Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Linux on the Desktop
It's that time of year when I get sick of Windows and decide to run some alternative OS on my main desktop PC in my home office.
My hardware:
Intel Core2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz
4GB RAM
I was running a 64 bit edition of XP for the last 11 months or so. It's always annoyed me, but I was productive enough, so I dealt with it.
Lately I've been paying some attention to the OSX86 Project and decided to give that a try.
The install process went well, but upon my first boot attempt, I got the dreaded "waiting for root device" error. I gave up promptly and decided to give Ubuntu a try.
Ubuntu recently released version 8.10. I tried Kubuntu 8.10 (which comes with KDE 4.1.2) for a day, but I realized that I'm a Gnome man after all - straight Ubuntu it is!
Anyway, my main reason for writing this post is because I want to praise the makers of a handy program, UNetbootin. During my adventures over the long weekend, I must have burnt 10 different LiveCD's, and reformatted/installed a new OS at least 3 or 4 times. Somewhere in there, my cd/dvd drive completely died. This happened while my workstation was in a non-bootable state - nothing to boot back into. Nowhere to call home! In a whirlwind of panic and slight drunkenness, I found this program which saved the day by allowing me to install Ubuntu 8.10 from my USB thumb drive.
Never burn a CD again to install or try out Linux. Save your burner, stop wasting plastic CD-R trees! Use UNetbootin!
It was remarkably easy to use. Just pointed it to the .iso for the ubuntu install disc which I had already downloaded, plugged a USB thumb drive in, and it did the rest.
As a bonus, the Ubuntu install went remarkably fast from the thumb drive. Way faster than installing from from a CD/DVD.
We'll see how long I stick with Linux this time :) In the past I've never made it more than a few months. But I have high hopes for this time around - Ubuntu has lived up to "it just works" motto so far with only a minor exception here and there for the more off-the-beaten-path things I'm trying to do.
My hardware:
Intel Core2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz
4GB RAM
I was running a 64 bit edition of XP for the last 11 months or so. It's always annoyed me, but I was productive enough, so I dealt with it.
Lately I've been paying some attention to the OSX86 Project and decided to give that a try.
The install process went well, but upon my first boot attempt, I got the dreaded "waiting for root device" error. I gave up promptly and decided to give Ubuntu a try.
Ubuntu recently released version 8.10. I tried Kubuntu 8.10 (which comes with KDE 4.1.2) for a day, but I realized that I'm a Gnome man after all - straight Ubuntu it is!
Anyway, my main reason for writing this post is because I want to praise the makers of a handy program, UNetbootin. During my adventures over the long weekend, I must have burnt 10 different LiveCD's, and reformatted/installed a new OS at least 3 or 4 times. Somewhere in there, my cd/dvd drive completely died. This happened while my workstation was in a non-bootable state - nothing to boot back into. Nowhere to call home! In a whirlwind of panic and slight drunkenness, I found this program which saved the day by allowing me to install Ubuntu 8.10 from my USB thumb drive.
Never burn a CD again to install or try out Linux. Save your burner, stop wasting plastic CD-R trees! Use UNetbootin!
It was remarkably easy to use. Just pointed it to the .iso for the ubuntu install disc which I had already downloaded, plugged a USB thumb drive in, and it did the rest.
As a bonus, the Ubuntu install went remarkably fast from the thumb drive. Way faster than installing from from a CD/DVD.
We'll see how long I stick with Linux this time :) In the past I've never made it more than a few months. But I have high hopes for this time around - Ubuntu has lived up to "it just works" motto so far with only a minor exception here and there for the more off-the-beaten-path things I'm trying to do.
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