Windoze won't sleep, go figure

I don’t speak French, so there is no pretence when I say “Plus ca change, c’est plus le meme chose” sounds more exotic and poetic than the English equivalent, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” I only know what it means because of a Rush song, but I've already used that title in a previous post, also on Windows. Imagine that.

Either way, Windows 7 – so long evolved from Windows 3.11, Windows 95. Windows 98. Windows ME. Windows XP. Windows Vistahahahahaha - has all kinds of slick new features…but for all those number that have changed…one thing remains utterly the same. 

It’s Windows. Smh.

Ubuntu Software Center makes it easy

At some point I'm going to have to discuss the frustration with installing applications that are not found in the Ubuntu Software Center. However, at this time, it's good to know that there are plenty of options in each category a ton of applications to choose from in the Ubuntu Software Center (USC), and that using USC is easy.

The next step

I've moved up to a full installation of Ubuntu 10.10 yesterday.

I got a desktop with Windows on one partition and Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat installed on its own partition.

Up till now, I had been using the Wubi installer to get acquainted with Ubuntu and, although I'd seen enough to know it would be well worth further exploration, it was clear a real test of its performance couldn't be had in such an environment.

Finally, a negative experience in Ubuntu

It had to happen, at some point. I've found something that is very definitely much easier in Windows than in Ubuntu - creating PDFs.

Sure, spitting out a document from OpenOffice to PDF is easy - there's a print as PDF option built in. But, I don't like using OpenOffice, I prefer using Microsoft Office, and I'm able to use MS Office in Ubuntu thanks to CrossOver.

CodeWeavers CrossOver - a definite difference maker

There is debate about whether one should want to be able to run Windows applications in Ubuntu or find and learn to use open source alternatives that may be as effective for getting work done.

Some argue that using Windows apps in Ubuntu is in reality hindering growth for the open source developers. Others say that trying Ubuntu at all might not happen for some who have particular software needs that are either not met by currently available open source aplications or are under-served by open source apps that do not deliver the performance or user experience of the Windows favourite.

A tale of two updates

My boss lost data from his Blackberry because a Windows Update screwed up Outlook's auto archiving function. Of course, Windows didn't tell us it did this, that would just be too helpful - nah, it just dumped data and the update removed the user's ability to turn off auto-archiving. 

Tech support people at various organizations kept telling us to go to Tools|Options...blah blah and then click Auto-archiving to turn it off...but the button wasn't there, and no one knew what to do about it.

Little things mean a lot

In Windows, a dialog box pops up. It's annoying, we reflexively click just to make it go away, and then ask ourselves, "wait...what did I just do?" In Windows, the "proceed/yes" button is on the left and the "cancel/no" button is to the right. When we read from left to right, the "proceed/yes" button is the first button we see, and we tend to click it without thinking. Every once in a while, we're realize too late that we've done something we can't undo, much to our chagrin.

Thoughtlessly, intuitively, Ubuntu just works

I'm going to be discussing my experience in exploring Ubuntu over the next little while, as I learn new things.

Here's what made me smile just this morning.

For work, I went to check the earnings release for a company we're looking at, which they've posted on their website in pdf. So I click on the link, the pdf downloads, I click on the downloaded link, and the Q3'10 results pop open in Evince Document Viewer. And that's when it hit me - I didn't even think about going to find a viewer, didn't have to install a viewer. Having installed Ubuntu, the OS included this open source software as part of a minimum package the developers decided the average user should have.

I didn't have to think about it. It just works.

I'm running free in Ubuntu

While I am an Iron Maiden fan, I was never keen on the single Running Free, and couldn't quite understand how it became somewhat of an anthem from their earlier material in spite of its relatively uninspired musicality from a band that was on its way to becoming the defining act in the story of the heavy metal genre, the final book end culminating the legacy of their countrymen, Black Sabbath, the band that ushered forth the new era in music. However, the chorus just keeps looping in my mind as I attempt to put into words how I feel during this first exploration into using a Linux operating system.