So a few days ago, I broke out my many Linux CDs & DVDs. I have downloaded 4 or 5 distros recently and I wanted to test a few of them out on an extra 40GB hard drive I have on my old Dell computer. It’s a P4 2.4GHz with 768MB Ram and a 64 Meg graphics card - nice little machine - works very well with no problems.
I did my research and decided on the Ubuntu Edgy Eft release. It installed perfectly. Then I read something Linus Torvalds said that he hates Gnome and loves KDE. So I figured if the creator of Linux’s kernel loves KDE, I should probably try it out… and since I don’t use Macs and Gnome is more emulated for Mac style I should probably just try KDE. So I installed Kubuntu 6.10 from the DVD distribution I downloaded. It installed great.
I tried to install a nVidia third party graphics driver so I could get Beryl XGL working but that failed horribly due to lack of experience on my part and some bad instructions online. I had to reformat my installation again…
Round 2
After installing Kubuntu again, I found some better instructions on how to get a third party graphics accelerator installed here. Then I found a great wiki on how to install XGL & Beryl so I can get cool desktop effects. VERY FUN!
I couldn’t believe I actually got Beryl working on my Kubuntu installation… I was SO excited! Still am. It’s so great to have a free OS with free software, free tools, free help, free EVERYTHING and it works so well and is secure and safe and fast and fun. It’s a challenge to learn the Konsole (command line) and how to install stuff but once you get the hang of it and if you don’t mind researching on the internet how to do stuff it’s not that bad.
The Future
I’ll be posting more about my escapades into the Linux world as I discover more cool stuff. I’ll be sure to let you all know what I find. I don’t think Linux is ready for the mainstream world yet. If Linux can be as powerful as it is today and change to become an OS that my dad can use….. then it will be ready to CRUSH Microsoft. That’s what I think 
