Linux

Penguins are Cool!

The above statement was nothing new to me even before I'd heard of Linux for the first time. When they sit around looking generally happy with life and at the same time represent a free alternative to Windows ... well, it certainly doesn't take anything away from their coolness (or the coolness of what they represent either) ... I've been curious about this, and other, alternatives to Windows for a long time.

The first step beyond Windows was getting, installing and configuring LiteStep. I know, not much of a step toward a new OS perhaps, but I still think it factors in as one, making one get over the ideas of danger in changing the way the desktop looks and feels. More shell replacements quickly followed (just ask my shell selection menu! :-), and soon that wasn't interesting enough ...

Now, the turn came to BeOS, which was lying around on a CD for a while before I got around to it. BeOS was a good next step since it didn't even require an own partition (even if it got one soon enough) and also was almost as self-configuring as Windows. Still, it was pretty much a case of setting up, booting, looking around and booting back into Windows. A major reason was of course that BeOS didn't have much software support, and no other reasons either for me to abandon Windows for it (apart from being a different OS with a very nice feel to it). But by coming this far, I had suddenly found that setting up stuff like new OS:s wasn't all that dangerous or difficult. The idea of Linux was suddenly a lot more realistic ...

The final run for it, downloading the Redhat Linux distribution, began on April 25th 2001 (see 26/4 for more notes). After the chronicled stupidity of downloading heaps of little files I found the nice burnable CD-images and got them instead. Burning on discs took place on the 27th and then, in the now classic fashion, a few days passed before I got around to installing anything.

But now it's there, in all its penguiny glory :-) ...

The Journey Continues (added 10/8 2001)

The above was not the end of the story. Fate wanted it differently ... After some moderate usage I discovered some annoying partition problems that had apperantly been created during installation of Linux. BeOS wouldn't run anymore and my favourite partitioning tool refused to start because of the errors. It turned out that the way forward was to delete the Linux partitions again. It didn't hurt that much, since Linux had stopped booting anyway after an earlier attempt at fixing things. It was time for a reinstall (drumroll)!

Many things are nicer than ever in my installation now. The swapspace isn't a ridiculous gigabyte (the less customized install I did previously fixed a swap partition three times the RAM size), the iFeel is recognized and working as a USB mouse (including the wheel!) and the Ximiam desktop gives an even smoother and nicer look to the GUI. Some things remain to sort out though (naturally). I've got some kind of problem with my video settings that I haven't got through yet, I can't get quite the resolution and refresh rate I want. But that's a minor thing, a challenge more than an annoyance. So, I'm back in penguin land, and it feels better than ever!

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