Linux Revisited

Well I’ve been using Linux for a bit longer now so here are the developments;

I was wrong on account of the USB memory stick working. It worked the once but has not worked again. Since it works in neither Windows nor Linux it’s probably a more serious problem.

As it happens the switch to Linux has been far less painless than the switch to 64 bit computing. I did get the flash plugin working under 64 bit but not the java plugin. Several applications would not work under 64 bit. So I decided to attempt a reinstall of 32 bit Ubuntu despite my initial problems. As it turned out my initial problems installing the 32 bit version were due to using a cheap blank DVD to burn onto. This time my burn was fully verified. And what do you know, it worked!

I’ve learnt how to install some things without the easy internet based manager and some basics about command lines. Even managed to compile, install and run from a source file (ie raw code).

I really haven’t used Windows much since. Linux has also proven faster and more stable. I have also found DVD burning far better in Linux. I do occasionally play games on Windows is about all. One guy on a mailing list referred to his Windows partition as Wintendo. Quick someone register it and make some money. There are Linux games and ways to run Windows based games on Linux but the fact is Windows games are better simply because more developers are making them for Windows (and consoles) using proprietary systems like DirectX. Apart from games it’s hard to justify use of Windows.

Linux now has the rather nice flexibility of being able to deal with completely fresh users to the power geeks that it was originally so popular with. Community support is generally better too which is where most of us turn to when we have problems.

Linux

Well I took the plunge again and tried to install Linux on my PC. I am by no means a Linux guru of any kind but for those that really know nothing about it, Linux is a free operating system. It’s been around quite some time and is known for it’s stability, speed and security. Despite this it never became terribly popular because it was quite a cow to install and use and had few games and other popular applications. In short, it was the geeks’ operating system. Microsoft’s Windows held the market for operating systems very well for good reason.

Things are changing, however. For one thing the games market is shifting rapidly from MS Windows PC games to the consoles. How permanent this is is anyone’s guess but it does mean the lack of games in Linux is less significant when compared to Windows than it once was. As well the open source community has changed. It’s got a lot of projects, some of which are quite mature and useful and the elitism I saw before has been tempered to more reasonable levels.

At the same time innovation in Windows desktop environments has pretty much died. New features and applications are few and often serve Microsoft more than it’s customers. Windows Vista was at best a minor improvement over Windows XP, and after all that time too. Microsoft’s newer features like tabbed browsing and Aero are essentially copied from other places. Perhaps the company is focused elsewhere, after all consoles, mobile phones and general web browsing is as much used as a desktop these days. The market itself is clearly changing.

So I looked up the various distributions Linux has and selected Ubuntu. My attempt to run the regular version failed rather miserably, however the 64 bit version has installed with no fuss with a dual boot situation so I can still I use Windows XP when I wish.

So far I’m fairly impressed. Browsing, music, videos were all working fine. Sound, mouse, keyboard, hard drive, graphics it all works. My USB which for whatever reason didn’t like most USB devices suddenly accepts a USB memory stick it never accepted before, which certainly doesn’t impress me on Windows. I can even use my Windows partition within Linux. The GUI apparently called Gnome is very clean and simple (possibly too simple) with all the features I’ve ever used on Windows. Screensavers, backgrounds, hardware info, themes etc are all here.

It uses the excellent Firefox browser I am used to and has OpenOffice, a free Office suite which i have briefly dabbed with before and knew it was good. It is this that I am using to draft my blog entry you are reading. It has a nice little weather application very unobtrusive. All in all a good set of included applications.

It’s not to say it’s all problem free. Getting the better resolutions I usually use required me to use a console command to access the Nvidia settings manger. Not a very big deal but not really intuitive. After all the GUI has a built in resolution changer. Also the search on my Windows partition for a file just went on and on so I assume failed. In some ways installing new programs is easier because many programs are available with what is essentially a program browser with combined installer/uninstaller which takes it right off the internet and installs it for you. However, for those not on that browser, installation via command lines knowing about things like dependencies will take me some practice.

I have also discovered, much like other 64 bit operating systems (eg Vista’s and XP’s) there are issues. The browser works fine but flash and java does not, for example. I can install the 32 bit version of Firefox and this solves it and of course the 32 bit Ubuntu doesn’t have that problem but it does give me an idea of what Windows XP 64-bit and other 64 bit operating system users have to deal with.

I’ve only used it for a day or so now. No doubt there’s more to learn which I will endeavour to inform you on.