GeekLimit

I’ve just verified that this procedure works.  It was created through the combination of a few threads out there on the topic that were missing pieces of the puzzle in one way or another.

This procedure will set up your Macbook Pro in such a way that a menu will appear on boot that will require the selection of Mac OS (tested with 10.5.3), Windows (tested with Vista 64-bit), or Linux (tested with Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit - Alternate Install CD). This procedure assumes that you want the drive divided evenly between all operating systems, and can take up to 5 hours to complete, not including burning OS install disks. Most of this time will be spent waiting for progress bars, and the laptop will be unusable for work.  (So you can plan accordingly)

Install Mac OS X

(Assumes Mac OS X 10.5.3)

1. Back up all documents, including Notes files, browser bookmarks, etc. to the network or USB thumbdrive.
2. Install OS X to the Macbook Pro, using the entire hard drive.
3. Use the Boot Camp Assistant to partition the drive.
   1. Start the Boot Camp Assistant, located at /Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant
   2. The “Windows” partition shown will eventually become both the Windows and Linux partitions. Therefore, if you wish for the drive to be divided equally across all operating systems, slide the divider until the Windows partition takes up two-thirds of the disk.
   3. Click ‘Partition’ and wait for the process to complete.
   4. When the partitioning process completes, click ‘Quit and Install Later’. Do not use the Bootcamp installer.

Install Windows

(Assumes Windows Vista 64-bit)

1. Insert the Windows install CD or DVD and reboot the machine. Hold down the ‘c’ key to boot from the CD. (note: at this time, the Windows XP 64-bit install DVD does not recognize the keyboard or USB keyboards when booting from DVD)
2. Once the Windows installer loads, proceed as normal through the installation. When asked where to install Windows, select the partition that is approximately two-thirds of the disk. In testing, this was ‘Disk 0 Partition 3 BOOTCAMP 126.1GB’.
3. Highlight the partition and click ‘Drive Options (advanced)’.
4. Click ‘Format’ and ‘OK’.
5. Now that the drive is formatted, click ‘Next’. Windows will install.
   1. During the Windows install process, the machine may reboot on its own several times.
   2. Windows is rebooting and expecting to boot back into the installation process. You need to help it do so by holding down the ‘Option (Alt)’ key when the machine reboots, and manually selecting the ‘Windows’ hard drive. (not the ‘Windows’ CD)
   3. If you miss the chance to reboot into the Windows install process, the machine will boot into OS X. Just reboot the machine, hold down the option key, select the ‘Windows’ hard drive (not the CD) and continue from there.
6. Once installation is complete, the machine will boot into Vista and have the user complete the setup procedure.
7. Eject the CD from within Vista by clicking the drive once in ‘Computer’ and selecting ‘Eject’ on the title bar. Vista now needs drivers for the Macbook Pro hardware.
   1. If you want to be able to have greater control over the fans in the Macbook Pro cooling system, you need to install the ‘inputremapper’ application (tested version 1.0.04) first. This is recommended, as the Macbook Pro can run quite hot at times, dependent on the ambient air temperature.
      1. Download and install inputremapper. You will need to use a USB key, as the networking drivers for the Macbook Pro have not yet been installed.
      2. Reboot the machine, holding down the ‘option’ key and choosing the Windows drive.
   2. Install the Windows drivers for the Macbook pro hardware by inserting the ‘Macbook Pro Install CD 1′ in the drive. If the Bootcamp Drivers application doesn’t start automatically, double-click on the CD in ‘Computer’ and run WindowsSupport/setup.exe.
   3. Once the drivers are installed, eject the CD and reboot the machine into the Mac OS partition.

Install rEFIt

1. Boot into the Mac OS partition and install rEFIt. This is our boot menu application.
   1. Download and install rEFIt (tested version 0.11)
2. To set rEFIt to always be the boot menu, open a terminal window and give the command:

   /efi/refit/enable-always.sh

3. rEFIt has a default timeout of 20 seconds, then will boot into OS X. If you would like to disable the timeout:
   1. Open /efi/refit/refit.conf in Text Editor
   2. Change ‘timeout 20′ to ‘timeout 0′.
   3. Save and close.

