I'm ambiguous about the whole thing of course, and am more concerned about the fact that my perfectly good and hardly ever used Lite On DVD Writer is now ruined. But still, it made me think. I've been struggling with the idea of moving back to Windows after my 3~4 month Ubuntu experience, but I've finally sat myself down to write the reasons for either direction, and sadly, Windows won out. Could above disaster prove ominous?

I actually made a longish bullet point style article about why and why not, but it's stored on my storage PC at the moment, a transitional server from which I shall retrieve files from after my migration back to Windows, which of course has been delayed.

I hope to get cracking immediately tomorrow morning and get productive immediately. I have so much to do and am almost done with the new site.

I'm almost sad that I have to migrate back, but as I said, the list I made has proven that it is the wiser choice given my situation. Primarily I mentioned my missing Photoshop and a few other editing tools I consider essential. I should try not to hold sentiment on the decision on such things, but as it is, yes, I wish I didn't have to. If it were merely a matter of living with a few quirks then I'd still be using Ubuntu, but in the light of the kind of work I do and the expectations I have from the tools I work with, I really do have to.

rocknroll

To explain: this is one of those blogposts that tell of an impressive internet find, so brace yourselves. A week or so after installing Ubuntu, I decided to try it's built - in music player called, shockingly, 'Music Player'. Ok to be technical, it's 'Rhythmbox Music Player'.

So anyway when I was still living in the dark and using Windows, I quite enjoyed listening to Internet Radio via Windows Media Player. Now that I've reformed, I decided to give the built - in radio stations on Rhythmbox a try, and lo and behold I was instantly gratified to be introduced to Absolute Classic Rock, a radio station already on its playlist that plays, you guessed it, classic rock and roll in the UK. London, specifically.

Now I normally try to avoid being critical of local offerings, and avoid the all too commonplace practice of comparison altogether. But let me just say that local radio stations, for the most part, SUCK THE BIG ONE.

Oh yes there are a few notable standouts, such as NU 107, RJ FM and maybe another. Unfortunately being the commuter that I am, I have to deal with it nearly everyday when I ride those FX jeeps. The ride itself is alright, and I'm quite pleased by the convenience these vehicles provide. Except, sadly, for their choice of musical accompaniment, which seems to be limited to 3 or 4 stations whose programming is nothing short of deeply sad, to tragic even.

These radio stations, see, have DJs who seem to be perpetually laughing. Not occasionally, mind you. But happy ALL THE TIME. That means, everytime you hear them talk on the radio, they are laughing, or speaking in a tone which connotes that they are saying them while finding them absolutely hysterical.

Common announcements, opinions about the weather, discussions amongst themselves, even things they might want to comment about one another (if there are two of them), are said in a hysterical manner. Laughing at what, you may ask? Well therein lies the mystery. They laugh and they speak in a laughing tone without, for the life of me, REASON. So imagine one's consternation at this fact, when taking an hour long commute such as I do. You cannot help but try and determine just what it is these $*&(@! find, exactly, so hilarious as to be induced into a permanent state of hilarity for hours on end.

One would assume that, disk jockeys being employed to speak to countless people live on air, they are sane, sober individuals who conduct themselves in a professional manner at the very least. Rather, upon hearing their senseless drivel, you will conclude that they've given up hope on themselves and any ability to make casual, remotely intelligent conversation with their audience. Their constant laughing achieves the mental picture of sad, tragic people trying to make comedy when there is no situation worthy of such. I am bewildered, really, why this practice continues. If it achieves ratings of any sort and people actually enjoy this, then I guess we're far into deeper shit than I thought.

But anyway, to return to the topic of Absolute Rock, I have compiled a list of songs I had recently heard played on it, which explains the Imeem playlist above.

Additionally, we are hours ahead of their time, so when I listen in in the mornings here, it's early morning or dead - time there, and the station is playing non - stop commercial - free classic rock for hours on end. The idea this is happening halfway across the globe, and that I'm getting it absolutely free due to the wonders of the magical intarnetubezsphere, warms the cockles of my heart.

In relation to above, particularly Heart's 'Barracuda', below is a video of a girl I saw on American Idol last week who perfectly sang it. Her impact is akin to a Mack truck, but in a good way (if that ever is possible). Barring any untowardness, she's my bet to at least make it to top ten.

Ok enough Imeeming and Internet Radioing. Who says using Ubuntu, which cannot play Windows based games, will make you more productive because of? This just proves that my innate ability to avoid work, zone out, and trip on music rather than focus on more important things (like stuff that actually pays me), prevails over all.

There are two types of iso files to choose from, an 'Alternate' and a 'Desktop'. Alternate is the 'lite' installation method, while the 'Desktop' is the bells and whistles version, but only on a graphical scale as they both do the same thing. For example, while the Partition editor on Alternate looks like this:

The same process on the 'Desktop' version looks like this:

Anyway, using the Alternate iso I created a bootable USB via method described on my last post , search for the words 'create a usb startup disk'.

When I decided to go xubuntu I chose this method thinking it'd be the 'safer' choice, or at least 'faster' than the Desktop version. I installed Kubuntu via the Desktop version as well, so reason has it that if that worked out, alternate would fly, right? As it turns out, ten minutes or so into an installation, directly after partitioning the disks and entering user details, while it's doing something (allowing me to do other things) it suddenly turns off.

I tried it 2 to 3 times and even removed the battery to run purely on the wall charge, thinking it might be a battery issue. Each time, it just shut down, no warning, no error message, nothing.

I considered updating the BIOS, but I felt it too drastic and risky. Besides the latest BIOS update didn't mention a fix to any such issue.

So instead, I downloaded the Desktop install version. Two hours later (spent watching Transformers on HBO and cooking dinner), voila:

my xubuntu powered MSI Wind, posing beside by ubuntu powered desktop (they're friends now). Picture above shows me installing the wifi drivers via ssh, with instructions I learned from here.

As expected it runs blazingly fast on Scout albeit (whispering in case she might hear me) waaaay ugly compared to previously installed Kubuntu. But that's the beauty of it. It looks almost as simplistic as, say, Windows 3.1, but as a result windows and apps just pop up and you're confident your commands fire away.

Which is in effect, what we want from our PCs, and from all machines we use in general. We want them to look nice, but at the end of the day when you want / need something done you want to issue a command and BANG it does it, no questions asked, no drama, just results.

Besides, strangely yet expectedly so, there are places on the net which teach you how to tweak your xubuntu to make it look and act like Vista or Leopard - a practice contrary, you would think, to the purpose of making a 'light' OS, but hey, if there's anything consistent with Ubuntu and Linux in general, it's that if it's tweakable, it will, and probably should, be tweaked.