Yes, another blog, but why? - Adventures in Switching to Linux

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Yes, another blog, but why?

This is really my first blog but I decided to start it for one purpose, to document my attempt to switch to Linux. I've had an interest in Linux for years, particularly as a server, but more and more it is becoming a viable desktop OS. For years I have run Red Hat and then Fedora but the last few times I have installed Ubuntu for the desktop. For a real server, I would still prefer RHEL (CentOS) but I think Ubuntu really gives the desktop more love and ease of use than the next best option for me, Fedora.

So anyway, this blog is here to document things as I go. What works? What doesn't? What works after messing with it and what did I have to do to get it there? Those are the sorts of things I hope to talk about in this blog.

Right now I have 3 systems, all running Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibson. They are

  1. Home Desktop - Dell Deminsion 8400, P4 3GHz, 3GB RAM, ATI Radeon X300, and installed on a 20GB partition. I still dual boot this machine and for now it is likely in Windows most of the time.
  2. Home Laptop - Dell Inspiron 8600, Pentium M ~1.4GHz, 512MB RAM Dual boots into WinXP. The Broadcom wireless is a pain (but more about that later I am sure)!
  3. Secondary Work Desktop - Yet another Dell, I forget the model since I am writing this from home, but I know it is rocking a Celeron that is likely sub GHz and has about 600MB of RAM. It doesn't dual boot and I have it hooked up to a third monitor and I can get to it so seamlessly thanks to Synergy. It is also the only system currently running the beautiful AND useful Compiz, albeit a little slowly.

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