The future is now

And it's free!

I have said for a while now that when it came time to build a new machine I would not jump on the Vista wagon. Instead I said that my next system would be a Linux box. Given that my primary motivator for a new machine would be to have the ability to play the newest, latest and greatest games, my statement may not have been completely accurate. As I understand it (I have VERY limited understanding of Linux at the moment) Linux does not hardly have drivers to support game play. That, coupled with the fact that the newest driver technology, direct x 10, is a M$ only product and is only available on Vista (shocking, you manipulating monopolizing corporate bastards!), I will likely, when taken to building a new PC, opt for a dual boot configuration similar to that which I am going to implement on my current machine.

I picked up a macbook laptop this weekend from Best Buy. Normally Mac stuff is only sold at Mac stores, but they setup a "booth" and had several machines on display. We were there because I needed a backup external hard drive because I was running out of space on my HDD and I needed to redistribute my partitions in order to move some free space around and thought that there was a chance I could lose all my data in the process. Concurrently my girlfriend has started taking a GRE course in preparation for going to grad school. This requires her use of the computer for the internet quite a bit more now.

When wandering around Best Buy she said we should get a laptop, which we have both wanted for a while now, if just for the convenience factor and the idea that I can surf and do photo stuff while she cooks etc. etc. etc. Well, you don't have to ask me twice to get a new toy!

Long story short we got a new macbook, WIFI router, and 500 GB HDD. I backed up my media and merged my partitions in order to free the space I needed to install a new game I payed for but could not download. The merge failed and wiped out all my media, as I had feared. Good thing I got the backup!

The game was Half Life 2 Episode 2, in case anyone cares. It was excellent and sadly I beat it in just over 1 day. :( Ah well, the fact that I am just about out of games to play on my PC coupled with the fact that we now have a second internet capable system affords me the freedom to take some liberties with my desktop. Namely, that I can now mess around with a Linux distribution and not really care if it screws the whole system and I have to format the entire thing and start again.

Bringing us back to the start of this post, the future is now, and the future is free. Maybe that is not really the case (sounds too idealistic to me and I hate over-idealism). Regardless, I started poking around the internet doing a little research about Linux and came across this video:

It starts with about a minute and a half of poking around in Windows Vista Aero (whatever the Aero is, I don't know and don't care) and the remainder of the video is showing off how much cooler Beryl is.

What is Beryl?

*deep breath*

*cracks knuckles*

OK, here we go...

Compiz is software that, put most simply, allows for a 3d desktop environment. At one point a branch of Compiz called Beryl was created. Beryl simply offered a different set of features from the same basic concept, namely that it was more flashy, fancy, special effect wow factor stylee. Both Compiz and Beryl have now merged to become Compiz Fusion.

There are many varietals of linux. One of the more popular flavorFLAVE!s is Ubuntu. From the Ubuntu wikipdeia article: "Ubuntu is a predominantly desktop-oriented Linux distribution... with a stronger focus on usability, regular releases, and ease of installation".

The newest version, 7.10, is being released tomorrow, Oct. 18, 2007. This latest version of Ubuntu is going to include Compiz Fusion as its desktop manager by default.

If you watched the video, you now know why this is exciting. What a great time for me to decide to jump into Linux, eh? :)

I plan to dig up my old 40 GB HDD and use it to install my Ubunut OS. The idea is that I can then dual boot, selecting which OS I want at startup. Thus I can run my system on the free, massively more appealing, and more resource friendly freeware OS when I am not gaming.

This will give the knowledge to move to a new system, when one becomes necessary, and as I stated before, I will likely HAVE to have Vista, but will not be forced to use it for anything more than a game launching platform.

Super sweet! :D