Check it out! (Er, not that you can…) I'm writing this on my new laptop! Well, my mom's old laptop. But now my laptop!
My laptop… running Linux!
Yes, I finally tried it. I've been itching to start getting this computer ready for university and I figured hey — there's nothing on it, so if I screw it up, then it's okay. And plus, it's got to be better than using Vista.
The only parts during installation that really got me were burning the disc image and partitioning. Burning the image actually wasn't that bad, I'd just never done it before. And that's what put me off from doing it a long time ago, because I had no idea what that meant.
At first I was going to do a dual-boot of Windows and Linux, but I didn't really know how much space I should have for each OS and so I just ended up going all Linux, no turning back now. The thing about partitioning that confused me is that I didn't know where I was supposed to allocate all the left over space. Do I do 10 GB for /home and the rest in root? Or the other way around? I ended up doing 10 for each, and then 4 for swap space, I think, and the rest of it was just left as "free space". I hope that was right? Either way, it works. And I'm sure I can repartition if I need too.
I've been installing programs mostly through the Applications menu, but I've also done a bit in Terminal — that was freaky. I recognized some of the commands I was typing in, like cd from using DOSBox to play old computer games, and sudo from that xkcd comic.
So, I picked Ubuntu, simply because I'd heard of it and people were recommending it as being easy to install. I'm not sure what the difference is between all the versions, but I might end up becoming a total Linux geek and trying a bunch of them.
What was really cool was that it let me try it out before actually installing and partitioning the computer and whatever. In the screenshots I'd seen of Linux, I found the system fonts to be… unpleasant. They looked very Verdana-ish, but I'm thinking they probably aren't because that's probably a Windows font, right? Anyway, Verdana is kind of ugly, at least in the size and weight they were using, and it reminds me of Neopets. Anyway, when I was easily able to change the font, I said "that's it, I'm sold". Which, well, you can do that in Windows too, can't you?
But really, Linux is really cute. I'm sure that's not a word most people would use to describe it. But Windows is kind of clunky and Macs are super sleek, Linux is like, functional and funky. A bit flat though?
It looks like I'm going to have to learn Python, because that seems to be the programming language of choice for the applications. And get this — the Python program is called IDLE. Bwhaha!
I managed to sort of get the webcam working, at least in one program. I want to play with it in Cheese, but I need a driver, and for some reason the drivers for my camera are available for a few kernel versions below mine and the one above it. And I tried to upgrade my kernel, but that didn't work. And I mean, I just downloaded it brand new, so why should there be a newer kernel version?
But now, dilemma time. I'm going to have my laptop at school. I'd like to leave my desktop computer at home, because I don't really want to have two computers there. But I'd like to access my iTunes library from both my desktop and my laptop. So I know Linux and iTunes aren't actually compatible, but I've seen something called Wine which will apparently fix that.
So now I've found something called VPN, virtual private network. That seems to fit the bill. But I don't want my home computer to be on all the time. So can I just have an external hard drive that I keep at home and have that on, or do I need the computer too?
I don't really want to do an online thing. One, because I have a ton of files. Two, because they're apt to shut down. Three, I like iTunes, I don't want something different. And four, the big one, I want to listen to my music even if I don't have access to the internet.
So I guess what I'm saying is I want to access my external hard drive from my laptop. Should be simple enough, right? I mean, the accessing from the desktop should be no problem. But from a laptop that's who knows where in the world.
Good! I've narrowed down what I need to be looking for. I mean, really, that's not much to ask, is it? It's just the computer not being on thing that I'm worried about. Well, off to do more research and more learning. Damn Linux, making me learn.
June 15, 2008 at 8:45 PM
Congratulations on switching to Linux!
As for resizing partitions, I think that that usually requires you to wipe your old data except in certain circumstances. In any case, a few gigs should be okay. If you do have to wipe over everything, keep in mind that all your personal files and settings are kept in the home folder (/home/yourusername). Back it up on an external drive, and then you can move it back in and have your settings back.
The command line is your friend. By not being afraid of it, you're already ahead of the curve compared to the average Linux newbie. It's very powerful for getting things done quickly, especially if you're asking someone how to do something and they give you the commands to copy and paste in. (Always make sure you know what the commands are doing, though. You can often read about what a command does by entering "man foo", where foo is the name of the command. To exit out of the man page, as it's called, press q.)
There have been a few kernel updates since the 8.04 release. Right after you installed the OS, you should have gotten a deluge of upgrades to download and install, so you should be up to date on everything. If your camera driver was in the kernel before, I'd think it would still be there now. I've never heard of drivers disappearing and reappearing like that. (It might be worth just buying a new camera that you know will work. That's what I did, even though I don't use it much.)
You won't be able to have the external hard drive on a network by itself; it would have to be attached to a computer. But you probably don't have to have a network if you can manage to move your music library onto your laptop (and vice versa for synchronization). To start, I would recommend a program that defeats the iTunes DRM scheme. (I've never needed to use one, but I hear they're out there.)
If you must use iTunes, see what the Wine AppDB says about it. There are detailed descriptions of what works and what doesn't with different versions and systems. If it turns out that iTunes+Wine doesn't work out for you, then I'd recommend the default music player, Rhythmbox. But there are some others to choose from. People rave about Amarok like you wouldn't believe.
Okay, that was a long comment. Let me know if you need any help with anything.