Make Linux look like Jaguar, Leopard, and Tiger

Free at last, Free at last!

So two days ago I decide that I could live life without a Microsoft Operating System. I have tried many times in the past to make the move to Linux. At first I did the original Linux live CD, Knoppix and then some other random live CD's that followed suit. Keep in mind that this was well over 4 or 5 years ago, maybe more. About 2 years ago I started hearing about Ubuntu. I once again picked up the live cd and was quite please with being able to get familiar with linux in a somewhat simple and user friendly environment. There was good hardware support and an attractive user interface.

So what happened 2 days ago that made me make the complete move??? Vista... Microsoft's worst product since ME. The fact that not all hardware drivers worked with the OS, the annoying pop-ups, and the lack of speed was enough to push me over the edge.

I've been making a living in the wonderful world of open-source for about 2 years now. I've enjoyed the perks of using EasyPHP eclipse, Apache, MySQL, and PHP... so why not my operating system? Well, to be honest I thought about security, compatibility, and productiveness would be sacrificed by moving to Linux. To my surprise all 3 of my doubts were put to rest immediately.

Ubuntu recognized all but 2 major piece hardware, my wireless and video. It took me a little bit of research but since Ubuntu is open-source there were plenty of forums to read and ultimately get my wireless and video configured properly. I used ndiswrapper for wireless and envy for video card drivers.

Now that I have a functional laptop I start to wonder what applications I would need to get my job done and enjoy the wonderful world of multimedia online. First and foremost I'm a web developer. I need a development environment. I've been using EasyPHP Eclipse for 6 months now and have been overly satisfied with it's abilities to handle SVN, CVS, and code suggestion/correction. Lucky for me there is a version of this software available for my recently installed OS.

By default Firefox is installed. Personally, I think Firefox should be the only web browser installed with any operating system, it just works, makes sense and everybody's life alot easier. Unfortunately, I haven't had much success with getting Flash to work properly, but I can look past that since I'm not a Flash developer.

Now comes the fun part. Once I get the basics in place it's time for the bells and whistles. I read some post that can make Ubuntu look like OSX. Since I'm very familiar with this environment I was willing to give it a try. There's a few sites that have great walk troughs. I spent the whole evening setting up Compiz Fusion, Emerald Themes, Login Windows and Splash screens. At one point the OS suggested that I run a command and I figured I should since it was suggested. Little to my surprise, the command I ran wiped out all the work I did over the last 8 hours.

So now I'm really bummed up at having to start over, but I got to thinking back on all the things I had learned and realized I could duplicate all my 9 hours worth of work in 3 or 4 hours. I started off fresh and began my installation from scratch. Sure enough 4 hours later I was working in an environment similar to OSX with wobbly windows, multiple desktops, great media browser, and application launcher and bar almost identical to OSX.

I realize my post is somewhat vauge at what worked well or what commands I used to get my laptop tweaked out... There's a reason for that. This process was so simple if you can accept the fact that it's not going to work right the first time around. As a power user there's plenty of resources available for you to read and try out. The way I have learned computers 13 years ago remains the same... break things come back, learn from the mistakes you made along the way.

Ubuntu is not ready to be the OS for every person but if you have the will to fix things and learn then I recommend setting yourself free. Go download a copy and install on a separate partition. There's very little harm in that. If you have the hardware available, go set it up on a separate machine and tweak it out all you can.

One thing I realized after getting the OS setup how I wanted it... There's very few applications I need within an Operating System to accomplish the task necessary. A quick run down of what I have installed is...

Gnome (default for Ubuntu)
Firefox (default for Ubuntu)
Pidgin (default for Ubuntu)
Avant Window Browser (sorta difficult to setup)
EasyPHP Eclipse

and then everything that was needed to make linux look like OSX.