Install Linux

1. Enter the Linux install CD (tested Ubuntu Linux 8.04 Desktop 64-bit Alternate Install) and reboot the machine. Hold down the ‘c’ key to boot from the CD. You might need to use an external USB keyboard, as sometimes the Linux install CD doesn’t recognize the built-in keyboard correctly.
2. Install as usual, until you get to the partitioning section.
   1. When Linux installs, it will corrupt the portion of the Master Boot Record on the current Windows partition. In order for Windows to be usable, the MBR installed on this partition must be backed up.
   2. When the installation procedure asks about partitioning disks, exit to a command line and make a backup of the MBR of the Windows partition.
      1. In Ubuntu, this is done by pressing Alt-F2 to get a command line.
      2. Enter

         dd if=/dev/sda of=/tmp/sda.mbr bs=512 count=1

         and hit the ‘Enter’ key.

      3. Press Alt-F1 to return to the Ubuntu installation.
   3. Choose the ‘Guided - Resize…’ option. (in testing, this was ‘Guided - Resize SCSI3 (0,0,0), partition #3 (sda) and use freed s’)
   4. Make the Linux partition 50% of the resized space (one-third of the overall drive, if the Windows partition was two-thirds…)
   5. Continue the installation process.
   6. After the base Linux OS files are installed, but before installing a Linux bootloader, the MBR must be restored from the backup that was created earlier.
      1. In Ubuntu, this is done by pressing Alt-F2 to get a command line.
      2. Enter

         dd if=/tmp/sda.mbr of=/dev/sda

         and hit the ‘Enter’ key.

      3. Press Alt-F1 to return to the Ubuntu installation.
3. Continue the installation process until reaching the bootloader installation screen. (in testing, this was the ‘GRUB installation’ page.)
   1. In Ubuntu, do not install GRUB to the MBR. Windows needs the MBR as it is.
   2. When asked where to install GRUB, choose the Linux installation partition (not the swap). In testing, this was /dev/sda4. (Note that this partition is one greater than the partition specified on the ‘Guided - Resize…’ line of the ‘Partition disks’ screen.
4. When the installation is complete, eject the CD (if it is not done for you) and reboot the machine.

Update rEFIt

At this point, rEFIt will see all three operating systems and can load Mac OS and Windows, but needs to have its own partition records updated to be able to properly allow Linux to load.

1. Once the machine is rebooted and on the rEFIt screen, press the arrow keys until you reach the ‘Partitioning Tool’ icon. Press the ‘Enter’ key.
2. When it asks “May I update the MBR as printed above?” press the ‘y’ key. rEFIt’s partiton records will update.
3. You should now be able to boot into any Operating System.

Notes and Observations

General

• To disable the Apple ‘bong’ noise when the machine starts, install and configure StartupSound.prefPane.

Windows

• Windows will check (CHKDSK) its partition the first time it boots. It notices the difference in partition size. This is fine, let it check it. Windows still loads afterwards.
• The right-click behavior in Mac OS (Control-click) can be replicated in Windows by using inputremapper.

Linux

• To reduce the amount of time the GRUB menu appears when booting Linux (tested Ubuntu), edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst where it says ‘timeout 10′ to say ‘timeout 3′ or whatever your preference is.
• To replicate the right-click (and middle-click) functionality in Mac OS by using Control-click,
  • Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard > Accessibility tab > General - and enable “Allow to turn accessibility features on and off from the keyboard”
  • Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard > Mouse Keys tab > and enable “Allow to control the pointer using the keyboard”
  • From the terminal, type

    gedit ~/.xmodmap

  • Type:

keycode 116 = Pointer_Button3

keycode 108 = ISO_Level3_Shift

• • Save and close the file.
  • Go to System > Preferences > Sessions and click ‘Add’.
    • Name: xmodmap
    • Command: xmodmap /home/fuz2y/.xmodmap
    • Comment: Add middle- and right-click functionality
    • Click ‘OK’.
  • Restart X to use the changes (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace).

The GRUB bootloader sometimes doesn’t survive imaging with Symantec Ghost.

