03.26.07
Linux
I’ve been running Linux and Windows as a dual-boot setup on my laptop since I bought it used a few weeks ago. The laptop is mainly for taking notes during classes, but being a geek, I am exceedingly happy with all the power it’s packing; just knowing it thinks faster than I do is necessary to my enjoyment of working on it.
These are its (most important) specs:
- 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo CPU
- 2 GB DDRII-RAM
- GeForce 7600 Pro video card
The Windows I installed is the Media Center Edition license that came with the PC, and the Linux is Ubuntu 6.10. Apart from the fact that Linux and everything it can run is, well, free, I don’t have many real uses for Linux, and yet I really like using it. The main problem with Linux (apart from the compatibility limitations), was getting it to work the way I wanted. Out of the box (or uh off the DVD), it worked really well, but because I’m a sucker for aesthetics, I wanted to install the OpenGL desktop enhancement GLX. That took me (and OiNutter) quite a while, especially as NVidia isn’t supported by default (something about the license on the drivers). But now my Ubuntu installation has enough animations and GUI features to make even the most elitistic Mac-user question his manhood (oh wow what a sorry-arse joke, I apologize; totally gonna leave it in there, though).
Now that it’s up and running, Linux has one really significant benefit over Windows: Battery life! Even with all the OpenGL enhancements running (and ostensibly making far more intensive use of my beefy video card than Windows should), Linux gives me 4 hours of battery life against Windows’ barely 3. That’s damn useful when half my classes at uni are 3-hour lectures.
Unfortunately, I also installed MS Office 2007 on the machine, and OneNote has proven to be just what I was looking for to take notes during lectures. So I’m probably still gonna use Windows during many (if not all) classes. But Linux has a few other neat things, like Emacs that is great for web development (thank you again, Oi), and I just really like the general feel of GLX-enhanced Ubuntu, so I think I’ll keep it around to use for when I’m just too lazy to do anything but lie in bed and surf the Interweb (such as right now…)
Gelo said,
March 27, 2007 at 01:03
Pah, in my day we took our notes with a pen and a notebook. And the path to the lecture hall was on a 43 degree incline, both ways, through heavy floodwaters. That and the professors carried pool cues to hit us with if we didn’t take 25 pages of notes for every hour of lecture. Yes, they counted. And that’s the way we liked it.
You young’uns are getting too soft I say.
EER said,
March 27, 2007 at 08:39
*cough* crossoveroffice *cough*
I’m still waiting for linux to be completely compatible and still utterly free, until then, I’ll just use it as anti-spyware measure when I’m looking for cracks
Jonas said,
March 28, 2007 at 00:27
What is crossoveroffice? I’m using OpenOffice on Linux right now, as it came with Ubuntu. But it has nothing like OneNote. You have peaked my interest and I demand more information.
EER said,
March 28, 2007 at 08:34
Crossover office is a project supporting Wine with easy installation stuff. They’re initial goal was to get MS Office running on linux etc (hence the name), but meanwhile lots of other apps run. I have noticed that OneNote 2003 seems to run on crossover office, I don’t know what has changed since that version, but you could try it.
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxoffice/