Ubuntu
I’ve been busy for the past two weeks, mostly on two projects. One is a top-secret project that I definitely won’t be able to open-source. It won’t be finished until after dar-gtd, but I’ve had to spend some time studying up for it now. I’ll announce the details of that project later.
The second project is trying out Ubuntu Linux. I have an older laptop with a burnt-out cdrom, battery-charger, and a hardware-interrupt issue that would make the machine lock up for half a second every five seconds. The machine is still fast enough to function well to run the internet and basic office applications, which is all I need for the small office I set up in my new basement. I’ve been putting it off forever, but last week I finally taught myself how to use network booting to get a new operating system installed. I decided to give Ubuntu a try. I’ve had mixed results.
First, the positives. The machine works faster and better on Ubuntu than I remember, even when it’s new. The hardware-interrupt issue went away, so I can actually type blog posts like this again. Most of my non-programming computer time is spent online, so it’s like I have a new computer.
Now for the negatives. Things have gotten better since my last experiment with Linux over three years ago, but I still don’t see a real attempt to shield the user from the inner workings of the machine. It is easy to use, but as soon as you want to do anything that did not come off the default cd you have to go back to typing command-line operations, downloading packages and editing text configuration files. Unless you are a very competent computer user you probably won’t be able to do perform many basic tasks. Or much worse, you could make a small change to a configuration file that might break your system (which I did). I was able to get my wireless card working, update my video card drivers, and get the system to a point where I don’t think I have to update it for a while, but I know that most people would not be able to follow the steps I took.
I’ve heard all about how Ubuntu is the easiest Linux distribution, but if this is as good as Linux has come then I really wonder if Linux is ever going to be a viable alternative for the average computer user. I’ve only been using it for a few days, so I’ll give it some more time.
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