After applying an image of Ubuntu Linux to a target machine, GRUB may need to be repaired before the machine will boot properly. To repair GRUB, do the following:

1. Load the Live CD, boot from it until you reach the desktop.
2. Open a terminal window.
3. Type “sudo grub”
4. Type “root (hd0,0)”, or whatever your harddisk + boot partition numbers are.
5. You can easily look up the boot partition for the version of Ubuntu on the hard drive by browsing to the hard disk from the LiveCD desktop.
6. Open /boot/grub/menu.lst in a text editor.Scroll to the bottom and look up which partition the menu choice for Ubuntu points to. (hd0,0 by default)
7. Type “setup (hd0)”, or whatever your harddisk number is.
8. Quit grub by typing “quit”.
9. Reboot the machine.

(tested with 64-bit Ubuntu Linux 8.04)

  After I upgraded my dual-boot laptop’s Ubuntu from 7.04 to 7.10, I’ve noticed that the upgrade overwrote my GRUB settings, so when I boot my machine, I no longer have a choice for booting into WinXP. I know the partition is still there, because Ubuntu 7.10 comes with NTFS read/write capability, and automatically shows a ‘Windows XP’ drive in my devices.

So how do I restore my pretty GRUB menu, and give myself the option to boot into either WinXP or Ubuntu 7.10? Every once in a while, I have to write an install script for a Windows app, so I do need to set this up…

First of all, let’s have a look at the grub menu file. I click on ‘Places’ in my menu, and go to:

Filesystem/boot/grub/menu.lst

I see the file that gives me my menu when I boot! Now there are a lot of helpful comments here, but if I strip the comments out, I essentially see these basic options:

default 2
timeout 5
color cyan/blue white/blue
### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=d403f712-7e72-4bc4-af12-0549fbc1624f ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,2)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=d403f712-7e72-4bc4-af12-0549fbc1624f ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=d403f712-7e72-4bc4-af12-0549fbc1624f ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=d403f712-7e72-4bc4-af12-0549fbc1624f ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=d403f712-7e72-4bc4-af12-0549fbc1624f ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic

title Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

Now that your eyes are glazed over, the important parts are at the top and the bottom. On the bottom of this list, we see the 5 entries that I’m seeing now when my machine boots.

On the top of the list, ‘Default’ says which of the 5 entries will be selected automatically. The entries are always numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, 4… etc. It starts with zero. So the defualt of 2 means that the third choice will be my default. I know, confusing, but that’s how it is.

So no entry here for Windows XP! You can see that the entries have a fairly standard layout though, so let’s put it back in. the grub file already has a helpful guide listed:

# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro

You can look up more info on GRUB works here, but what I’m most interested in is the ‘root (hd0,0)’ line. What this line says is that the root of whatever entry I’m doing is located on (drivenumber/partition). Since I only have one hard drive, I know my entry has to be something like this:

title Windows XP Professional SP2

root (myharddrive,somenumber)

makeactive

chainloader +1

(That last entry lets GRUB pass off the boot process to Windows’ native booter.)

So if I want to list all the partitions on my hard drive, I can give the console a: sudo fdisk -l

And I get this:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3823 30708216 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3824 4119 2377620 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda3 4120 4864 5984212+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 3824 4078 2048256 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 4079 4119 329301 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Well this makes sense… I have my first partition as NTFS, that’s Windows XP. I can see I have a few other partitions, mainly a 2GB FAT32 partition that I use as a play area, and my Linux partitions. I only have one hard drive, so my ‘root’ listing has to be (hd0,xxx). Since I want the first partition, I’ll make it root (hd0,0)

So my entry will be:

title Windows XP Professional SP2

root (hd0,0)

makeactive

chainloader +1

I’ll add that entry in, as well as partition out some of the other entries I don’t use. I’ll also name the Ubuntu menu choice something nicer than ‘Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic’. Now my choices read:

title        Please choose an Operating System
makeactive

title        ———————————
makeactive

title        Windows XP Professional SP2
root        (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader     +1

title        Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon
root        (hd0,2)
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=d403f712-7e72-4bc4-af12-0549fbc1624f ro quiet splash
initrd        /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

Now one very important thing: my default is still set to ‘2′, which means the title = 0, dotted line = 1, WinXP = 2, and Ubuntu = 3.  I changed my default to 3, so Ubuntu automatically boots up.  You might want to have WinXP boot, it’s your choice, just get the number right.
Also, if you want a shorter boot time, you can change ‘timeout’ to 5 like me, or leave it on 15 seconds or whatever grub’s default time is.

