The Next Net

I posted some comments earlier on installing Linux on my laptop. I am happy to report I finally succeeded to get it to run with the embedded WLAN adapter. I have written a HOWTO page for those interested in the mechanics.

I lost a lot of time going through outdated web pages. Documentation is still the Achilles heel of Linux. While the information is available, it is in a variety of formats and spread all over the Internet. Whether it applies to your problem is up to you to find out. Without good computer knowledge, you are likely to get lost and give up.

After trying out the Gnome interface of Ubuntu, I finally settled for the KDE interface of Kubuntu, the sister distribution based on the KDE window manager. The main apps I need are there: OpenOffice, Firefox and Thunderbird. There is a good media player, RSS reader, etc. I am overall very impressed by the progress of Linux in the desktop category and would strongly recommend it… to those who do not need specific applications which are only available on other platforms. Since I manage several web sites, I would like to find an equivalent to Adobe Dreamweaver. There is NVU,a commandable effort, but still light years behind the possibilities of Dreamweaver.