WoW : Is this working on Linux?

Ok, I tried World of Warcraft tonight.... This is like a multiuser Diablo. For now, I'm playing alone... but I guest I'll try some team soon...

It IS fun and addictive... I have a 10 day tryout... Maybe I'll subscribe for a couple of months...

More financial tools!

More online financials tools... I will try them soon

Online financial tool

http://www.mint.com/

This is a online tool for managing the budget... I will give it a try... This would be great!!!

IF IT WASN'T ONLY FOR USA!!! The web is internationnal, not local to one country!

Grrrr!

Back on track

Ok, I now have a Ubuntu computer.

I looking for:

• a photo editing software, (GIMP won't do)
• a budget keeping software that will read Quicken file (and files from my bank.) (Gnu Cash, maybe...)
• a parental control thingy that will keep the girls aways from the dark and evil part of the Internet
• a torrent client (there are very few client for Linux, compared to windows... strange)

Oups... I meant to do that... let's start over, ok?

Well, tonight, I made a big mistake. I broke the partition with my linux install, trying to make it work in a VM... Then, when I reinstalled it, GRUB froze, and kept "frozing" every time I started... even with the full reinstall.

I still have my "real" VM, with VMdisks...

Next time, I'll try to remove the physical partition and do an other full reinstall...

Mouse scroll thingy...

Well, I had to edit a file... I don't know why the option wasn't available from any tool, but I had to add a line in Xorg.conf. Now, with ubuntu, you don't get to edit system file easily. I had to find the name of the editor, open a terminal, sudo the editor and edit the file. Now, the forum are great to tell which file to edit and what line to add. but they don't tell us where the file are. Finnaly, I found the file, added the line, and what, restart X? well, I logged out and back in and the mouse was working... This wasn't hard, but it was not easy either. Now, I'll look into that grub thing. I can't boot my physical linux partition anymore. But I "unhided" a partition that the install program hid... Maybe I'll have to move a partition somewhere else...

VM fun part 2

Ok, I tried to use my physical installation as a VM. It boot. GRUB is failling. I will need to remove it as I don't need it (I just switch which hard disk my computer boot to switch OS)

I will try to remove it monday.

The exchange...

I have a friend that is a real linux adept... He love his linux... we had a email exchange on Linux, our view of microsoft and the OS field.

What is interesting is that he found how to get my "cleartype" equivalent (sub-pixel rendering, in the font menu...). MERCI PAUL!!!

VM fun part 1

Now, it's time to get serious... I install a VM in window with linux, so I can swap from one plane of existence to the other, as easily as a blinking dog (D&D reference).

Easy.

I now try to get those font clean... On windows, I use Cleartype from microsoft which get me nice looking font... We get used to that... So I look on the web to get something equivalent in Ubuntu... On Ubuntu forum, I find a 3 pages procedure with a lot of access to the console... Not great... No way I will be using that... give me a python or perl script to do that!!!

I've also started to try to use my "Real" Ubuntu installation as a VM... didn't went far, but we can use Physical disk in VMware Workstation...

The download

Today, I downloaded 3 appliances with Ubuntu 8.04. My VM player is too old to play them. So I upgraded it. Then, without trying them, I downloaded the official image and installed it on a free partition on one of my disk. Why? I felt unsafe with those version. What was on it? A spyware? A keylogger? who knows... (yes, I know, the doctor said that I should not stop taking those pills...). The real reason : I want the full experience.

And I got it. It was wonderfull.

I burned a CD with the image, boot and voila...

Choose free space, create 2 partitions (ext3+swap) install and what? Ubuntu want to migrate my windows profiles!!! Wow, I'm impressed...

The installation was great. Network : working, Changing screen resolution : Easy. Firefox : Working. USB port : working, mouse wheel : NOT WORKING... Font : Ugly

I'll come back to those two thing later, as they don't prevent me from having fun... So I install a bunch of software... Not... All I need (at first) is already installed. OpenOffice, Mailthing, IMthing, PhotoShopThing...

Everything was great...

Exploring Ubuntu as an alternative to Windows

Ok, let's clear things up now : I am a Windows user. I don't look to replace my XP. It is a Genuine Windows Version that I bought with my computer. It is working well and meet most of my needs.

Then why am I wasting time with Linux? Because I want to know what we can do with it, How easy it is to install, migrate, use, adapt. I've installed and used a version a couple of years ago, as I was without any legal version of XP. I tried some version of Ubuntu each year. and each time I'm impressed with the OS. and each time, what make me want windows back is the setup, the command line configs, and the applications.

What will be different this time? I will install and use Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) for my every day computing. I will have a windows VM with all my "essential" software. I will keep the possibility to go back Windows with dual boot. And from Windows, I will have a Linux VM with all my "essential" software. That way, I'll have access to the best of both world!

So let's do it!