…and that’s it!  When I boot my machine, I get a nice, clean menu that looks like this (except the dotted line is exactly the same width as the ‘Please choose…’ line:

Please choose an Operating System
———————————
Windows XP Professional SP2
Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

Ubuntu is selected by default, and if I don’t do anything for five seconds, Ubuntu boots.

I switched to Ubuntu about 8 months ago or so, and really started using it full-time about 6 months ago. As the sole IT person for an organization of 1200 users, 420+ WinXP machines, and three server centers, I can easily say that administrating everything out of 7.04 has been a breeze. I’ve been reading up on 7.10, and can say that Ubuntu is easily rivalling Windows and OSX in terms of average-user functionality.

Whoa, whoa! I said average-user. Yes, I still have a WinXP gaming machine at my house for Team Fortress 2, Portal and Battlefield 2. However, reports are already coming out that Steam (Portal and Team Fortress 2) successfully runs under WINE. With the eye candy like Compiz Fusion, 7.10 now looks as good, or better than, Windows Vista, with a fraction of the overhead. What will be interesting to see is the gaming performance on 7.10 under WINE vs. on Vista with its inherent resource demands.

The features I see as the most valuable happen to be the most boring, but they’re:

• Ease of use in finding drivers for your hardware
• One-click server setup for common sevrer roles like File/Print servers, DNS, Web server, etc.
• NTFS support, which will GREATLY help introduce 7.10 machines to Windows-based networks.

All in all, you can try out 7.10 without having to erase anythimg. Simple burn a CD, but it in the drive, and restart your machine. You can check it out before you take the plunge. Perhaps the next time you’re going to consider re-installing Windows 2000 on that old machine you’ll consider 7.10, or when you’re re-installing WinXP, go for a dual-boot setup. or maybe even just go for it and order an Ubuntu machine direct from Dell!

Check this link out for a tour of the full features of 7.10:

First of all, sorry for not posting in a while. Vacation, work stuff, wife surgery, etc. I’ll post the backlogged stuff I have in the admin backend, I promise.

Anyway…

My first upgrade on Ubuntu has gone off without a hitch. I’m continued to be impressed by how well everything works on Ubuntu, after using Windows my entire professional life. I’ve continued to admin a network of 400 machines and 1200 users, and have only needed Windows once, to get a screenshot.

Unbeleivable. Congrats to Mark Shuttleworth and all the Ubuntu dev’s for a fantastic product. I continue to have the hardest time explaining why my IT-based friends should at least give the LiveCD a shot. They don’t know what they’re missing…

I followed some great insrtuctions here. I used the apt-get method, but had to make a few changes, since the ’sed’ command didn’t work for me… Here’s what I did:

1. Open Terminal
   1. sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
   2. (enter your password)
   3. (sources.list opens)
      1. Click the ‘replace’ button and replace all ‘edgy’ with ‘feisty’ (no quotes)
      2. Save and close
   4. sudo apt-get update
   5. sudo apt-get dist-upgrade (say yes to everything)
   6. reboot

done. If you want to test it, you could give the terminal a: sudo lsb_release -a

So I’ve been happy with Ubuntu so far, but wanted to show those Vista guys a thing or two by installing Beryl. The Beryl/XGL-Ubuntu instructions over at the Beryl Wiki are great, but didn’t have information for an Intel graphics card (for people like me with Intel embedded graphics through the chipset).

I did some Googling and found a startup script for XGL that works with an Intel graphics chip like on my Dell 700m. I’ve added the information to the wiki, but if you’re looking to get Beryl up and running on an Ubuntu laptop with Intel graphics, here’s where to go. The Intel-specific startupxgl.sh script I’ve added is:

#!/bin/sh
beryl-manager
sleep 4
exec gnome-session

In a windows environment, you automatically get connected to your H: drive (or sometimes Z:) when you log in.  For people using Ubuntu, this doesn’t happen natively.  Here’s how to restore this functionality:

First, make sure you are able to resolve server names via WINS.  If you can’t, you might as well do that now… it makes operating on a windows network a lot easier.

