Hey guys it’s been a while….but here I am.
On Saturday while working on Windows 7 and trying to get some work out of the way, I got the dreaded blue screen. I was not worried about it as I thought it was just Windows 7 doing its thing since it is a Release Candidate. Little did I know neither my vista or my 7 would reboot. I was in no mood at the time to troubleshoot as I had quite a few documents to finish. I got my Ubuntu live CD out and popped it into my disk drive. I got all of my files that I did not backup previously since I added more after my last backup and transferred them to my external. When all was done it dawned upon me to just install Ubuntu as my native OS and use a virtual program such as virtual box to run my MS winblowz.
Not a lot of people have the patience and time for Ubuntu as most of the applications come in the form of packages and repositories and it takes a great deal of time to find a decent program to actually do what you want it to. However there are many resources out there for one who is interested in running a full Linux system.
Adobe Air:
Adobe Air not only shows that the Operating System will soon be of no significance as it is a platform that could be installed on any Operating System, from Windows to Mac to Linux. This gives one the opportunity to run various apps for example Tweetdeck, KonoLive, designview, Facedesk, Websnapshot, Alertthingy and so many more too numerous to mention.
Crossover Professional for Linux:
It is no where close to WINE (Windows Emulator), but I love using it to install my Microsoft office instead. I mean I could get used to Open Office but I realized that there are some minor issues to be fixed plus it doesn’t hurt to have it installed. With Crossover one could install apps such as Photoshop CS2 and some others. Which is really great. I consider it to be a very useful tool when converting to Linux.
Crossover MS Outlook
MS Excel MS PowerPoint
MS Word
Virtual Box:
VirtualBox (in my own way of explaining it) is an open source visualization program that allows you to install other operating systems on your computer, be it Linux, MAC or Windows. This is a very handy tool, I am currently using it right now to gain access to the Windows Live Writer, and I have Windows 7 RC installed on my Linux. It is considerably lighter than VMware and it does not take up as many resources either. If you want to try Ubuntu, head over to VirtualBox.
VirtualBox Windows 7
I also tried installing Fedora 11 on VMware but it did not take too well since my VMware was not acting right. But here are some photos of the installation process:
WinE:
Windows Emulator (WINE) is an awesome program which is by many whenever trying to install a program from a Windows origination into Linux. There are are quite a selection and unlike Crossover, it is not that limited. You could browse the AppDB to see all of the programs that could currently used with Wine and the status.
Instant Messengers:
I can say that I am still hooked on my windows and so upon installing Ubuntu I was in search of a good Messenger that would suit my needs. Ubuntu comes with a Universal on or a multi-messenger Pidgin, yeah it is ok but I do not like it. I only use it for gmail presently. Then I found Kopete this one came close to what I needed to satisfy yahoo, but not close enough for MSN messenger, and then there came aMSN which completed what I needed for MSN even though I missed my version 14.0. Oh and I am forgetting Skype, there is actually a linux version which was perfect. The bottom-line of all my ramblings is that I can communicate effectively with my friends and still feel comfortable.
Pidgin aMsn Kopete Skype
In all, even though there are still many software issue in terms of compatibility it is a very good Operating System even without all of the bells and whistles. I still have quite a few programs to try, but so far it has been working out for me. What doesn’t work on Ubuntu VirtualBox will do the trick.
Once again I apologize for taking so long to do a post
. If you know of any more tips and tricks feel free to tell me, hey I am always up to testing and getting to know more
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