my name is mwd

It’s been ages since I had to worry much about Linux. Back at dcs.gla.ac.uk I moved my desktop to FreeBSD before getting my first Mac and never looking back. A unix that just works? That’ll do nicely. Since then I’ve occasionally used linux systems set up by other people, but used my mac mostly. Of course, my current job means I’m not using a Mac any more at work, but that’s kinda a moot point, as all the hardware tools I use are pretty much Windows only, alas.

Anyway, the last couple of days I’ve been playing around trying to get linux to run on a T41 Thinkpad, and trying also to get vmware to run on it too, so I can run XP occasionally when the need arises. First up, I tried Red Hat’s Fedora Core 4, which installed okay, but then I got very rapidly into nonsense with ensuregi everything was installed matched the right version, and flaky admin tools. Very rapidly I recalled why I’d switched to the Mac. I’m too old to want to make sure that my kernel, kernel sources, and gcc version all match so I can install an application - this is the 21st century dammit. I did actualy put in some effort into beating it into shape, and got vmware installed, but then FC4 decided to lose my sound system, and it had never really showed any interest if working with my wireless card, and so I was wondering if there was something better out there. I’d only picked FC4 as the last linux I’d used was by Red Hat too, and that’s what they seem to use at work on our research boxes.

I decided to do a bit of an etch-a-sketch approach to improvement, and reinstall the system from scratch using Ubuntu 5.10. Ubuntu is the current darlig of the linux scene, and a bunch of people who’s opinion I respected recommended it (some, of course, had recommended FC4, but no one is perfect ;), so I thought I’d give it a whirl. From the get go I realised things were going to be sweeter - it detected both the network interfaces on my laptop, and asked me which I’d like to use, and it was then happy using the wavelan for all the install. The install is less complicated than FC4’s, but then that’s because by default they only install enough for your average joe to get started and perhaps do a little web surfing, email, and word processing. If you want a developer system (to me a computer isn’t worth having unless there’s at least a C compiler in there somewhere…) or such you do that post-install. Ubuntu uses the debian package management tools, which seem rather same (in that they’ve not done totally braindead things like FC4’s did *yet*). I also managed to get vmware installed without having to recompile my kernel, because everything I needed was actually handily in the packages system. To top it all, it supports hibernation on my T41 too, which was just the icing on the cake.

Part of me feels guilty for not geeking out and finding the endless configuration of linux systems interesting. I think the hardcore geek image is that you’re only truely manly/womanly/small-furry-creature-from-alpha-centuri-ly if you recompile your kernel twice before breakfast. But I say foo to all that. There’s lots of exciting other geekery out there, and the technology is there for all this rubbish to just work, so I think people need to move on. When this man gave a lecture using his iBook one of his students piped up “why are you using a mac if you’re a computer scientist?” Jon simply replied “Why *aren’t* you using a mac if you’re a computer scientist?” - my point exactly :)

Anyway, rants aside, Ubuntu gets a major thumbs up from me at the moment. Also, I’m quite impressed at how good vmware runs for basic tasks. I know it’s not the one true way, but until Xen supports Windows virtual machines, vmware will have to do.

Link: http://www.ubuntulinux.org/