Linux, Linux Everywhere

OK, so I decided to get off the Microsoft crack and further advance my Linux skills. Now, I manage a good sized Microsoft network at work, so I can't totally cut Redmond off, but I did go ahead and install a couple fo different flavors of Linux on my laptops.

My Dell Inspiron 700m
Ubuntu - I started by wiping out my Inspiron 700m and loading Ubuntu Studio. This particular flavor looked beautiful on the 700m crisp screen, but the keyboard layout made it a little un-user friendly, so I wiped it again.

The next load was gOS. This particular flavor has some really nice features. It has a "mac-esque" interface, right down to the little dot in the upper left hand corner of the windows to minimize, maximize, and close. It's very simplistic and probably would have been a good choice, had I known a little more about getting an NDIS wrapper to work for my Intel wireless card. The interface is so simple, in fact, that it lacks a lot of power-user features (much like a Mac). So, I tried another OS...

Finally, I settled on Mandriva 2008 (formerly Mandrake). Now this one I like a lot! It has the power user management features I was looking for, in particular network management tools, the wireless card actually worked on install, and it didn't require a lot of Linux hacking to get up and running. So I'm going to leave this on for a while and play with it.

My Dell Latitude D620

Prior to Saturday, this machine had Windows Vista. Now, I like Vista (yes, I'm that 'other guy' you heard about), but I already know how to do basically everything, so I wanted to distance myself from Microsoft a little more by installing Linux on a laptop that I actually use pretty much every day. Making this the perfect machine.

So, I copied all of my important files and took the plunge. At first I installed Ubuntu Ultimate, but it was acting quirky and wierd, so I decided to wipe it out and try Ubuntu 7.04 (it was the only Live CD I had at the time), but I'm really not liking that too much. I'm already running 7.10 on one of my work laptops, so I'm kind of getting used to that interface too.

So now I'm debating (with myself) whether I should install Ubuntu Studio, Puppy, CentOS, Vector, or maybe set up another Madriva box. I'm kind of leaning towards Ubuntu Studio because it's pre-loaded with a lot of graphics, video, and audio editing tools that I'd like to learn how to use and my D620 was formerly my "video studio" box, that I used to make videos for YouTube.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still have Windows machines. In fact, I'm still running 2 Dell PowerEdge 600SC's with Windows 2003 Server and a Dell GX280 desktop with XP Professional. So I can still get things done in a crunch while I'm learning how to "power-use" Linux, but I'm making a concerted effort to stay off the Windows machines unless I need to get on for some reason.

On a side note, I think I figured out what I'm going to do about the noisy 600SC's. I have a couple of GX280's sitting in the garage. I'm going to beef them up with memory, add a 250 GB SATA drive, install Ubuntu Server and VMWare Server, then convert my existing Windows servers to virtual machines, including the DC and mail server. Then I'll set it next to my FreeNAS box and the two shall leave peacefully (pun intended here) side by side in my office/noc. :) Ah, smell that? Smells like sweet, silent victory.