I’ve been messing with my current desktop setup at home. I’m using the following items from gnome-look: Elegant Brit (gtk, metacity), Brit Icons, and “Simple” GDM theme
Welcome to another edition of “fixing crap” on Ubuntu. To get Rhapsody working with Ubuntu 8.04, you need to follow these steps:
open terminal
cd ~/Desktop
wget http://forms.real.com/real/player/download.html?f=unix/rhapx/RhapsodyPlayerEngine_Inst_Linux.xpi
After the plugin is downloaded to the desktop, double-click it to open the xpi file with ‘Archive Manager’(AM). After the xpi file is open in AM, you will see something like nprhapengine.so. This is the actual rhapsody plugin. Drag this file from the xpi archive to your desktop.
To get rhapsody working with Firefox, you will need to move the Rhapsody plugin to the proper directory, which in this case is your ~/.mozilla/plugins directory. On my install, this directory did not exist, so we’ll create it first.
Back in terminal type:
mkdir ~/.mozilla/plugins
mv nprhapengine.so ~/.mozilla/plugins
Rhapsody should be rockin and rolling now.
Well if you’re like me and enjoy using Vim for ruby on rails dev work in Ubuntu, then you’ve probably experienced the broken pile of poo that is the default Vim in the 8.04 repo.
So here’s a brief whatsit on how to build (and how I build) my vim from src. I’m using the default 8.04 install
Download Vim:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unix/vim-7.2.tar.bz2
Prepare Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get build-dep vim-gnome
Build Vim from the vim src directory:
./configure —with-features=huge —enable-gui=gnome2
This will put a new vim and gvim in /usr/local/bin…enjoy!
I’ve taken the Vista challenge the last few days and I thought I would share my thoughts to the internets about it.
Background
I am a rails developer/ web designer and my wife is a professional mom, so I have a few requirements that I consider when looking at an operating system. Our daily drivers over the last few years have been Apple computers and I’m quite happy with OSX. Apple hardware, as of late, has been giving me fits (which makes me sad) but overall, I’m pretty happy. Prior to my conversion to OS X, my primary computer was a windows box with a dual boot of Linux (so, yes, I’m a bit of a geek). At the time Linux wasn’t at a stage where I could use it 100% of the time, so I’d boot into windows when needed.
Why?
So why am I even considering vista with all my love for other OSes? Well, I dropped my macbook and I had a spare desktop sitting around and a large monitor at home, so I thought I’d install something on it so I have useable computer at the house. Also, I figure, I should give Vista a fair shake. So far my only experience with Vista has been the complaints of people who run it and the computing-in-pudding feel of the computers running it at Best Buy. Obviously not a great first impression, but I’d rather find out for myself.
The Install
The install was rather uneventful. I noticed it was a bit more graphical than prior OS installs from Microsoft. After rebooting (several times) I noticed that I could not select the right resolution for my monitor (1680x1050). I downloaded a new driver from the manufacturer’s website but Vista only showed 4:3 aspect ratios. After installing the new driver, my resolution was set automagically to the right resolution, but alas, still no 1680x1050 resolution choice…FAIL…and goofy. The front headphone port on my dell box also does not work under Vista (but is fine under Ubuntu)…go figure. Apart from those 2 tiny issues, everything was good.
User thoughts
As a web developer using non-microsoft technologies (ruby, rails, apache, and vim) Vista is a HUGE failure. To get all that stuff up and running is a major pain in the neck. It’s filled with so much pain and hackery that I just refuse to do it.
My wife surfs the net, twitters, and checks her email. All web-based activities that can be done via a browser from any environment so she was fine with Vista.
Final thoughts
Vista is, in my opinion, not good for much anything at all. Aero is pretty (IMO) but with all the security issues of running a Microsoft OS and lack of developer support (for anything NOT .Net), it becomes a rather insecure lightweight environment for me. This would be fine if that’s what I was wanting, but when you add insult to injury (the crazy price that Microsoft charges for the ‘luxury’ of running their OS) it’s just not tempting to me. I can install a FREE operating system that has crazy simple install tools, amazing developer support and provides a secure computing environment for me and my family.
The world doesn’t need Vista.