I consider 2007 a very interesting year for technology. Let’s look in detail at the main highlights of it, which I find most important. (more…)
The System Has Failed
Windows Vista has been around for more than a year already. And it has received unusually high amounts of criticism, even from loyal fans. It seems pretty much anyone who tried Vista has already complained in public. Except me :). Believe me, I tried hard NOT to complain. I waited for more than a year. But now I have had enough of it. Let’s discuss it, and see for ourselves that there’s clearly no WOW Microsoft keeps talking about! (more…)
Being Enlightened by Gutsy Gibbon over a Cup of Java
Few months have passed since my last post. Finally, the silence is broken! Now I’m going to tell you about some of the most interesting things that I experienced lately. Are you thrilled yet?! 🙂 Read on… (more…)
MacBook Pro Review
So, my long-standing dream recently came true. I’m now a Mac user! I’ve bought shiny new MacBook Pro 15″ some time ago. And I absolutely like it! I also should say that this is my first notebook ever. (more…)
The Future Is Freedom
In my earlier post I wrote about Apple being the true innovator in the IT world now. And said that, while I admire Linux, it seems to get stuck in perpetually inferior state. Well, I want to clarify my current view of Apple and the FOSS (free and opensource software) world. (more…)
iMac or Macbook?
Well, I have a really hard time deciding what to buy: iMac or MacBook (PRO?). Or should I wait for Leopard release this autumn? Please help me decide, don’t hesitate to comment below 😉
My needs are:
- programming
- listening to music
- watching movies occasionally (DVDs, DivX, maybe HD video in the future?)
- a bit of digital photography
- maybe a little bit of gaming (casual): games like Battle for Wesnoth are enough for me (i don’t need much 3D power)
- a bit of office work (free OpenOffice/NeoOffice will do)
Penguins, Apples and the Average Joe
Linux is an excellent free operating system. But is it suitable for the desktop of an average computer user? I doubt it. Yes, I personally have Ubuntu Linux installed on my desktop PC, but again, I’m NOT the average user, I’m software developer and a power user. And even I find some little things here and there very annoying from the usability standpoint.
It seems to me, that Linux is bound to stay in a perpetual “almost ready for the masses” state. I think I’m being realistic here. Really, for many years the Linux community has been saying: “This year will be the year of Linux on the desktop”. And you know what? This still doesn’t happen, and, to be honest, I don’t believe that mass migration to Linux will occur anytime soon. It seems that it always misses something seemingly tiny, but nevertheless important to an average user. In large part, IMHO, it tries to imitate Mac OS X and Windows (it is seen quite often). For now it has almost came up to current version of Mac OS X (“Tiger”) in terms of features, but soon “Leopard” will be released, and I’m sure it will pack a whole lot of new nice features (Steve Jobs will talk about them today at WWDC, I’m sure there will be surprises). Linux is and will be lagging behind in the nearest future, when it comes to desktop computing.
How I became a Linux user
When I got my first Personal Computer long time ago (in the 20th century), it was running MS DOS. I remember being fascinated by the “realistic” computer games of that time, especially Doom and Dark Forces 3D action games. Oh, sweet times indeed…
Then Windows 95 came. At first, it felt somewhat uncomfortable, because I was already used to MS DOS, which was fine to me, and didn’t want to learn something completely different. But time passed by, and I started to use Windows 9x exclusively, and in fact I didn’t even know that an alternative (Linux) exists! But Windows just got worse with every new version, and it reached an apogee with the release of Windows ME (“Mistake Edition”:) ). Yeah, I really hated that OS. It was VERY VERY buggy! But everyone around me used Windows, so I just thought that issues with Windows are inherent to computers in general, not to this particular OS. So I thought…
When I started to use Windows XP, it turned out to be more stable than Win 9x family. But still I was having issues quite often with Explorer quirks and famous Blue Screens Of Death. Only with the release of Service Pack 2, Windows XP became a stable system. But still it had issues with security, and generally one with an Internet connection should use at least a decent firewall and antivirus scanner, constantly running in the background and using computer’s valuable resources, otherwise Windows PC can be easily infected with some virus or a spyware!
Hello World!
Hello, World! This is my first blog post. My name is Michael, and I’m a software developer and Linux user.
My blog will be filled with my thoughts (probably interesting) on different topics (mostly computers, especially Linux and free open source software).
So, keep your eyes open! Interesting stuff will be added very soon…
PS: the title of my blog is inspired by the humorous science fiction series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Linux, the Universe and Everything 