I still have the ability to transfer stuff to my iPod with no issue, but I can’t listen to MP3′s on the laptop or even watch videos for that matter. What did I do wrong? I know I must have killed something, but I cannot find out where. BACKUP TIME!

So I moved the new pictures, music, and videos I ripped and transcoded onto the handy dandy external hard drive… And now the big decision. Do I attempt a reinstall over this installation and hope it fixes the issue that way or do I try out another flavor of Linux.

I chose that I would stay with the Ubuntu family. But I will try Kubuntu unstead. For those who do not know what this is. It’s Ubuntu with KDE as it desktop instead of Gnome. Now I have used KDE a LONG time ago with Mandrake Linux. When Linux was still kind of a clunky and not so userfriendly Operating system. Although there is some things you still should install via terminal there are a lot of things you can use the GUI to install things onto the system. But you always have the terminal (aka command line) to help in doing things quicker.

So I basically began downloading Kubuntu from it’s main site and burned the CD under Gnome. Did a completely clean install of Kubuntu and did the updates.  Tommorrow I begin reinstalling some applications or poking to find what I can use that I used under Gnome.

I am now trying to think of what I should remove or tweak next. I find it funny that with all the programs and files I have on the system now it’s only 20GB used and a large portion of that is the documents and files I have in my home folder Can we say Bloatware?

I am looking back on the things I have been doing through this experiment and it pleases me to see I am able to do a lot of things I was able to do under Windows just fine.

Netflix REALLY needs to get on the ball with the instant streaming stuff because this is a pain in the nuts having it be Silverlight 2.0 only. That is primarily one of the only things I miss so far.

Speaking of streaming I need to think about finding info about how to get my DirecTV DVR and this machine to talk so I can stream movies or pictures. I got it going under windows before. I also will have to hard-wire the laptop so I can get a decent connection for that as well.

It would be awesome to be able to stream videos off of the lappy because I have a ton of AVI’s I backed up onto DVD-R’s that I could easily copy onto the hard drive to play better. Maybe I will do this later today.. Or start that.

“Ubuntu is the essence of being human. I am human because I belong, and my humanity is bound to yours.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu

However, the name apparently has appeared not only for the software. I introduce you to Ubuntu Cola!

The company is a fair trade company that donates 15% of their proceeds to African sugar farmers. There aren’t any distributors locacal to me so if I were to purchase this, I would have to resort to online sales. Check out their website.

They have a section called Where to Buy where they use Google’s maps to display where you can get it. As far as the U.S. it appears that people in Milwaukee and San Francisco can get it locally.

I wonder if they use the Open Cola recipe for this?

I completely backed up all my important Windows based things (in case I return to windows) and all my important documents (podcasts, itunes settings, pictures, and other stuff) onto my external harddrive.

Took a DEEP breath and put the installation CD into my CD drive and rebooted the machine.

The setup process is pretty cut and dry. Choose language and locations,  input name, choose username, choose a strong password, partition the hard drive… Okay this is where I REALLY took a deep breath because I told it to use the ENTIRE DISK! Sit back as it erases and formats all of the hard drive and installs the OS.

After it was done installing I rebooted the machine. Automatically wireless connection works! And now to download all the updates since I burned the install CD (186 updates to perform). After that I had to reboot again so the new kernel will take place.

Once I was back up I installed the Flash Player, VLC, Ubuntu restricted extras then I installed Boxee (reported they had Netflix Playback, dunno as of yet, need to play with it).

I then setup Pidgin for instant messaging. I miss Digsby, but I have used Pidgin before under windows. I can’t wait for Digsby to have a Linux version. HURRY GUYS!!!!

Next, I installed Amarok and Syncropated! to see if that will get the iPod podcasting need situated. Apparently Amarok discontinued podcast features in the latest version.

This sucks, its a decent player so I will keep it for other things I guess.

I then installed gPodder. With gPodder, I resubscribed to all my old podcasts that were under windows.. Now to wait for them to download..  Zzz… Okay I can’t sit doing nothing, so I moved on while it downloaded them.

I uninstalled Sycropated! It didn’t work at all. Some of my resources that I found on Google mentioned using it, but I guess it was for the older iPods and not the Widescreen Nano I have currently.

I downloaded Adobe Air to install so I could get Tweetdeck back. After installing Air I got Tweetdeck installed and tweeting is back for me. Yay!

I installed Wine but I have not toyed with it yet. Wine is supposedly useful incase you need to run a Windows based application. But I don’t know if I will be playing with it just yet. Trying to seperate myself from the Microsoft OS Crutch.

Lastly I changed my desktop image to something personalized. Didn’t feel like staring at the brown themed desktop that is the default one. After this I decided it really was time for bed. I started this at 7:30 PM but I feel I got a lot done during this time. More to do tomorrow.

I have been a user of Windows since version 3.0 came out and in my opinion it’s become a crutch for my computer needs. It’s also been increasingly bloated and bothersome to say the least.

I have dabbled with Linux. But now I have decided to attempt a completely Windows Free system.

My flavor of choice for this experiment: Ubuntu Linux

I want to experience this operating system to the fullest. That means all the things I do under windows I will be doing it under Linux.

I have planned to do this for sometime, now I am actually going to take the dive. To get a hint of what I do on a computer here is a list of things that come to mind off the bat:

• Podcasting
• Web Design
• Gaming
• Web Browsing
• DVD Authoring
• Graphic Design
• Chat (IRC, Instant messaging  and Voice)
• Video Streaming
• iPod Listening (daily)

I have already found the alternatives to Windows programs so I feel I am on the way to a good experience.

I will post once a day of what I accomplished. And attempt screenshots to share as a photoblog experience. And when possible I will try a videoblog (aka vlog) of what I have done as well.

I think that anytime I NEED to use windows I will be on the other machine (the desktop that is shared with Sarah). But it will be far and few in between.

So tonight I am doing my last necessary things under Windows (aka backup) as I begin to install Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04.