beccatoria | Entries tagged with ubuntu

So, my laptop, despite a good fight after I got someone to jury rig the power cable, finally decided that fans were for wimps and thus it was overheating and shutting down and this in turn meant the jury-rigged power socket was having an even worse time. Basically the writing was on the wall, and I found a deal on a refurbished laptop that was pretty ridiculously sweet and just about within my budget.

SO, I HAS A NEW LAPTOP. O_O

Anyway, I decided to update to the latest version of Ubuntu (and honestly it wasn't quite as piss easy as the last time - the sound was a big buggered and I had to Follow Instructions On The Website. I mean it took like five minutes, but still! I was getting entitled!)

Um, back on track: I noticed under languages, this one has the option to install it in WELSH. So, you know, obviously I had to try that. And it bloody is too!

I mean, okay, a fair number of the standard menu entries on the submenus are still in English, and only a handful of the actual programs are translated (like, the standard video and music players that get installed, and firefox because it's the default browser Ubuntu ships with). But...look! Screencap! WELSH!

The word "system" is the same in Welsh and English so they're not copping out there, but yes, that is a giant conspicuous "Copy to Clipboard" there. Like I said, it seems a bit arbitrary the things they haven't bothered translating.

Crazy stuff! And it's a good translation too, it's not like my local hospital where they proudly welcome you to the "Speech and Milk Department" or when they post road signs declaring the road works to be part of a government conspiracy. Honestly, I'm almost disappointed at the competence...

CYMRAEG AR FY NGHYFRIFIADUR! :D

Current Mood: surprised

So. On account of being bored, avoidant of real world things I needed to deal with, and currently without a vidding project, I randomly decided to switch operating systems on account of how the latest Ubuntu system got released and, hell, it was free.

So that's the first thing that's cool about Linux; open source. The operating system and all the programs. FREE AND LEGAL, which is pretty awesome, especially since, so far, these programs are totally comparable to unfree Windows stuff (can't comment on Macland).

There are a number of Linux-based open source Operating Systems out there. I've opted for Ubuntu. It's the biggest one and also has the nicely reassuring slogan, "Linux for human beings" which I think is apt. Linux has this reputation for being horrifyingly techie and...honestly it is techier than Windows but nowhere near as weirdly scary as I was afraid of.

Also, it's nice for me as a Windows user because the default shortcut keys are the same as Windows shortcut keys, and since it's installed on my PC, a lot of it's still essentially instinctively similar to that OS - right-clicking, etc. (Though a) you can easily change the shortcut keys and b) I'm pretty sure you can install it on a Mac too).

( Installation! )

( Apps! )

( Pointlessly flashy desktop effects! )

So, that's the fun awesome, but it's LINUX, right? It's gotta be horrifyingly techy?

( Installing Apps the Hard Way. )

( Sometimes you gotta enter CODE... )

So...that's that.

Ultimately I've found it really quite easy. Yeah, sometimes stuff gets a bit more complicated than Windows due to a combination of lack of familiarity and Ubuntu being an open-source slightly less user-friendly (on occasions) interface, but I very quickly got used to the idea that if I had a problem, instead of following instructions about what windows to open and what tabs to go through, I'd have to follow instructions about what lines of code to paste into the Terminal, and...me and Ubuntu have been getting on quite well.

I mean, there's no real need to change if your OS is working fine for you, but Ubuntu is so much more secure against viruses and spyware and needing the registry cleaned and defragging, etc., just because it's set up differently and is more secure and no one is writing viruses to target an OS which as like...less than 1% market share or something.

Plus, dudes, COMPLETELY FREE AND LEGAL. That's pretty nifty, no?

So the only potential stumbling block for me is going to be how well I get on with Cinelerra, the video editing program I have. Initial signs point to me liking it, actually. But until I start properly editing a vid I'm not going to know how often it'll crash horribly on me, what playback and rendering'll be like, etc. Which could end up being a dealbreaker. There are a fair number of other video editing suites for Linux, but most are pretty simple; better than WMM, but...not by much. Cinelerra, on the other hand, apparently rivals pretty much most other high end editing suites, though it's ugly as hell. So I may still have to go running back to Windows for vidding. But I hope not.

I MAY YET BECOME A LINUX SNOB! NOES!

Okay so I watched some Buffy back in the day, but never religiously. Currently Kev is rewatching most of it and I'm catching like...some of the episodes. Probably this has pushed my total Buffy Viewing from 20% of the show (plus a broad overview of most of the plots just from geeky osmosis) to 40%.

I already knew I hated Riley Finn. I did not realise quite how much until I was forced to watch that godawful episode where he leaves. On the one hand OH THANK TPTB HE'S GONE FINALLY. On the other, I was actually quite enjoying Buffy standing up for herself and pointing out that ditching on everyone repeatedly to get drunk and have manpain because he's no longer superpowered and feeling righteous about getting suck jobs from vampires because they NEEEEED him, unlike Buffy is...the most ridiculous thing ever. Because it's a giant needy bullshit coverup for the fact he can't handle the fact his girlfriend is stronger than him and doesn't revolve around him like he's the goddamn SUN.

