Hi,
After monitoring & participating in some of the recent Linux discussions on TR regarding Linux and Linux?s current user acceptance (or lack thereof). I decided to give myself a challenge, and see if I could successfully move myself from being currently Windows? centric (probably more out of laziness than preference) to Linux centric.
Through this discussion I?ll try and keep tab on my progress, experience & thoughts.
Firstly some background to set the scene. Historically I would describe myself as a non-participating Linux supporter ? I supported the idea of Linux, but typically only playing with it occasionally.
I have personally started with computers with a Commodore 64 (the Vic-20 salesmen told me before the C=64 release that I wouldn?t need that a machine with that much RAM/ROM ? 64K!! Luckily I thought bigger was better and waited 🙂 ) , Amiga 2000, and subsequently PC?s with every flavor of DOS/Windows and Windows (9x & NT) flavor since DOS v5 (including DR-DOS variants).
I have professionally supported and/or programmed on the same, plus Mac?s, Pick, VMS, Unix (SCO & AIX), Netware and Windows Server environments (and possibly other?s I have long forgotten).
I consider myself technically capable and self-sufficient, and in the last 5 years of my career have moved to being more a technology user instead of my historical role in implementation & support. My current role sees me work on ERP (SAP) & business processes for implementation, design and governance.
Currently at home I maintain a Windows Home server, a few laptops (combinations of Windows XP, Vista & 7 beta). I primarily do scripting, music, video, photos and the usual web, email etc stuff at home.
So to the challenge.
I decided to see if I could get myself from being Windows centric for my primary tasks to Linux centric at home. Possibly long-term dumping my Windows Home Server for a Linux server (again ? have run for specific purposes in the past). The plan was to start with the ?easy stuff? (i.e. avoid scripting & CLI focused activities, and just do the application shifts 1st) and move towards heavier customization as time passes.
Step 1. Picking a machine to ?convert?
I had a choice, take my main laptop (a Dell Studio 1535) or take my beta/test machine (an older Dell Inspiron 6400). Whilst using the Studio gave me more grunt to start with (320Gb HDD, 4Gb RAM, T9500 CPU, ATI 4350 GPU), I was thinking that I would potentially need to run a VM and/or WINE on Linux to get everything I wanted, and I classified this as a medium activity ? i.e. not to be done early in the process. Therefore, I settled on starting with the Inspiron and following the 80/20 rule, would move to the Studio when I was more Linux application centric and wanted to get into more customization for my personal stuff.
The Inspiron also gave me the advantage of being a reasonable system hardware level as it had a 80Gb HDD, 1.5GB RAM, T2300 CPU, Intel graphics & NICs ? so compatibility was not going to be a issue I hoped with a common chipset. It would test the general Linux claim of being less resource hungry that Windows.
Step 2. Picking a Distro
In the past I have ?played? with various distro?s before over the years ? be it Mandrake, Red Hat, Ubuntu or one of the other flavors. I even had some of the latest releases laying around having loaded them up for a spin on my beta system (the role the Inspiron typically played).
In the end, and it was a snap decision without being researched, I went for Mandrivo. Why Mandrivo ? historically I had liked Mandrake, I had recently tried Ubuntu and was unimpressed with some usability issues I perceived, plus TR member Neon Samurai seemed pretty up beat towards Mandriva in his prolific posts in some of the recent Linux discussions I had become interest in.
3. Getting started
OK, so last Thursday evening I downloaded Mandriva with KDE 2009.0. Burnt a CD from the ISO image, and booted my Inspiron off the disc. Everything seemed to be detected OK, so I committed to the install, and let it kill by Windows 7 beta, and takeover the whole HDD. After a while, I had a up and running system, that looked good (gotta love the revolving desktops, and rubbery windows as they resize and drag around). After playing about with the interface a bit, I found my 1st problem, the WiFi could not see my WLAN ? in fact, no network was seen ? given I live in a condo is Singapore you typically see a dozen plus listed. No problem, it was getting late so decided to leave that until the weekend, as I would plug it into my network switch as I sorted the problem ? and that is when the story really starts to answer to the questions on usability and stability.
OK ? that?s my story so far ? I?ll post the weekend highlights in a follow-up post ? which will cover the Wifi issue, setting up dual dispolay and loading up some apps and SAMBA.
– What do you think of my self-challenge to become Linux centric?
– What about my pick of Distro?
– Any advice on what I should be looking out for, or looking forward too?