I make a little extra income taking care of the computers and network at the church where I serve. We also have *cough several cough* computers at home – most of them old and seldom used. How often has a member of the staff buzzed me to say “my computer’s not working right” (which really tells me a lot /sarcasm) and the quick and dirty solution is “have you rebooted yet?”
H/T Targuman.
Was perusing my latest issue of LINUX Journal – to which I subscribe so should you! – and came across this cartoon. Some computer geeks will get it. I thought it very funny and laughed out loud.
xubuntu 8.10 desktop environment
We celebrated our 17th – yes seventeenth – wedding anniversay last Saturday (because we had the day free – the actual date is the 14th). Saw “Watchmen”. Had dinner. Walked over to Barnes and Noble. I bought a copy of Linux Identity which came with several versions of Ubuntu Linux. Yes one can download all these for free. But it is nice to have them all in one convenient package and comes with a magazine that offers some installation/configuration tips.
For years I preferred KDE. Then came KDE 4 which resembles the Vista interferace and is just as frustratingly clumsy. Thought I would try xubuntu because Xfce uses so few system resources – it is lean clean mean and fast. (Although you get nowhere near the features of KDE.)
I love it.
I installed xubuntu 8.10. And then added GNOME and KDE. Rather than install Ubuntu or Kubuntu and then add Xfce. Works great. In fact I am typing this post on my Linux box in Xfce.
There is one colossal piece missing from Xfce however. An easy way to browse a network – especially a Windows network. GNOME (Dolphin) and KDE make this a breeze. Not sure how to do this in Xfce.
UPDATE (03/12/2009): Although the Xfce file manager Thunar cannot browse Samba shares nevertheless Dolphin is available within Xfce – so all is well.
The parish in which I serve is – like most organizations – a Microsoft shop. And my family receives a little extra income because I provide part-time information technology support. Over the past few years we have made significant progress in getting out computers/network closer – closer - to where they should be.
We still have a mixture of Dell Inspiron/Dimension laptops and desktops alongside the better Latitude/Optiplex business class laptops and desktops. I have started an unofficial policy (strategy) that all new machines will be business class.
There is still much more we can do. We have not leveraged our SBS2003 installation and frankly have not touched Sharepoint. Backup hardware and procedures are spotty – most clients save everything locally which means not on the server which means not backed up. Our most critical application ACS (Automated Church Systems) is backed up daily with one copy being taken off site.
Thanks for being patient as I share this background information.
A couple years ago someone in the parish who is a Mac enthusiast began strongly urging that we switch to Macs. At the time I resisted this suggestion but will not share my reasons here.
But the issue has come up again this time in the context of a much larger conversation about phones and communications and leveraging ACS (partly by shifting “on demand” where the company hosts the application and data – and we do everything through a web browser).
You see where this is going.
This time around I am open – open - to the idea of partial or complete switchover to Macs. One of my colleagues who is fairly computer savvy likes the idea of at least the ministers switching to Macintosh laptops. Even if the rest of the parish remains Microsoft/Windows. Frankly I am willing to explore the possibility of a complete migration and not just because I do not relish the idea of supervising a heterogeneous network.
But there is a reason why for years I have resisted the idea of switching to Mac. And only this morning I came across one of them in a news item by Thom Holwerda at OSNews.Com. It seems that the new iLife suite 09 requires an Intel duo core machine.
Think about that. How much did you pay for that PowerPC G4 or G5 in late 2006 – a mere two-plus years ago? Sorry – you cannot run the latest version of iLife. Maybe you need to buy a new machine.
Apple has always been about moving forward, about pressing customers to buy the latest and greatest. Product pacing has been high in Cupertino (except for the Mac Mini, obviously), and this is obviously a good thing if you’re an Apple bean counter. Most Apple fans more or less accept this planned obsolescence without question, but the company may have just gone a little too far. (emphasis added)
Read the whole thing here. You do not have to register.
This right here is one of the most powerful reasons why I do not just run out and buy a Mac – assuming I can afford one because let us be honest they are more expensive than PCs with similar specs. (Yes yes I know about the relatively inexpensive Apple software suites like iLife and iWorks and the whole software-hardware integration thing. But even when you take those into account – Macs are more expensive. This person says I am wrong and have not done the research.)
When you buy a Mac – you buy into the Apple monopoly.
People fuss at Microsoft because of Vista and how much they are trying to force people to upgrade. But if you do not like Vista and do not want to buy a beefy new computer than can handle Vista guess what? For the most part you do not have to upgrade. You have options and choices. Heck – you can run Windows XP Pro and many common applications on a computer that is several years old. Can Mac users say that?
Do not misunderstand me. I am still open to the possibility of partial or complete migration from Windows to Mac. I would be quite happy if the parish buys me a new Mac laptop with iPhone and – somewhat more arguably – a MobileMe subscription.
But the idea of allowing Apple that much control over the hardware and software I use would still make me nervous. I cannot stand it when people try to force me to do something I would rather not do. Because I have funny ideas about freedom. Real funny ideas.
“Apple… presses customers to buy the latest and greatest”.
“Most Apple fans more or less accept this planned obsolescence without question”.
One of the things that has struck me the last several weeks is how many people out there in the blogosphere are (drum roll please) a lot like me. I do not want to dwell too much on this but frankly I do not have many Close Male Friends(tm). Highly introverted. Mostly a loner. (Cue sad violin music.)
Read friend’s blog who cites some other blog and before you know it I discover all these fascinating people all over the country with whom I have much in common.
Today’s example is Calvin Park who is working on a degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. (Massachusetts? Only my home state.) Among other things I came across at his blog Random Bloggings is this older post “10 Random Things About Me”:
Here’s my list, in no particular order:
1. I was once the official beta tester for a live CD Linux distro.
2. I have watched FFVII being played through five times, but have never actually seen anyone beat the final boss.
3. I am far more interested in attending SBL than a pastor’s conference of any type.
4. I want to visit the Great Wall of China.
5. I realized yesterday that if my job/occupation/ministry did not involve teaching I would die.
6. At one time I knew the names of all the Jedi trainees that were originally brought to Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy on Yavin IV.
7. I secret sin is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
8. I am a sick person. If I score less than a 96 on anything I feel like I did horribly, especially on language tests/exams/quizzes.
9. My favor TV shows are sci-fi, but my favorite books are fantasy.
10. I own a Dell Inspiron 6400 that runs Ubuntu. I am in heaven.
I match up with about 7/10 of this list. (Not to mention Hebrew Bible and “Civilization IV”.) And “B.C.E.” is not liberal.
What frustrates me is I think, “Dang it, why do I discover people like this who live on the other side of the nation from me? We could hang!”
But where has God placed us? And what local friends has God given us? To me one of the problems of the Internet is we form “relationships” with people elsewhere and forget to form close friendships with people where we live. (Not to denigrate forming friendships with people we meet over the Web.)
Thus endeth the self-pity party.