Welcome to My World

Hello all.

For years I’ve been a part of the open source phenomenon, but not really as an active participant. I’ve always been the type of person who likes to try the newest OSes.

Since the mid-nineties I’ve used Linux on and off. I believe my first distribution was Slackware. It came with so much useless software it was pretty overwhelming. In a time where my install disc for Windows took only about 50 megabytes - getting a distro on 6 CDs was huge.

Co-incidentally, I really didn’t have access to the Internet until about the same time. Until then I had mostly fought with drivers and jumpers and the other annoying aspects of the early days of DOS+Windows systems.

Fast-forward to today. I’ve recently taken it upon myself to go 100% Linux on my laptop. By this I mean that my main and only bootable OS on the hard disk is Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring Edition. I’ve installed it on an Acer Aspire 3620 with 1GB RAM and a 100GB HDD.

I chose this distribution mostly because I can’t be bothered to compile my own system from scratch using Gentoo. I’ve played with Gentoo and while it’s fun and you can make a useful system with it, I have extensive experience with Mandriva and it seems to get the job done. I’m not one of those people who desires such ultimate control over their OS as to have each part compiled by yours truly. I can take it if there’s an extra module here and there taking up resources. FFS, I’ve been using MS Windows for this long…

WiFi Trouble
While my WiFi is now working perfectly I can’t exactly say it wasn’t a huge battle to get it going and going consistently.

When I first installed, I was of course asked for my Windows driver files because the common WiFi chipset in Centrino systems, the Broadcomm BCM43xx is not supported natively. So I I hunted down my driver files and installed them but for some reason the version I installed allowed me access at home - but didn’t work at all at my local cafe where I go to sit with my coffee and get work done on this laptop.

Well I managed to remove all traces of the original driver using instructions found on a forum somewhere. Google is your friend kids. This is true especially for anyone venturing into the murky waters of Linux.

Now I’m quite happy because I have working WiFi access in Linux and it seems to handle shoddy access points such as the one at the cafe fairly well.

I infected my install with Windows, just in case.
While staying true to my initial goal of having Linux as the only bootable OS, I wanted to make my transition as painless as possible. I still use some programs and play some games that can’t be easily replicated in Linux. For this reason I downloaded the free version of VMware and I have a fully functioning Windows XP desktop installed as a virtual machine.

I’m impressed with VMware’s performance under Linux. It’s much faster, it seems, than running VMware under Windows. Even my desktop which is a much faster machine seems much less responsive in a virtual machine under Windows XP.

Overall I’m very happy with my laptop now that I’ve loaded a flavour of Linux on it that I can tolerate. I find myself using my laptop more often than my desktop now. Exploring all of the new programs, enjoying the much better font rendering akin to font rendering in Mac OS X and generally taking it all in is a fresh and enjoyable experience for me.

I’ll keep this blog up to date if I hit any snags I think people should know about.

My Verdict
Installing Linux from scratch isn’t for everybody. If you want to play with Linux, buy a Dell pre-installed with Ubuntu and enjoy that. You’ll get full technical support from both Dell and the Ubuntu community. Using Linux and getting used to a different system does imply some work. It’s also not as boring as using the same old stupid desktop, or a desktop that’s barely new and just pretty - like Vista.

Before you flame me for that Vista comment please keep in mind I do know about the better process scheduling, the upgraded security measures, etc. and I’ve installed Vista since the betas on several different machines and have used the full production version. It’s still a disappointing piece of crap IMHO. Your mileage may vary…

This is my first electric guitar and practice amp ever… I know many of you may not be excited by this but I love it.

It’s an Oscar Schmidt and it sounds great. It’s very solid and I think it will give me years of good service if I treat it well.

I also own an old GK acoustic guitar that I’ve played with until now but I’m not brave enough to play it when my roommates are home. I don’t want them hearing me practice >_<

Having a guitar and practice amp is great! I can plug my headphones in and jam away without anyone being the wiser.

A High E String on a Six String Guitar

Someone please, explain this to me. I just don’t understand.

Why has the RIAA been on a long-standing crusade against future artists who could be making them more money?

What I’m speaking of specifically is their position on internet TAB sites and giving instructions on how to play popular songs.

Now it seems this guy in some capacity makes money from giving guitar lessons - but not from his free instructional videos on how to learn popular music. Regardless, the RIAA has pressured him into taking down many of his free instructional videos citing that they are copyright violations.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong but a copyright violation is only a violation if the derived work contains more than 50% of the original. In this case the original work is a recording which is not present at all and should for all intents and purposes count for 90% or 100% of the work. I’m just postulating here and please have your bullshit-o-meter ready but I think that this man has done no ethical or legal wrong.

Worse yet he’s teaching the next generation of popular musicians! Why would the RIAA want to stop that? I’m sure they don’t think about that little issue very much. They’re just in defensive mode because they believe the world hates them as an organization for not giving them free music.

NO!

We hate you because you present terrible decision-making skills and harrass people using legally questionable tactics - sometimes completely innocent parties!

I buy my CDs still even though I can’t stand the organization that is connected to them. I buy most of them in the used CD store now and I’m not typically buying the newest chart-topper so I guess that’s what they don’t want. If the RIAA weren’t a bunch of bubble-gum-pop pushing terror-tactics using music wannabes I would like them.

*sigh*

Is this what being an adult is about? I find a new group of morons that piss me off every day it seems. Is it just me? Should I be swallowing the filth I’m given and become a soldier of neo-humanity? Disgusting…

[EDIT]

There are simply too many examples of stupidity on the behalf of music copyright owners to cite. I think the system is broken and needs to be fixed now.

In one example people running a café are being charged for live performers at their café even though they make no revenue from the performances!

A great site detailing most of the legal battles with this Charley-Foxtrot of an organization is The Recording Industry vs. The People.