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October 19, 2005
Greetings From the Linux Dimension (cue theremin music)
UPDATE 21 October
Since I posted last, I've been spending a lot more time playing with Linux--and in the process discovered that, when I said in the earlier post that I'd managed to download and install Mozilla Thunderbird, I really had not. It was there, and it was working, but it wasn't installed. How that might be, I do not know. Since then I've discovered the correct way to go about installing software, got Thunderbird downloaded and properly installed, and now all is good.
I also reported that the UMBRA manuscript was up to 46,000 words. This was wrong, I learned today. It was, as of when I posted, actually 44,000 words. And, as of shortly after I got started today on the daily scribble, when I cut a big chunk of stuff I no longer needed, suddenly it was 39,000. Ack! I then scribbled like a man slightly possessed, and got it back up to 40,200, with the whole thing suddenly flowing and looking a lot better. There might be life in this thing yet!
Even better: shortly before starting in on the scribble, I got an email from the Acquisitions Editor for HarperCollins Voyager, the sf imprint of Australia's HarperCollins division. She'd heard that ECLIPSE was out, and wants to see a copy--stat! We're going out tomorrow to post one off to her. Oooh!
And now, after leaving me be for a couple of days, the headache's coming back. Bollocks.
* * *
I've been playing with Linux again. I dallied with it several years ago, and had nothing but trouble, principally in trying to get the Internet to work from inside Linux. I later learned that I was doomed to failure because the computer I had at the time used a so-called "Winmodem" (ie, a software emulation of a real modem), and Linux was looking for a real modem. I also had a bugger of a time with the installation of software, which was a baffling and counter-intuitive experience I'd recommend to nobody.
I always liked the idea of Linux, though, and I've been keeping a bit of an eye on it ever since. This past weekend I found a new Linux book in a newsagent, promoting a product called Simply MEPIS 3.3, a packaging of Linux in which the CD you get is bootable, and provides a Linux experience you can try out without having to install the thing and go to all the trouble of partitioning your hard-drive, or whatever. I clicked, I loaded, and I went, "oooooh! shiny!" This was a lot less confronting than the previous versions of Linux I tried.
So I installed the product, and had no trouble with partitioning the hard-drive (a process that had been tooth-gnashingly hard before), and generally had a pretty relaxing time of it. The acid test, of course, would be getting on the Internet. And, sure enough, this did not disappoint. For a long time I couldn't get a connection going to save my life. Then, last night, a breakthrough: the connection opened, and actual Net content came through--but only for about 15 seconds at a time. Tonight, I tried again, and after much faffing about, discovered what I might have been doing wrong. In any case, I've had the Internet going here all evening.
Next up was attempting to download and install software. The MEPIS package, while it contains Mozilla Firefox, it does not give you Mozilla Thunderbird. This had to be fixed. So I downloaded the T-Bird, and after some frantic clicking, got it to install. It worked perfectly, first time I tried it. Next up will be updating the other software packages that came with this package, but that can wait for tomorrow, or whatever.
Right at the moment I'm feeling pretty chuffed. It's like having two computers in the one box. And I've always disliked Microsoft, so this could be the start of something big--or big-ish. :)
In Other News:
Author Boy has been busy flapping the flippers at the keyboard this week as well. Currently up to about 46,000 words. All of which is more surprising when you consider that I've had a miserable headache now for several days straight (I've lost count). Right at the moment not only is the head blazing away, but so is the back of my neck. Mystic Adrian foresees another sticky and aromatic encounter with Deep Heat.
Posted by adrian at October 19, 2005 10:21 PM
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Comments
Hey Adrian, great news about HC, hope that goes well for you!
Also excellent news about Linux, get off that nasty M$ stuff stat. Given the choice between coffee and Windows... give up Windows!
Posted by: David S. at October 24, 2005 06:22 PM
I'm familiar with FDISK. I use it all the time whenever I need to redo an older system at work. Unfortunately, FDISK can't resize an existing partition. To get a different size you have to delete the original, thus destroying all your data, then create a new, smaller partition and then a second one in the remaining space. Plus it only works on FAT, not XP's NTFS file system. However, UBUNTU does have a partitioning utility as it turns out, I just had to dig into their online documentation to find it and how to use it.
I'm gonna play it super-safe and back up all my data files to CD, and then the entire computer to tape before trying it.
Posted by: Charlie at October 20, 2005 11:27 PM
That sounds awfully familiar. I too have flirted with the Penguin for some time, and did in fact partition my hard-drive once and bung Red Hat on it, but couldn't get the drivers working for some reason and gave up in an unseemly and petulant huff. Recently, though, I've been working on other UNIX flavours as part of my job, and the prospect of a Linux machine of my very own is beginning to appeal again...
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at October 20, 2005 06:02 PM
Charlie--Windows does have a partitioning utility built into it, that you can generally only access from either a command line, or from the "Run..." thing on the Start menu. It's called "fdisk", I think, and, if you're brave and true of heart, you can use it to partition your drive. It's what I used years ago during my earlier forays with Linux.
All things considered, if I were doing it again, I think I'd be interested in spending a little bit of money, not on partitioning software but on a new hard drive, and just run Linux on that rather than try the dual-boot thing. I've got the dual boot thing running just fine here, but I can see that there could be more Linux in my future. Certainly, if my next computer isn't a Mac, it could easily become a straight Linux box.
Posted by: Adrian at October 20, 2005 01:22 PM
Good on ya! I've been toying with a Linux distribution called UBUNTU that gives you the same option of booting from the CD to see it in action without touching your current setup. Love it, but the install instructions seem to be telling me I have to create a partition for it on my own, which means purchasing something like Partition Magic.
However, I've been using Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice for some time now, which means that the operating system (XP) is the only Microsoft product I use on a daily basis. I'll have to make the jump soon, I think.
Plus, good job on the flipper-banging!
Posted by: Charlie at October 19, 2005 11:09 PM
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