But, to explain what I did and why, you are going to need a little
background.
As some of you may (or may not) know, I am a somewhat regular reader
of Wil Wheaton's blog, Wil Wheaton dot net: In Exile (for those of
you that may not recognize him on his IMDB page, he played Wesley
Crusher of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame). Admittedly, the
language on his blog does sometimes get a little vulgar, but he
writes some hilarious and poignant entries about being a geek (his
quasi-autobiography is titled, Just a Geek), a husband and father, a
former child star turned writer (he had starred in a hit movie and a
hit TV show before he could get his driver's license) and just about
life in general.
Anywho, enough about Wil and on to what I did.
Over the past few weeks, Wil has written a number of blog entries
about GNU/Linux. Its many capabilities, its openness and its ease of
use (relatively speaking). All of this really got me thinking about
things like Open Source software, DRM, compatibility, etc. so I
decided that I would dip my proverbial toe in the pool.
I downloaded a copy of Ubuntu Linux and created a live CD from which
I can boot and iBook and run everything from Firefox to OpenOffice.
I can't upgrade any of the software or create any permanent
preferences (I'm booting from a CD, I can't really save any changes I
make. The nice thing is, neither can I screw anything up with this
set-up), but it has been an eye opening experience. Any of the basic
things I do on my iBook I can do in Ubuntu (which I knew
intellectually but did not really understand/believe) like taking
notes in class, surfing the internet, or checking my email.
I still love Mac OS X with its ease of use and feeling of how
everything, "just works." I won't be making a full-time switch to
Ubuntu and all Open Source software in the foreseeable future (I just
have the time available nor would I wish to invest it if I had it)but
I figure it couldn't hurt my geek cred to get in a little GNU/Linux
action going on the side.
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