Finally

I am posting this from a brand new MacBook Pro. And this time, it’s all mine.

Ubuntu FTW

Well, after several days of tweaking, I have Ubuntu Gutsy running smoothly on my Eee PC! There are fortunately some scripts out there that make everything work all nice and pretty on the Eee, like the wireless adapter, webcam, and special function keys.

Unfortunately, I could not get Evolution to sync with Exchange because my Exchange provider (1and1) uses Exchange 2007. However, I managed to get Outlook 2003 working via Crossover Linux. What a great piece of software, by the way. It’s essentially WINE for nubs. I also installed Firefox 3 Beta 4, and it’s running smooth like butter on the Eee. Can’t wait for the final release!

But the crowning glory? I got USB internet sharing on my Shadow to work flawlessly!

So, I accomplished the two major things I had hoped to accomplish by switching from Xandros to Ubuntu: I can access my Exchange account, and I can use internet sharing through my phone. So hooray for me. And hooray for Ubuntu!

I am loving Ubuntu so very much. I don’t know why I stayed away from Linux for so long. I plan to install Ubuntu on my desktop over spring break. But since Evolution can’t solve my Exchange problem, I’m not really tied to Gnome anymore. I might try KDE to see what all the fuss is about. There seem to be fierce loyalties on either side!

I might also try XFCE on the Eee, since it’s a “lighter” desktop system, but I’ve got everything running so smoothly in Gnome, I’m almost afraid to touch it!

Goodbye, Xandros. Hello, Ubuntu.

As many of you know, I have an Asus Eee PC. It is a wonderful little laptop, and I carry it in my purse. One of the things that first attracted me to the Eee PC is the fact that it runs Linux, which I had never really played with much. I know, I’m losing geek cred here, but stay with me.

It came with a very cute customized installation of Xandros, running something called “easy mode” by default. It has a handy tabbed interface, with plenty of productivity software out of the box. Firefox, Thunderbird, and Open Office are all included. Here’s what it looks like.

While I loved the interface at first, I started to feel a little confined by it, so I enabled “Advanced Mode”, which gives you a full KDE desktop interface. It looks a little something like this.

But then the Xandros OS itself started to cramp my style. The more I used the Eee, the more comfortable I became with Linux. The problem is that a highly customized version of a pay distro isn’t really the best introduction to Linux. Linux is all about customization, but all the juicy repositories would break Xandros.

So, I am officially waving “goodbye” to Xandros. I am installing Ubuntu on my Eee PC as we speak.