This is the second time I’m installing Kubuntu on my system. As soon as I update via Adept and restart, I find I can’t log in. It authenticates me successfully but brings me back to the login screen.

What’s worse, it eliminated the bootloader on my first [Windows XP] hard disk and installed GRUB. Now I’m going to have to repair Windows so I don’t have to be on my toes to while logging in select XP before I can do any work.

Dumb me! I realized when I was done that I could have gotten the parameter lists from the konsole, and worse, I deleted Kwame’s data (he’s been using a shared partition on my hard disk as a backup over the network). I hope he’s picked up most of his files — I don’t like to tell someone 19.2GB of data have gone POOF!

I’ll hopefully begin to move part of my development environment over to Linux in the next few weeks — that is, after I’ve fixed an invisible mouse pointer bug that’s unique to nVIDIA GeForce cards and Fedora. I’ve done it before, but my eyes are a little too tired to follow the highlighting of the various buttons and elements as my mouse pointer moves over them. Hmmph!

I’ve done a lot of research on the internet and the way to go seems to be either of Debian and Slackware. I’m currently downloading the Debian DVDs from the University of Illinois HTTP Mirror, and I have all the ISOs of Slackware n my PC, awaiting burning.

I’m particularly interested in developing for Linux — seeing ‘guru posts’ like Xcomputerman‘s on Enlightenment sure gets me excited. My problem has always been my hardware. I’m thinking of building myself a system from scratch — that way I don’t face the myriad problems I’m currently facing with a rare nVIDIA board and an even rarer eMachines model (w3107) that isn’t even featured on the product list. It’s quite funny that many of the incoming hits to my blog are by people looking for W3107 drivers on Google — that should show you what’s going on. I’m beginning to go off at a tangent .

Hopefully, I should get a few jobs on RentACoder (haven’t gotten any yet) and finance a new system with the proceeds. Heck, I’ve not been doing any .NET Client/Server network programming because I have no client. Again, I’m beginning to deviate .

I’m hoping for extreme luck as I join the Linux crew because my command vocabulary is limited to stuff like su, ls, mkdir, mount, rpm (during my Fedora — or is it Stetson — woes) and… I’m beginning to think I know a lot .

Another boring post from me — ha! .

I’ve come to realize that my system is both 64-bit [which requires a fair amount of tweaking] and comes with lots of useless hardware — XWindows doesn’t work because I’m too much of a newbie to configure it.

I’ve got a pile of Linux CDs as well as some DVDs — you’d think I’m a Linux hacker, but I don’t really understand much beyond ls, mount, mkdir, and cd [which is the same on Windows].

Hopefully, I should be able to save some money and get a different PC — I’m too scared of Vista as it is. Vista is bulky and, forget the breath-taking effects and annoying prompts, I don’t like the memory hog.

The first thing I thought of when I saw the welcome screen was a Mac — those rounded blue buttons and gleaming … what are they called [close, minimize, maximize] — reminded me of Mac screenshots (I haven’t used a Mac before).

Let’s face it — Microsoft has some of the very best designers working for them, but I think Vista is primarily bug-ridden pretty bloatware. The fact that it only fits on a DVD is ample proof of that.

At first I oohed and aahed over the cool effects I saw. After a few minutes of that, I was completely annoyed, especially when I noticed the lag everytime I performed any resizing or hiding of windows. My system meets all the specs of the Vista requirement, save the 1GB memory but I have the minimum 512MB RAM.

Prowling within the new Windows Explorer, I loved the icons but I think Microsoft’s breaking a lot of things. One thing I had come to respect in Windows is that there is consistency while browsing files and folders in all versions I’ve used (95 to XP), so I was quite miffed when I couldn’t find any button to view the files in an Explorer tree — I don’t know if that’s the name, but you get the point.

I finally had to use the good ole Start Menu to explore my DVD disc where my sound drivers were. I prefer Windows XP’s start menu better.

While browsing my DVD, I discovered that the my DVD drive was displayed twice and each expanded when I cliicked on one. It then became a matter of probability. I’d click one folder and it’d expand. The duplicate doesn’t expand — it only shows the folders inside it. I’m sorry if I’m not being very candid.

I had to rush back to the library to resume my shift [most of my exploration was done during my 30-minute break]. My boss noticed how bored I was sitting behind the computer lab desk and granted me a fifteen minute break.

I rushed off to the dorm and met a blank screen. I shifted my mouse a few times, then tapped angrily on different keys. It took about five minutes before the system purred and something came on my screen:

Windows is waking up from sleep…

I stared at my screen in disbelief. After about three minutes, Vista exited in grand style — with the infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death.’

I simply restarted and booted to good ol’ XP. As usual, my system was up and running in less than two minutes. With little time to spare, I sent some messages to friends and rushed back to the library where I currently type this.

Give me a fast system anyday — it’s going to take some bravery for me to boot to my second hard disk again.