Ramblings

It was in the beginning of this week, Monday I believe, so you couldn't get much more "beginninger" even if you tried, that dear-brother-in-law popped by to drop of the desktop machine that I bought from him. Being second-hand, it is certainly not a bleeding edge, blazingly fast, super machine, but then again, I'm not really into that. Manu (the brother in law) is however, so even by today's standards, and considering the price I paid, it's not that bad of a configuration at all:

• Asus P5KC mobo
• Intel Quad Core 2.66Mhz
• 4GB DD3 Memory
• 2X 500GB Samsung drives
• Asus Nvidia 8400GS Silent - 512MB
• Antec case

I'm really stoked about this machine because now I can have both: a linux (Ubuntu 10.04) on my desktop, which I like because of its package management, the (imho) more productive desktop system, the excellent and overwhelming amount of programming tools, and last but not least, the idea that I'm again running a free operating system.

And on the other hand; I can keep the OS X loaded MacBook, which I like because of the hardware support, the looks, but most of all the awesome suspend & resume and the battery life. I have never experienced anything like it on either Windows or Linux. Suspend/resume and battery life were the most compelling reasons for not putting Ubuntu on the laptop and now I don't have to.

The installation went smoothly, the necessary hardware was all recognized, package installation was a breeze (oh apt-get install, you have no idea how much I've missed you.) and since I have my documents, configurations and code all stored in either Subversion or Git, the machine was quickly configured and ready to go.

It's the first desktop I'm using again since I bought my first laptop about 5 years ago, and I'm really enjoying it. No I can't easily take it to bed with me, or anywhere else for that matter. And yes, the full size Logitech keyboard that I've dusted for the occasion needs some getting used to again (typing blog entries helps ;-) ), as does the rather large distance from the keyboard's home row to the mouse on the right hand (with the cursor and numeric pad islands in between). But the large screen, the fact that I'm sitting in a more responsible position (ergonmically speaking), the sheer processing power and the stuff that I like about a linux OS, more than makes up for that.

I went with Ubuntu, the distro that I've been running on my laptops since about 2007 and was surprised for a couple of reasons. The new theme (the aubergine crap (tuutuut) that Fab on the Linux outlaws hates so much), well, I kinda like it, although the terminal background color is a tad too much for my likings.
But what made me cringe is the fact that they have switched the windows buttons (min-/maximize, close) from the right to the left. I have no idea what the Ubuntu UI people where thinking, at all. Personally I've left them there, since I don't want to be confused all the time when switching from my laptop to my desktop and vice versa, but I can only imagine the gigantic feelings of furiousness the average Ubuntu user must have felt when booting his/her freshly installed 10.04 version!

Once again, I've become a slightly happier coder, being on my preferred OS.
It feels good to be free.