Automatix

Automatix

I tried installing this when I first started running Ubuntu last year, and couldn’t get it to work. Well- I got it to work now and it is fantastic! This would have saved me hours of Googling for different drivers and finding media players and plug-ins. Even today- it has a lot of stuff I didn’t know about, and I’ve been running Ubuntu exclusively at home for the better part of 8 months.

It only works for Ubuntu and other Debian distributions, which I would recommend anyway for desktop users. Even if you are a desktop Linux veteran- you might want to try it out if you haven’t yet.

Migrating to Ubuntu Linux from Microsoft Windows

Migrating to Ubuntu Linux from Microsoft Windows

This is a great article about a Clueless Newbie’s take on migrating from Windows to Ubuntu Linux. Her experience was very similar to mine, and I experienced many of the same problems. I’ve been using Linux actively on the server side for many years now, but switched to Ubuntu after an incredibly bad experience with M$ Vista.

One of my biggest gripes is to Adobe- for not getting a clue and writing 64-bit versions of their software. 64-bit processors have been available for several years now, and Linux (and other Unix-like systems) have been available in 64-bit versions for at least three years now (at least that I know of- probably a lot longer for commercial Unixes.

Configuring a higher-end graphics card from ATI or nVidia is also a pain in the ass. The really sad thing is you can actually get better graphical performance out of a cheap Made-In-China generic video card from a discount store. That really sucks when you’ve paid $200+ for a video card.

Last, but certainly not least- there are DVDs. You can’t play them without becoming a “criminal”. Why? Because the encryption algorithm was top-secret and only available to hardware manufacturers and closed-source software vendors, making it inaccessible to Linux and other Open Source projects. It was reverse-engineered several years ago (you may remember all the media attention), and the reverse-engineered algorithm (de-CSS) has been incorporated into lots of Linux/OSS media players. However- since it was illegal to reverse-engineer it to begin with (thanks a lot Congress!), it is illegal to use any of the software made with it. The same thing is happening now with AACS for HD DVD and Blueray.

Microsoft Won’t Sue Linux Users

Microsoft Won’t Sue Linux Users, Company Exec Says — Microsoft Linux — InformationWeek

I knew (along with most of the OSS community) the Novell deal was a bad thing. In trying to save itself, Novell screwed everyone. Let’s all give them a big round of thanks.

New Geek Blog

After several attempts at running my own blogging site (thwarted by my Web host’s overly-paranoid PHP security settings), I decided to try out WordPress for my Geek Blog. I’d rather use LiveJournal or Tumblr than have to use yet another blogging site, but since it is very difficult to set up and use multiple blogs on LJ and Tumblr, I had to resort to this. If nothing else- I’ll have a good understanding of a variety of blogging sites.