The Great Geek Manual

DownloadSquad posted a great article yesterday, “Common Linux myths dispelled.”

Fanboy FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt), it comes from all sides of the computing landscape. The three most well known operating systems, Microsoft Windows, Apple’s OSX and the open source Linux have been called everything and accused of almost anything you can imagine in one press outlet or another. Linux is lousy for games, Windows is a memory hog, OSX will force you get a Liberal Arts degree and recycle… but, I digress. We’re here to dispel the myths, not spread them.

Linux is great, too bad there aren’t any good applications
-or-
On Linux, you can’t open files other people send

False. Linux applications are plentiful, well written and widely compatible with their OSX or Windows counterparts. Microsoft Office files are easily opened by Open Office. Photoshop’s functionality can be found in The Gimp, or better yet with GimpShop. Audio editing, maintaining your mp3 library, file management, databases, instant messaging, personal information management, etc… They’re all available and, in the vast majority of situations they’re free.
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WordPress, one of the most popular Blogging Content Managers on the web, has just been improved! Early yesterday morning, WordPress 2.1, code named “Ella” was released to the general public.

Some of the more significant improvements offered by the latest upgrade include:

• An autosave feature (similar to Gmail)
• A tabbed editor that switches between WYSIWYG and code
• A spell checking feature
• A frontpage feature
• Blogroll subcategories

Read more about the release.

It seems as though the assimilation of American consumers is inevitable and resistance is futile. But do you really need to find the nearest all-night software vendor, or is there good reason to wait before upgrading? If you’re not certain, join the club. The good news is that while you’re making up your mind, APC Magazine has already drawn up a list of pros and a list of cons.

10 reasons not to get Vista

1. You don’t actually need it
2. Cost $$
3. On that note, it’s outrageously overpriced
4. Upgrading hardware
5. Driver support
6. Applications that don’t work
7. It’s a big fat target
8. UAC (User Account Control)
9. DRM (Digital Rights Management)
10. The draconian license
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“Today, you can do everything you want with a Linux desktop, except play the latest games. Even there, Linux is catching up. So, why do only a handful of people run Linux instead of Windows? Here are my top-four reasons why Windows wins and Linux loses.”

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has written a thought-provoking article at DesktopLinux.com. He believes that the four reasons that Windows in winning out over Linux are:

1. The installed base (The number of systems already using Windows)
2. PC vendor support
3. Hardware vendor support
4. Software support

I agree with all four reasons, but I think he’s left off an important point. Marketing!

My fifty-six year old mother got her very first computer for Christmas this last December, and she didn’t know the first thing about using it. She didn’t know what the touchpad was called (or what it did), she didn’t know how to turn it on, she didn’t know what to do once it was on, but she recognized Windows when it booted up. Why? Because she has heard the words “Microsoft” and “Windows” twenty times a week on television, either in commercials or in the news, for the past twelve years. That is what Linux needs to do. They need to shift their focus from the tech guys in the basement to the doddering old men pushing the retirement age who still say the word computer as if it’s in quotes. Because by the time they understand what Linux has to offer, everyone will.

Despite the fact that I am a dedicated Firefox user, I do keep a fully patched and updated version of Internet Explorer at hand as well. Sort of like the same way you keep both your children around, even though you only love one of them. And, as is so often the case when Microsoft chooses to steal a feature of some superior piece of software and brands it as innovation, I’m having a damned hard time adjusting to the changes.

There are any number of things that irritate me about IE7, but the most urgent complaint I have is the extremely inconvenient location of the address bar. In IE7, the address bar is at the very top of the browser, just beneath the title bar, making me feel as if I should be saying “excuse me” to the menu bar each time I reach up to type in an address, like I’m grabbing the butter at an over-crowded dinner table.

Luckily, while Microsoft software, like the Borg, may be ugly, aggressive, and utterly devoid of human sentiment, it is also adaptable. With a simple tweak to the registry, the address and menu bars can be returned to their proper order. Here’s how it’s done:
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