OK, give the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) this command:

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs

Now go ahead and make a folder called ‘H-drive’ or whatever.  Just don’t use spaces.  I chose to make it in my home directory.  You can use the FIle Manager, or just type in:

sudo mkdir /home/<username>/H-drive

(so mine was ’sudo mkdir /home/technocrat/H-drive’)

Now type in:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

We’re going to tell Ubuntu to connect your server folder to the folder you just made.  Copy these two lines to the end of the file, and change as neccessary.  If you don’t know what server your stuff is on, or what the share name is, ask your administrator.

# mount H drive as a folder in home dir
//<servername>/<sharename> /home/<username>/H-drive cifs exec,credentials=/etc/cifspw 0 0

(Where servername/sharename is your network folder, and /home/username/H-drive is where you made the folder on your system.)

We’ve told Ubuntu to get the proper username and password from a file at /etc/cifspw.  That file doesn’t exust yet, so let’s make it.  Enter this at the console:

sudo gedit /etc/cifspw

and enter this in the file:

username=(your windows network username)
password=(your windows network password)

Save and close.  Now give this to the console to lock down the security on that file:

sudo chmod 600 /etc/cifspw

And then kick off the mount process you you can try it out:

sudo mount -a

You should be able to navigate to your H-drive folder by clicking Places > Desktop and going to Home/(username)/H-drive.  You should see your stuff there!

modified from starkos 

Ubuntu 6.10 natively doesn’t handle connections to WPA-encrypted wireless networks too well. In fact, I wasn’t impressed with the way Edgy handles connecting to any network, for that matter.

For someone who is used to the ‘Network Connections’ folder in Windows, networking in Ubuntu isn’t fun. I worked on trying to connect to my home wireless network for about 90 minutes before I found the right combination of settings on Google that let me get online with WPA, and made it easy to manage multiple networks. For anyone who needs to admin several networks, this is a mandatory feature that Edgy doesn’t natively have.

Here’s how to get a very easy-to-use networking utility in Edgy:

• Connect to the internet via the RJ45 (ethernet) port with a wire. Make sure you can get to Google, etc.
• Click Applications > Accessories > Terminal (don’t get scared)
• type the following and hit enter
  • sudo apt-get
• enter your password and hit enter
• now copy and paste the following block into the terminal window and hit enter. (Note: if it says it can’t find the packages, type in ’sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list’, remove the “#” from the addresses at the end of each paragraph, save and close)
  • sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant
    sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome network-manager
    sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces
    (press enter to make the last one go)
• a file is now open. get rid of anything that doesn’t have ‘lo’ in it. Save and close.
• Enter this into the Terminal:
  • sudo gedit /etc/default/wpasupplicant

  a file is now open. Type in:

  • ENABLED=0
• Save and close.
• Paste this block into the Terminal. The machine will restart. Don’t forget to come back!
  • sudo touch /etc/default/wpasupplicant
    sudo reboot
    (press enter)

OK, so now you’ve got two icons in the top bar, one is the old ‘two monitors’, and the new ‘bars’ icon. Right-click the ‘two monitors’ one and remove it, you won’t need it. Now left-click the bars and configure your networks!

modified from DebianAdmin

Also,  if you’re a network or server administrator, and you want to use the machine names to remote into servers, you’ll notice it doesn’t work in Ubuntu.  WINS isn’t enabled by default.  Luckily, it’s simple to fix. Open up the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and type this in:

sudo gedit /etc/nsswitch.conf

Where it says ‘hosts: files dns’, add “wins” on, so it says ‘hosts: files dns wins’.  Save and close.

Now give the terminal a:

sudo apt-get install winbind

You should be able to connect via machine name now!  I find this a lot easier than asking people to look up their IP address, we name our machines by asset tag, which makes remote administration a snap!

