One Down, One to Go

I am officially re-settled into Ubuntu again! I had to drop Kopete due to an annoying crash when I tried to log into certain protocols, so I use Gai… I mean… Pidgin instead. I seem to be running in circles – this is the second time I’ve switched back from Kopete.

On the side, I forgot to back up my MySQL DBs and private keys for e-mail signing. The former is a mirror of another DB (thankfully!) and the latter is dispensable (really, who checks those things anyway?).

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Gettin’ Ubuntu Up

Wow! When I booted Gutsy, I knew this was gonna be cool! First of all, when you hit “Start Ubuntu”, it used to say “Loading Kernel…” and then text came up at the top (all green and scary) saying it was loading init that and kernel that. Only then would the splash appear, if the splash worked. Well, no scary green text, just a nice progress bar, then the splash screen actually worked on my machine! It worked in Edgy, then didn’t in Feisty. It’s nice to see that issue resolved.

So, then I wait for the desktop to appear. Nothing unusual – the background had changed, and… wait… new icons! They had added a user switch tool that lets you switch between users that are open. Also, Beagle’s now enabled by default and a new version is installed.

Then I moved along. I did my usual tests – checked sound, resolution, mouse and keyboard, and internet. Everything checked out, except internet, which I knew I could resolve later. As I was shifting around, I noticed the Compiz-Fusion effects they had enabled by default. Thankfully Gutsy (for the first time) recognized my card and automatically enabled 3D graphics. Otherwise I’d be toast right now, looking at an indirect-rendering of death-defyingly slow Compiz effects.

As I looked at the “Screens” configuration, I noticed the monitor configuration. They actually provide a list of monitors, so you can punch yours in and get all the resolutions and whatnot set up just right. 1280×1024, here I come!

After fiddling around with worthless temporary settings, I loaded up the installation and went through the usual process. I made sure to leave half the hard-drive space for Gentoo. The CD check had found one file that was corrupted, but there’s always one corrupted for some reason. I only hope it’s no different this time around.

And so the Gutsy adventure begins…

Gettin’ Gentoo’s Gutsy

I’ve decided to try to step up another level in the Linux world. It’s time I tried Gentoo.

Gentoo’s where all the cool documentation and HOWTO’s come from. Half the time they get things to work that others struggle with, and then share that knowledge. It’s almost like Gentoo is an excellent high-quality college that’s difficult to get into, whereas Ubuntu’s your average-quality, fairly-easy-to-get-into college, in my opinion. It’s very exciting to see how things have progressed since I tried MEPIS years ago, when I didn’t have to do anything to make any of my hardware work.

So, I’ve finally backed up my stuff onto another computer after spending 3 or so hours watching cp -vR print endless lines of output. I’m installing now, and I’m already impressed… (but more on that in a moment…)