I won’t bore you all with my new obsession with Ubuntu Linux, anymore. I just wanted an excuse to put this rocking new screenshot online. So, without further adieu…
**Edit**
I forgot to mention that I got my dock idea from a Zooomr friend, Jonester.
So, as you know, I’m in love with Ubuntu, the Linux distribution that is teaching all the others how to get it done.
We have a nice Mac mini, that has been running the latest Ubuntu version, Feisty Fawn, for a couple of months now. Every so often, I fiddle around, cleaning something up, and discover another cool, stable feature of Ubuntu that makes me smile.
At work, I’m forced to use MS crap, and I hate it. I never smile while using Windows. Never.
So, with a few regular months of using Ubuntu as our primary OS, for regular everyday stuff, I’m even more sold that Ubuntu really is a generational leader for top notch operating systems.
So, with today’s release of Ubuntu’s Gutsy Gibbon, I’m proud to say that I’ve upgraded and I love it. It’s just as attractive and easy to use as before. Many of the subtle system upgrades are now organized in a nicer, more logical set of menus.
Just a few of the outstanding upgrades:
Gutsy simply rocks! If you’re already using Linux, you’re crazy not to upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10, Gutsy Gibbon. If you’re an Intel Mac user or any Windows user, you’ve got to try this out.
What’s really cool is that you can download it and burn it to CD. Then you can boot off the CD, and it runs a fully functional OS, ready to play with. When you realize that you like it, just click on the install icon on the desktop and presto, you’re installing the world’s greatest operating system.
So, with all the heartache I dealt with, I’m now reporting success. Yes, I found my solution, eventually, in the Ubuntuforums. Go check it out for yourself. I’ll add an update here later today telling you what I did.
In the mean time, just know that I now have widescreen support on my MacFeisty.
OK, you’ve read me talking a bunch about Ubuntu, and my desire to get a nice install up and running at home. Some time back, I mentioned that I wanted to build a simple machine, dedicated to serving up my family’s media, printing, and files. Well, the budget always trumps ideas like that. Some day, I’ll get that going again. In the mean time, we had the chance to get a couple of Mac mini’s. Sweet, now the old family computer, the first rev LCD iMac, is going to be dedicated for use as a kid’s computer. Right now they mostly play a few online educational games. As they progress in school, I know they’ll be doing more work with it. So now we don’t have to share. Now, if only Adobe made a Linux(PPC) flash plugin, I’d dump OSX on that machine and run Ubuntu there. I know that it would run faster, but without flash, there’s no way the kids could play those online games. They’re all flash.
So, back to the Mac minis. Mine is an Intel 1.66, duo core, 1gig ram. It’s used for my photo processing, eventually podcasting again, and the random processor heavy app.
The family Mac is the same machine with only 512mg ram. MISTAKE! OSX needs more than that to run smoothly. Since we can’t budget to double the ram right now, I’m considering dumping OSX entirely there and running Ubuntu exclusively. It’s Intel, so no flash issues. I’ve been thinking this through for weeks now, and the only deal breaker has been our massive iTunes Store purchases. There are no tools around for converting, (read, dropping DRM), on the most recent iTunes version. So, I’m left with burning each album to CD, and reconverting to MP3. I’ll keep a back data-DVD of all the files, and I know I’m loosing some quality, but I really have no choice.
For future music purchases, we now have the DRM-free Wal-Mart online store. And since DRM-free music is catching on, I think that we’ll see more options birthed soon.
So, what do you think?
So, it’s been a while since I’ve said anything about my Ubuntu travels. Well, it hasn’t gone away, I promise. I ran out of money and time in building the older machine. However, we did get a couple of Mac minis, which are Intel boxes, and perfect Ubuntu testers.
So with that in mind, I’ve loaded up the Fiesty Fawn Live CD a few times, playing and testing. It’s amazing! Even on the Live CD, all I had to do to get the desktop effects was check a box in the settings. Sweet! Also one of the coolest is that I get the Flash plugin, since the Mac mini has an Intel chip. (The pre-Intel Mac’s have processors that are not supported with the Flash plugin.)
I must say, I’m ready to dump OSX on one of the machines. My wife’s is probably the most likely candidate, since all she has that is Mac only is a bunch of iTunes purchases.
My machine is used for a bit more, like Garageband, iMovie, etc. I’m also quite comfortable with my Mac’s podcasting software apps. And since I’m getting ready to record my last Scribe Music Show, but also getting together the stuff to launch a new show, with a coworker, I’ll need my podcasting stuff. Until the Linux multi-track audio editors get much better, I may need OSX for quite a while.
The only thing holding me back right now is the iTunes purchases. I’m stuck on having my music library on this exact Mac, so, moving it to my machine is out.
I’ve scoured for some open-source tool that will easily convert my DRM’d AAC’s to plain AAC’s or MP3′s, but nothing works with the newest iTunes. We also have too much to just burn to CD and then re-encode. So what do I do?
