Dev-Picayune

After returning from the doctor today, I decided to try to ignore my exceptionally sore throat by playing around some with my Ubuntu Linux machine.  Actually, my Ubuntu machine is really now my only machine. I have robbed parts from my moderately tricked out XP machine with the addition of my new dual core processor and motherboard to create this machine. Between all my positive experience running Ubuntu on my Dell laptop and now with the release of the Dapper Drake version I felt it was time to shed the MS shackles and go free or at least a little more free (I have both dual boot to XP and a virtual machine under VMware available for situations where I can’t survive without it).

So here I am running Linux again. I say again, because I ran it “back in the day”. Specifically, I ran it some while I was in college on my 386 (or was it a 486?) with so little memory that I couldn’t even start x-windows. It was all text consoles. I can recall (although I don’t know how I ever figured out how to do it except from help from my friends) editing text (via the Joe editor) and recompiling the kernal while downloading some files via zmodem and listening to mod music files all at the same time. And now, 13 years later, I’m back to doing some of the same things. Only now it’s x with dual-core, virtual machines and high speed networking. The technological irony, though, of listening to a mod file (now in XMMS) is not lost on me. In many ways, it feels like I’ve come full circle. The nice thing is now I am not recompiling the kernel trying to get a Gravis Ultrasound card working. The mod playing library is installed by default… just had to make a few clicks to get XMMS installed. Done!

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