switch to linux on my desktop-machine

Glad I did it.

I grew up on Windows, and about 6 months ago I switched to Linux (Ubuntu), and I have not regretted it one bit. It was a little different at first, but overall, I like Linux a lot more than Windows. Maybe it is knowing that everything on my computer is free and legal. Maybe it is the fact that I know that I am not giving into a huge corporation that is just out there to make money. It might even be that I am now not inviting tons of spyware onto my computer. I don’t know, but I would recommend to anybody to switch to linux.

I’ve tried Ubuntus Live CD on my Thinkpad X40 but never got the wireless network connection (or rather WPA-PSK encryption) to work. After an unfortunate accident resulting in a cracked LCD I’ve now switched to Macbook and Mac OS X. So at least I don’t have to rely on Windows (except when I work and when I want to write to my NTFS formatted hard drive).

I don’t really have to do this. Doing tech support for other people and being file friendly with games, programs, and files my friend give me is easier with windoze…Guess what though…
I have another computer, Just for Linux, I guess I succeeded at this goal anyway? Maybe?

I’ve been fooling around with setting up Linux desktops for about half a decade now but it wasn’t until recently that I learned how to set up a server.

I learned to set up 2 NIC cards, connect to a DSL modem using pppoeconfig, set up the firewall using firestarter, set up the DNS server with the help of dnsmasq, set up an ftp server using vsftp, set up an http proxy server using squid, and get it all connected to the winboxes in the network using Samba. Oh, and on an unrelated note, I also learned how to crimp RJ45s. (Sheepish grin.)

All I need now is to learn the AMP part in LAMP.

You should all do this. Linux is way better than Windows

It’s almost mystical to use a different OS with all the strange new capabilities I knew were there but never had an idea what they were for. Switching to linux was great for me since it made learning programming easier and more manual. it let me stand on my own legs instead of microsofts crutches! The terminal is invaluable!

It’s worth doing even if only for the experience you gain.
Besides all the experience you gain the choice and the power to control what is yours.

Not perfect but at least it’s yours.

I am writing this on my hand-rolled Linux!!! Finally got the network card to connect to the internet after literally about a hundred tries. I was on the verge of buying a new card tomorrow, discarding the new one I had just bought. It’s only about Php 425, but its pretty steep considering my extremely limited funds.

So many things ran through my mind: Man, not another monumental failure, just when I was so close… Oh heck, have to shell out another 500 bucks for a new card… What now? Everyone’s counting on me… Good-bye server, good-bye future career…

Apparently, the card (D-Link DFE-528TX) must be in half-duplex (10mbs) mode. I had been running in the default 100mbps full-duplex mode. After a couple of hours of tweaking this and that, here and there, I was able to get it connected to the router!

Seriously, the entire hand-rolled Linux project hinged on this. Had I failed this part, (which was almost a certainty) I might as well have not started this at all!

Thank you Lord Jesus for listening and helping me out. Literally had my hands up in despair.

WOW, THIS IS SO COOL, SURFING ON SOMETHING I CREATED! GOD RULZ!

Ok, the mouse is a bit crappy, but that’s easy to fix.

So tired… Physically, mentally. Need to rest…

I’m using Ubuntu 5.10 for AMD64 at home. The drawback to this is that the Windows Media v9 codec doesn’t work under AMD64 Linux without a lot of fiddliness. (I also have some work related apps that I need Windows for, so I’m going to set up a Windows partition…)