DVD playback codecs aren’t installed by default with Fedora 9.  I followed some steps I found here to try and get DVDs to play but it didn’t immediately work.  I can’t knock Linux on this.  Codecs have long had patent/license issues, even in the nix world.  You almost always have to pay for them.  This is true for Windows as well.  You don’t get DVD codecs for Vista Business or Vista Home.  You do get them with Vista Ultimate, however.  Or you have to buy a piece of software like Nero and uses their apps/codecs.  This is another thing I’ll have to look into a little deeper for Fedora.  I have know about the problem for a while but again, I usually just flip back over to Windows when I want to watch a movie.  My current agenda will be to find a way to get DVD playback without having to spend any cash.  I used to use MythTV and if my recollection is correct it supported DVD playback.  I’ll look into it.

I’m teaching tomorrow.  For years I have used Dameware to remote control the computers in the classroom.  Dameware, however, is a Windows-only product.  Amongst the many other things you can do with Dameware you can have VNC-like remote control over other computers.  Dameware doesn’t appear to make a client for Linux so I’m going to have to use my Windows laptop in class until I can get a moment to install VNC on all my computers (which means I’m already breaking my so-called hunger strike).  Historically, VNC hasn’t been able to compete with Dameware in either features or performance.  I’ll probably beging looking for an alternative to VNC, something Dameware-like for Linux.  I’m sure there is something cool out there.  There always is…

Colin

Yum is just tool cool.  For the uninitiated yum is a package updater for Linux.  For you Windows folks think of it as Windows Update for everything installed on your computer, not just the Microsoft stuff.  I used apt-get for a few years and only rarely used yum.  Yum, however, appears to have grown past apt-get in popularity so I’m down with it (apt-get isn’t installed on Fedora by default, yum is).  According to the man pages the acronym stands for Yellowdog Updater Modified.  It is used to update/install/remove software packages on your system.  Whenever I install Linux on a box one of the first things I ususally do is open a command prompt and type yum update.  This command will update every installed package you have on your system.  It’s pretty effortless.  If you’ve never used it before you can see the man page here or you can just type man yum from a terminal window on your Fedora box.

Colin

My install of Fedora went fine.  I have probably installed it 200 times over the years so it’s what I expected.  I didn’t do anything fancy, most just kept clicking “Next” until it was over.

Wireless networking didn’t work right away.  I’ve got to research that one.  I’ve had relatively few problems with Fedora 8 and Fedora 7 but Fedora 9 has been a little buggy for me with WLAN stuff …more problems than I should be having.  Anyway, I’ll report on it when I figure it out.  It’s not a priority for me just yet.  I’ve got a piece of Cat5 running out of my office, down the hall and through the living room.  Yeah, my wife is pleased.  It’s probably a priority for her…

I have been using Linux for years.  And I hate it.  No.  Wait.  I love it!  Well, it depends on the day, actually.  I’m so torn.  Like so many others things in life, some days are better than others.  It’s been in the back of my head for more than a few years that I have always been a very specialized user of Linux.  It breaks down like this: when I want to use some cool tool or utility that doesn’t exist for Windows, I boot up a Linux distro and do what it is I want to do.  When I’m done I return to Windows.  I have been dual-booting for a long time and I’d say about 95% of my time is spent with Windows running.  The rise of ultra-cool bootable distros like Backtrack3 have eliminated the need for me to even run a dual boot system.  Because I have multiple computers I have found myself running Windows exclusively and using a bootable DVD with Backtrack on it when I need some ‘nix.

Even though I have tried more than once to use Linux as a desktop OS I always seem to fizzle out after a day or so and go back to Windows.  The reason for my failure may be in multiple parts.

1. I know Windows really well.  I know where everything is and I know how to do most anything I want.  It’s a comfortable place for me so I tend to gravitate toward it.
2. A lot of what I do was originally created on Windows.  Day-to-day work puts me face-to-face with Powerpoint, Excel, Access, ACT! and Quickbooks.  I know how to use them and they are largely bullet-proof (ACT! kinda sucks, though).  Microsoft Office products have been developed for years and the version I use (Office 2007) is feature rich.  Every time I have tried to use OpenOffice Impress in the past I have gotten frustrated within minutes and switched back to PowerPoint.
3. The Linux GUI is a little clunky compared to Windows.  But I’m not 100% sure if it’s clunky or if it’s just different from Windows.  I wonder if I’m not a victim of my Windows familiarity again.  Linux die-hards will shrug at this because they do everything from the command line.  Why run X?  It just uses resources, right?
4. I have to admit that I don’t know the where everything is in Linux.  I often search for things in the GUI but I really get lost trying to find things in the file system.  In Windows I know where the files (and registry settings) are located and how to modify them.  With Linux, this isn’t always the case for me.  I find myself searching Google to learn where a setting is stored.  While it’s cool to learn new things it gets annoying when you’re just trying to get some work done.
5. Linux is not nearly as “plug and play” as Windows.  At least not in my experience.  It has made leaps and bounds in recent years but I always seem to have fewer problems getting hardware to work with Windows.
6. I connect to a lot of resources on Windows computers.  Accessing the Windows files using CIFS (SMB) is totally do-able with Linux but it isn’t as seamless as it is with Windows to Windows connections.
7. A biggie:  Outlook Web Access.  OWA SUCKS on any browser other than IE.  Firefox on Windows and LInux give a functional yet very ugly OWA experience (IETab for Windows Firefox rocks the house!!!)  Because I move from computer to computer so much I’m not much into POP3-ing my mail.  I like OWA.  The intense level of suckiness of OWA on Linux has actually kept me away for years.

I say all of this because today I am going to begin a Windows hunger strike.  I am going to try and use Linux exclusively as my desktop OS.  In order to keep myself going I will be telling you how it’s going.  I hope to report daily (perhaps multiple times each day) but we’ll see how it goes.

Other than formulating my own opinion on whether Linux is really viable on the desktop I don’t have any real agenda.  I am one of what seems to be a minority of people who loves Vista.  Once you get a PC or notebook that is beefy enough to handle it, that is.

So here it begins.  I actually wrote this post on a laptop with a fresh install of Fedora Core 9.  I went back and forth when deciding which distro to use.  I initially wanted to use Ubuntu but decided on Fedora because it seems to be more common and have better support.  I may be wrong on that point.  I’m about to find out for sure.  If this goes well I’ll consider giving SuSe and Mandriva a look.  We’ll see.

Wish me luck…

Colin Weaver