As I said, in my first post here, I got back into using Ubuntu :D Strangely this time because of work. I used to have a standard Desktop simply because everyone else had laptops. This was until a new colleague started. From that moment on, we had to share the machine, which was just not viable. As a consequence, I took my wife's old laptop (An Acer Extense 512 MB RAM machine). For the first week, I really, REALLY hated myself for doing that. The laptop is super slow and it takes about 5 minutes (or more) for a browser to open in Windows XP.
Close to despair, I chose to throw Ubuntu on it, and lo and behold, the increase in speed is ridiculous. Don't me wrong. Still slow as hell, but a definite improvement to before. As a research chemist, Ubuntu was for a long time a turn off, because two pieces of software weren't written for Linux. Namely, SciFinder Scholar and ChemOffice. I tried Wine and even those two went on without the shadow of a problem(?!?!?!!?). Within a short time I went from electronic car crash to having a feasible work station together with open office. In the near future, I plan to increase the RAM of the laptop, simply because I never opened a laptop before and I wanna see if I can do it. If it was successful, I will post a detailed report here ;)
Sunday 30 October 2011
My close but futile flirt with Ubuntu - an ongoing tale of curiosity and being disappointed
Ok first of all, I am newbie on the web. I’m a newbie with programming, a newbie to this entire world. I admit it freely and that is simply because the word ‘newbie’ is not negative for me. It just describes how much I can still discover about the web and computing in general.
My little adventure started during my PhD, when I desperately needed something to take my mind of things. I am not a person who watches trash TV all day to switch off. I need "not-work-related stimulation of the mind". A friend of mine suggested programming and threw the word Python right behind and Bang! I was hooked. Nothing I ever did had any sort of grand outcome. I dabbled in the Python Challenge, Project Euler, wrote applications to improve my work load or make things better for other hobbies (all those apps apart from one worked, but never got more than one test run out of it).
Once I’ve gotten accustomed to all the new ideas into my head, I decided to go right for it and install Ubuntu Linux (or Debian or whatever you call it) on my PC as dual boot. The reason was curiosity and because for some reason I dislike Windows. Why? I don’t know. Corporate angst. Maybe. I definitely didn’t think it was a free Windows version, because most of all, I wanted to dabble and fiddle with it and get things to work. Fact is, Windows gave me everything I needed, but I still wanted a change. It’s a bit like leaving an old girl-friend, I guess, when it comes down to it. Ever since then my flirt with Ubuntu was and is a very intensive on and off fling.
My first ever trial was a strange experience. Nothing worked. Truly nothing, but the interaction with the Ubuntu users was an eye opener. I was running against walls left right and center. As a Windows user to install an OS and then see a black screen and nothing else is... well... shit. You are so pampered and used to everything working you see. Anyhow, I really wanted to be part of the Ubuntu people. I heard about open source and the GNU licences and I found it an amazing idea. By users for users. This was fantastic! The freedom to choose how much to pay for a certain software. I believe in a price for a certain amount of work, I just think that companies tend to be too greedy and always try to push the profit-margin. Therefore, being able to donate to a software project and as such choose the price you want to pay was exceptional for me (Admittedly, I am still a cheap skate). I tried to learn to how to package and everything just to find out that I had to learn more. And now and again after I eventually configured my graphics card via the command line with no experience using BASH (hardcore), Ubuntu still threw me the odd curve ball.
I wasn’t expecting much. I just had this idea of being like more mature and using it like an adult. Y’know, no more video games. All programming and writing articles and, well, grown-up stuff. But constantly I found myself needing to go back to Windows. Namely, work-related software that is only available in Windows (and sometimes a Apple Mac). Doesn’t work in Wine. Ok, back to Windows. A couple of months later, I come across VirtualBox and this little light bulb appeared over my head. Use it in Ubuntu and then use Windows inside Ubuntu. In a nutshell, works fantastic, but... there’s always a but... for some reason pdfs and word documents (yea better forget open office professionally for me) looks cruder than in Windows. This was a big issue for my PhD boss who was (I guess still is) a loony for presentation of work (I also guess he is right in that and I learned a bucketload about it from him). So back to Windows... Another couple of months later, I went again back to Ubuntu to do more programming, then I can’t install some libraries on the Python version. Back to Windows. Again Ubuntu. Ok wanna play some games (goes to show how long that will for maturity lasted). Can’t be bothered rebooting to Ubuntu now... There was always something coming in between me and Ubuntu.
This was frustrating me greatly until I analysed why I always end up back in Windows. I wouldn’t call myself an average computer user. I am an enthusiast who would like to know more about computing but at the same time also uses the PC for more mundane things. And I think that is where the crux lies. I enjoy playing PC games and I am not as clued up about certain PC-related issues as I would like to be. Therefore, if a library isn’t in the repository, most of the time if the outlined installation doesn’t work, I am screwed.
