IT: Nell'agosto 2008 avevo deciso di installare Ubuntu Linux sui miei computer... solo per scoprire, dopo qualche giorno, che non riuscivo a farlo funzionare al 100% per le mie necessità di lavoro. Frustrato, avevo re-installato Windows XP, ripromettendomi di provarci ancora in futuro.
Il mese scorso ho dovuto affrontare alcuni aggiornamenti nel settore informatico: un nuovo contratto per una connessione ad Internet più veloce, un nuovo server ed un nuovo PC. La domanda si è quindi riproposta: quale sistema operativo? Il server, per ciò che gli viene richiesto, utilizza un ambiente virtuale (VMware) con diverse macchine virtuali all'interno, e quindi vive una vita a sè. Invece sul PC, che uso nel mio lavoro giornaliero, ho subito eliminato Windows Vista e, invece di passare a Windows 7, ho riprovato Ubuntu nella sua ultima incarnazione 9.10 (Karmic Koala).
Mi ci è voluto un po' per far funzionare tutto ed ho avuto qualche problemino... niente che non si potesse risolvere con un po' di tempo su Google o Wikipedia. Mentre pur da nuovo il PC (processore AMD Phenom X4, 4 GB RAM... non una lumaca) dava segni di lentezza con Vista, adesso con Ubuntu 9.10 (più tutti i programmi che mi servono) è di una rapidità commovente .
Ci sarà sicuramente bisogno di ulteriori adattamenti al nuovo ambiente e molte altre cose da imparare, ma io penso ne valga la pena.

EN: Back in August 2008 I decided to install Ubuntu Linux on my computers... only to discover, after a couple of days, that I couldn't find a way to make it work 100% for my office needs. Frustrated, I re-installed Windows XP, promising myself that the switch to an open source OS was just delayed.
Fast forward to the recent past: last month I had to do some investments in the IT department, including a new contract with a faster Internet provider, a new server and a new desktop PC. Which OS for the new machines? The server, supposed to do 'server stuff', lives a life on its own and runs a virtual environment (VMware) with several virtual machines inside. On the desktop PC instead, for my daily work, I decided to get rid of the pre-installed Windows Vista and, instead of going for Windows 7, I tried again with Ubuntu, in its 9.10 (Karmic Koala) incarnation.
It took me a while to make everything work and I had some minor issues... nothing that some quality Google/Wikipedia time couldn't fix. While the PC (AMD Phenom X4 processor, 4 GB RAM... not a steam engine!) was surprisingly slow with Vista and nothing installed, it's now blazing fast with Ubuntu 9.10 (and all the software I need).
There will surely be some more adaptation required and many more things to learn, but I think it's worth it.

Finally, I'm free from Aruba's blog platform and its several bugs and malfunctioning. I downloaded dBlog (free of charge and working well!), FTP'd to my website and now I'm again ready to go.
A very quick list of what happended to me while fighting with the bad services of my previous blog provider:
- I got an incredibly bad air-conditioning stroke in Las Vegas, I don't recall being so sick since I was a kid. I'm still not 100% recovered;
- I joined again the master swimming classes, 1 month after the other guys had started to train, and my first lesson was exactly when they started to get serious and swim wearing a cotton t-shirt... PURE suffering. Today is my second time;
- I've not being cycling for ages (several reasons, any of them particularly pleasant) but sunday... sunday it' will be "tapascion's season" first mountain bike ride. We ride, do stupid things, crash, have fun. The essence of mountain biking.

VirtualBox, a powerful virtualization software, allowed me to install Win XP as host system in a window, for all the software I need Windows for.

OpenOffice and Thunderbird were there as in my previous Windows system for 'office' tasks and e-mails, and well fuctioning/free software for media playing, CD burning, photo editing etc. was easily available through the several repositories of the Linux community.

- there was no way to make the Dymo LabelPrinter work (it probably needed much more trial and error... and I needed the printer to work quickly);

- a dual screen setup involved more 'terminal' work than I felt confortable with;

So, coming back after one week of holidays and needing to have the work done, with my geek-wannabe heart bleeding, I just made a clean re-install of Win XP. I loved the idea, but I'm probably not ready for Linux yet.

I didn't give up on Ubuntu, though. By the time Microsoft drops support for XP (2012?), Ubuntu will surely be even more user-friendly than now... I'll make the leap then.