Kevin’s Blog

1. Excercise
   2. Do more exciting stuff.
   3. Learn local roads. (Besides the one between school and home.)

Installing the OS

    <ul>
        <li>Linux - It works, most of the time, with <span style="font-style: italic;">most hardware.</span>
        </li>
        <li>Windows - It works, almost all the time, with all <span style="font-style: italic;">supported hardware.</span>
        </li>
        <li>OS X - It works, all the time, on <span style="font-style: italic;">Macs.</span>
        </li>
    </ul>
    <p>
        <span style="font-weight: bold;">Look and Feel</span><br>
    </p>
    <ul>
        <li>Linux - Plasticky, with occasional glitches, but super fast<br>
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Programs that use GTK will have buttons and other controls that look like they came straight out of Windows 3.11
                </li>
                <li>Many themes available: kde-looks.org<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>Windows - Nothing to write home about.
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Third party themes are a pain to install.<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>OS X - It's the gold standard.
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>If anything, it may be a bit too much eye candy for some people.<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
            <ul>
                <li>Awesome attention to detail - Notice how dialog boxes have a glowing button and an outlined one? Pressing space bar activates the outlined one and pressing Enter activates the glowing one.<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
    </ul>
    <p>
        <span style="font-weight: bold;">Application Availability</span><br>
    </p>
    <ul>
        <li>Linux - Not that good, since most companies don't develop open source software, but nearly everything is free.
        </li>
        <li>Windows - Super Good. It's ubiquitous, so it makes sense that it has the most application support.<br>
        </li>
        <li>OS X - OK. Everything you need is there, except games.<br>
        </li>
    </ul>
    <p>
        <span style="font-weight: bold;">Application Installation</span><br>
    </p>
    <ul>
        <li>Linux - Easy
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Use apt-get, or copy and paste some command line entries from the package maintainer's site.<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>Windows - Easier
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Double click the install.exe<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>OS X - Easiest
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Drag to Applications folder<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
    </ul>
    <p>
        <span style="font-weight: bold;">Perceived Application Quality</span><br>
    </p>
    <ul>
        <li>Linux - Good
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>considering it's all free stuff
                </li>
                <li>Things can be crashy... Perhaps it's because the dynamic libraries they depend on are constantly changing.<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>Windows - Mostly Crap
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Most of the programs that cost money aren't even as good as their open source counterparts (check out the multitude of CD-burning programs).
                </li>
                <li>However, there are a small number of very high quality Windows-only apps... It's sort of a "long-tail" distribution.<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>OS X - Awesome
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Super !!! 111 One One One 0xFFFFFF !!!
                </li>
                <li style="list-style: none">
                    <ul>
                        <li>Even <span style="font-style: italic;">dysfunctional</span> apps appear to ooze with quality.<br>
                        </li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
    </ul>
    <p>
        <span style="font-weight: bold;">Consumer Hardware Utilization</span><br>
    </p>
    <ul>
        <li>Linux - Passable.
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Most vendors don't provide open source drivers for their products, so people have to make new drivers, which, from my experience, either work flawlessly, or only provide the basics (3 out of 9 mouse buttons isn't too bad).<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>Windows - Awesome.
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>If it doesn't work on Windows, it probably won't sell that well...
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>OS X - Slick, as long as it's supported hardware. Otherwise, you're screwed.
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Normally, when you install new hardware, you expect to configure it and step through some sort of install process On the Mac, you just plug it in and it <span style="font-style: italic;">automagically</span> knows how you wanted it set up, (most of the time). So you can <span style="font-style: italic;">just use it</span>.<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
    </ul>
    <p>
        <span style="font-weight: bold;">Viruses and Spyware</span><br>
    </p>
    <ul>
        <li>Linux - I've been running without Antivirus for a few days and I haven't noticed any strange events. However, a good virus would hide its presence until called upon to perform its duty. I wonder how I would detect a virus before it's too late...
        </li>
        <li>Windows - Not having both antivirus and antispyware scanning is blasphemy.
        </li>
        <li>OS X - No antivirus, no antispyware, no problem. Again, I wouldn't know how to detect a virus if it somehow infected the system. Oh well.
        </li>
    </ul>
    <p>
        <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Community Support</span></span><br>
    </p>
    <ul>
        <li>Linux - There are a lot of distros. Fortunately, I chose Kubuntu, which is (allegedly) a very user-friendly distro with a large following. Therefore, getting help was easy.
        </li>
        <li>Windows - Highlight error. Paste it into Google. Instant support.
        </li>
        <li>OS X - Large swaths of Mac users use the same hardware, and the software choices do not vary that much; so, even though the Mac-using population is small, the homogeneity of hardware and software configurations guarantees a sizeable support group.
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>Plus, there are sites like MacRumors and ThinkSecret that host forums that serve as secondary support groups.<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
    </ul>
    <p>
        <span style="font-weight: bold;">Inspiration</span><br>
    </p>
    <ul>
        <li>Linux - Inspires one to hack.
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>since everything comes with source<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>Windows - Inspires one to try other OS's.
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>since it's old and crufty<br>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>OS X - Inspires one to create good-looking things.<br>
        </li>
        <li style="list-style: none">
            <ul>
                <li>since it's elegant
                </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
    </ul>

OS Install

I downloaded the Kubuntu CD image from the official site, burned it to a CD, set my BIOS to boot from removable media first. I have a Dell Dimension 9100 and it was set to boot from HD first. The installation seemed to go smoothly. The only option I had to change from the default was the time zone.

Unfortunately, after booting up, I discovered that my display was stuck at a sub-optimal resolution. To remedy this, I used sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and was able to select the correct resolution for my FP2405.

Additionally, my Logitech MX510’s extra buttons were miss-mapped. For example, the foreword and back buttons don’t go foreword or backwards in any of the browsers.

Installing and Upgrading with apt-get

Kubuntu includes a apt-get GUI called Adept. One of the first things I did was use the System Update Wizard. I basically just pressed “Upgrade” and everything on my machine was upgraded.

Next, I used the System>Package Manager (Adept) to install the linux-686-smp kernel metapackage, which, I hope, took advantage of the HyperThreading available on my 3.0Ghz Intel P4. This required a reboot.

I’d heard of Native Eclipse and wondered if Adept had it. All I had to do was type “Eclipse” into the Adept search box and install everything. Apparently, the GCJ appended packages provide the natively compiled portions of the installation.

Eventually, I discovered Kubuntu-Automatix. This is basically a super-install shell script with a GUI. I used to install common codecs, media players, Firefox + all plugins (flash etc.), SUN Java, MS TrueType Fonts, RAR, ACE, MPlayer, OpenOffice.org 2.0, and DMA (Direct Memory Access - devices can directly shuttle information to memory without using the CPU). This script includes a ton of packages. There are even DVD decoders, (which the installer says are illegal to install in the United States).

I just finished reading Running Linux. As a result, I am hyped up about linux. I think I’m going to install openSUSE or Fedora Core 4 on an old junker and try it out.

Fink has been building for more than 8 hours now…
287 FinkComman 5.2% 8:05.02 4 96 204 10.2M 12.3M 29.2M 124M

I wonder if killing the process will do any harm…