Crossing Platforms in Midstream…Again!

The fickled finger of fate has poked me in the eye again, and thus another Zen Master beckons to me to learn.

I was completely set on converting my HP Special Edition L2005US Lance Armstrong Livestrong laptop computer into a complete Ubuntu system. A major obstacle had been eliminated. My Broadcom wireless network card was now flashed with compatibility via Ubuntu’s hardware manager and my Canon PIXMA MP150 printer became compatible. Until today, the laptop was a dual-boot system with Ubuntu as the default and Windows Vista, which is necessary for my Quicken home and business files and professional programs not yet made for use in a Linux operating system.

For the past week, since my last post, I’ve experienced some very slow Ubuntu wireless network connection, at times not even able to connect to a single web address. Rebooting into Windows Vista resulted in the reliable and fast cable Internet connection I’ve consistently experienced in this system. A second nagging problem is apparently still not resolved in Ubuntu. That is reliable use of the Synaptics touchpad with a laptop keyboard. When typing text, the cursor jumps to another line and space…while in mid-typing. In contacting fellow users on Ubuntu forums, it is apparent that the bug still exists. None of the suggested fixes has worked.

Today, after several failed attempts to create fixes to the above two problems, I…once again…decided to remove Ubuntu from my hard drive, and restore my second partion to a second NTFS logical drive. What I did discover, along the way, is that the previous method of restoring a Windows Master Boot Record does not apply in Windows Vista. When one installs Ubuntu as the second operating system alongside a Windows Vista system, Ubuntu creates a boot-up menu called GRUB. By default, Ubuntu will start in 30 seconds, unless I click on Windows Vista from the menu.

If one decides to remove Ubuntu from the hard drives, you must first repair the Master Boot Record to allow Windows Vista to boot at startup. In order to repair the MBR (Master Boot Record), Windows is booted from the operating system DVD, then click on REPAIR YOUR COMPUTER, then click on Command Prompt. At the command prompt, type bootrec.exe /FixMbr/ It should say operation complete, or something like that. Then type “exit” and restart the computer. Windows Vista will now boot up, without any boot menu or Ubuntu as an option. After Windows Vista has booted up, click on the Start button, right-click on COMPUTER, and choose manage. From the manage console choose drive management. You will see your Windows partition, and two non-descript partions. These two partitions are the Ubuntu root and swap partitions. Right-click on each of them, and choose Delete Volume. The two blank partitions will become one. At that point, you can right-click on the blank partition and choose Format. After the partition is formatted, you will have deleted any hint of Ubuntu or whatever else was on the partition. Your system is now fully restored to a single-boot Windows Vista system.

There is no escaping the fact that Windows Vista is very superior operating system. In Internet and network functions, software compatibility, ability to use Microsoft Office’s FrontPage web editor, by far and away the easiest creative instrument for web page editing and publishing, even for those with no HTML knowledge or experience.  It’s a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor AND the FrontPage extensions allow one to make a change on one page that will ripple through relevant links to that change,  appropriately and quickly,  throughout the entire website.

Each venture away from Windows toward Ubuntu and other Linux distributions makes me appreciative that there are cooperative projects bringing operating systems and software to the developing world.  These operating systems are improving quickly.  Yet, each venture away from Windows brings me back to it, realizing how dependent we are, and how much many of us want, a universal operating system that works and performs efficiently, and does the things that we want to do with our computers.  Windows is still it.  Vista is a greatly improved product that is much more user friendly than previous versions, and with many built-in management tools to ensure that it operates smoothly with the least amount of technical problems and interruptions.

Windows Vista Home Basic on my HP Special Edition L2005US Lance Armstrong Livestrong notebook.  I added memory to bring it up to 2 gigs RAM, installed a fast 7200 rpm 80 gig hard drive and replaced the DVD burner with a Samsung DVDRW/CDRW burner.   Ubuntu will reappear from time to time, but for now, it is a single boot Windows system.  My desktop is dual boot with Ubuntu as the default operating system.

The best of both worlds, commercial and cooperative.

Amen.

