Alex's Journal

I give up. As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I decided to give Linux an honest try and I did. For most everyday needs, it’s fine. All of the software that one would need to perform most tasks on the computer is available for Linux and even better, most of it is free and open source. The problem is the niche software that I use. I have written about this problem before. It’s particularly Reason — the program I use to make most of my music. I have gotten a lot of great music creation software suggestions for Linux, but none of what I have been shown or have found on my own accord does what Reason does. For a while, I was using both Linux and Windows — Linux for most tasks and Windows for running Reason, but that got quite old quite fast and I found myself more and more just using Windows and not even bothering to boot into Linux again.

The other issue I’ve had with Ubuntu was a resolution issue that I can’t seem to find a solution for. I’ve consulted books and forums and neither have had a solution. Basically the problem I’m having is that it will only go to 1280×800 at 60 hertz. I need to run 1024×768 at 75 hertz which is the highest my (old) monitor will support. This means that every time I boot into Linux, everything is very distorted and I’ve noticed my monitor is not doing so well either. I’m able to change the resolution to 1024×768 at 60 hertz, but my monitor won’t display anything in that case.

I have also found myself being drawn more and more back to my PowerBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.4.11. I guess it wasn’t until I decided to venture out again into the world of Windows and even Linux that I realized how immune I had become to the problems both Windows and Linux are prone to having. While Linux is a much more viable option for stability and security, I have had issues with software and with the resolution. When it comes to Windows, I don’t think much explanation is necessary. It seems that almost everything I do is plagued with stability problems. I have even checked for hardware conflicts by stripping the hardware done to the absolute bare minimum needed to boot the computer, but to no avail. Because of that, it looks like I will be buying a new Mac laptop afterall.

I’ve finally given Linux a try. After all that posting and complaining about how much I wanted to try it, I finally have. Now that I’m back from Germany and have access to my Compaq desktop, I went ahead and downloaded and installed Ubuntu 8.04. So far, I have to admit that I really haven’t done much with it, but what I have done (basically just explored the OS and the applications that were bundled with it) it has done incredibly smoothly. After having used Mac OS X for so long, I had taken somethings for granted such as stability and a lack of weird, unknown problems that have no explanation — both of which are common occurrences in Windows and both of which I have already run into despite only having used it for a couple of days since I’ve been back. I even recall having formatted and installed a fresh copy of Windows XP Pro on my PC desktop before leaving for Germany.

I thought at first that it may have been a hardware problem, but that isn’t so. After using Ubuntu now for the past few hours, I haven’t run into any of the problems that I was running into consistently in Windows on the same computer. In Windows, Firefox 3 took literally minutes to open and that was fairly quick compared to some of the other applications I tried to run. In Ubuntu, I’ve had absolutely none of those problems. Everything is very snappy. And with a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 processor and a gig of RAM, it should be snappy (yes, it is a bit out of date, but it is up-to-date enough to run Firefox 3 without any problems… or so I would think).

I’ll keep using it for a while and see what I think. I can’t write about a whole lot at this point as I haven’t installed any other applications or really done anything productive in Ubuntu yet (other than write this post). I can say though that the user-friendliness of Ubuntu knocks the socks off of the last version of Linux I tried, Red Hat Linux 7. That was several years ago though and Linux was much more reliant on the user being able to use the Terminal than it is now. Now there are GUI buttons for pretty much everything that the average user needs as far as I can see.

PCWorld Australia has pitted Fedora 9 against Ubuntu 8.04 in an interesting article showing each one’s strengths and weaknesses. PCWorld’s article concludes:

For users who are already familiar with Linux, Fedora 9 is an excellent choice. Robust security features and installation options make it somewhat more versatile than Ubuntu, which offers a more streamlined (and therefore more restricted) installation. For most users, though, including millions interested in trying Linux for the first time, Fedora lacks the polish and ready-to-run simplicity of its more popular rival.

Ubuntu 8.0.4 offers a level of functionality comparable to that of Mac OS and Windows, from delivery to installation to daily use. Unfortunately, the ties that bind all Linux distributions – primarily a lack of support for major Windows- and Mac-based business, design, and gaming applications – still hold Ubuntu back from mass popularity. For users with such moderate computing needs as Web browsing, e-mail, and basic document creation, however, Hardy is a compelling option.

