DavMail and Thunderbird / Evolution

No crashes today. I've gotten DavMail in combination with Thunderbird / Evolution on Ubuntu. I've not decided yet wich of the two clients I like best. I'm still baffled and equally amazed by how much faster the machine was. Windows 8, the install before Ubuntu, wasn't even old either. 4-5 months top. Things are easy to install and when faced with problems, Google and my mentioned sources in an earlier post are valuable source for experience.

I've setup RabbitVCS as my SVN client. I'm coming from TortoiseSVN. Rabbit suits me really well and the performance is excelent. I've tried Rapid and the build in SVN client from Netbeans but both didn't met my expectations. Rapid was good, yet Rabbit is more simplistic and easier to handle in my view. Netbeans build in svn client... horrible. I tried setting it up in multiple ways, tried other build in svn clients other than SvnKit yet that lead to even more frustration and longer waiting times before I could commit. Overall, things are easy and there is a world of choices in alternatives that work equally if not better than their Windows counterpart.

I'm still looking into an calender program, or on how to make it work in Evolution. I've not put effort into this yet as there was plenty of work.

That's pretty much day 3 on my use of Ubuntu. I'm seriously thinking to throw Windows in the bin on my personal computer. Ubuntu is really great for me and it's a mere matter of time before most of my games will be available for Linux. I feel like an b**** when mentioning that in every post postponing my own rig's software overhaul. This due to the fact that my Steam holds currently a library of 492 games, and the fear that something of my rig's hardware might be badly supported by the limited amount of drivers available.

Note that this is said in an unknowledgable position. As I've still not done the proper research nor had the time over the last couple of days.

Linux | Day 2 "Black Hawk Down"

Today was a wise lesson in Linux. I coudn't configure LAMP, still don't know why. Must be something I am doing wrong though. I've carefully followed multiple guides, checked, double checked, yet coudn't get vhosts to work properly. I've installed XAMPP for Linux as an alternative to LAMP and this seems to do the job.

Then I was challenged by the second failure. I installed chrome. I used chrome for a good few hours, when all of a sudden chrome seemed unrespondsive. The OS itself was fine, just chrome. Then it just crashed and had to do a restart. When rebooted I coudn't login. Followed a guide and everything was fine. Lesson learned, using Firefox now. I already found it strange that chrome had no search result in the software center. Ubuntu itself is a blast to use however. I really found that the overall experience, coming from Windows 7 / 8; that it works smoother. Everything is snappier. I like it. I can see myself using this at home, the steam list is growing and the days of Microsoft are counted for.

Cannot wait to personally make the step! I can use my experience that I have at work to install it on my own machine. On that note, coming from someone who has had a few lessons in how to handle Linux, that it has a pretty hard learning curve. You need technical knowledge when facing a problem and often terminal is key to solving whatever problem your facing. However, I'm willing, patient and backed-up by a great Google+ Community, AskUbuntu and an pretty knowledgable boss that knows it's way around the terminal.

~ Rob

Linux | Day 1

Ubuntu is the flavor I've went for. Installing went down quick. Then came the install of updates along with LAMP and setting it up to where it would work with all the stuff we use at work. This took me a good few hours to do so. It was worth it though!

I've had lessons on school on how to handle Debian, I knew everything still! Even though those lessons were about the basics. VIM and small things like that. I was actually amazed by how much I still knew and was able to manage on my own. *pads on own back*

I felt really good when everything was setup and was actually working. Cannot wait to get to work with this OS ( i've installed this near the end of my workday. )

~ Rob

Migration to Linux

At work we,or at least, I am migrating to Linux for the better. As a web developer my duty is to work on the platform where our websites and applications are going to run on. Thus migrating. I've got little experience with Linux, yet what I have with it, is good. I've been meaning to take this step for a long time. On my personal machine it will still have to hold out for a few more months or so as the only thing holding me back is Steam and support for hardware.

I've tried flavors such as Ubuntu, Debian, Mint and Arch to get a taste of what the wonderfull world of GNU/Linux has to offer for a developer / gamer like me. Fact is, I would still like to game and like my OS to be as maintainence free as possible. Ubuntu or Debian would take my preference. In my place of work, Ubuntu is proudly replacing my Windows 8 machine. On top of that, I've prepared myself for years to get to know open-source variants of their counterparts on Windows already. Gimp is my Photoshop. OpenOffice is my MS Office. I've been steaming myself ready for this moment.

Im really exited to take this step ( Win8 to Ubuntu / Debian maby. ) as migrating from Win7 to Win8 was horrible. I've gotten to know the bug that make Win8. For example shutting down. Win8 has NEVER shut down properly. It always asks to forcefully shutdown, and when given the command to do so, still doesn't shutdown.

The start menu, when you search for programs, it often, in mistake starts a program I don't need nor want on Windows 8. That takes us to another point. Some programs are proprietary. IE, wich we need, cannot be uninstalled nor downgraded without taking the nessesary backdoor steps. Along with a huge list of default programs such as your PDF viewer and such. Even the PDF viewer itself is brackisch as it reads the MS version of PDF encoding wich is slightly different than the Open or Adobe version of pdf encoding. Is discovered that when generating PDF files for a client project.

My main, or only heldback is game and hardware support. I've got a camera setup to where I've got hardware that can record old camera tapes. No support on Linux. I really expected this, yet shame. Then games. Videocards have pretty much no support and specially the newer models. Then games, they often NEED DirectX to run. I hate it. Awesomenauts and dozen of indie games SUPPORT OpenGL and this is really a good move. They also have the default setting to OpenGL, wich is a kick to the nuts for DirectX HAHA!

I've got about ~500 games on Steam. I really want to play at least half of them on Linux. Looking at that list, it ain't gunna last long anymore untill I can. When I make this change, it's going to be forever. Windows is going in the bin in my household. If I can get my mom to use Linux, then I will take that chance. If I can get my brother to use it, I will take that chance.

GNU/Linux is something that will change the world and computer technology. We knew this when it started and now it is catching up. Great thing!

~ Rob

Nostalgia

I've started playing games that I've played back when we had the Windows 95 machine. I know it as the day of yesterday. We had dail-in and I wasn't allowed on the computer as it was a machine for my dad's work.

The best thing that happened to me I suppose is that my dad had pretty much null interest in computers and new technology for that matter. The only thing he wanted to know, and still so, is how to apply it for work and nothing more. That said, left a time window on a day to where it was allowed to be used by the "family".

A friend of my brother brought in Dungeon Keeper, and other games we could play on this machine. Eventually and naturally we could use the computer for gaming and other entertainment purposes. This wasn't it's main goal but nicely slipped in. That's where my gaming life began. Dungeon Keeper made by Bullfrog, Peter Molyneux himself. Brilliant game.

Then came the illigal discs back then that were distributed in our area. They were called Twilight discs and contained full software, games and demo's to stuff that was coming soon. Those discs were made by a geek in our village and it's were it originated from. He downloaded the stuff, burned down a copy and sold them for a tenner each. You see, Twilight discs were quite the thing, those who know of it existance probably didn't even knew where it came from as they were spread via people and friends.

Now, on Steam, many old classics came back with an HD version to give the old classic an eternal life I suppose. Think of titles such as Monkey Island, Dragon's Lair and Ducktales. All great games. Cannot recommend them enough as I've all played them back in the day of that old Windows 95 machine. + NES