I’ve been testing a dual-boot setup on my home/work laptop for the last week with WinXP and Xubuntu. I have to say, I’ve been enjoying it. Some parts are challenging, but simple searches on Google have given me answers from a very helpful community!

I have had *zero* reason to boot into my WinXP partition this past week. I’ve been able to remote into any machine I’ve needed, Been able to continue using our webmail interface as I like to do, and have been able to tie into our internal IM service with Gaim.

I’m so impressed with this distro that I’ve decided to go 100% Linux. On my 2Ghz/1GB/40Gig HD laptop, I think I have sufficient performance to use the full-blown mainline Ubuntu distro, and am on it full-time now!

It’s a pretty cool feeling to finally be 100% on Linux. I’ve still got over 1300 users and 400 machines I support by myself, so I really need this to work smoothly. I also want to continue doing the same things at home like listening to podcasts, etc.

I’ll be posting my solutions to any issues I run into. The Dell Inspiron 700m has a few little quirks to iron out, it’s working well for all the major stuff.

As I’m sure most have seen, Vista has launched with a less-than-$500-million result.  In my home Chicago, I’ve been hearing about all sorts of midnight store openings with very poor turnout.  There just seems to not be much enthusiasm about it.  But there’s something else that occurred to me this week: Microsoft has just done more for Linux than the community ever could have.  Here’s my reasoning:

Windows XP, for all practical purposes, is the most preferred OS in existence.  Note that I’m not saying superior, it’s just that if you consider third party software, device support, existing hardware, general level of understanding by the population, and existing install base, XP is the ideal operating system, because it created the environment around itself.  It’s been like this forever with software, or even business, for that matter.  Get a product into widespread adoption, and you can basically define the environment around it.  In this sense, XP had it made.  They could easily have kept rolling out service packs, and let people get on with their lives.

Then they threw it away.  Sure, some will move to Vista, simply on the reputation of XP.  But here are a few observations that I think will prove to make the switch much more difficult:

• Read the blogs from this week on Vista.  Device support is horrendous.  Even new computers sporting the ‘ready for vista’ stickers are having issues getting drivers.  That’s a deal-breaker.  You can’t invalidate someone’s investment in their machine’s components.
• The hardware requirements are ridiculous.  Think about it: besides the typical computer-saavy person (think: your parents), what is the average machine out there?  1Ghz, on 512MB of RAM, if you’re lucky?  With onboard video on some Best Buy special from 2004, that came with a free printer and a 17″ CRT?  You think someone’s going to be happy with the performance after spending the cash to upgrade - not to mention that the upgrade EULA is worded in a  way that cancels their XP licensing?  I doubt anyone in this group is going to make the investments needed for Vista to do what they do, which is go on the internet and use a word processor.  Which brings up…
• What does Vista offer these people?  Faster load times, yes, but for half the cash you could quadruple the RAM in some of these people’s machines as well.

So here’s what it comes down to.  All the balls are back in the air, and in the next year or so people will have to start making a decision what their next OS will be.  Check out the problems #1 and 3 listed above, these difficulties sound familiar?  It’s Linux, circa 2002.  And there’s the rub.  Linux has come a long way since then, and it’s breaking into a level of usability that is considered usable by our target group.  Indeed, put someone in front of Ubuntu these days, and they’ll be happy.

So, what, throw away XP?  In a word, sure.  For most people.  If you can get someone in the target group to use Linux and see how usable it is, and get their printer working, it shouldn’t be a problem.  Gaming development dollars will follow wherever the userbase is, just look at the history of the console industry.  Driver development is getting hot as well.

Microsoft has put itself in a position where all of its strengths in XP (in terms of driver support and hardware requirements) are know knocked down to a level where Linux can compete with the new Vista.  They already had the championship belt, but chose to tie one arm back on Vista and send it back into the ring…and the competitors are much stronger than last time.  Sociologically, this is the worst time to do this, as emphasis gets stronger on a daily basis to do what you feel is best for yourself, and deciding not to tie yourself to any limiting arrangements.  We’ve seen this with Firefox.

All in all, things are getting very interesting, and it will be even more interesting to see what happens on the new playing field, which is now as level as it has ever been.