You can read the full article here.

I know I’ve talked about this before, but I think I’m going to talk about it again.

As I’ve already explained in my Switching from a Mac post, I’m looking at giving up my Mac and buying a PC. My reasoning is best explained in the other post, however, the primary reason I am going with a PC instead of a Mac is because of the hardware. The hardware Apple ships with Macs is just too expensive for what you get in my opinion. The only plus side to buying a Mac is you get Mac OS X which I will say is definitely a superior operating system when compared to the likes of Windows.

I was considering using Windows and just dealing with it for quite a while. It would be easier considering I would easily be able to get software, it would run all of the software I need and it does all of the basics such as internet, e-mail, etc that I need to do. Then I read this article: “Microsoft confirms Windows adheres to broadcast flag“. Here’s a sample:

“‘Microsoft has put the requirements of broadcasters above what consumers want,’ said the EFF’s Danny O’Brien. ‘They’ve imposed restrictions way beyond what the law requires. Customers need to know who Microsoft is listening to and how that affects their equipment. Right now, the only way customers know what Microsoft has agreed to is when the technology they’ve bought suddenly stops working. Microsoft needs to come clean and tell its customers what deals it has made.’”

I know it’s not a big deal in the entire scheme of things and it’s not really this particular incident that turned me off of Windows so much all of a sudden either. It’s the fact that Microsoft continually screws its customers in favor of censorship or any form of hindrance to the user for large companies such as the broadcasting companies. This is no an isolated incident either. Look at how Microsoft so strongly supports DRM-protected music as just one example.

I have been considering using Linux for my day-to-day needs and only booting up into Windows when I have to use software that won’t run on Windows (such as Reason). I’ve decided I will probably experiment with this for quite some time before I decide on what to keep with. If I really like Linux, which I’m sure I will, I’ll probably stick with it. If not, then I guess I won’t. We’ll see.

Edit: I just read an Ars Technica article about Microsoft and the media companies. It’s an interesting read if you’re interested in it.

InformationWeek has done a really interesting comparison on the Linux desktop distros. The distros compared were openSUSE, Ubuntu 8.4, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva Linux One, Fedora, SimplyMEPIS, and CentOS 5.1. Overall Ubuntu won for its ease of use, the robust features it offers and for its ability to work on almost any hardware.

You can find the entire article here.

Well, unfortunately it would appear as though my harddrive in my 12″ Apple Powerbook is on its last leg. The symptoms that always occur such as random clicking coming from the harddrive and the entire system locking up while it’s busy doing that are becoming frequent events. The other major symptom is that occasionally when I boot my computer, no bootable drive can be found and I have to restart again. That normally takes care of the problem, but I don’t know how much longer that will take care of it.

I have backed up all of my data and I’m being very careful as to what else gets put on it. Normally a crashed harddrive would not be a big deal for me if I’m forewarned about it such as in this case because I normally have more than one computer readily available to take this one’s place. The problem, however, is that I am in Germany and will be here until late this summer and this is my only computer.

As I said in my last post, I am considering moving to Linux anyhow. As such, I’ve been doing research about Linux and as I was looking around, an idea came to mind. I realized that, in the event that my harddrive fails, I could just use a Linux live disk and still be able to access the internet and my e-mail. This would be very limiting as to what I could do with my computer, but it is much better than nothing. I’ve decided on using Fedora 8, as it is one of the only major distros that still support the PowerPC platform. We’ll see how it goes.

As I have mentioned before in previous entries (Thinking of Linux: Part 1 – Part 2), I am definitely ready to move to Linux. I want to get away from the proprietary monsters that are Windows and Mac OS X and support the open source community. I already use Firefox, Camino, OpenOffice.org, Adium and a number of other different open source applications and I love them.

The only problem is that Linux is not ready for me and what I need to do with my computer. The lack of support for any of the software I use to produce my music is the only deterrent at this point. I have done extensive research on the internet — including asking around on forums — as well as talking to some people that I know who run Linux and have not been able to find anything viable to the commercial applications I use now (Reason and ProTools).

