Life, Linux and everything Open Source in between.
Well I’ve finally gotten around to putting some content here. Basically I’ve set this blog up as a way for me to keep notes of the changes I make to Ubuntu in my quest to set it up “perfectly”, something I’ve been unable to do with Windows XP. I’ll be slowly importing my old notes into this blog over the coming weeks and hopefully add some content that someone will find useful.
Seeya soon.
I’ve downloaded the latest 64-bit Desktop Edition of Ubuntu and upgraded my Hardy install (after backing up all of my personal data … learnt this the hard way with Windows) and everything runs beautifully on my Acer Aspire 9303. It was almost too simple. I still can’t believe people think “Linux is hard”.
I have to say Ubuntu has put the fun back into computing. I’ve been a programmer (professionally for about 10 years and as a hobby for over 20 years) but until I converted my laptop to use Ubuntu as my ONLY desktop OS I’d started to feel a bit jaded and fed up with the whole computer/programming scene. Windows had sucked all the joy of programming from me. Now I’m trying to learn Python and PyGTK to produce some simple applications (scratching an itch). I also love scripting with bash and the feeling of freedom, the freedom to get my computer to do what I want and not the other way around.
I’ve dumped Apache on Windows in favour of nginx on Ubuntu and getting PHP to run via FastCGI over UNIX Domain Sockets (will publish info later). This rocks it’s way faster and lighter than Apache or IIS. My Server is currently using 72Mb out of 1024Mb RAM running nginx, PHP5, MySQL, OpenSSH and DenyHosts. It’s hosting this site and all the while the Pentium 4 1.8GHz is usually idle, fantastic. Windows used to kick the life out of this box!
Looks like my journey has really only just begun. I can’t believe how good this really is. And I’m not the only one as a couple of my friends now run Ubuntu instead of Windows. It’s all god.
It’s just been announced on the Ubuntu Mailing List that Intrepid Ibex is out. I’ve been looking forward to this release and running it on a spare PC since Alpha 4.
Congrats to everyone at Canonical and the Ubuntu Development Teams for yet another awesome release.
The latest release notes can be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810 andto check out what’s new in this release, with a graphical overview, go to http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810overview
I won’t go into each and every feature but Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) is an excellent release on both Desktop and Server. I’ve found it incredibly stable and will continue to use it as my daily OS from here on in.
For me the best part of this release is Ubuntu have finally included LXDE in the repositories which means Ubuntu now has a really fast desktop environment for low powered PC’s which won’t frighten new users. Personally Openbox by itself is great but I know a few converts from Windows who find the familiar UI of LXDE comforting.
Congrats again to everyone at Canonical and the Ubuntu Development Teams for yet another awesome release.
What you waiting for go get it now.
A couple of days ago I was having problems with my Internet connection but I’ve solved them tonight. I put my networking hat on (I used to write embedded software for routers and network switch equipment) and worked through a few steps to diagnose the issue … MTU.
By default my router (Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT v23) had an MTU set to Auto (1500), I changed this to Manual (1400) and everything came back to life and works perfectly. Later I read in a couple of forums that old Telewest customers (like me) are now having some of our traffic routed over the old NTL network, which is not as good as the Telewest network, in order to balance the load. I guess one of the NTL routers doesn’t like 1500 byte packets or can’t deal with packet fragmentatoin correctly.
Either way problem solved and just before Intrepid Ibex is due out 
Tonight I’ve only been able to connect to some websites i.e. I can connect to ubuntu.com, linux.com but not osnews.com or ubuntuweblogs.org ??? Last month I was upgraded to 10Mb cable on VirginMedia but I was able to connect to all sites until tonight. The strange thing is 2 friends of mine are also with VirginMedia yet they can access the websites fine? We all live within 5 miles of each other.
Has anyone else experienced this problem?
This is going to mess with upgrading to Intrepid Ibex which is due out in a few days 