Especially dapper testers:

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu

If you want to build from source, the site will list the needed dependencies. Find and report bugs there. It is as necessary to look at as the Ubuntu Forums. I finally got mplayer to work and skin by using the information available here.

This is an interesting site for us Ubuntu users: behindubuntu.org. It’s going to feature interviews with the people behind making Ubuntu. They only have one interview on there right now, Jonathan Riddell, he works on the KDE version, Kubuntu (yech). They got some background biographical information, and some photos, like the Ubuntu conference room:

High tech! The people who work on Ubuntu do a fantastic job, I’m glad to get to know them better. The idea is based on ‘The People Behind KDE.’ [via]

I haven’t written for a while, I’m busy with library school and the end of the semester is approaching so I don’t have a lot of time. I did create some wallpapers for Ubuntu. The Ubuntu trademark policy allows the use of the logo for wallpapers. They’re really basic, but I think some people may like them.

Check them out:
(Hover over the picture for a description and size info)

1280 x 960

1152 x 864

1280 x 960

1152 x 864

1280 x 960

1152 x 864

1280 x 960

1152 x 864

1280 x 960

1152 x 864

1280 x 960

More on my adventures on switching to Ubuntu. You can read my first installment if you want some background info. There’s always a lot of discussion about user-friendliness and it means different things to different people. Is Linux user friendly? With a graphical desktop environment like gnome installed you could make the argument that it is. What a Linux distribution isn’t, however, is ‘lazy-friendly.’ I’ve learned that the hard way. Not paying very careful attention to what instructions say or what you’re doing inside of a configuration file could spell instant death for your operating system. I tried to install xgl on Ubuntu, on a version on which it is not really wise to do so. The instructions said this, but I missed it. I lost everything and had to begin from the start.

Linux gives you a lot of power and control, while Windows takes it away from you for your own saftey. Linux treats you like a responsible adult giving you freedom and responsibility and Windows treats you like a child, taking it away and telling you what you can and can’t do (like with DRM for instance).

It’s not about technological know-how. I don’t have a PhD in computer science. I don’t even know a high level programming language, and I’m able to install and configure and run a linux OS. I finally took the plunge and followed it through. There was a lot of work involved but it paid off, and it was entirely free. I look at my Ubuntu OS and I feel a sense of ownership over it, I feel a bit of pride in having been able to get it running, and I’ve even managed to customize it in a way that suits me. I feel as if I control my OS and not the other way around, and I’m sure as I learn more about it, that feeling will only grow.

Linux is a real alternative OS. It’s not the half-assembled car in your garage you tinker with for fun but never intend to drive to work with (if you ever get it running to begin with). Larger corporations like IBM, Sun, and Oracle with multi-billion dollar global assets run Unix and Linux operating systems in production environments. There are distributions that will do everything you can think of for your personal needs. Just two days ago my wife and I worked out our monthly spending for February on OpenOffice calc. It did everything we needed it to, and it’s all free.

What have we been afraid of? Saving money? A little bit of work? It’s time to stop giving money to Microsoft out of fear and start jumping into the free world of software, a world of freedom and responsibility, and reward for diligence and hard work. At least it is time for me.

I installed ubuntu on one of my hard drives two days ago after creating a partition for it in Windows setup. That explains my absence from writing for that time. I was hearing so much about this Linux based OS that I wanted to try it. It was a lot of work to get everything to work right because of my hardware. For many though, it will work right out of the box. You just go to ubuntu.com, download the latest stable version and burn it to a disk. To put it on a system just put the disk in and boot from it. It pretty much installs itself.

The hardware issues I had were a bit tough, but the ubuntu community is so very helpful. I had a lot of my questions answered by people on #ubuntu on irc.freenode.org and by searching the internet and the ubuntu forums. The toughest was installing the latest nVidia driver so that I could get 3D support for my nVidia 7800 GTX. The process is very picky and you have to install various things before you can even begin and initially it was such a headache (the graphical user interface crashed several times) that I almost gave up. Linux, however, rewards patience and persistence.

Once I had sound, video, and printing working I was set. I am set! It’s so nice. It is an impressive experience. The best part is that all the software is free! Gimp, a very powerful linux Photoshop counterpart, and inkscape, an illustrator counterpart are free! As far as I can see they’re just as powerful as Adobe’s products. Gimp comes installed! Firefox, xchat, and many other programs come preinstalled. Installing new applications is easy with the package manager, it’s easier than having to scour the web to get free software for Windows.

I love it. It is beautiful. I’ve managed to install Japanese language input, so my wife can use it to talk to her family and browse Japanese websites. I’ve upgraded to the latest versions of Firefox and installed all the extensions I had on Windows (including Google and Yahoo’s toolbars) and imported my bookmarks. It’s amazing.

The negative is that my USB headset doesn’t work so well, a shame, and my scanner isn’t supported. I can switch back to Windows to scan though. I can talk to everyone on IM using GAIM (the Linux version is much prettier). I have OpenOffice to write documents with, basically, I love it. I’m going to see if I can just use it, instead of windows. If I want to play my games, I’ll have to switch to Windows though. Also, I’ll have to figure out how my wife and her mother can talk using MS messenger, maybe we’ll have to schedule when they’ll call each other so that I can be using Windows at that time.

It’s great, I recommend Ubuntu! I consider myself to be only moderately technical, and I feel that if I can get all this to work, many others can to. I’ll provide updates to my Ubuntu experience by writing about it here.