While nine hours of yesterday morning/afternoon/evening were handed over to the AllState, seven hours of the evening/morning hours were given to Linux.

I just installed Ubuntu Linux and it was a really really really bad bitch to install. Now, I am partially to blame for this. I wanted to dual boot with Windows and Linux. No problem at all usually. My problem was what I did after the disc screwed up.

See, the disc I was using had errors on it. I didn’t check it for errors like I should have. I’m kinda dumb like that. With Ubuntu, you can test it out on a “Live CD” before actually installing it. It’s really neat. You should try it out. Anyway, it hung up a few times while booting up the Live CD and it shouldn’t do that. I ignored it.

I decided that I wanted to fully install it, so I chose to do so. It partitioned my C drive an d then hung up. I had to abort. However, the partition remained. Still does. So I tried it again. Same disc, same dumb guy running it. It almost installed, creating another partition (not sure where though). And hung up.

So I went into Windows and tried to undo the partitions. You can’t do that, of course, without some nonfree software. Whatever. So I tried another disc (I had three from three different sources). It seemed to work fine, but the set up was text based and I messed it up. Somehow it installed correctly, but didn’t ask me to enter a username or password. So when it came time to boot it up, it booted fine, but because I didn’t know the username/password, I was locked out.

Using the third disc, I finally got it installed. If I just would have used the third disc first, it would have been easy and quick (20 mins) rather than difficult and long (about 6 or 7 hours).

I finally went to bed at 4am.

This morning, I woke up at 9 and got everything all set up. My computer drives were a MESS. I had three unworking versions of Linux on various drive and Windows XP. Linux certainly functioned though, so I ignored the damage and played with it.

Honestly, I love it. It’s quick. VERY quick. For example, those of you who have Firefox in Windows. Notice how long it takes to start up? On my WindowsXP, it’s about 30-35 seconds. On Ubuntu, with *all* the same extensions installed, it’s about 5 seconds. No kidding.

One of the coolest things is that Ubuntu gives you use of several different “desktops.” I think up to 30 or so, though I use three, for now. It’s great to have three different work spaces fairly unrelated to each other.

I’m still working out the learning curve. It’s a heavy one, but so is any new computer or new operating system. If it weren’t for a few programs, I’d totally leave Windows. But for now, I’m going to dual boot and spend most of the time on Linux. When I get the laptop, that will be 100% linux. I’m excited.

Another great thing about it is the support. See, folks who use Linux are kind of like the folks who drive Volkswagens and ride scooters. They choose to. Most people are content to get pretty much any car, or to just use Windows. And that’s fine. But support for “just any car” or “just Windows” is really different from the community feel of people into Volkswagens, scooters and Linux. There is a real sense of helping and that’s great. That might be the best part. They’ll gladly give you two or three ways to fix the same problem. If you mess up one, there’s two more you can try. It’s really swell. I whole-heartedly suggest getting it.

Though, in order to fix my drives, I did have to uninstall it and reinstall it, which means that I lost all the work I did on it all day. But oh well. I’ll get that tomorrow. Tonight, it’s the Oscars. I have some other computer work to do and that’s away from the TV, so my friend Sri is giving me the play-by-play!

Geeky things? Oh yes.

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5. Ubuntu and no more dual-booting… and yet there’s still Windoze!