This is the best article I’ve read all month. I wish I’d written it myself .

A Man and his Penguin : Is OS X ready for the desktop?

Dear World,

Sometimes, you just have the hardware of the darned, and getting Linux to cooperate on it just isn’t worth the time.

This is usually not the case.

Please try the Live CD of a distro beforer you install it onto your hard drive–just to make sure everything works as it should.

Please don’t let one bad experience make you trot around the Internet telling people that nothing ever works with Linux.

If you must trot around the Internet, please don’t whine.

Adopting a pessimistic attitude of, “Linux didn’t work on this one computer–it won’t work on any” is spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt around. Nobody needs this–not Linux fans, not Windows fans, not Mac fans, not the greater computer-loving world.

Thank you,

Timmy Macdonald

Just for kicks, I decided to install CrunchBang Linux (Ubuntu core, but with Openbox instead of GNOME).

I’m still learning about it, so this won’t be the moment to give you a 2,000-word description on “CrunchBang for Power Users” or something like that, but I’ve been able to do everything I did in GNOME, and have the following to say:

1. It’s not for l33t h4x0rs. I’m far from being a Linux guru (in the sense of having an intimate knowledge of the guts of my system), but I still don’t think there’s that big of a learning curve between something like GNOME or Xfce and this. To be honest, I think it’s easier than Xfce.
2. It’s fast. It’s definitely faster than the behemoth mammoths that are GNOME and Xfce, and it seems a bit more responsive than Xfce (which I have installed on the same computer, by the way).
3. Try it. Really, there’s nothing to lose. If you have the hard drive space, snag the .iso and throw CrunchBang onto a 5GB partition. Failing that, try it in a virtual machine, or off the LiveCD. Maybe you’ll hate it. Fine. Don’t use it. But maybe you’ll love it like I do, and feel liberated. Why not?

And finally, the obligatory screenshot (which represents about 8 minutes of work, I haven’t even changed the background yet)

Well, when my laptop’s screen started to go, I should have listened.

Now, the vertical cluster of dead lines is three times as wide, completely filled in (instead of just being scattered), the top left quadrant of the screen is toast, and everything is substantially whiter (it was unusably white until I managed to run JScreenFix, which ameliorated the situation a bit).

So this laptop has moved from “kind of inconvenient to use” to “use as little as possible, until it can be turned into some kind of server, or desktop replacement.”

And, thankfully, I think I’m getting a secondhand replacement.

In other news, today is the day when Jaunty (aka Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope”) came out! It looks really enticing–I’m a fan of both jauntiness and jackalopes (much more than ibeces, however intrepid they may be), and I’m also all about faster booting, Ext4, and that new notification deal. Speaking about the new notification deal, I think it’s going to solve a pet peeve of mine–left-clicking on the volume applet in the taskbar gives you a slider for volume, while right-clicking gives you the checkbox for muting. What’s more, if it’s muted, no sound will come out, no matter how high you raise the volume. It’s a minor complaint, but I’m looking forward to being able to control both from the same menu. Happy Release Day!

—-

Again, I apologize for any misspellings or typos–half of this is typed without the benefit of vision.

PS-I’m sorry if I scared you with the title (could an Ubuntu release ever be that bad?   .

I’ve made a hardware page, because I can.

Woot.

Move on.

I’ve predicted that my laptop (Sony Vaio PCG-TR3A; 512MB RAM, 1000mHz processor, 40GB HD) would be put on the “List of Things Timmy Wants Replaced” because of a hardware failure, not a software failure. I wish I didn’t know if I was right or not.

A few days ago, I turned it on, and discovered a 1-inch wide cluster of vertical, multi-colored lines, and a 1/4-inch cluster of horizontal, black and white line going across my screen. Eek! I’ve tried cycling the pixels, the press-on-it-with-a-damp-cloth method, and the tap-it-with-a-pen-lid method, and nothing works. I also asked for help on the Ubuntu Forums, and they told me that it sounded like my pixels were gone for good.

This is the part where the teeth-gnashing starts.

I searched eBay for either the same laptop, or a replacemnt screen ($261), both of which were too expensive to consider. And the money I have in the bank is for stuff like cars and college, not fixing a computer annoyance. I may be able to complete a programming job which would cover a new one (I’ve been wanting to have a full GB of RAM for a while. Maybe I’ll live dangerously and get two…or four), or if that doesn’t work out I’ll sit tight and wait and see if somebody I know is getting rid of their “old” laptop.

In the meantime, though, I’m left guessing about what a few of the words in the middle of my screen are, and shifting windows, StarCraft units, and text around to compensate. It could be worse–it’s been a much bigger inconvenience to boot up to a GRUB Error 17. But I can fix a GRUB Error 17. Oh well.

——

I tried to take a picture, but the several I took didn’t look right at all.

I’ve been having inner turmoil about text editors for a while. On the one hand, I realize that Vim is super-powerful, and I should use it. On the other hand, I don’t know a lot of commands, and I frequently find that I actually get more work done in gedit. This makes me not use Vim, and then I forget a few commands I used to know, and then when I do use Vim it’s a worse experience than before.

Luckily, there’s a solution: the ViGedit gedit plugin. It lets you use all your favorite Vim commands from within gedit.

Sweetness.

