Choosing a reliable, stable, and yet sensational operating system nowadays is hard work. There’s the alternative of paying a high premium for Apple’s Macintosh just for OS X Leopard; alas, for the budget consumer, there really is only two options: Windows or Linux. Team Windows is alluring in the sense that it can run on all PC’s, provide a genuine GUI experience without prior knowledge of coding, and is relatively affordable to purchase. On the other side of the court, we have Team Linux, the team with a content penguin for a mascot. While Linux is known for its ability to be indefinitely customized via commands and code, it is the very same ability that turns mainstream users off. Rather, it’s the required knowledge in coding and commands.

I’m no Linux fanatic – in fact, I had tried Ubuntu 7.04 on a virtual PC before. It was unimpressive – there were problems connecting to the Internet, and worse yet: the standard-aspect resolution didn’t fit the widescreen display on my laptop. For crying out loud, I couldn’t even figure out how to install Flash or those Windows fonts because the bloody tutorials gave me some code I couldn’t understand.

However, lately, I’ve been thinking of switching back to Ubuntu for a variety of reasons:

• I needed a new environment to get away from my formal work where I could perform some research – on anything and everything, from holistic learning to customizing Ubuntu.
• I wasn’t pleased when Vista’s Aero – which does look pretty, in my opinion – was turned off by Java to revert to Vista’s Basic theme. Sorry, I’m picky.
• I wanted to try Ubuntu to take advantage of the open-source liberty: free, both price-wise and limit-wise.
  
• My Co-op supervisor encouraged me to cultivate my interest in open-source technology – which I did, a bit too much. I had discovered Ubuntu 8.04 was released; this release was apparently a major one that finally featured a display manager and simple installation.

I took the jump – and I reaped the rewards. No driver installation – everything just works. I know this must be weird to hear, because typically OS X or Windows would convey such an image, as opposed to Linux. In the following series of posts, I will show you what I absolutely love about Ubuntu – but also, why I can’t uninstall Windows Vista yet.

1. Download & Installation of Ubuntu 8.04
2. The major issue: command knowledge and why you don’t need it to use Ubuntu.
3. GUI: ordinarily simple, but can be pushed to look much smoother and more modern.
4. Work: a lack of fonts, but otherwise online documents and Open Office make up for it.
5. Play: iPod Connection? Tons of free games – amongst my favourites are Gnotris.
6. Customization: Hack ubuntu, please.
7. Support: community support works!
8. Try it in reality, not virtually – it doesn’t do it justice and takes away from the Ubuntu experience.

Here’s some motivation to get you moving; a screenshot of the beautiful Ubuntu. Its visual effects are actually somewhat reminiscent of those of Mac OS X’s – speaking of which, is actually based on Linux FreeBSD, another UNIX-like operating system. Take that.

Download it here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

I started using a program called Launchy a couple of weeks ago, even though I first heard of it a couple of months ago. As you can imagine, I was a bit skeptical: how could a keyboard solution be better than the mouse I’ve been using this whole time? Let me show you how.

This post started with my calling Launchy a program, but I think it’d be better described as a process running in the background of Windows. It starts with the computer (that can be changed), and takes up around five megabytes of RAM – so by no means do you need an Alienware to run Launchy. When you hit two keys, Alt+Space by default, the Launchy box pops up. Key in the name of a program and hit Enter. The program will then launch.

For example, typing in “Windows Live Writer”, or just “Writer” will launch the program Windows Live Writer.

Launchy’s open-source and can be skinned. If you don’t like the default skin, don’t use it! DeviantArt’s got a great collection of Launchy skins. Launchy is free, so you can try it and see whether it works for you or not – I know that I personally love it and found it to be the best thing since sliced bread, but other people might not be so enthusiastic about it.

No more taking a minute in the Start menu to look for my programs, even though the time was reduced by using the Windows key. Now, I just call up Launchy. I hope it’s as useful for you, dear reader, as it was for me.

For more information about Launchy, visit their official website at http://launchy.net.

Looking to take advantage of the new Windows Presentation Foundation?  Hate iTunes?  I’ve got the alternative media player just for you today – a relatively new entry to the market, but one already gaining steam.  It’s called ViewOn, and it specializes in integrating WPF into playing music, radio, and video.

In my brief experience of using it, it’s been pretty cool.  It’s somewhat unique, and doesn’t take as long as iTunes to start up – I haven’t tried syncing my iPod with it yet though.  The only pain I’ve been having with it is with the album art – darn, seems like it can’t read the album art iTunes or WMP11 applied to my .mp3 files!  This really does take away from the overall look and feel of the media player, making it feel somewhat last-gen.

I’ll probably write a full-blown review on it later on, but right now I’ve got quite a stack on my plate right now so I’m trying not to bite off more than I can chew, while at the same time provide material for you loyal readers.  Pardon the briefness – hey, if you’re tech-savvy, I suggest you try this yourself!  Just remember, you have to have .Net framework 3.5, which took a while to download and install on my laptop.  I wish you all the best.

Visit:

http://viewon.tv/