Who am I?

Software Engineer, with 8 years commercial experience

Languages

Matlab, Simulink, Stateflow, C, MISRA C, Delphi

Operating Systems

I have developed high-level software on the Windows platform (and embedded) for ~8 years, and have rarely used *nix applications in a commercial environment. I run a multi-boot installation of Windows flavours and extensively evaluate new applications both for work and social ends.

Why Ubuntu ?

I am an advocate of open-source software, and am impressed with the pronounced increase in the quality of many open-source software applications over the past couple of years. To that end, I have been replacing commercial applications with open-source ones, where the open-source application is up to par.

Ubuntu is a good opportunity to step into the world of Linux, and complete the open-source "experience".

The Good

Ubuntu is proving to be extremely stable, and the standard installed components are a good starting point. The Package manager principle is just fab!

The Bad

Installation of Ubuntu is stable and farily straight-forward even for a Dual-booting. However, installing Wireless Lan drivers is not so user-friendly!

The Ugly

Ubuntu user interface isn't ugly - it's just brown - I like blue, so have managed to change most things to Blue, using the Glassy Theme - but not everything - It's a shame the theme manager doesn't apply themes to all standard gui components - eg Login dialog etc. How about some high-end graphics animations, for those that want a "pretty" desktop - Desktop Effects only has 2 options - and 1 of them - "wobble" - is just plain annoying!

Moving On

The Ubuntu Grub installation did a fab job of dual-booting, but the Chain Loading to get Windoze started was less-than-slick. I downloaded and installed Grub4Dos, and now I have a slick boot screen that allows me to lauch any of my XP partitions directly from grub (Chain Load the ntldr) - and all sorts of other nice options - I even found a nice blue ubuntu splash screen for the boot loader

Under Construction

I've noticed what i think are some errors in the Ubuntu Community documentation - where i can i'd like to update / correct them. I'm brand-new to Ubuntu, so please be nice - and don't "flame" me if i get things wrong

CategoryHomepage