Trying out Linux Desktop
Since I’ve been reading Just for Fun, about Linus Torvalds, I’ve gotten more and more interested in using Linux as a desktop OS. I’ve tried Linux before, but I usually grabbed some old, shitty computer to install it on, and I never really forced myself to use it.
This time, I’ve taken a leap though. I have a second hard drive on my computer that has (had) Vista RC1 installed on it that I never used ’cause Vista wouldn’t recognize my wireless card and without the internet a computer is pretty much worthless.
So today I installed Ubuntu 6.10 on the second hard drive and I’m writing this post from my new linux install 
The only downside so far is that it’s a pain in the ass for Erin to be using the computer and then having to restart the machine to use linux, I wish there was a way to have both OS’s running so I could switch out quickly. As it stands, I have to restart and press F11 when I boot up to manually change the boot order to boot from the linux hard drive when I want to log in.
I’ll spend some more time tomorrow getting all the necessary stuff installed (Apache, MySql, etc.), and I’ve already got MonoDevelop but I’m still looking for a good PHP IDE, one that has intellisense preferably, but for now I’m going out to try out one of Surly’s newer beers, the Darkness.
Derek said,
Wrote on December 19, 2006 @ 4:04 pm
I used Quanta Plus [http://quanta.kdewebdev.org] when I was doing web development on Linux last year (haven’t done any recently except at work where we use ASP) and I liked it a lot. Only problem you might have is that Ubuntu doesn’t come with KDE installed AFAIK, so you’ll have to spend a little extra time waiting for it to install.
Screenshot of PHP autocomplete - http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/screenshots//shot9.png
Ben said,
Wrote on December 20, 2006 @ 10:51 am
Derek, thanks for the tip, I’ll give it a shot. Unfortunately, I haven’t been using linux as much as I’d like, as its a pain to have to reboot for Erin to use windows, and vice versa
Christopher Warren said,
Wrote on December 29, 2006 @ 10:15 am
Over the past few weeks I’ve been using VMWare Player and EasyVMX (http://www.easyvmx.com/) to generate my setup files. I now have an extra copy of XP and a copy of Ubuntu that I can start up from within my normal XP boot. It doesn’t have all the power available that would come with a clean reboot, since it’s running within Windows, but for getting familiar with Ubuntu it’s a pretty nice way to go. The second copy of XP is nice for testing out apps that I’m unsure about and other miscellaneous screwing should the compulsion arise.
Ben said,
Wrote on December 29, 2006 @ 10:44 am
Hey Chris, I have a Ubuntu VMWare image at work that I’ve used as well to play around with linux, but I always thought that I wouldn’t get hooked on it unless I had the full power, as opposed to a virtual machine, but now I’ve found that it’s too much of a pain in the ass to reboot, so maybe I should revisit that method at home too.
Ben Reichelt’s Weblog » The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions said,
Wrote on February 11, 2007 @ 8:54 pm
[…] A little while ago, I formatted the second hard drive (the one I had installed Linux on) and moved Erin’s and my “My Documents” folder to the G: drive. I also moved my projects folder, and our folder of ripped mp3’s. This is in preparation for upgrading to Vista. I wanted our files on a separate drive so that if everything goes to hell, we won’t lose our stuff. […]
TIm said,
Wrote on April 19, 2007 @ 8:23 am
For PHP development I recommend Eclipse with PHP Module. It’s great, with intellisense and everything you need.
see: eclipse.org