Ubuntu riseth

I abandoned my Linux setup back in the fall of 2005, right before I started grad school (where I was "forced" to use a bunch of Windows-only programs).

A few days ago I archived my important files on our external drive and proceeded to wipe XP out. I installed Ubuntu Feisty and chose XFS as my filesystem.

I've been impressed by everything so far. I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop, and my Broadcom BCM4318 wireless card doesn't work, so that's a bummer. Hopefully I can get ndiswrapper working, but for now I'm wired.

Feisty includes some experimental Desktop Effects, including wobbly windows and a rotating cube for each workspace.

I enjoyed those so much I decided to see how Beryl would work on my laptop. I don't have a particularly powerful graphics card, but the wobbly windows looked fantastic so I was optimistic.

I ran the following from the command prompt apt-get install beryl beryl-manager emerald-themes and everything worked.

The rotating cube is a nice effect (edges are only jagged in the screenshot), but my number one reason for getting Beryl was the Expose-ish feature that thumbnails (live thumbnails) each open window and lets you select among them.

I missed iTunes and found the default Rhythmbox to be a little clunky looking. Banshee, which appears to be based on Rhythmbox but with a little more polish, is a pretty good replacement for iTunes.

Back in Windows, I'd use WinSCP to upload files to my site. It's good to be back on Linux where you can browse remote servers as if they were local. Here's a shot of me browsing Brian's stuff, as a sort of finale.