In conclusion, it just appears to me that Linux ...or Ubuntu is just not cut out for my typical PC activities. Windows fulfils all the necessities that I have, although it has its problems. I have to regularly run maintenances on my PC and the threat of viruses and spyware is constantly there. But it works and I know my way around it. Currently, at this juncture, I take the valuable lessons I learnt from playing around with Ubuntu and gladly go back to Windows in knowing what I have there. An OS that works and does what I want it to do... Just ask me in a couple of months if I’ve tried it with Ubuntu again. You’ll probably find that I had a brief fling with it again ;) .
My little adventure started during my PhD, when I desperately needed something to take my mind of things. I am not a person who watches trash TV all day to switch off. I need "not-work-related stimulation of the mind". A friend of mine suggested programming and threw the word Python right behind and Bang! I was hooked. Nothing I ever did had any sort of grand outcome. I dabbled in the Python Challenge, Project Euler, wrote applications to improve my work load or make things better for other hobbies (all those apps apart from one worked, but never got more than one test run out of it).
Once I’ve gotten accustomed to all the new ideas into my head, I decided to go right for it and install Ubuntu Linux (or Debian or whatever you call it) on my PC as dual boot. The reason was curiosity and because for some reason I dislike Windows. Why? I don’t know. Corporate angst. Maybe. I definitely didn’t think it was a free Windows version, because most of all, I wanted to dabble and fiddle with it and get things to work. Fact is, Windows gave me everything I needed, but I still wanted a change. It’s a bit like leaving an old girl-friend, I guess, when it comes down to it. Ever since then my flirt with Ubuntu was and is a very intensive on and off fling.
My first ever trial was a strange experience. Nothing worked. Truly nothing, but the interaction with the Ubuntu users was an eye opener. I was running against walls left right and center. As a Windows user to install an OS and then see a black screen and nothing else is... well... shit. You are so pampered and used to everything working you see. Anyhow, I really wanted to be part of the Ubuntu people. I heard about open source and the GNU licences and I found it an amazing idea. By users for users. This was fantastic! The freedom to choose how much to pay for a certain software. I believe in a price for a certain amount of work, I just think that companies tend to be too greedy and always try to push the profit-margin. Therefore, being able to donate to a software project and as such choose the price you want to pay was exceptional for me (Admittedly, I am still a cheap skate). I tried to learn to how to package and everything just to find out that I had to learn more. And now and again after I eventually configured my graphics card via the command line with no experience using BASH (hardcore), Ubuntu still threw me the odd curve ball.
I wasn’t expecting much. I just had this idea of being like more mature and using it like an adult. Y’know, no more video games. All programming and writing articles and, well, grown-up stuff. But constantly I found myself needing to go back to Windows. Namely, work-related software that is only available in Windows (and sometimes a Apple Mac). Doesn’t work in Wine. Ok, back to Windows. A couple of months later, I come across VirtualBox and this little light bulb appeared over my head. Use it in Ubuntu and then use Windows inside Ubuntu. In a nutshell, works fantastic, but... there’s always a but... for some reason pdfs and word documents (yea better forget open office professionally for me) looks cruder than in Windows. This was a big issue for my PhD boss who was (I guess still is) a loony for presentation of work (I also guess he is right in that and I learned a bucketload about it from him). So back to Windows... Another couple of months later, I went again back to Ubuntu to do more programming, then I can’t install some libraries on the Python version. Back to Windows. Again Ubuntu. Ok wanna play some games (goes to show how long that will for maturity lasted). Can’t be bothered rebooting to Ubuntu now... There was always something coming in between me and Ubuntu.
This was frustrating me greatly until I analysed why I always end up back in Windows. I wouldn’t call myself an average computer user. I am an enthusiast who would like to know more about computing but at the same time also uses the PC for more mundane things. And I think that is where the crux lies. I enjoy playing PC games and I am not as clued up about certain PC-related issues as I would like to be. Therefore, if a library isn’t in the repository, most of the time if the outlined installation doesn’t work, I am screwed.
In conclusion, it just appears to me that Linux ...or Ubuntu is just not cut out for my typical PC activities. Windows fulfils all the necessities that I have, although it has its problems. I have to regularly run maintenances on my PC and the threat of viruses and spyware is constantly there. But it works and I know my way around it. Currently, at this juncture, I take the valuable lessons I learnt from playing around with Ubuntu and gladly go back to Windows in knowing what I have there. An OS that works and does what I want it to do... Just ask me in a couple of months if I’ve tried it with Ubuntu again. You’ll probably find that I had a brief fling with it again ;) .
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