Naturally I have found several open source music applications that run on Linux such as Audacity that could replace ProTools, however their feature sets are nowhere near as robust as ProTools’. And then of course there is Reason which, as far as I can tell, is entirely unique. It is a program that virtualizes a DJ rack. With Reason it’s even possible to hit the tab button and turn the rack around to reveal virtual cables which can be moved around between the different virtual machines for any sort of complex wiring schemes you might need. There are lots of smaller applications that combined almost do what Reason does, but without the lack of coordination between the programs, they are entirely useless to me.

Then there’s Wine. Several people have recommended Wine to me, but I can’t say that I would entirely trust it. When I have both ProTools and Reason open and working together through the magic of ReWire, there is often times barely enough processing power available on the native platform for both of the applications — regardless of whether I am running them on Mac OS X or Windows. Not to mention there seems to be atrocious audio errors and other compatibility errors that come with Wine. Another issue that I’m not sure Wine could solve would be the hardware compatibility problem. I use ProTools-specific hardware alongside my computer to record my music and there are no Linux drivers available for it.

Several people have also recommended that I just partition my harddrive and run a dual-boot machine. Then I could boot into Windows whenever I need to to use ProTools and Reason. The problem I see with this is a simple question. What would be the point of running Linux at all then when Windows does everything else that I need such as internet, e-mail, instant messaging, word processing, etc as well as working natively with the applications I use? If I were to take that route, it seems to me that I shouldn’t bother wasting the harddrive space by creating a dual-boot machine.

Basically what I’m saying in a very long-winded way is that I would absolutely love to move to Linux, but I just don’t think it would be a good idea to until the applications I need and use quite often are supported.

[digg=http://digg.com/linux_unix/Thinking_of_Linux_Pt_2]First of all, I would like to thank everyone who gave me feedback and suggestions on my last post concerning moving to Linux.

Since then, I’ve done quite a bit of research and looking around at various manufacturers, prices, configurations and options available out there. After quite a bit of research, I think I’ve come to the same conclusion that most people seem to come to: I’ll partition the hard drive and install Linux on one partition and Windows on the other. I really don’t want Windows Vista as that’s nothing but bloatware, so I will probably install Windows XP Pro. That seems like the best option as then I can run Reason as well as other various programs that might not have a Linux equivalent.

The other option I was considering was using Wine, but I’m a little weary about using something like that though. I will probably try it as well as partitioning my hard drive, but I don’t really want to just have to rely on it. If you’ve used it before, let me know. I would like to know how well it actually runs applications that demand quite a bit of a computer’s resources (such as Reason).

I think the only thing that remains now is to find a manufacturer and the best bang for my buck.

[digg=http://digg.com/linux_unix/Thinking_of_Linux]I haven’t always been a big Mac fan. As I think it is with most people, I used to use a Windows PC, but unlike most people, I quickly realized how much I wanted out of the world of Windows. Even as early as high school, I began to look for alternatives to the Microsoft horror that is Windows. The obvious conclusion I came to as a completely broke high school student was Linux.

At the time, I was running a Gateway PC with a 433mhz Intel Celeron processor. I don’t remember any of the other specs at the moment, but I do remember that it had a sticker on the front saying that it was specifically designed to run Microsoft Windows 98, which dates it quite a bit. I had already upgraded from Windows 98 which the computer had come with to Windows 2000 and despite the noticeability in improvement, I still wasn’t satisfied with my computer’s reliability and performance.

Of course, I had heard of the Mac and had even used them in school. I was extremely interested in trying a Mac (at the time that would have been the classic Mac OS 9), but considering I had absolutely no money and the computer I was using was already a hand-me-down, I had to find another solution. Searching through the internet, I learned about this great operating system called Linux. I looked through several distributions and had no idea what I was looking at or what any of the terminology meant. I made my final distribution decision purely out of aesthetic reasons. My decision was Red Hat Linux 7.

Of course, I also had no idea how to download it and install it. The term “ISO” meant absolutely nothing to me, much less knowing what to do with it once it was finally downloaded. I decided instead that I would go get a Red Hat Linux 7 book that would explain everything. At the bookstore, I chose Red Hat Linux 7 for Dummies because it came with installation CDs of the operating system. I made the purchase because it not only explained how to use Linux, but also rid any need of downloading ISO’s and then trying to figure out what to do with them.

