Chris Meller

Well, OK, maybe Linux isn’t US, but it’s certainly ME now. I’ve officially become a Linux desktop user.

My distro of choice? Slackware 10, of course! Unfortunately, it supports the onboard equipment in Dell computers very poorly, and Fedora Core 3 (currently Test 3) is a perfect contender.

So why did I switch? Read on for my reasons, as well as some of the hurdles I hit along the way…

Well, I know you’ve all heard this line before, but it’s the truth, as much as I hate (not really) to admit it… I was sick of the crashes. Well, they weren’t really crashes. Windows XP is much better about not crashing, it simply stops working until you finally reboot it all on your own.

My brand new Dell Dimension, sporting a respectable 3ghz processor, was less than 3 months old, and XP Pro had already come to a grinding halt. Gone were the 7 week long uptimes I’d gradually (amazingly) grown used to. Here to stay were 3 day uptimes, apparently. I tried everything I could. I knew my system wasn’t infested with spyware, but I ran AdAware to be sure. Of course, it picked up cookies from all the ads everyone plasters on their sites, but that was it. I also knew it wasn’t virus-laiden, but a quick scan of the hard drive proved my point yet again.

The next step was to take a look at all the stuff I’d managed to accumulate over 3 whole months. Well, there were all the standards. Of course I had my mIRC first… not exactly a hog. Then there was Office 2003. Yeah, it’s beefy, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary. On and on I went. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Finally, I just had enough. A quick backup of my essentials and I was gone…

I already had the Slackware discs on hand, and had run it not only as a server at work, but also as a “play” desktop on an old 1.1 Celeron that sits behind me. I loved how it seemed to come with anything (just like Redhat/Fedora), but didn’t try to screw with anything like they did. The install procedure wasn’t nearly as friendly as Redhat’s, but it was by no means difficult.

The install process on my junk box had gone flawlessly. Unfortunately, my new Dell had much more modern hardware and was in for a rougher time. While the install did indeed go flawlessly, and Slackware did a respectable job of detecting my hardware (including the onboard Intel network card), I soon discovered upon issuing “startx” at my new command prompt that it hadn’t detected my video settings at all. I was greatly disappointed. I’d never needed to install a new video driver in Linux before, and had no real clue of where to go from there.

I started out by looking for some Dell drivers. As with many other manufacturers, they only cater to the Windows world. OK, my next approach, which is where I generally start in the first place, was the almighty Google! Google, as usual, came to my rescue. There were more posts than I could count on more Linux forums that I knew ever existed about my exact problem, as well as a few others I hadn’t gotten to yet.

Eventually, I was to go directly to the Intel website and download the onboard video drivers for my motherboard. It was a tad confusing trying to find the exact driver that I needed. The first set I thought was the correct model number didn’t want to compile on my system because they didn’t find a supported device. Back to the Intel website, I finally managed to track down the right set (wouldn’t it be nice if Dell were to put the exact model number on their website when you look up your system?). They compiled, and I was left with only one more step. One of the forums also pointed towards a patch that fixed a problem in the amount of video memory detected. After every reboot, the patch had to be run before the xserver would start up.

After getting the drivers working, I had to track down the xconfig program in Slackware and re-run it, providing manually all the information (which driver, how much memory, monitor type, resolution, refresh rates, the works). By now, I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I was also getting greatly discouraged at the same time.

Another “startx” at the console and I was up and running. I was greeted with the wonderful new look of an untainted Gnome 2.6. The journey wasn’t quite over yet, however. I soon discovered that my sound was also not working. The journey to create some noise wasn’t nearly as difficult, more so to the point of being annoying that Slackware wasn’t able to solve such a simple problem itself. The Alsa driver simply needed to be loaded and then alsamixer needed to be told that it shouldn’t mute the hardware. Bingo, everything was working…

Now, you’re probably wondering how I came to love Fedora… Well, Slackware’s a bit vague on the documentation side of things. I finally got things up and running perfectly. I got all my stuff loaded, including CrossOver office from Codeweavers, so I could run my beloved Microsoft Office (I know, I know, but you have to admit there’s nothing to compare to them…), when I decided that I’d go ahead and upgrade my kernel to 2.6 (from the default 2.4 that ships with Slackware). Well, you’d think it’d be a simple process, but without any guide on how to proceed, somehow, I managed to botch the job, and didn’t notice until returning from vacation approximately 3 weeks later.

So came the Fedora install. I knew from experience that Red Hat had been virtually flawless in its detection of and support for all hardware known to man. So came the new Red Hat incarnation, regardless of name… 4 CD ISO images later and I was greeted by the very familiar GUI of the Red Hat installer system. An hour later, and I was up and running without a hitch. After several more hours of downloading patches from the Red Hat Network (or whatever it’s called now…), I was fully updated. I had the latest Gnome, I had the latest kernel, and I was ecstatically happy. I have been so ever since.

