My Slice of the Globe

I figured I would test out the ability of Google Docs to post to a Blog. It seemed fairly simple to setup the blog settings under the fairly self explanatory “blog settings” in the Google Docs “Settings” area. So anyway, I guess if you are reading this is more of a test of a post, than an actual post.

Never one to be satisfied with a boring working OS, I decided that since 32-bit Ubuntu “just worked” I would attempt to install 64-bit Ubuntu. Installation and hardware recognition went just as smoothly as with 32-bit Ubuntu. And my first impression of 64-bit Ubuntu is that is appears to be a little “snappier” than 32-bit but both blow away XP. After installation of the OS and application of updates everything seemed just as smooth as before with the 32-bit version including the restricted ATI driver. I then proceeded to again follow:
http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com/2008/04/things-to-do-on-your-new-ubuntu-804.html

Things that seems to be a little different:

- Sun will not create a 64-bit Java browser plugin until Java 7 (sometime in 2008) so you will need to use the GCJ plugin (Iced Tea) for java applets, although there may be compatibility issues with some sites. Alternatively you can install 32-bit Firefox and all the 32-bit plugins you want. There will also be a subsequent Java 6 plugin to follow sometime in early 2009(See bug fix)

- If you are one to install w32codecs, they are not available by that name, you need to use: non-free-codecs

- There doesn’t appear to be a 64-bit Shockwave plugin although Adobe flash seems to work without issue.

- Again although Acrobat does install, the acrobat plug-in does not seems to be available for 64-bit Firefox. Of course, this is not earth shattering by any stretch of the imagination.

- (Is anyone else detecting a pattern concerning 64-bit Closed Source plugins for linux?)

Well, that’s it for now. I will attempt the wine & Oblivion install in 64-bit and let you know what happens.

Well I finally blew away and reinstalled Ubuntu from scratch and I am now a much happier camper. I had done an upgrade from 7.10 -> 8.04 alpha -> 8.04 final release and my video driver was not in a happy place (could not use the restricted driver at all and any attempt to enable it resulted in debugging pain). Today I burned the Ubuntu ISO onto a disc and installed over my Ubuntu partition. The install went relatively quickly and hassle free.

And best of all everything just plain works! Huzzah!

I then proceeded to follow this guide for getting some of the non-default features:
http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com/2008/04/things-to-do-on-your-new-ubuntu-804.html

I’ve heard of some relatively recent good developments on the Wine & Oblivion front so that may be an exercise left for the near future. (And if that exercise messes up the OS, I at least know its pretty quick and easy to get back to a stable system)