I find myself trying to explain “Linux” to people interested in Linux. I try to explain to them that Linux is NOT the operating system, but only the kernel underlying the system. I try to tell them there are hundreds of “types” of Linux and generally that is followed promptly with a glazed over look and more questions.

I went out on Google and searched for “Linux Timeline” then clicked Images. I found some great ones, showing how Linux has evolved from Linus Torvalds’ baby, to what it is now.

Little different timeline

Some things I see on the one above is that Xandros Linux has changed hands or merged with Linspire. Intel has created their own Linux distro, Gentoo has a few spin off distrobutions and Ubuntu also has MuthBuntu now although not “officially” supported by Ubuntu. You’ve got a few things with Mepis as well. They have bounced from Debian proper, to Ubuntu and back to Debian. I think it would be near impossible to actually show EVERY Linux based distrobution out there, but I would love to see that project come to fruition.  

I hope this clears up a little confusion. I’m sure there are better explinations out there, but these two seem to get pretty close to nailing the needle in the hay stack =) .

Cheers,

Justin

Today my wife scored me a little Acer Aspire One Netbook. It has a 160gig hdd, 1gig of ram and a little Intel Atom processor (1.6mhz). The screen is quite bright and at 8.5 inches its not much to look at, but seems to work well.

The little bugger came pre-installed with Winsux XPee and all it’s extras (Like Intervideo WinDVD (WHY? There is NO DVD drive), and the Acer eRecovery program (dunno, never used it). First things first, I slimmed down the Windows partition to 20gig, and saved the rest for Linux. and started installing Ubuntu; it wasn’t exactly simple, but it wasn’t more than I think a noobie could do. The only things that were non functional out of the box were the wifi, the card readers and when I hooked a second monitor up it tossed all the 3D drivers (reinstalled them with aptitude). The tutorial link I show a few sentances back took care of all that jazz, and it’s working 100% now.

Here are a few screen shots. These are taken after I had started theming my Ubuntu installation. I really like the AWN bar across the bottom (wish I could move it to the left side) and the Mac OS X look to my windows. Enjoy:

Acer Aspire One - Ibexed

And with Firefox open:

Full screen w/Firefox and Weather

And this shows VirtualBox stuffing Windows XP inside. I’ve been in that VirtualBox installation of Windows and it’s pretty usable. I’m installing all my Garmin stuff so I can use this little netbook to track all my running around n stuff. (I had to edit the image a little, I had some icons that might not be acceptable).

XP Installing in VirtualBox

And here is a screen-shot of XP running all installed and the like (with my AWN bar covering the bottom). I’ve got it maximized here, but it will also go entirely full screen as well as windowed.

Running Windows in VirtualBox

I also installed my Garmin ANT Agent so I can use my Garmin 405 with this little netbook. I’m planning on letting it do the down/uploading in the morning after my run. I dropped Firefox and ClamWin Anti Virus on this installation as well, it’s a pain to install Operating Systems in the AAO (Acer Aspire One) so this time I’m protecting it a little.

Enjoy,

Justin

I was wondering around my spam mail, and saw an advertisement to download and give Windows 7 Beta a test run. So I signed up, downloaded it and installed it inside VirtualBox.

The install took a while, but this box isn’t a ram monster so at 1gig system ram I could only spare about 512mb for Windows 7. I gave it 20 gig of hard drive and 32mb of video ram. I know these aren’t what might be suggested, but it’s all I could spare.

So I installed Windows 7:

Windows 7 Install

Let it run it’s updates (took for ever and had to reboot twice):

Windows 7 Welcome Screen

and waiting for the “first” desktop (I’ve got a tattoo of a Beta fish like this on my right shoulder blade):

Windows 7 Ultimate Desktop 1

and updating:

Windows 7 Ultimate Updating

and one more reboot (The logo pulses as it boots):

Windows 7 Ultimate Startup

and the first usable Desktop (total time to desktop in virtual machine, about an hour):

Windows 7 Ultimate Beta

and after all the updates and VirtualBox additions… now it’s Broken!:

Windows 7 Ultimate Desktop

Overall I get the impression Linux is making greater strides in computer end user ease of use than Windows; especially since some of the installation process of Windows 7 greatly reflects Linspire Circa 2006. It installed pretty easily, but there isn’t really any way to install it wrong, it just doesn’t give you any options during install. Basic stuff yes, but if you want to install it in your own unique way; well tough titty said the kitty.

I’ll continue to try to figure out why Aero is all pissed off at the video after it’s updates, but some of the buttons aren’t visible and Windows isn’t user freindly when it comes to gettting under the hood and manually changing some things.

If I find time I will update my use of this new fancy schmancy same looking as Vista update Windows so greaciously handed out for free (until they shut’r down when all the free help has been offered up).

TTFN,

Justin

P.S. Fixed the color issues. Found the button and changed it back to True Color 32 bit and all looks fine except it is still terribly slow. I’ll post the screenshot asap.

Here is Windows 7, all updated and corrected. Still not as responsive as XP (Or any Linux I’uve used) but it’s “usable” at best.

Windows 7 Beta Finished