E-Dribble

I settled on Ubuntu for my first attempt at linux on the new machine.  To end the suspense, I’ll just say that everything is working as it should and MY GOD, THIS COMPUTER IS FAST!

After getting everything installed, set up and tested, I moved over all the important stuff in my home directory and replaced the old work machine.  Then I got to reflect upon the install.  I can say that I still would never think of handing a linux disk to a Windows user and telling them to try it as their OS.  At the same time, I’m astounded at how far linux has come in regards to the desktop.  Here’s the highs and lows:

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As an early Christmas present, my lovely wife allowed me to purchase a computer to replace my aging work machine.  So I bought a new gaming computer.

Wait a steenking meenoot.  I know what you’re thinking.  I was supposed to be buying a work computer.  Here’s how you too can manage to get a new gaming computer any time you need a work computer.

I purchase the snazziest gaming computer I can afford without making us homeless, then relegate the old gaming machine to work detail.  In this case, I’m getting a quad core 2.4 ghz/4mb ram with a 9xxx Nvidia card as a work machine.  The new machine is almost identical, but with dual graphics cards.

<insert evil laugh here>

I’ve already burnt the latest iso’s for the distro’s I’m going to try on it.  I don’t know what I’ll settle on but I can say that I’m going for ease of use.  I don’t think I’ll stick with Dreamlinux this time around.  I’m probably either going to go with Mint, Ubu or Fedora.  Fedora is comfortably familiar, Ubu is popular enough to have tons of apps and mods available and Mint takes a kitchen sink approach to dirty stuff, which I like.

It will be the first time I’ve ever run linux on a machine from this decade, so I’m understandably excited to see the results.

I’m wondering if any of them will install drivers for the stupid miniviewer that’s built into the case.

Another week in the news and while Microsoft continues pushing their next big OS and Mac releases another commercial making fun of Windows, the open source community deliberates on why there’s so much sexism in the FOSS world. It’s not the first time that the question has been raised in the community.

While I wait for the people that develop my OS to put on their big-boy pants and join the adult world, I have time to wonder how we got the reputation that we did.  I mean, let’s be honest with ourselves.  In spite of the fact that inarguably *nix is a better foundation upon which to build an OS, a very small percentage of the technical community takes the movement seriously.  I have my own suspicions but to be honest, I’m cynical, jaded and very often wrong.  I try to at least challenge my preconceptions and prejudices, so I won’t waste anyone’s time putting them to paper.  Instead of my canned rhetoric, I’m hoping for some enlightenment.

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If there was any part of your being, no matter how small, that thought the techs at BestBuy had any knowledge concerning computers, this should snuff that out.

Microsoft partnered with BestBuy to create a tutorial/exam designed to show the techs why Microsoft Windows 7 was a superior choice to linux.

I shit you not when I say that it’s a fantastic read.  The original post lost it’s images, but I’ve linked to a mirror, so hopefully you will get to witness exam in all it’s bullshit.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has decided that he has figured out how to save the internet from DDoS attacks and other nefarious actions happening inside the various tubes of the intardnet.  His proposal?  Kick Windows off of the web.  His reasoning is along the lines that Windows is terribly insecure and linux is impervious to bad people.

After his attention grabbing headline, used to ensure that he’s gotten you all riled up, he completely dismisses his proposal and waters it down to “patch your OS before being allowed on the web”.

Regardless, his points concerning the inferiority of Windows made me smile.  People being completely wrong tend to elicit that reaction from me.

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I found this article in my feed reader this morning, which piqued my interest because, as you all know, I think the mind numbing number of forks is one of the most asinine aspects of linux.

Sadly, it was hard to follow the article long enough find any merit in his opinions.  I couldn’t get past the written lashing he assigned to the poor bastard he quoted at the start of his post. Since quotation marks were used in his article, I was made aware that he was  quoting someone.  If there was any doubt however, he did name the author of the missive prior to the actual quote.  In spite of this, he used my favorite quoting tool, (sic).  Meaning thus or so, this allows the reader to understand that the written error belongs to the person quoted and not the person quoting.  Additionally, it lets the reader know that the author feels that the quotes alone weren’t enough to ensure that the reader blame someone other than the author.

But wait, there’s more.

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From ComputerworldUK: Linux will trounce Windows 7

From Datamation: Google Chrome OS: Desktop linux’ last chance

A dichotomy, you presume? Well, not really.  What can be gained by combining the two posts is very simple:  Before linux becomes extinct, it will trounce Windows 7.

I guess there’s some comfort to be had in that.

I love computer games.  Some games, I love more than I should(My productivity dropped alarmingly during my WoW period). Since I love games so much, I have a very zoomy computer off to my left with smile inducing specs.  Nothing but games gets installed on it.

I wouldn’t contemplate running anything but Windows on it. Although I sometimes find games that I want to play that will run on linux, I have never found a game that I wanted to play that wouldn’t run on Windows. Windows does gaming better.

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I just read an incredibly interesting article on Gadgetell, titled “Microsoft Office comes to Linux – MS begrudgingly bends”.

The implications are huge!

Well, if it weren’t really about Office becoming web based, allowing anything with a popular browser to use it, it would be big news.  When you know what’s actually happening here, it seems they might have stretched the artistic license a little too thin.

Ryan over at Linuxphilia wanted to help the members of the Windows community that are contemplating moving to linux by posting the 7 most common complaints Windows users have with linux and then explaining to them why it’s their own damned fault and thus of no concern to the people promoting linux.

You guys know me.  I could give two shits less what you use as an operating system, however I never cease to get a kick out of the linux zealot that can’t figure out why linux isn’t the global OS of choice.

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