Pajamation

The whole backup process...

went rather well, especially with SuperDuper! on the OS X side. I thought about backing up the ubuntu side as well but figured I'd go from a fresh install -- I'm sure the "learning experience" from the first week gumped some things up. Of course, I'm back online in a rather short amount of time compared to my initial experiences... certainly helps to make copies of all the config files. Seeing how being online is rather important and essential to most, if not all, people (and yes, I do mean wireless) I'll be posting the how-to that allowed me to finally connect with WPA encryption enabled. And yes, it's easiest if you have a wired connection for doing the necessary repository and apt-get portions.

Wireless is finally working...

and I'm feeling pretty good about the OS so far. I can see I should probably get my hands on a proper list of commands from within this distro to better understand just what in the world all these Terminal expressions mean. I think I'll just enjoy the fruits of my labor and begin the whole process over again tomorrow seeing how I followed some unfortunate advice of making ubuntu partition only 4GB -- which at least half a gig is lost for the elusive partition gremlins that sneakily steal megs from right under your nose. Oh right, if you're looking for some fun experiences check out Distro Watch for some fun linux distributions. You can probably find plenty of Live CDs that will allow you to try before you buy -- though many distros are free.

The install was smooth...

but I'm posting this from OS X because the wireless just isn't happening yet. Plenty of tutorials and indiviiduals offering advice but none are exactly the same and it's a bit of trial and error from system to system. The glory of experimentation!

Time to backup...

OS X, partition, reinstall, and install ubuntu. See everyone on the flip-side.

I've been playing with...

live cds of both ubuntu and kubuntu (ubuntu is the gnome desktop environment and kubuntu is basically ubuntu with the kde desktop environment to be redundant). Of course, playing with the basics is about all I can do because no wireless is working and I'm not about to actually sit at a desk to use my powerbook with ethernet. That's right, due to Broadom's reluctance to make the Airport Extreme's drivers open source I'll probably have to purchase either a pcmcia card or usb dongle. Stupid Broadcom.

I find it a bit amusing...

that the only reason the new Macs won't run Windows Vista is because of the EFI. Mr. Esfahani may draw laughter from the crowd with his "legacy OS" jab but in this case I'm going to criticize Apple and say perhaps their new Intel Macs should be 64-bit as well. While 32-bit is the mainstream right now, it won't be forever. And for a company that generally "forces" its customer base to upgrade to the future of what it offers, it should, and can, do the same with 64-bit. Do I think having SIX versions of Windows Vista a bit ridiculous? Absolutely! And Microsoft certainly should have all six be 64-bit, but, as usual, they want to retain as many users as possible by supporting older hardware. So here we have a brand new Mac product supporting the EFI but being 32-bit; a brand new Microsoft OS in both 32-bit (non-EFI) and 64-bit (EFI, but not Intel Mac compatible) flavors; and a world of consumers desperately asking for one system that can run each OS. I fail to see how making this available doesn't benefit both camps. Regardless of how you look at this situation, both sides are a bit off in their implementation of new products.

And Microsoft...

is back in the tablet pc market with their Origami project. It looks like a bulked up PSP that simply is running Windows XP. And I must say, it's not as slick looking as it should look.

I don't care...

who you THINK you are, no fifty year old, overweight, white-guy should ever wear a hat backwards (or forwards for that matter) that says "PIMPJUICE" on it.

Well that was...

rather painless. There's nothing like a reinstall to make you aware of how many apps you're not actually using. Now, I just need to figure out which ones I want to put back. I love not having a registry.

I suppose it's time...

to reinstall OS X once things start behaving a bit screwy... thanks to MS Office. Shortcuts work in native applications but are hit or miss in non-native apps -- a bit annoying for sure. About to wipe clean -- hopefully all goes smoothly... see you on the other side.