theOlster.net

Being a Linux user is an odd thing, you don’t have to wait five years for the next OS version to be released, you can customise absolutely anything to do with your OS or applications, installing software is usually a one-click process, and the list goes on.

I’ve spent about two months desperately trying to be a Linux user, and you know, it sucks…

To start with things were going pretty well. I installed Ubuntu and had the pick of the best guides and customisation tricks to hand. I wasn’t a complete newbie and knew my way around the file system and command line, which definitely made things easier. But you know, the customisation aspect of Linux is all very well, but I’ve found it to be a double-edged sword.

I’ve spent all this time getting my two computers and server all configured just how I wanted it, and the whole system feels broken. Upgrading from Ubuntu 6.10 to 7.04 was a big pain in the arse because despite an attempt at backing everything up I lost all the customisations that I needed to get the OS working right for me. So from this point in time I can look back at this previous post when I considered switching to Ubuntu, and realise that whilst I thought the grass to be greener, it definitely wasn’t. By contrast Mac OS X isn’t so bad and considering my current situation with Linux by comparison it looks like it’s plated in gold. I don’t like everything in Mac OS X, but I don’t feel the need to customise any of it aswell. So, I’m not only switching back to Mac OS X, I’m going to spend a ridiculous amount of cash on getting the software/hardware I need to operate it.

This will be expensive, but I expect to have much more time to spend on projects that will make me money rather than just getting my working environment set up right. I don’t want to be messing around with my operating system when I could be using it to work, surf, take and edit my photos, blog, make music, build a kick-arse web 2.0 app, oh and *cough* play my ukulele.

Question: Who would build a desk from scratch when one can be bought for a reasonable price at a furniture shop?

Answer: Someone who wants to spend the time customising and designing it to their exact specifications, then reap the reward from doing so.

That someone isn’t me… although I am thinking of building a desk, I wonder if I should bother…

So Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 was launched 3 minutes ago… Presumably… Of course I can’t check or download it because the site is swamped with traffic.

I’ve been giving the previous version of ubuntu some great attention over the last few months, and have come to the following conclusion: I’m probably a KDE user, who hasn’t been told to stop using Gnome. So I’ll give Ubuntu a weeks trial, then unless I really, really like it, I’ll switch to Kubuntu.

Update: I give up.. time to hit the sack.

I know I don’t follow the latest Radiohead news much, but their blog seems to indicate that another album may be in the works… time spent in the studio = yippee!

So we’re going on a well earned weeks holiday, and I need a book. I have a problem, because I can’t shop for books. I can spend hours in a book store trying to find something I’m interested in reading, but without actually coming away with anything. And that happened today, so I have nothing to read on holiday!

Now don’t get me wrong I really love reading, but I’ve really got to sort this problem out. I suspect I’m going to have to start a list (in the back of my diary, or something similar) of books that I want to read. This way when I actually get to the store, I have something to work with.

On a slightly different note, I really love these cover designs that I found, they seem to echo the 60’s/70’s… nice!

Yet again I am re-visiting the Mac/Linux/Vista evaluation/switch. Here I will indicate MacBook experiences since mid October, and why I’m want to move away from MacOS X.

I bought my 13inch MacBook about five months ago, and I love it… almost. I love it enough to say that I will never switch back to any Windows variant - ever. But do I love it enough to stay with it?

I’m not sure now.

To understand why, I need to explain why I bought an Apple machine in the first place. For the last couple of years I’ve desperately wanted to like and thus switch from windows to Linux. I’ve patiently installed just about every version of Ubuntu, Fedora and the occasional Suse on my desktop to see if a switch was possible. I’ve often had many problems with a lack of my technical knowledge (although this gap is a lot smaller these days) along with very poor Linux hardware support compared to MS and Apple. I also had some very strict software requirements that I really needed meeting for my work, study and general purposes. At the time these requirements could not be met through choosing Linux, but could with a Mac, and it required little or no technical knowledge, very intuitive. So I bought a Mac.

So what’s changed, why am I thinking about Linux again after only five months?

Well, two reasons… Firstly, MacOS X just doesn’t work in a way that I like. For example, I hate Finder. It is such a pain in the arse to use, and I don’t expect that to change in the next incarnation of MacOS X. It’s not that the way it works is particularly bad, it just annoys me and I can’t do anything about that! Secondly, in five months of using the Mac I’ve learnt not to try and be too clever and live within the limitations of the OS. This may sound a little enigmatic, but bear with me. If I want to give Linux another go I need to accept that although someone else may have installed something, or found a really clever way of doing something else, I need to take a couple of deep breaths, calm down, and try to live within my requirements.

Quite often, when I’ve previously used Linux I’ve tried messing around with the latest features, forgetting my lack of technical knowledge, and broken things. Actually, my MythTV experiences are a notable exception to this rule, but this is just about the only exception. For example I tried messing about with Beryl on my desktop recently, and discovered how buggy it really is! This hasn’t broken my install, but other instances have.

So since I desperately need to upgrade the piddly 55G HDD in my MacBook, I’m going to give Ubuntu a go at the same time.

I also plan to set out my requirements for the system, and document how these have been met in a ‘howto’ kind of way. This can be found here: Ubuntu Edgy on a MacBook (Update: Link removed until this page has been fully completed).