thoughts from the Ubuntu Forum. Thanks Artificial Intelligence!
]]>I have been double blessed in IRC of late and one of the blessings is directly related to this blog. Before I continue though it is only fair to direct you to the official IRC channels for Ubuntu. There are lots of them on this list; even localized by country and state. I am not writing this to make any comment on the official network. I have not been to any of the official channels for Ubuntu until I made my switch to Ubuntu. Any comment would be unfair and I imagine they would be at least as helpful as my efreinds over at WyldRyde.
I have learned much from the folks on IRC over the years and am greatful for many an evenings of tech troubleshooting, chats and education. I have learned a great deal in the "newbie freindly zone" that is known as the ubuntu channel on the wyldryde network. I am going to share with all of you, in future post, most of what I have learned.
]]> This article is not about that so to speak. I just had to stop in and post about something I am experiencing online. Ubuntu is actually a word in another language. I am getting the impression that the word is much more than just a word to the tribes and cultures that us it. It is a concept of community. At the risk of losing you to better content, I suggest you let Nelson Mandela explain it to you.I have over my decade or so on IRC felt that sense of community. I have felt it much in the room I am discussing. LinuxFan, H_M-XP, osxdude and the others at the newbie zone have been great to me. They all helped me transition to this new OS painlessly. I have spent much time in there asking questions and following links. I knew very early on that I would become a "regular" there. They provided me all the food my brain needed and are a great group to chat with. These are things that keep me coming back.
Now, I am not as awfully bad at this whole PC thing as I often claim to be. I can do a pretty decent Google search. I am also pretty decent at stalking on delicious. (I am just awful enough to need such resources though.) Truth be told, I am pretty good with Google and delicious. I tried a few pseudo-boolean searches with the bot in the room. The results were pretty kewl. Guess I made a decent enough impression.
Sorry to bore you a bit with the details here but stick with my a byte and you will see how it fits in. The very next day when I resumed chat, one of the ops requested a PM with me. I shall not bore you with all the details here. I was invited to be a half-op in the room. He explained what he expected. One of the things that Linuxfan made very clear is that the room and the forum are intended to form a community. Since the folks already there are wanting to create exactly what I desired to join, I immediately accepted. It was a no brainer.
I am pleased and honored to be welcome in such a manner. I am also a member of the linuxfolk.com. I suggest that you bookmark that site and check it from time to time. I also suggest you stop in and join us in some chat by using either your favorite client or the flash applet over at linuxfolk.
There are many resources available for the Ubuntu users. I personally feel I just suggested one of the better one to you. If you like friendly help and knowledgeable people, you will like Ubuntu at wyldryde. I am looking forward to seeing you there.
]]>I do not tend to educate anyone on this topic. I am only hoping to learn and share what I learn. I think things are finally easy enough for me to give this OS a full time go and see if I can make it do what I want.
I used the term "easy" to describe my fears of non-commitment to this OS. I started out "PCin'" with a VIC20; a machine that seemed advanced because you could use a cassette or, at the time, a fairly expensive cartridge to load code. Making it do anything special involved BASIC, peeks, pokes and SYSing it... it was not pretty.
We did such things because there were no other options. If you wanted to make it do something that wasn't in a program that is what it took. Shortly after I upgraded to a C64, I met something called GEOS. I was convinced that, in the future, that would be the only way to go. Then came Windows. I was sold on GUI and wanted as much GUI and as little cli (Command Line Interface) as possible. Ubuntu seems like she may well fill that desire for me.
For years, I stuck with windows due to ease of use. I always kept my eye on linux and would build boxes just for it from time to time. I never felt secure enough to make the switch. I decided it was time to really think about Ubuntu. I began experimenting.
The first three boxes were either Feisty or Gutsy Ubuntu. I was still afraid but I set them up and played with them. I experimented with them, all GUI only, and liked them. I felt secure enough to venture on to studio.
Ubuntu Studio is best described as a customized package for audio/video work. I had to try it. I first heard about it when I was still trying out Feisty and didn't have a DVD burner. (Ubuntu Studio is a DVD boot.)
]]> By the time I got things worked out hardware wise, Studio had progressed to Gutsy. I like the hybrid sister. I still have to do some work with her if I want her to do "exactly" what I want her to do. However, she is definitely performing well enough and being easy enough for me to honestly be excited about this set-up I have. To get to exactly what I want is going to take some work though.What do I want?
The 100% honest answer is that I, am after playing with this OS for a bit, not 100% sure anymore. I wanted dual monitors. My experience with Windows may well have tainted what to expect. With workspaces and such, I use this machine differently than my windows boxes. I don't know exactly what I can get it to do. I feel I know enough to realize that this OS will definitely work for me.
Furthermore, I built this box for the audio editing and musical midi stuff. I have been removed from that aspects of PCs for so long that I need to reaquaint myself with it before I even dare decide what I want to attempt.
I have already succeeded at setting up dual monitors. It took only a little effort, not much,; digging for some not too hard to find information, less than 5 command line entries, a few reboots, some cries for help in ubuntu at wyldryde but, in the end, less work than earlier versions.
No, she is not perfect and I still have some work to do. Ubuntu is now to the point where she is the OS of choice on my newest and fastest machine. I did not even opt to make it a dual boot machine. Folks, for a basic home computer... I think, in my humble opinion, she has a arrived.
I am not going to talk much about the basic desktop version of Ubuntu here. I am giving or have given those boxes away. I do not have anything bad to say about them though. If you have over 256 Meg of RAM, you can do a completely GUI install on it. Even if you don't, the text install is simple enough for anyone who can read to install it pretty easily. I am on studio because I liked the basic distro enough to make this leap. I would encourage you all to try it and let me know what you think.
I am going to continue to blog a bit about making this particular version submit. I am telling you folks, this Linux distro is the best I have seen yet. (I have a shoe box full of old Linux CDs.) I am giving serious thought to switching completely over to it as an OS.
Thanks for reading, leave a comment and check back for some more of what I am learning. If you have a radeon 9800 be sure and check back for I plan to share just how I got dual monies. Leave me feedback and suggestions as well. I want to see just what I can and can not make this OS do. Personally, I am prety excited about it.
]]>sudo gobbledegook blah_blah -w -t -f
aWkward/ComBinationOf/mixedCase/underscores_strokes/and.dots
I both thought it cute and a good way to generate content to play with the layout for now.
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