So to install it, do the following:

1. Open up a terminal, and create a folder called ViGedit. Or do it in Nautilus. Whatever.  Navigate to the folder using the “cd” command in the terminal, and then type in this: “bzr branch http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~tristil/vigedit/main-method“. You may get an error saying bzr (Bazaar) is not installed, but it’ll also give you the apt-get command to install it.
2. Type in “cd main-method”.
3. Type in “python install.py”.
4. Close the terminal, open gedit, and go to Edit->Preferences. Under the “Plugins” tab, put a check mark next to ViGedit, and then close the preferences window.
5. Smile, dance, sing, jump around, shout for joy, and then do some editing!

As a sidenote, I’m assuming that eventually I’ll be able to comfortably drop the gedit wrapper, and just use Vim by itself. But training wheels never hurt anyone .

I read this today:

Windows Vista: The installation of Windows Vista is extremely easy. After putting in the DVD and you will be asked if you want to start from the disc. The next step is basically just to confirm that you want to install Vista on that computer and the machine does all the rest. About 20 minutes later you will be asked to enter your account name and to select an avatar and a wallpaper. After downloading five security patches the Windows system is good to go. It’s the easy going and pleasant way to install a new OS we are expecting from Microsoft. Let’s see how others are doing.

Ubuntu: The installation process with Ubuntu is qute confusing. After starting from the disc you will be asked if you want to start the “Live CD” or install the system or start from the hard drive, which is silly because there is no OS installed on the hard drive. Ubuntu seems not to be smart enough to be aware of that simple fact[...]Even IT-professionals like me will have a very hard time to get the system running. Why does this have to be so complicated?

(Part of this article, which I have not read in entirety.)

I don’t even have something cogent to say. I’m just crying. The comments (“When will open-sourcers learn to shut up about their Hardy Herron (sic). It’s a complete failure! “) made me bawl.

+1 for FUD.

Google turned up this today, and it worked so impressively for me that it’s worthy of passing on.

I’ve had a problem where I have a dark background and black, mostly-transparent panels. This makes reading things (the menu titles, the clock, open window names, etc.) impossible. So to change gnome-panel text to white, do this:

Open a terminal, type in:

$ gedit .gtkrc-2.0

Paste this in:

style "panel"
{
fg[NORMAL] = "#ffffff"
# fg[PRELIGHT] = "#000000"
# fg[ACTIVE] = "#ffffff"
# fg[SELECTED] = "#000000"
# fg[INSENSITIVE] = "#8A857C"
# bg[NORMAL] = "#000000"
# bg[PRELIGHT] = "#dfdfdf"
# bg[ACTIVE] = "#D0D0D0"
# bg[SELECTED] = "#D8BB75"
# bg[INSENSITIVE] = "#EFEFEF"
# base[NORMAL] = "#ffffff"
# base[PRELIGHT] = "#EFEFEF"
# base[ACTIVE] = "#D0D0D0"
# base[SELECTED] = "#DAB566"
# base[INSENSITIVE] = "#E8E8E8"
# text[NORMAL] = "#161616"
# text[PRELIGHT] = "#000000"
# text[ACTIVE] = "#000000"
# text[SELECTED] = "#ffffff"
# text[INSENSITIVE] = "#8A857C"
}
widget "*PanelWidget*" style "panel"
widget "*PanelApplet*" style "panel"
class "*Panel*" style "panel"
widget_class "*Mail*" style "panel"
class "*notif*" style "panel"
class "*Notif*" style "panel"
class "*Tray*" style "panel"
class "*tray*" style "panel"

Save, return to your terminal, type this in:

$ killall gnome-panel

and you’re done. If it doesn’t work, return to your terminal and do this:

$ sudo apt-get install gcolor2
$ killall gnome-panel

Yes, this is one of those “I’m-sorry-I-haven’t-been-posting” posts. I know it’s only been a week, but careful observation reveals that it has been a month and a half since I posted something long, pre-planned, and carefully executed.

Here’s what’s been going on:

• Calculus test. These things require time.
• Full Circle Magazine article. I’ve submitted an article to FCM about Python. I haven’t heard whether it has been accepted or rejected yet.
• I’ve been working on a terminal-based Java implementation of chess. I got a version that very prettily displays the board, and lets you move your (not someone else’s) piece to another square, but it had a few major problems…like the pieces could move anywhere. Now I’m reimplementing it  with much better code (it’ll be fully object-oriented, but that’s a lot of hassle. Especially in Java).
• I’ve started working on an HTML/CSS/JavaScript web page. I think it’s a sweet idea, but in the same way that real code* just kind of makes sense when I look at it, HTML and CSS do not.
• I’ve realized that the ratio of Windows usage over Windows bashing to Mac usage over Mac bashing in this blog is badly askew. So I’m in the market for a secondhand Mac laptop. A (rather rich) friend of mine cracked the screen of his MacBook Air tripping over his dog (pause for laughter)(pause for sorrow) so he’s getting a new one via warranty. He said he’d sell me the old one (it’s still quite usable) if he can keep it, but he said Apple might take it back. I have another friend who’s willing to sell me his iBook (300-something MB RAM, 550mHz PowerPC), but I can’t decide if I can afford it. Maybe he wants ads on this blog?

*I’m going to get in trouble for saying that. Too bad.