Later, Ubuntu

So I whiped Ubuntu and had a crack at some other linux versions.

Simply MEPIS

There's a lot to like about this distribution. The unique installation system is quite well thought out. Basically, it loads the entire operating system from a live CD and allows you to play around with all the features, straight from the disc. If you like it, you double click an 'install me' icon on the desktop, which installs the operating system to the hard disk.

What I like most about this approach is the ability to use the computer whilst I install. For me this meant the ability to write a university paper whilst the files were copying over - a big improvement on distributions like Suse which leave my computer out of order for an hour (but more on Suse later).

But by far the stand out feature was a desktop sync feature. It allows you to sync your linux and windows operating systems together, so that when you restart into windows you can easily carry over settings such as your Firefox bookmarks. Now, the actual implementation of this idea has a long way to go before it's really user friendly, but it at least shows that there's people out there thinking about these sorts of problems. I eagerly await future versions!


Mandriva 2006

The installation programme was quite user friendly - much easier than Fedora and Suse. The distribution itself, well, give me a break. In an effort to configure my pppoe connection, I rendered the system unbootable. Yeah, top design that. NEXT...

Suse 10.1

After a rocky start, things are really on the improve. The installation programme was fairly friendly, although at some points I wanted to put my computer through a wall. Take for instance partitioning. The auto partition system divided my hard drive up beautifully - but half way through copying files over it told me the partition wasn't big enough. Gee, thanks. This forced me to use the expert partitioning tool, and quite frankly as a newbie it scared the shit out of me. I never really bothered with backing up hard drives until I encountered linux installation programmes.

There's some real positives with Suse. It's pretty. Multi monitor support is almost newbie friendly. There's a graphical dialogue available, and it works. Almost. Like Ubuntu, Suse has this fascination with setting my external CRT monitor as the primary display. Which is a problem for me, because my laptop LCD is what I use for my work. The CRT is located 1 metre behind me at the foot of my bed. Well, I guess I can curl up in bed every time I want to use the taskbar. Or programme I just loaded. Or desktop icons. Urgh. I found no feature allowing me to make my laptop's LCD the primary display... gimme a break...

Finally on Suse, this trend for not including 'non free' software is giving me the shits. I want to play mp3s. I want to use the wireless card I paid 50 bucks for. If the distribution does not support them, that's two bloody massive reasons to go back to windows.

A Long Holiday

It's been a while since I updated this blog. And with good reason - I broke up with Ubuntu. It wasn't one of those messy affairs where you go through the motions, passing in hallways without saying hello. Or going to bed at night, this is my half of the bed, that's yours, if you want to read your book go to your mother's house. No, it was quite a clean, quick break.

What it basically came to was that, whilst Ubuntu is really nice, it just placed too many demands on me. I can't commit my life to opening up a command line and fiddling with its knobs to get it to work, when my ex, aptly named XP, just does everything I want.

So, why am I updating this blog then? Simple. The chance meeting. A lot like when you're walking in the street, and you run into your ex. You exchange greetings, discover that you've both not had a decent screw since you broke up - abeit it's more like the girl has had 5 and none were satisfying, because that's the default setting for females, meanwhile the bloke has been sitting at his computer desk at 3am slapping away to porn which is progressively getting younger, kinkier and more foreign, all the while thinking to himself 'why did I break up with her when I didn't have a substitute ride organised?!.'

That metaphor got way out of control, so i'll cut to the chase. I turned the computer on, took a leak, came back and Ubuntu was loaded because the boot manager is still installed. Meh, let's give the old fling a go. Maybe it'll turn out that the problems we previously had were just due to my emotional state at the time and not anything to do with Ubuntu itself. Well for Ubuntu's sake I hope that's right.

When something gives me the shits i'll be sure to let the internet know. Until then...