Back up. I've been using this third generation, hand-me-down laptop that was originally purchased for Kyle for his High School graduation present in preparation for heading to college (four and a half freekin' years ago!). After Kyle got his Macbook, this laptop went to Carly who used it until she got a Macbook for her graduation and then I inherited it. Sigh...
I've been using it downstairs to browse while watching TV or just lounging so that I'm not always sitting in the computer room (or for when Deb hogs the main machine). It's actually not bad for a Windows machine. Over the last couple of days however, I started getting virus warnings that the virus scanner was unable to fix. Who knows what all the kids had put on this thing so it's integrity was suspect anyway. So, I could re-install Windows or I could try Linux.
Linux is an open-source operating system that is built on a version of the Unix operating system which powers the big data center servers. Linux is supported by enthusiasts who contribute things to it to make it better and support all kinds of things. One problem with Unix (and therefore Linux) though is that it was designed for computer nerds and is really not suitable for the general public. For example, here's how you turn off the sound that plays when you login:
nftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds --type bool false
Yeah, that ain't gonna play in Kansas.
So, various organizations have come up with packages to make Linux more friendly to the average user. Ubuntu is one such organization and is relatively popular so that's the one I chose. Ubuntu gives each version a different name. This one is Karmic Koala. Others have been Jaunty Jackalope, Hardy Heron, you get the idea. Way to take yourselves seriously guys...
Anyway, with the laptop still running Windows, I downloaded a CD image of the Ubuntu installation CD and burned it to a blank CD. Then I rebooted the laptop to boot from the CD and it went through the installation process - wiping Windows off the machine. No going back now...
It went through pretty quickly and in about a half an hour, I had a new system. Only problem was that the wireless network wouldn't work. Hmm. One kind of catch-22 with this stuff is that all the fixes and updates are basically only available over the internet so, in cases like this, in order to fix your internet connection, you have to have a working internet connection. Ruh-Roh.
It's not as bad as it seems though. Usually, the wired network connections will work so I took it upstairs, connected the cable from the router to the laptop and established a glorious, soul-saving, all-things-are-now-possible, connection to the web. Yeeh-Haw!
I then set about the process of figuring out how to make the wireless connection work so I could use this thing downstairs. With a bit of Googling and tweaking and fiddling, I was able to make the wireless card work again and got connected. I'm now downstairs, sitting on the couch, typing this post.
I've spent most of the morning (while the blizzard rages outside) trying to get the automatic updates running so that security patches and system upgrades can be downloaded and applied. I *think* I've got that working but it hasn't been fun.
Not really sure about the whole Linux thing overall though. Twenty years ago, all this tweaking and modifying would have been a lot of fun but now I just want things to work. Still, it's free and all I really need is a web browser and that's working so I can't really complain too much.
What I really need to do is turn this thing into a Hackintosh - a regular PC laptop running the Mac operating system. THAT would be cool!
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