Shanktified!

ZDNet.com has news about Ubuntu available at BestBuy for 20 bucks, writing:

So what do you get for your twenty bucks? The retail box contains ”Ubuntu 8.04 CD, a Quick Start Guide and 60 days of support from the ValuSoft team, trained and backed by the Canonical support guys. The support covers installation and getting started using Ubuntu and is priced at $19.99.”

This is good news from a marketing standpoint; pushing Linux even more main stream.  Will they sell a lot of boxes?  Probably not.  But this is still a good move. Or at least it can be.  I’d like to see what they wrote on the box.  There is still a lot of misunderstanding about Linux and how something free can be as good (or arguably better) than a 200-300 dollar operating system.  There’s also a great deal of misconception about what software will work and won’t work on it.

Back to the article:  I agree 2 month’s of support is not worth the 20 bucks.  Download the ISO and burn a disk. Don’t know how or what I even just said?  Click here.

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And you gotta wonder how many folks are also doing like I did, and going to Linux?

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.

Thanks again to the always-has-an-answer Ubuntu Forum.  I have E-sword running perfectly in Linux (under Wine).  Here’s the link

The only thing that would make me happier would be for Rick to release the e-Sword code as Open Source or at least make a full blown Linux version.  “Me toos!” and other comments welcome.

Try as I might, I could not get java to run in Firefox 3 on Ubuntu 8.04.  Turns out to be a really simple fix.

Eirik Hoem’s Blog had the answer to my problem:

I’ve been struggling with lava support for Firefox after upgrading from Ubunut 7.10 to 8.04. All I had to do was to remove the package called icedtea-gcjwebplugin. Now, I don’t know my way around java anymore, but at least it did the trick. Worth a shot if you have problems.

The Ubuntu 8.04 Beta Release is out.  I’ve upgraded and like what I am seeing so far. However, it has not been painless.  I continue to deal with issues related to proprietary hardware they (Compaq) put in this laptop to make it Vista Blista friendly.

So I’m a kernel version behind. I think I just need to find the right kernel for the AMD.  I’ll do a little more reading on this.  I’m also missing some of my Compiz settings because my Nvidia card is also a proprietary one (I know they have linux versions - this one isn’t however).  But I got it to work with 7.10.  I just need to find outwhat I did last time.  And depending what kernal I use, I loose my broadcom wireless.  That’s been a big issue in the past but they (Ubuntu) have come a long way on that, and expect them too overcome it again. Again I just need to do a little reading or post something to the Ubuntu Forum.

Don’t let any of that scare you from getting a live CD downloaded and trying Ubuntu for yourself.  For most people “it just works.” Let me know how it goes for you!  And if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’m not an expert yet, but will help all I can.

Here’s a great fix for those of you missing your Itunes store in Linux.

Amazon MP3 Downloader

Now, if they would just have .ogg files But great start Amazon - take a bow!

Footnote: Convert mp3’s to better sounding ogg files with oggconvert.
From terminal: sudo apt-get install oggconvert

My Ubuntu has never look so good with this sweet theme.

Ubuntu “Gutsy Gibbon” Should be out this week.  Once it’s out, I recommend getting a live-cd and trying the demo.  If it works with your current hardware you’ll be wanting to switch soon.

Looks like I am stuck in the Microsoft swamp for a little while longer. Why? Because much my Comaq Presario hardware not open source friendly.  Note to self:  Check this list when ordering my next PC.

Free Software Drivers | Ubuntu

First, before I say anything, let me say it’s ultimately my fault for not having better backups of my data (yeah, it’s been 9 months).  Secondly it’s my fault for not having better backups.  Had I had current backups we all know Vista (Yeah, I know - I know - Believe me - I know) would have never gone belly up on me.

Oh Don’t feel too bad, Bill.  I’m still gonna visit from time to time (only because Dreamweaver makes me (for now). Quickbooks just made the switch easier for us.

Yesterday, I finally reinstalled Vista and my next step is to partition the hard drive (oh and <sarcasm class=”extreme”>thanks for changing how that was done too</sarcasm>) and then create a dual-boot with Linux (Ubuntu) as my primary OS.

More on that as the days go along.

And if you are curious as to what caused the crash all I was doing was trying to clear some disk space. Vista’s shadow copies were taking up 10 Gigs of space on my hard drive (minimal space they say, right)! I rebooted and :p she was gone.

I was able with a Helix/Linux boot disk to recover many of the files I needed.  But it was so time consuming that it wasn’t worth much of the effort.  Did I mention I am a fool for not taking the time to back up my data in the first place?

Please don’t help me row my ship of fools.  Get off and make a back up of anything you deem mission critical today.

BTW: If you are reading this because you fried your hard drive and didn’t make backups, let me know and I’ll be happy to help as much as I can.