el rinconcito

All you *buntu freaks, it's almost here again, upgrade time. Distro upgrades are always fun. This Thursday, 29 October 2009, is the next release, 9.10 (Karmic Koala, WTF!) so fire up those torrent clients and look busy.


See my CD-less speedy combo method of upgrading. Download servers will overload on Thursday, so if you use bittorrent to fetch, you'll save a lot of time.



All of these are fun and run smooth as silk:

• Ubuntu - for you Gnome-ers. Safe with most medications.
  
  
• Kubuntu - KDE eye-candy fantasy. Goes well with spicy Chinese take-out, or Vietnamese.
  
  
• Xubuntu - for people who like the military-like precision of the Xfce desktop like I do.
  
  
• Edubuntu - Ubuntu enhanced with educational applications, tools, content, and themes.
  
  
• Ubuntu Netbook Remix - runs dreamy on my Sylvania Meso netbook.
  
  
• Microsoft Windows 7 - obligatory "I'm kidding" link. What a freakin' downer!
  

If you can't decide which one to get, just pick any of the first few listed above. One can be converted to another with little hassle.

Reminder, if you are upgrading from a previous *buntu system, get the *alternate* CD iso file, not the main one. If it's a virginal install, any of the iso files will do. In fact, if you're new to all this, get the recommended main file. You can boot it live and see how it looks before you install it.

Upgrades: get the *alternate* file! Virgins, get any file, especially the main one.

All install easy as pie, especially with beer. Don't forget to install Opera after you get 'er running.

Control + C. I'm done!

Time for a periodic screenshot. The wallpaper is from our very own camera. I like it!

Click the image to enlarge. Select "all sizes" after landing on the flickr page.

This post and this one chronicle my getting involved with Xubuntu over my 4-day holiday weekend. This is the first major desktop change I've made in about a decade since I came off of the Window Maker desktop and became a diehard KDE fan for what seems like forever.

I do love KDE. It is sweet, techno looking, snazzy, etc, but with release 4 and the plasma desktop, it was starting to drag along on my machine, and a lot of things just didn't work so well anymore.

There's a lot to be said for running things that have an emphasis on a light footprint even if your machine has enough power to run the heavy stuff. On that note, in marches Xubuntu with its Xfce desktop. I'm seriously impressed! My machine is back up to full speed again, and "everything just works". w00t! That phrase, "everything just works", always used to pertain to Slackware, which I ran forever, but now Xubuntu is there, too.

I couldn't be more freakin' pleased. This page even told me the easy way to purge all the old Ubuntu and Kubuntu stuff off of my machine and get it to an almost virginal Xubuntu install state. My main computer went from Slack to Ubuntu, then Kubuntu, and this weekend, to Xubuntu. There were a lot of remnants on my system, and I like things to be pretty pure. I was wanting to get it more default-ish Xubuntu, and by golly, it was a snap.

It's been a lot of fun, and it's like my computer has become mine again. Everything snaps right to attention, and the hard drive thrash is all gone. Functionality remains as high as ever.

BTW, Linux tweaking still goes best with beer. Xubuntu is on every computer in the house now, except for the Sylvania netbook, which needs to remain with Ubuntu Netbook Remix due to being a netbook!