Geekgothgrrl

When I was thinking about my previous posting originally, I had also thought about writing some things about Ubuntu and Linux, including things regarding my Aspire One.

As is usual, if I don't write it down when I think it, I utterly forget it!

Anyway.

I've realised recently that I've been almost exclusively using GNOME on Ubuntu on my PC. This marks a bit of a shift really for me.

For one reason, yesterday I realised just how slow in comparison to my PC my iBook G4 actually is. Dual Core really makes a difference! Partly the iBook 'sluggishness' is down to Leopard I think, but I like it so much better I long ago found I could live with that sluggishness for the most part (not to say it isn't annoying at times!). The things Leopard adds make up for that slowdown I think (TimeMachine, Space, better Terminal.app to name just a few).

This thinking has lead me to remember why I started using Mac OS X in the first place. I had a AthlonXP based PC at the time, and ran Linux with GNOME or KDE (forget which). It just didn't feel polished or quite there, there was too much tinkering and hours spent getting things to work. On the other hand the Beige PowerMac G3 running Mac OS X 10.2 had the 'Just Works' factor. It took out the hassles of using a computer. I got more productive as a result and felt happier using a computer.

Now I look at GNOME on my Core2Duo PC, and it is now polished for the most part. It does mostly 'Just Work', with a few exceptions (my Lexmark X5470 All-In-One, my web-cam) and there are a few 'niggles' with bugs etc, but nothing that is show stopping.

Previously this PC was running Windows XP Pro most of the time, as I used it for games and Linux just didn't like the hardware for some reason (for the life of me nVidia drivers wouldn't work right in 8.04/8.10 on the previous hardware). Now I sporadically boot Windows, and tend not to bother purely because I am working on stuff on the PC using Linux. The applications I use aren't really much different either (Firefox 3.5, X-Chat, Pigin), only Evolution I don't use under Windows, and that's only because Thunderbird can't seem to handle the large IMAP MailDir I have set up. Evolution isn't by any means perfect, but it works and doesn't crash (as often) when working with my IMAP email, and it handles my RSS feeds now too. It just needs to be able to edit WebDAV calendars (which Kat hosts on her PC) and it'll be complete.

Things have moved on, and I'm glad to see they have. Linux as a Desktop really can work, and work well. I've not really tried any other Distributions other than Ubuntu 9.04 on this PC however, which leads me onto my next thought.

I've been reading a lot about OpenSolaris recently (most notably in the latest LinuxFormat), and am keen to give it a try soon. I managed to recover some 500Gb drives from the server when I retired them due to being 'close to death possibly', or at least 'untrusted' by me. So using them to test OpenSolaris, Mac OS X and Ubuntu 9.10 on my PC with, amongst others will mean if they die, I don't lose much.

Part of my reason for wanting to try OpenSolaris is the fact I've got UltraSPARC hardware capable of running it, as well as previously running Solaris on an old SparcSTATION 20 I had (Solaris 8 and 9). How good the Ultra5 would run OpenSolaris I'm not sure (it has low memory (128Mb?)), but might be worth a try.

I may well also give Ubuntu 9.04/PPC a try on both my Quicksilver G4 and iBook G4 and see how they feel, maybe even moving to dual-boot them both.

I've not relaly looked at my Aspire One recently, mostly because I've been too busy with other things recently. I'm still intent on getting the wireless problems resolved, and have a feeling I've found a potential solution (Ubuntu Forums seem to suggest using WICD over NetworkManager). May also try another kernel with it if I can manage to get one to compile for it, with a bit more Atom/AspireOne optimisations, etc.

In the meantime it still works OK, and I even tried 9.10a2 off of a USB stick on it. I may yet give Crunchbang, Arch and a few others a try on it and see where I land in terms of deciding upon distro for it. Although I really do like the interface on Ubuntu 9.04 NBR.

Enough for now I think though.

Oh one last thing, since changing the CPU in the server, all is well. Hopefully soon should be able to get a couple (or more) Samsung Spinpoint F2 1.5Gb drives to gain extra storage and replace the 'not trusted' boot drive (keeping regular backups!).

Kelly