Monday, March 19, 2007

unlucky for windows, number 13

well i've found new love for wine this week,
I've learned that all windows programs should be tried using wine, and if it works you're a winner. I'm already using utorrent under wine, and i have used internet explorer under wine in the past, but today i tried to install coverXP the easy way to produce perfectly proportioned cd/dvd covers. After receiving Casino Royale in the post this week, the cover was ripped by the postman, so time to give her a new dvd case and cover.
Simply download coverXP and run. It installed fine and runs and prints a dream, the only thing not working is the drag and drop from the internet, but that could be firefox and not coverXP.

So far, nothing I can't do, and i can do it all at once without having a slow computer.

get drunk on wine.


Saturday, March 17, 2007

reasons 12, 13, and 14

reason 12 why ubuntu is great: my cd's came today, they posted 10 mixed; 3 mac, 3 64bit and 4 pc versions. Nice! they paid to send me 10 brand new pressed cd's with their OS on.

reason 13: when you create a new folder and don't name it, its deleted. So no more New Folder(78) syndrome.

reason 14: Beryl Desktop Cube. - Imagine you have 4 desktops and they are all faces on a cube, and switching between them looks extra sexy, and it runs on a medium spec laptop. see for yourself:


you know you need ubuntu.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

the 11th reason



ok so i've been back with ubuntu for a over a week now, and here's how it all stands.
We had a piece of coursework due for Mathematical Moddeling and i vowed to use Ubuntu. In the assignment we were required to use an excel add-on called Solver, whilst this proved difficult to install and use on both windows and mac, i was already 2 weeks ahead by using a copy of solver that someone made in perl for OpenOffice Calc (linux's answer to office excel) whilst installing it was 2 clicks, and it was an exact clone, it was only beta, and crashed quite a bit, but. openoffice recovered all my files good as new.
adding screenshots was easier than ever in ubuntu, using Alt+print screen it only captures the focused window, so i didnt need to crop all the images to hide the start bar (and more importantly the time and date, being fat too close to the deadline).
Once I had completed my report, i simply clicked the pdf button, and i had a pdf ready to submit. sexy times indeed.

back in the real world of work i tried to install panorama maker ( a windows program), It installed fine, but would not run, so i looked for linux versions. I found one called huggin, but it was far too hard to use and very boring.... so my new task is to install xp ontop of ubuntu so i can use windows programs on occasions.

vmware now offer vmware server free, so long as you give them some details in return. Installation was easy, i just left everything as default. at the moment its installing XP on the virtual machine, the only issue is that i scratched the bottom of my laptop so i cant read one of the characters of my legit serial sticker (my laptop is also on ubuntu) hence a keygen.... but hopefully i can get that sorted? or maybe not....

XP on ubuntu, the 11th reason why Ubuntu is better for you.

Monday, March 05, 2007

10 reasons why ubuntu is better than windows


dont get me wrong, i loved windows, i still do, but as usual its around that infamous 3 month mark when my windows machine slows to a stop and stuff stops working. right now my hard drive is sitting on my couch, all because explorer crashed everytime i opened a folder with a video in it. I tried every fix, restore, scan disk.... and nothing fixed it, and after a week i decided it was too annoying, so i'm back with ubuntu, and this time with a vengeance.

It installed in about 15 minutes and everything works this time including my TV card, although I have got a hauppauge one this time. I only had to go into the xorf.conf to fix the resolution on my 19" widescreen. but hey its not difficult. Following ubuntuguide.org I decided to give beryl a shot, its a window manager that adds loads of effects, it was really easy to install and its simply amazing! as you can see from the shots above, windows bend and wobble when you move them, and they feel much more lifelike, at first I thought it was just eye candy, but i just used my windows laptop and everything is so square, rigid and harsh. Beryl actually feels real, its soft with cool focus effects, Alt+Tabbing is easier and it makes my ubuntu box stand out, its no longer for number crunching java geeks, and the pretentious who wouldn't pirate xp. Its a real alternative to XP and Vista.

Right now my housemate has vista and we must annoy the hell out of him, because all his shared stuff is inaccessible, one minute I'm watching hero's the next i'm on msn asking him why i'm denied again, whats more now im on linux it looks like i'll never be able to access his shared folders, sounds bad but its touch and go on the other xp machines in the house.

you need to venture out into linux, its the same as XP, but guess what? no spyware, no viruses, you can try that crack in wine with no fear of a new homepage on IE for the rest of your life,

you have picassa, songbird, flashplayer 9, ipod support, utorrent, dvdshrink, they are all for linux now.
office xp works using crossover.

and whats more i'm not breaking laws, i can actually look john law in the eyes.

UBUNTU! (6.10)