Linux Redux

[image error]After a while in limbo using a Windows 7 crack, I have linuxed my laptop and am now running Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. You will remember I installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my desktop. This worked fine until I had a hardware problem (RAM meltdown) while Avijit got struck by lightning. Only his RAM survived, so a Frankenstein machine was created using the saved body parts of the two casualties which Avijit now uses. As a result, I have no desktop, and my three hard disks are in storage including the one with my Linux system on it (and my new 1TB data disk). The lappie is now the only refuge for my stuff.

Ocelot installed so smoothly I was stunned (especially after my tribulations last time with the lucid lynx). Even before installation it detected and ran my webcam, and it even detected my printer automatically and installed it. Getting the printer working took me a week of research and trial and error last time. The only niggle was that it took almost as long as windows to install.

This time the desktop looks much more Mac-like, including an object dock to the left of the screen. However it is now harder to tweak the innards, or rather it takes a while longer to work out how to do it. It still isn't quite as cool as Knoppix, but we all know what witches' brew Knoppix uses to create its coolness.  Ocelot has ditched Open Office for Libre Office (which Knoppix also uses). LO is slightly more user friendly than OO. The only thing I miss is the running word count you get on the status bar of Word 2007. This is a stern admonisher for writers everywhere. LO3 is much more like the old Word 2003, a model the Document Foundation would have done well to ditch.

Haven't yet explored much of the new features. Shotwell, the photo organiser, looks interesting, as does Ubuntu One, a free clouding service that lets you keep your stuff online like Dropbox. This should come in handy because I forgot to partition the disk before I installed (it converted the whole disk to Ext4, thus removing all my data, but of course I had backups). I was under the impression you could use Gparted to partition the disk after the linux install (something you definitely can't do with Windows) but apparently not: I couldn't find Gparted among the system tools, and the disk utility won't let me partition. I've always had a system partition and a data partition in my mahcines, but I guess you need that more with crashy Windows than with Linux. Plus I plan to back stuff up on Ubuntu One.