nine things about linux

I was going to entitle this post “Yay Penguins!”, then decided that perhaps a less cryptic title would be appropriate to something that’s going to be kind of long and rambly and unattractive to read anyway. Actually I don’t really know if anyone would be interested, but I really wanted to document this somewhere for myself at least.

My pet project over the past week has been to finally attain Linux mastery, or at least the ability to use it without stumbling every step of the way; I’ve been very intrigued by the increasing usability and popularity of Ubuntu and I’d been wanting to give it a go for a while.

Having run Linux for a week now, without booting into Windows the entire time (except once when I really wanted to use Photoshop), I am convinced that now is a better time than ever before for the average computer user to make the switch. Screenshots and a VERY long post - you have been warned - after the jump.

(I apologise now, by the way, if anyone reading this via RSS sees the entire post instead of an excerpt. I have no idea how it works.)

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tech envy

I’ve been deliberately avoiding most of the iPhone/iPod Touch hype, telling myself confidently that I have no need for such devices, staying connected all the time is for people married to their email, and when my old, trusty 4-year-old 3G iPod dies on me (which I don’t think will ever happen, considering how strong it’s going still), I’ll be happy enough to upgrade to an iPod Classic rather than a Touch, because why do I need an MP3 player than does anything other than play music? And perhaps store some videos for me to watch while commuting.

Sadly my resistance has been assailed by the glut of iPhone articles I have been reading on my daily trawl of tech blogs, and by my sister’s recent acquisition of an iPhone, which my parents got for her because my dad was involved in Optus’s iPhone launch in Australia and could get it dirt-cheap. It’s so… shiny. The interface is lovely. There are some really fantastic apps available for it. There is, I have finally succumbed to realise, a wealth of benefits in having internet on the go. You can check out Google Maps if you get lost in the city. You can input appointments directly into Google Calendar instead of storing them on your phone calendar and processing them when you get home. You can watch Youtube. You can listen to internet radio (!!!)… and the list goes on.

I’ve always been thinking of making the switch to Mac when I move on from my Vaio, but I must honestly confess that my Macbook lust has never reached the level of iPhone lust I’m currently entertaining. Frustratingly, it is really incredibly expensive in the UK so I really doubt I’ll be getting it if I’m staying there to work. And I just changed my phone last year so there isn’t really an excuse to get a new one (I feel like this is my penance for impatiently dumping my cranky Motorola last summer - I should just have stuck it out till now huh).

Ah, shiny gadgets… why are they all so outrageously priced?