MH

Crossing Platforms in Midstream

I know that most of you out there are content with Bill Gates child, Windows, reaching a new stage every few months and a new version of itself every few years. We are creatures of habit, after all, and when we become accustomed to an operating system with its nuances and complexities, we are not too quick to change the software underpinnings of our work and home computers. It’s enough to contend with the vast amount of learning processes on one operating system and its features, without challenging our minds and anxiety levels with yet another. We would, after all,like to get some actual work done.
A small percentage have opted for the user-friendly MAC computer and its OS operating system, based on the UNIX platform. It’s reportedly easy to access, and to learn, without having to go behind the scenes of the operating system. Still, one has to learn to navigate the folder and file structure, to know where the programs and system utilities are, and still to contend with updates, albeit not as frequently as Windows users. Even Windows updates are usually automatic, loading up in the background of our broadband network connections.

A growing number of users, especially in Europe and Asia, have discovered a different operating system, LINUX. LINUX is not new, its based on the UNIX code upon which the MAC OS operating system is built, and is, in fact, the original code for operating systems everywhere. In fact, there are literally thousands of distributions built upon the LINUX platform, which is built upon the UNIX language. These distributions are products of cooperative projects of developers and programmers. The UNIX code, and LINUX operating system which is built upon it, is “OPEN SOURCE” which means it is available to everyone to use, to alter, to improve, and to share with others. The result is a wide variety of LINUX distributions, each with its own amenities and distinguishing characteristics, and packages of software. Most LINUX distributions are packaged with many open source programs, such as OPEN OFFICE, MOZILLA FIREFOX browser and THUNDERBIRD email client, as well as many multimedia, Internet and other office programs and utilities.

There are hundreds of free and commercial repositories of available open source and commercial programs to add to one’s LINUX system. There are a number of open source and free software advocates who are working to prevent an encroachment of commercial interests who would attempt to control, and charge fees, for use of their software, and thus threaten the free and open source software availability to the public. Thus, members of the open source software movement encourage users to use open source software only. This would be a great suggestion if the many multimedia Internet broadcasts, even from alternative news and information sources, were producing their material in open source software formats. Most of them are not, but mp3 and wmv files can be played in many open source media players. Realplayer streaming formats, however, require a Realplayer program to hear or see them. We users will, as we do with corporations and our government, simply have to keep close watch and collectively work to protect and maintain the free and open source software enviroment.

One of the most popular of LINUX-based distributions is the UBUNTU operating system package, which I am running on my laptop, as a dual-boot system which allows me to boot from either UBUNTU or Windows Vista. I have been runnng UBUNTU on my desktop computer in my home office for the past two years. UBUNTU has been improving by leaps and bounds with each new revision. The current version is UBUNTU 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. The greatest improvement to UBUNTU, as far as I’m concerned, is the Restricted Drivers manager which includes a Broadcom wireless network card firmware update. For the past four years I have wanted a LINUX distribution on my laptop, but could only use one with an external network card. Finally, my HP Special Edition L2005US Lance Armstrong Livestrong notebook computer is fully compatible with UBUNTU Linux. I just installed it yesterday after reading about the Broadcom network card incompatibility issue being solved. Delightful.

What is it about LINUX operating systems that I love the most? They are free to the public, they work well in older computers with little storage space and without a need for an abundance of RAM memory, and they are developed through cooperative and creative efforts. If a working family can afford an inexpensive laptop computer with a wireless network card, then they have a tool to bring them into the Information Age without going into debt to do it. A used laptop with a 1-gigahertz CPU and 512 megs of RAM memory might cost between two- to three-hundred dollars UBUNTU is free and packaged with an office suite, Internet tools, multimedia, DVD and CD burning tools, and games. A multifunction printer that prints, scans and copies can be purchased for fifty dollars, with cartridges that can be replaced for as little as three dollars each (Epson CX3810, on sale).

To find UBUNTU, just click to http://www.ubuntu.com. For other LINUX distributions (hundreds) go to http://www.distrowatch.com.

And do this, even if you are a happy Windows user. If you have an old working computer, or know someone that does, download UBUNTU for free and burn it onto a CD, then install it into the older system. Check out the features, play with it. If you decide you don’t want it, give it to some family that needs it, and help them get on line. You will have explored a new operating system and helped a family get into the Information Age, and thus to move deeper within the human sphere through learning and communication without it costing a lot of money.

Amen.

MH Pathfinder