I have decided from about one day that I like the new functionality in Windows 7.  The effects and new features are pretty cool, but I wish my older laptop had better graphics on it so I could run Emerald themes and Visual Effects on Ubuntu 9.10…  I will compare more on other internal improvements, as there have been several fundamental changes to the base of both operating system.  I have also decided that we are all going back to minimalistic white, as there are several graphics in both operating systems that are very minimalistic in nature.

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We are upgrading our laptop to Windows 7, and I just upgraded my other laptop to Ubuntu 9.10. Maybe I will do a comparison of these two, unless I am too lazy…

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Windows Vista.  The latest operating system release from Microsoft.  Microsoft is supposedly planning to stop releasing Service Packs and stop supporting Windows XP sometime in the near future.  I don’t know when the full transition is expected to take place, but anyone using Windows XP better prepare to be forced to use Windows Vista very soon.  It’s very rare to find any new computer (with the exception of business computers) that come with Windows XP.  Some people absolutely love it, but there have been numerous, countless, problems with this “revolutionary” operating system.  I have one home computer that we bought new about a year ago, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD.  It is already outdated by Windows Vista.  I have my Intel Centrino Compaq HP that runs Fluxbuntu at just a slightly slower speed.  Why is this?  Because if you haven’t already figured it out, Windows Vista is a big, fat, eye-candy loaded resource hog.  I can run a game in Vista, it takes up almost all of the RAM because there is so much background stuff going on.

When I run a few programs, such as the now bloated Microsoft Office 12, and maybe Photoshop, along with the Aero window theme, the glass look, and the Windows Sidebar, my computer shows signs of aging and slows to an unbelievable pace!  Yet, all of my computers that run various Flavors of Ubuntu (Ubuntu, Fluxbuntu, Xubuntu) still go at an awesome pace for how old these machines are.  All of these machines are at least three years old, but they run just as fast as Windows Vista.  The only thing I can see in Windows Vista is Windows XP with a super bloated graphical theme.  Is this Revolutionary?  No.  Ubuntu and various other Linux Distros have been able to skin the window manager and have thousands of other ways to customize your box.  There are tons of Mac-like themes, Aero themes, and tons of other amazing themes.  All of this, and my Linux still runs faster, with the same look and similar programs.  Another bonus to Linux: It’s free.  That’s about two-hundred dollars cheaper then Vista.

If you think this is too late, I needed time to test Vista, and Ubuntu and find many of the disturbing realities of Vista.  It’s bloated and not worth your money.  I wouldn’t take it for free either.  There you go.  That’s my Windows Vista rant.

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What will come of this combination?  I have downloaded and made a bootable CD of Xubuntu 8.04 and I plan to install it on my Cardboard Computer when I get home from work today.  I hope it doesn’t take all night, but we’ll see I guess.  And yes, if you haven’t already figured it out, I am a fan of low resource Ubuntu flavors .  I hope that it will run it, and I’m pretty sure it has enough RAM to run Xubuntu.  More updates after I get it installed.

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Well, it’s been about two weeks since I installed Fluxbuntu on my desktop, and now my laptop as well!  I’ve played games, downloaded themes, icon sets, pictures, installed programs, used word processors, and countless other things.  I absolutely love how fast and lightweight it is.  DO NOT INSTALL IF YOU DON’T LIKE USING THE TERMINAL A LOT!!  That is the one problem with it.  There are lots of strange and different things to n00bs and unexperienced users.  I had trouble finding things too, and I have used Ubuntu and other linux flavors.  Use the web browser, file explorer and Fluxbox on a Ubuntu machine before trying this, and make sure you have the Fluxbuntu community saved in your favorites, because you’ll need it. 

It is an amazing OS, although slightly harder to use, it is surprisingly user friendly in most aspects.  You can drag files to the program and open them, change any icon on all or one specific file, change themes, etc.  It is really nice, and on a 40 GB HDD, 512 RAM, Intel Celeron HP Compaq, it is amazingly fast at boot and while using, even while playing Globulation and changing themes, and installing new programs.  It is very useful for reviving that old desktop or laptop. 

Oh, and another note, there is no LiveCD, sorry guys.  It is text based install, keeping the ISO very small (307 MB).

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We reached 100 views of Toy Nemesis Army today!  I just thought I’d share that with you, since it’s a great milestone, and in less then a month too.

Watch out for a new update coming soon   This should be an exciting weekend, when I get into GIMP on my Ubuntu and make up a new logo for The Army

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I, uh, broke my laptop somehow…  I had Ubuntu, installed Xfce on it (it’s really slow), and it broke.  So I reinstalled Ubuntu 7.04 from a CD I have, updated it to 7.10 and then to 8.04.  It’s still broken!  Gaaah!  I thought I had it fixed after another quick update, but then it wouldn’t finish an update!  Then Firefox and several other programs wouldn’t open at all.

So what did I do with it?  I through it on the ground and ran it over with my Hummer.  (Okay, I need that laptop, and I can’t afford a Hummer, and what a waste of gas anyway.)  I installed Fluxbuntu, and everything (mostly) works fast(er) and seamlessy!  We’ll see in the long run.

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I have recently acquired an old HP Compaq from my work.  It has 256 MB RAM, 40.0 GB HDD, Intel Celeron Processor, and that’s about all I looked at to know when I got the thing home, I was going to put a low resource Linux install on it.  I had been researching one such install, called Fluxbuntu.  Well, I already burned the ISO, which is around 310 MB, very nice and waayyy smaller than a similar Ubuntu ISO, weighing in at about 696 MB (+/- 5%-ish).  Well, I brought the old thing home and tested out the Windows XPSP2 (I think).  The boot took about two minutes, log in another two minutes to set up everything that was installed from the company I work for.  This thing was sluggish like no other.  Now, I had previously tried Fluxbuntu on an old Tablet PC that I had lying around, and it would not install, so I just stuck Ubuntu on it, and it runs smoothly.  This made me slightly nervous to use partition the whole hard drive and get rid of everything.  I did it eventually, and the install started and ran very quickly.  It stopped however, nearly finished at 90% and sat for over an hour at 90%.  I restarted the install three times, before finally it worked!

Fluxbuntu Start Up

I was so excited to finally have the system run.  The computer restarted, and to my amazement the boot time was less then 30 seconds and I was totally logged in to my new Fluxbuntu system!  Amazing!  The graphics are really nice, and there is plenty of support for it, as it is based off the popular Ubuntu.  I even installed Globulation, a pretty awesome game, which runs pretty fast (unless you have more than five computer players!)  I like the browser, although it could use some more features, but it does have some unique things.  The tabs could use some work as well, as they seem slightly jumbled, and sometimes can be hard to use.  I have not looked at all the features of Fluxbuntu, but it seems to be a nice, extremely lightweight, mostly stable system.  I have used e-mail, Internet, games, and messed with desktop settings.  It uses Fluxbox (hence the name FLUXbuntu) as a window manager.  It is a little different, due to the fact that there is no start button, or application menu on a bar at the top/bottom of the screen.  You simply right click anywhere on the screen and BANG, there’s your menu, with all your programs.  You have Synaptic Package Manager to install programs, pretty much everything you can get in Ubuntu is there.  The only problems that I have found with it have already been reported as known bugs, and can be found and most likely solved here.

Fluxbuntu

This system is awesome, but I would recommend to experienced Linux users, and make sure you back up everything first.  Also, if you have another Linux flavor, I would recommend trying Fluxbox out first, to see if the interface is for you.  It is a little different, but is easy to get used to.  Anyone with an adventurous spirit, a low resource system, and some Linux and command line knowledge should definitely give Fluxbuntu a try.

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