Don’t get me wrong, I love the philosophy and the results the open source software movement.  Linux has come so far so fast it’s truly unbelievable.  There are just a few things that remain to be addressed that keep me from really being able to switch over.

I read today that Ubuntu 9.04, the latest and greatest open source has to offer, was released today.  I hate Gnome, so I downloaded Kubuntu 9.04 instead.  It installed easily, cleanly added itself to my existing GRUB menu, booted quickly, and looks incredible.

Konqueror is (at least what appears to be) the only installed web browser.  I am a Firefox user.  The Linux fanboys are always bragging about the advanced package management that requires as few as a single click to install any given piece of software.  While this is great in theory, the results were a little lacking.  In Windows you download an executable file and run it.  It installs the prorgram or simply updates your existing version.

To install things in Linux, you use what initially appears to be Add/Remove Programs from Windows and search for the program you want by name.  Innocently, I queried “firefox”.

Fantastic!  Two and a half screens of results!  But wait, what is nobinonly and wasn’t Venkman the last name of a Ghostbuster and how is branding different from dbg or dev?  Man…  At the most, I’m used to having a choice between ZIP or EXE.  What the hell is all of this stuff?  Just never mind.  I’ll go back to an OS I understand and play Left 4 Dead.

I want to use Linux.  But I don’t have the time to learn a whole new set of Linux house rules.  I was a kid when I mastered DOS 6.22 and I was a teenager when Windows 95 and all of it’s frustrations presented themselves.  Now I’m closing in on 30 and digging into all this stuff isn’t nearly as fun as it used to be.

For now, the only Linux I’ll be able to continue to use is on my TiVo.  But keep up the good work everybody out there pounding away at 101 magical keys to provide seemingly-unappreciative users like me with a (relatively) realistic alternative to Windows.  You’re getting closer all the time.

This post will most likely not apply to anybody who’s ever visited this site besides Amber.  You can stop reading now if you want.

I recently installed the latest version of WordPress.  WordPress is the software this site is built on now.  I used to make all the web pages by hand, but it was a slow and tedious process and I’m just not very good at it, so using someone else’s software to make my pages is a great idea.  It’s an easy way to add, edit and archive various posts.  It organizes everything for you, lets you easily add links, pictures, and videos, checks your spelling – almost anything you can think of.

Upgrading usually offers new features and enhanced security and is almost always a good idea.  But when I visited the control panel after the most recent upgrade, I cringed.  Later, when using my laptop with it’s even smaller screen, I swore – both profanely and that I would downgrade to the previous version as quickly as possible to get things back the way they used to be and the way I liked them.

I almost want to upgrade again just to take screen shots to show how “Vista-ized” it’s become.  Every company designing software should take note:  just adding pretty buttons and renaming components and moving them somewhere new IS NOT an upgrade to anything.  But then, with WordPress…I guess it’s wrong to bitch about something free.  Still, they’re ruining a good thing.  I think there’s a lot of users in the same boat as me.

Anyway, in my downgrading adventure I found a few helpful links.

You can find any previous version, full release or beta at:
http://wordpress.org/download/release-archive

You can suppress the WordPress update message with:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/disable-wordpress-core-update

You can suppress the WordPress Plugin update messages with:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/disable-wordpress-plugin-updates

Normal posts will continue now.  Thanks for reading.