And THEN, having been discovered to be an alcoholic who hires vampire hookers he puts all his inadequacies on Buffy (and honestly, I don't actually like Buffy all that much, but unless I missed all the episodes where she treated Riley like shit and ignored him, she's basically mostly guilty of, OMG, daring to treat him like someone who no longer has superpowers and occasionally getting distracted by her potentially dying mother), he hands her an ultimatum giving her four hours to decide whether she's willing to accept that his alcoholic vampire hooker problem is her fault.

BUT AT LEAST BUFFY WAS PISSED AT THIS. So, I thought. Okay, show...where are you going with this...

Oh. A self-righteous speech from Xander about how it is all Buffy's fault is where we're going with this.

SCREW YOU, RILEY FINN. YOU'RE NOTHING WITHOUT YOUR ~~ROBOT CAR~~ SUPERDRUGS, NOTHING!

Bah. Humbug.

In other news, having just finished a vid (for the

twelvecolonies challenge, which is currently voting, hence delay in posting) and not being ready to start my next one (which will be non-BSG and require like...actual source-watching omg) and thus being deprived of my usual method of burying my head in the sand and ignoring everything, I instead apparently decided to install an entirely new operating system on my laptop. So I'm typing this from Ubuntu.

I...may be turning into a Linux-convert, guys. It's...worrying. Really the only potential snag will be whether I hate the vidding software, and initial explorations into Cinelerra are actually looking promising if a little intimidating... So we'll see. Expect a post on it soon. It's pretty snazzy. I've set it up with a dock like a Mac, though I'm not sure I'll keep that cus it's a bit weird. I also set up a bizarre 3d multiple desktop spinny thing that's hard to describe so maybe I'll try to find a youtube thing of it, or capture my own. It's kind of useless, but very pretty. :/

So, yeah. Linux. Apparently not as techy as we all thought. Though I bet Riley Finn couldn't work it out. The big git.

1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY

nightxade! I'm so glad I have you on my flist! I hope you have a wonderful day and get many wonderful presents and a whole lot of hugs. *adds to the hugs*

2. I've been meaning to post about this since we both posted all our commentaries, but anyway, better late than never:

chaila43 and I decided to participate in the vidder/viewer commentary challenge on

vid_commentary. It was challenging but fun to write a commentary on my own vid, and I can only hope I did her vid justice - putting why I love it into words was more difficult than I expected; so much of it is just inarticulate "guh" but it was a completely worthwhile endeavour, and absolutely fascinating to see where our two commentaries on the vid lined up and did not line up. And seeing someone else wax eloquent about a vid of mine was a wonderful and surreal experience.

Anyway - I present links in case anyone's interested:

chaila43's commentary on her own vid Cathedrals.

My commentary on Cathedrals.

chaila43's commentary on my vid Ghosts.

My commentary on Ghosts.

3. I would encourage reading a whole bunch of the commentaries over at

vid_commentary, but I'm probably not the person to ask for recs since I've not read as many as I meant to due in equal parts to not being in enough fandoms and current constraints on my net-time. I do, however, want to point out a few I found especially wonderful:

Babies commentary by the vidder

aycheb is an interesting audio commentary that is very concise and also really interesting in its discussions of themes not often vidded.

Clint Eastwood by the vidder

bop_radar is interesting because it discusses a vid the vidder has a complicated relationship with and was never entirely satisfied with and yet (in my opinion deservedly) gained a lot of acclaim.

Jolene by the vidder

nicole_anell. To my shame, I haven't yet had time to comment on this one, but it's a truly fantastic video and the commentary is really good. I have to say, it didn't add all that much to my understanding of the vid (although there were some moments of OOOOH!), but that's to the vid's credit that it manages to convey such a multi-layered story so clearly, that the vid can simultaneously judge Cally and side with her, and make me do the same. This commentary is more like having a gleeful friend to walk through it with you, letting you relive all the awesome bits. So you guys, go do that now.

4. I'm thinking of installing Karmic Koala on my laptop so I have a dual boot Vista/Ubuntu setup.

Pros:
- Not being a slave to the Gates Empire without having to spent shitloads on a Mac.
- Apparently it runs faster and better than Windows.
- Not like I'd being giving up Windows for all the programs I have that won't run on Ubuntu.
- It's free.

Cons:
- I'd have to partition my harddrive to do it and that makes me nervous in case I destroy EVERYTHING DIGITAL I OWN. (Well not really cus I'd backup first, but it'd be a pain).
- It would eat a bunch of HD space and I don't have an infinite amount.
- A lot of programs wouldn't run on it and I'd have to learn new alternates or...not really use Ubuntu much which would then leave me in the position of wondering why I installed it in the first place...
- Technology sometimes hates me. I could just gum up my computer more than it already is.
- Having to learn how to use a new OS.

Thoughts?