About time I started blogging.

I've decided that this is probably the best place to keep a journal of my fun getting Linux to run.

I started off with InfoMagic Linux v2.5 in 1996 - a commercial Slackware distro.

More recently, Mandriva Free 2006, which I abandoned because I never discovered how to install a Flash plug-in for Konqueror or FireFox for it.

I moved to Slax, and that was very satisfying. After a while though... I just felt too much of a wimp running Linux from a CD.

Currently, I'm using openSuse 10.2. It appears to have a weird memory leak in X.org tho', (and I'm not the only person who thinks this).

I've been a confirmed thttpd user too. But it only allows statically-compiled CGI programs to run, and I'd prefer to write CGI in Ruby, so it's time to explore the world of other web servers. I think I'll go with a LASeR focus (Linux/Apache/Sqlite/Ruby) or else I'll go BARMy (BSD/Apache/Ruby/MySQL).

It also has OpenOffice 2. And it's spreadsheet sucks up enormous amounts of memory. (I think I may drop back to OpenOffice 1.5 to get back to a managable memory footprint for a spreadsheet) Plus it's version of Kopete crashes daily. As does the KMuddy I installed.

The things that intrigue me are autopackage, GoboLinux, and PC BSD. All targetted at desktop users.

I also plan on getting openWorkbench running under Wine.

And I'm going to try to get an old old old laptop running Linux too. So I can type in the garden.

All the while, my focus will tend to be on usability for (non-developer) desktop users. And keeping a hopeful eye out for genuinely helpful Linux help. Too much Linux 'help' is short-tempered, snidey, sarky or requires telepathy.

Hmm - that ought to keep me going for a while.