My Awesome Ubuntu Linux Experience

Way back In 1999, I installed Linux on one of my PCs. I don’t remember the exact distribution, but I remember it had a decent GUI (for the time). I remember that I could not get it to detect my wireless card and go online, neither could I get much done on the PC. Everything pointed me to the command line and VI, making me feel like I was back in DOS. So, I accepted defeat and ended up putting Windows back on that laptop.

Fast forward to the present day – last week, to be more precise. I was feeling really disillusioned with Microsoft Windows Vista, or, more specifically, the terrible way it ran on my pretty decent notebook PC. So I decided to try Linux again, having heard some pretty decent things over the past few years.

Boy has Linux come a long way!

I won’t bore you here by regurgitating any of the billion pro-Linux reviews and guides on the Internet. However, I can briefly describe my experience, and let you draw your own conclusions.

Let’s start with my PC configuration (just the relevant hardware):

• PC: Acer Aspire 5610-4648
• Intel Core Duo processor (T2350)
• Wireless Ethernet a/b/g
• 2GB Memory
• 160GB hard drive
• 15.4” LCD Screen
• DVD R/W Multi-format recorder
• A 1.3MegaPixel Webcam (Logitech OrbiCam)
• External bluetooth USB dongle

I downloaded the Ubuntu 8.04 (with the Gnome user interface) as an ISO image file from www.ubuntu.com, burned a CD, and booted off it. The installation process took about 15 minutes, and was pretty straightforward, so I won’t go into details here. The one thing I’d like to mention is that Ubuntu and OpenSUSE (and other flavors of Linux) allow you to install them side-by-side with other another Linux O/S. They install a boot loader which allows multi-booting.

After installation, Ubuntu recognized and initialized my wireless network adapter, so that all I had to do was select my wireless network by name, enter my WEP password, and I was browsing the web using Firefox 3.0 in no time at all. Same with my sound card… in fact I got a “welcome” sound when booting up, proof that my sound card was automatically detected and initialized. File sharing with my Windows network worked same way… right out of the box.

About 3 minutes later, I got a task bar notification that there were no less than 42 updates available for Ubuntu! I immediately gave permission to download and install them. This took about 10 minutes, and did NOT require a restart. Imagine doing that in Windows.

It took some fiddling around to get a few things working properly, most notably the ability to play DVD movies, as well as play MP3 and WMA files. Most of these “tweaks” involved simply installing a particular Linux package. Fortunately, Synaptic (Ubuntu’s package manager) makes this a point-and-click affair.

So now, instead of looking for a… “liberated” copy of Windows XP, I am actually using this notebook PC to do some productive or entertaining stuff. The native Linux programs listed below represent (hopefully) the “best of breed” tools for my particular needs, and possibly, most peoples

• Office Productivity – OpenOffice.org
• Web browsing – Mozilla Firefox
• Instant Messaging – Pidgin (supports all major protocols, and a few more)
• Newsgroups – Pan
• POP Mail – Evolution
• VOIP/Internet Phone Calls – Ekiga and Skype (both support my webcam)
• Image Manipulation and management – GIMP (for bitmaps), OpenOffice.org Drawing (for vectors), and F-Sport (for photo management)
• Video Capture and Editing – Kino
• Watching DVDs – MPlayer
• Listening to Music – RhythmBox
• DVD Ripping, CD Ripping, and CD/DVD Burning –dvd:rip, Sound Juicer and Brasero, respectively

Obviously this list omits a plethora of utilities that can do anything from analyze disk usage, to testing network connectivity, or even leaving little sticky notes on the desktop. Also, I omitted over a dozen little “casual” games like Chess, Tetravex, and Tetris that come installed by default.

The best part? It’s all FREE.

I am overall really impressed with the progress that the Linux and open-source community has made so far. I am confident that as the years go by, more and more people will be switching to slick “plug-and-play” Linux distributions like Ubuntu. This migration, I am sure, will be helped along by massive dissatisfaction with bloat-ware like Windows Vista.

Oh, and while listening to some New Age music via RhythmBox, I wrote this article with OpenOffice.org Writer (which can import and export Microsoft Word documents).

Sweet!

Model dies in fall from New York apartment building

A European Vogue cover model fell to her death from her Manhattan apartment building Saturday in an apparent suicide, published reports said.

Perhaps she thought that she was so thin and “perfect”, that wind updrafts would keep her aloft? Wrong!

Rove, critics try to pin ‘arrogant’ label on Obama

Back in equatorial Africa, my parents saved and scrounged to send all their kids to the best schools that they could afford. They would often do without nice things (like adequate medical attention and 3 square meals), so that their kids (especially me, the last-born) could have a good education. I did them proud (I think), by being a grade-A student and excelling in my studies, especially English Language.

