It’s all fine.  They don’t have to give you a nag-free year to begin with. If you don’t want to pay for your operating system, then get Ubuntu (or some other flavor of Linux).

Only two hick-ups so far.  The first, compiz boogered up on my leaving my Panels (or menu bars as some call them) not displaying properly.  I finally had to reset them back to square one.  Which is really easy to do, thanks to this post: How to Reset Ubuntu/Gnome Settings to Defaults without Re-installing.

My next minor problem was even easier to fix: Hide the drive and partition icons from my desktop.  Ubuntu question #2625: “removing icons from the desktop”.

I also had to reconfigure my compiz settings manually. Everytime I restored from the back up profile, it boogered up something again making me reset my gnome defaults.

If you are a Ubuntu newbie and don’t understand half of what I just said, please feel free to post a comment or check in the Ubuntu Forums.  We were all new once.

Don’t have Ubuntu or even know what it is?

Check out their website: www.ubuntu.com or nag me to put up a screencast of my own desktop.

Broken Vista

No wallpaper sums up my feelings about vista as much as this one.  Sweet.

Well.. maybe this mod of it

I’m tired of dealing with Windows malware, patch Tuesday, and the never-ending deterioration of the OS as it clogs up like a drain in a greasy-spoon restaurant. I can’t take it anymore.

And there’s something else that always bugs me about Windows. I have an iMac that I use at the office, and a few times every month Apple has some patch that it sends out. With few exceptions, each time a patch is installed with the Mac OS, the performance of the machine improves. With Windows, the performance always declines.

I don’t think Microsoft has ever sent out a patch that improved the performance of the machine. Ever.

read the whole column here >  Dvorak Likes Linux – PC Magazine.

Ad-man-super-genius, Roy Williams, has often said, “know what to leave out.”  But in this case It’s almost like an admission that Vista does suck.

That wind ablowin’ is a collective sigh of releif from Mac.

Cup of Ubuntu anyone?

Linux reaching a record 2.8 per cent share last month [in the UK] pointed to an increasing appetite for OS alternatives, much like other research has found. Wanna read the full story?

Keep in mind this is up from .1 percent in early 2007.

The main reasons (besides Vista frustration) are Ubuntu has made it easier for people to get started in Linux and it sure helps Dell is pre-loading Ubuntu on some machines.

If you are frustrated with Vista, or just want to give this Linux thing a try, don’t be afraid. You may have to learn a couple new things (like burning an iso image to a CD) but there are some great guides online that make it easy.  Heck, you can even Skype me and I’ll help you if I can.  The biggest question most people have is “can i go back if I don’t like it.”  Absolutely.  Ubuntu (and nearly ever version of Linux) has a “Live CD” where you can put a CD in the drive, reboot and it bypasses (but doesn’t touch) your operating system with Ubuntu running completely from the disk and your memory.  Keep in mind this is much slower than how it will actually run.  But it is a great way to get a peak at it and see if it will work well with your hardware. When you are done, log out, remove the disk, reboot and you are back in Vista (burp – I just threw up in my mouth a little typing that).

Spurred by an e-mail from someone deep in the marketing ranks, Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a “new” operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that “Mojave” was actually Windows Vista.

Sounds a little like the “Folger’s Switch” from years ago.

Instead trying this on XP fans, try it with some Mac-vangelists or fellow Linux fans.  Then you’ll impress me.

Vista woes fuel Mac sales surge – analyst | Register Hardware
The 3G iPhone may be getting all the attention this week, but let’s not forget Apple’s other product line, the Mac family, which is enjoying new-found success thanks to… Microsoft.

According to US investment house BMO Capital Markets, cited by AppleInsider, Apple will have shipped up to 2.5m Macs between April and June inclusive – enough for a 39 per cent year-on-year growth rate.

More to the point, that rate of increase is more than three times the industry average of 12.2 per cent.