After coming home from the bookstore, I quickly backed up any files on my Windows PC that I considered important, then I wiped the hard drive and installed Linux. By then I had had enough experience formatting and (re)installing Windows, that I was comfortable with that part of the procedure. After successfully installing Linux and running it for the first time, I was brought to the terminal. I was also fairly comfortable with terminals because I had used a lot of MS-DOS machines. Given, I didn’t really know any Linux/Unix commands, but that’s where that handy book came into play. After playing around in the terminal for a while, I decided to give the GUI’s a try. In the installation, I had been given the option to either install GNOME or KDE or both. Not even having the slightest clue as to which one was better, I installed both. This might seem extremely redundant to any casual Linux user, but I was new. I first chose to run GNOME. Of course, I played around with GNOME for about an hour and then I tried KDE. After playing with both and going back and forth for a few days, I decided that I liked GNOME better. The only reason was because I thought it looked better. (But then again, what is a GUI if it doesn’t look good?)

With my handy book, I used Linux for quite a while and loved every minute of it. I used the Mozilla suite for my internet needs and I used the GIMP for my photo and image editing needs. Most of my basic computing needs were taken care of with freeware that either came with Linux itself or that I downloaded and installed. The problem that I ran into, however, was the other software that I needed, but wasn’t available for Linux. At the time, OpenOffice.org really didn’t exist, so there was really no comparable software suite for Linux to Microsoft’s Office. There was something called StarOffice that I tried to use, but it never really did do quite what I wanted. I also made (and still make) a lot of music and there wasn’t (and still isn’t) an equivalent to Propellerhead’s Reason software which I use to make a good portion of my music.

In the end, I decided to go back to Windows. Fortunately, it was only temporary because not too long after I moved back to Windows, I was able to buy my first Mac. I bought an Apple iBook with a 700 mhz G3 processor. It came with OS X 10.1 installed. In 2005, I upgraded to a PowerBook G4. Considering that was almost 3 years ago (which is a very long time in technological terms) and this laptop has traveled faithfully with me to several different countries, it’s about time to buy another computer.

When I say this, I’m not saying that I don’t like Apple anymore, but they aren’t the company they were when I bought my first Mac and the change hasn’t exactly been for the better in my opinion. The success of the iPod has brought about a certain prude air to them that I’m not really a fan of. So, naturally, I’m looking for alternatives while still avoiding Windows. This obviously brings Linux back into the picture. I have done quite a bit of research into Linux distributions and this time I know (for the most part) what I’m looking for and what all of the terminology means. The Linux distribution that I decided on was Ubuntu Linux. It fits pretty much all of my needs and also looks good.

There is still a problem, however. Compared to when I first tried Linux, the amount software available for Linux users and the popularity of the operating system itself have increased tremendously. One of my two major problems before has been solved with OpenOffice.org (which I have used on Windows PCs when I am forced to use one for some reason or another). The other problem, a Linux equivalent or replacement for Propellerhead’s Reason, is still not solved. This software is crucial to me and my music career. If you know of an equivalent or something, please let me know.

That should just leave one problem, but actually there is a new need involved that wasn’t a factor last time I tried Linux. Since I am a college student and I travel all of the time, I really need a laptop. As far as I know, and correct me if I’m wrong (please!), the only way to get a laptop is through a major distributor which also involves purchasing an OEM license for whatever the preinstalled operating system is (be it Windows or Mac OS depending on who you buy the hardware from). I don’t know of any laptop makers that sell laptops without a preinstalled operating system or with a Linux distribution as an option for the operating system.

As I said before, if you know of an equivalent or a replacement for Propellerhead’s Reason (click on the name for more details on what it is), PLEASE tell me. I would love to use Linux, but that is the primary reason I am holding back. If you also know of a place where you can buy a new laptop without an operating system or with Linux preinstalled, please let me know. You can send me an e-mail at seifertalex [at] gmail [dot] com or just leave a comment here. Thanks!