At age 7, I was reading at age-10 levels. I’d read the King James Bible cover to cover, and I wrote poetry. At age 12, I was reading and writing at college-level. I regularly had coherent and vocabulary-maximizing discussions with college-level and working-class adults. Between my comic books and my trusty English Dictionary (yes, those big, heavy books), my vocabulary was truly remarkable for one as young as I.

Fast forward many years, I showed up in America, ready to take on the world. Only to be ridiculed, put down, and very nearly beaten up… for being/talking/acting “intelligent”. And that was from other BLACK people! “Normal” girls would not date me because my words and demeanor “did not match my face” (translation: I wasn’t “black” enough. Probably because I conjugated my verbs properly). Once, I was affectionately called an “Uppity College Nigger” by a half-drunk white country guy at a dance-club. I am sure he meant well though.

Simply put, I was not “well received”. Not until I dumbed my public face down to the point of slight mental retardation. Only then did more people become “comfortable” with me.

I think this little true story just about sums up America’s attitude towards intelligent black people. Especially “jungle niggers” AKA African immigrants. Karl Rove is just saying what most Americans (prejudiced or not) are thinking: In America’s collective subconscious minds, an intelligent, articulate black/African person simply “does not compute”. For lack of a better term, we’re called “elitist”, but I am sure if politicians could get away with calling Barack Obama an “Uppity College Nigger”, they would say it.

This goes deeper than racism… this is the stuff of pure subconscious. And it needs to be addressed at some point, but probably not anytime soon, because America is not ready to look in the mirror.

Preston on Politics: Obama’s ‘Shock and Awe’

Barack Obama’s decision to forgo public financing for his presidential campaign provides him with the tools needed to implement a “Shock and Awe” television ad strategy designed to paralyze John McCain’s campaign, an expert on political TV advertising said in an interview with CNN.
…
The better-funded Obama is likely to force McCain to spend money on TV ads in Arkansas, Georgia and North Carolina, said Evan Tracey, CNN’s consultant on political television advertising. At this point in the campaign, these are states that CNN projects McCain has an edge over the Illinois Democrat, but by no means are these states safely in the Arizona Republican’s column.
Full story here.

I think that the Obama campaign needs to be careful, and not be TOO successful too quickly. I believe that if they are too aggressive and simply “shock and awe” the McCain group, Obama might be percieved as “beating up an old man”.

And NOBODY likes to see old, helpless white men get beat up by young[er] black men.

Pregnant Teen: There Was No Pact

You guys all remember the story about the British teeenage schoolkids who (supposedly) had some sort of “pregnancy pact”? That is, they all arranged to get pregnant at same time, and raise their kids together? Well, the story NOW is that there was NO such pact… it was all just coincidence:

A Gloucester teenager who is five months pregnant said Tuesday morning there was no pact among girls in the North Shore fishing community’s high school to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Full story here.

You know what I think? It’s no mere coincidence that the stupid pregnant teenagers are also sluts. What, was the prospect of an education and a productive career too daunting to contemplate? So it’s easier to get sympathy and public aid by conveniently forgetting to use birth control? Those inconsiderate little bitches. I hope they all miscarry AT SAME TIME.

Review: Raw emotion fuels new Morissette album

Full story here. I think Alanis Morissette would get more listeners if she’d just do her shows in the nude.

8-limbed ‘goddess’ baby becoming normal little girl

Lakshmi was born in October 2005 in the Bihar region, one of the most remote areas of India, populated by Hindu farmers.

…

And when the girl was born during the Festival of Lakshmi and the new mom saw that she had eight limbs, just like the goddess Lakshmi, Poonan and others were convinced that she was the goddess incarnate. Full Story here.

Hey why couldn’t they let the girl grow up and see what happens? Maybe she’s a mutant like Spiral:

Blonde Chick with a Nice Pussy

Newly found planets make case for ‘crowded universe’

Sounds like we’re finding new planets all the time now…

European astronomers have found a trio of “super-Earths” closely circling a star that astronomers once figured had nothing orbiting it. The discovery demonstrates that planets keep popping up in unexpected places around the universe. Full story here.

Yeah that’s fine, but no planet will ever be as funny to talk about as Uranus

California licenses same-sex marriages

California officials began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples today after a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing the ceremonies took effect. Gay and lesbian couples had lined up for hours outside county clerks’ offices in anticipation of the decision coming into force at 5:01 p.m. Full story here.

I personally support gay marriage 100%. I think letting them marry is totally fantastic, for two reasons:

• Weddings are expensive. More weddings means a much-needed stimulus to the economy, and…
• Why should gay people be exempt from a 50% divorce rate? They need to suffer like the rest of us

And now, for your pleasure, here are some random stereotypical gay pictures. Enjoy.