30 Days: Slackware Entry #1

Good news, the antenna works and connects to my home network on both Windows and my Slackware install. I decided, even after already installing Slackware, and having it sit on my hard drive without much use, to re-install. This way, I would be starting fresh so I could analyze every setting prompted so that this 30 day trial goes more smoothly. I'll update when I actually have some problems (that I will hopefully fix) or some questions, comments, or concerns (and of course praise for the fact that it will obviously run better/faster/more efficiently than Windows).

Hope to post again soon. Until then, fare thee well (and fare me well).

Having Issues with that Damned Antenna

You'll have to excuse my french.

Anyway, I cannot seem to get the wireless antenna to work properly even in Windoze...
This will captivate my attention all night as I attempt to get it working. Once I have it working on my Windows install, I'll move over to Slack and get everything working together nicely.

Once this damned thing starts working, I'll gladly begin my 30 days. Until then, I'll be using Windows (ugh!).

I'll keep you posted.

Windoze Annoyances

A few things annoy me about one of the most widely used operating systems available. First of all, why is it the most widely used OS? If people took the time to explore other possibilities rather than asking the neighborhood geek to expunge their computer of viruses then the world would be a better place (for geeks at least). People, instead, to flock to a deemed newbie Linux distribution, such as anything *buntu. (I personally don't think Ubuntu is a very newbie distro; however, the general opinion that I have observed from power-users is that 'tis)

Second, Micro$oft always finds a way to throw some proprietary bullshit at you. For example, there are four different versions of Windows Vista, when at the very most only 2 are necessary, a personal computer (essentially "home") edition that still includes features for power users, and a business version loaded primarily with all kinds of office applications. Also, MS was kind enough to screw me on my home network (with windows XP, mind you). Apparently, XP Home and Pro refuse to network with each other! After much searching around, Home and Pro cannot share files with one another or network printers with one another.

Third, the security is rather poor. Honestly, Microsoft could at least take a leaf out of the Linux book and realize all you need to do to really beef up security by removed administrator rights from the user until the user is ready to make administrator decisions. This way, admin decisions are only made (for example, deleting a system file or installing an app) when the user wants them to be made avoiding all kinds of security problems that Windows consistently fails to address. The sudo command is an excellent example of this.

Fourth, there are a lot of customization options that are only available in Windows with proprietary software (and occasionally the great piece of open-source freeware, such as the Pidgin IM client or Mozilla Firefox). For example, it is difficult to find an excellent way to theme the overall appearance of your desktop/menus without a proprietary software like Windows Blinds or Style XP (both shareware last time I checked). Whereas on Linux, theming is a built in system option, with websites like Gnome Look and KDE Look to obtain themes for any distro running Gnome or KDE. Those are just two of many possible sites to obtain themes, and with enough knowledge you can even create your own themes.

Fifth, Windoze limits the amount of memory it takes advantage of. Windows XP alone has a limit of about 3 GB of RAM (including the memory used by your graphics card and other system resources). Vista also limits RAM to around 3 gigs. Once again, Linux for the win.

There. My rant about how much Windows has sucked since the good old days of Windows 98 and 95. Does anyone remember Windows ME (millenium edition)? No? Exactly. Anyway, if I said something incorrectly, or misinterpreted something, be sure to comment on what I wrote.

Also, I should have my first 30 Days of Slackware entry up in the next day or two.

30 Days: Slackware Entry #.75: I Strike at Dawn

I have the antenna, and I plan on installing the hardware and software (on slack) tonight. After that, I'll update and get any additional software I need. So I should be all set to begin my 30 day trial. Also, there won't be a podcast for awhile....there simply hasn't been time the last few weeks. But no worries, the podcast will be back the weekend after Memorial Day weekend.

Epic Win

I got this from the LQ forums...thought it was hilarious

Epic journey? Cue Gene Roddenberry:

Quote:

Slackware. The final frontier.
These are the voyages of Nerdman978.
His 30 day mission:
To explore strange new interfaces.
To seek out new applications and new utilities.
To boldly go where no man has gone before...

after this the original poster was kind enough to rip apart my idea...

This only really goes to show the wanted and unwanted attention I would be getting for my endeavor. Anyway, I thought that the above quote that the poster referred to was definitely epic win.

And for the hell of it, I googled "epic win" for images, and I actually read this entire thing and thought it too was epic win. I realize that this is taken from someone playing WoW, and how lame and sad WoW is...however, there is something to be said for the response this user received from a moderator.

Vista Service Pack 1?

Wow maybe Vista will suck less now. SP1 has been out for about three weeks, and although I have not used it yet...hopefully they made some improvements to Vista that will make the lives of the poor people who bought computers that came bundled with Vista easier. Perhaps we could tell some of these people to drop their Windoze and convert to Linux...eh? Just keep spreading the Linux word all...its the best we can do.

and remember,
Microsoft gives you windows, but Linux gives you the whole house! (one of my favorite quotes I saw on the forums once)

Weekly Headshot Podcast Episode 5

Is now available on iTunes (yuck!) or your favorite podcast aggregator.

grab the feed here: http://www.switchpod.com/
users/natetenz978/feed.xml

In this episode, we discuss Assassin's Creed "Director's Cut" release for the PC, the source engine dropping support for non-SSE processors, and my 30 day endeavor into Linux.

30 Days: Slackware Entry #.25

Hello. After reading some of the feedback on the forums, and listening to my friend, I realize that Slackware is designed to be a very, very stable distro. With that in mind, I am a bit more reluctant to try the new, and not so stable, KDE 4. I have decided that it will be best to test KDE 4 towards the LATTER end of this 30 day trek across my computer. Also, in response to some more feedback I received on the forums, I have the latest Slackware 12.1 installed with the last stable release of KDE (3.5.9 is it?). As I stated earlier, I need to get a few things settled before the 30 days can begin (note how the entry is .25 not an integer).

Thanks for all the marvelous feedback on the forums to help guide me on my quest!

30 Days of a Distro

I am about to embark on an epic journey. I hope to begin as soon as possible, with school and sports permitting. For 30 days it is my goal to solely use ONE Linux distribution that I am completely new to, and see if I can become accustomed to it and if I like it. I am already somewhat experienced with Ubuntu Linux and the Gnome desktop environment, so for my first choice I shall be doing Slackware linux running KDE (and hopefully KDE 4) to see how I like it, whether it is noob friendly (as I will be a noob to it), what the learning curve is, etc. At least four times a week for the thirty days I hope to report back my readers about how my epic pilgrimmage fares.

So the first distro will be Slackware.



I hope to run it with KDE 4.0 and an optimum configuration for my machine.
Other features I'd like to try include Compiz and some C++ development like I've done on Windows and occasionally Ubuntu. NOTE: I AM NOT STARTING THE 30 DAYS NOW. I'll post later when I actually begin because first:

1. I need to get a new antenna for my Wireless G-PCI add in card because the USB wireless device I have now is no longer support and the drivers are EXTREMELY difficult to find, therefore I need to get an antenna for a very popular wireless PCI card (WMP54G from Linksys).
2. Get KDE 4.0 running on Slackware.
3. and get other annoying default settings squared away so that I can start off smoothly.

It should be a fun time. I'll update when I begin my journey. =D