The only remaining step was to finally take the plunge and install Linux on my laptop as well. After a few weeks of loving my new Linux desktop and not having any withdrawls from Windows, I was off… Fedora Core 3 (Test 3) had some issues with my Dell Inspiron 5150’s fan and overheated several times, giving me probably the biggest scare of my life (now that my notebook is just 3 months out of its year warranty). A fall back (and a corresponding 4 CD ISO images) later, and I was up and running with the stable version of Fedora, Core 2. As with the desktop system, I haven’t looked back yet. In fact, I’ve looked forward to the official release of Fedora Core 3 (slated for November 6th-8th) much more than I ever anticipated the release of a Microsoft product.

So those are my rather lengthy (and probably very boring) adventures in the transition to Linux. I may provide a more technical account of my Laptop’s rockier transition later (such as the difficulties with Wireless LANs on Linux), but for now, that’s it.

I encourage you to give Fedora (and Slackware!) a try, even if it’s just as a box you’re comfortable with blowing away any time you screw up. The more people who use Linux and then convert to it, the better. We may never totally rid ourselves of the Windows world (remember that 1.1 Celeron? It now runs Windows 2000 Professional, just for the odd application that MUST have Windows - like my LabSimulations for school), but we sure can try our hardest and force it as far out of our lives as possible. As for me? I’m a Linux junkie now, and I’m learning more than I ever have about an Operating System before. And don’t feel like it’s a one way path. I still use Windows at work, and I’m still the head computer support specialist there. Everything (including several non-Linux servers) are running Windows, and I’m not freaking out…

You know something that’s become a virtual plague on the internet these days that I’m seriously sick of? Cheap knockoffs. They’re everywhere. From huge corporations creating cheap knockoffs of their competitor’s online music store to little nobodies trying to create knockoffs of great online games? It’s everywhere, it’s out of control, and something needs to be done about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some bible-thumping copyright activist. Ordinarily, I root for the little guy. I don’t think the MPAA should be raiding houses looking for stolen music, and I think I should be allowed to do whatever I like with the music I’ve legally purchased (yes, I purchase my music. I believe the artists do deserve to get paid for their work, just like I do.). However, I do have to draw the line when people start to knowingly copy works and publish them as their own.

I suppose I should give a little background on this before I continue, so that people can get a better idea of what I’m talking about?

There are two online browser-based games. Utopia and Re!gn (both of which can be found in the Web Links module in the “Games” category). These are both truly remarkable games. Utopia is a long-established, well planned and maintained game sporting multiple servers, each of which gives the user a unique playing environment. It is based in a fantasy world. Re!gn is a new-comer in the field. It’s still in the beta stages, constantly undergoing maintenance and development. It’s a little more random and also much more responsive to its users requests. It is based around modern day countries.

Now to the problem. In the past 6 months, each of these great games has had a pathetic knockoff created of it.

Our journey begins with Re!gn’s knockoff, which emerged at some point in the last 6 months (which is probably a very safe estimate. I have a horrible sense of time, so I played it safe). Its name? Elite Empires, or 3E for short (how they get 3 out of `Elite Empires’, I’m still not sure?). It’s developed by some Re!gn lovers themselves, who have caught nothing but flack for their idea. Ever since word was released in the Re!gn forums that there was going to be a new Java-based stand-alone version of the game produced by someone other than the original developers of Re!gn, they’ve been bashed from every corner. The apparent general consensus? Don’t copy other people’s work!! The “3E” devs have spent every waking minute trying to convince everyone that it is *not* like Re!gn at all and that we should all love it ever since. They’ve met severely limited success?

We continue on our escapade with the knockoff that really pushed me over the edge and spurred this article itself. Its name? Siege World. Siege World is the most pathetic attempt at copying a game I’ve ever seen. They’ve taken a long-standing internet legend such as Utopia and ripped out every feature. Whether it was actually a direct ripoff of Utopia or some unlucky simp merely ripped the idea off from another pathetic ripoff, I can’t say and honestly don’t care. From an initial protection phase to protect new accounts from being raped by pathetic larger kingdoms who are too afraid to pick on anything their own size to the lack of unique account personalities and races which provide special abilities to your account, this game is thoroughly pathetic and barely deserves mentioning. Why are you mentioning it then you ask? Because no where does the game give any credit to Utopia what-so-ever. The name isn’t even mentioned on their pathetic site. At least 3E’s website outlined supposed differences between itself and Re!gn and even contained a link to Re!gn itself? That’s not even the worst of it, however? The worst part? Siege World is being “developed” (if that’s even applicable in this case) by a moderator of the Re!gn forums.

So is this an indication that the Re!gn forums are nothing but trouble and consist merely of 12 year old bottom feeders who can’t originate their own ideas and are therefore forced to steal those of others? I’m afraid I have to admit that it is. One look at the Re!gn forums and you find no help, no advice, not even anyone answering questions in the support thread. All you find is squabbling and complaining. No one can take an original opinion. They all have to bash and put down the author of such posts, and they don’t deserve the game they so loyally play.

Several of the guys I work with and I went out to lunch today. It’s typical for us to take an hour and a half to two hours for lunch on Fridays (which has recently expanded to honorary Fridays on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It’s absolutely amazing we haven’t gotten fired yet.). We generally go somewhere that has other entertainment in addition to food (no, no strip clubs… yet). For quite a while, we’ve been playing pool at lunch.

So anyway, we’re playing pool…

There’s one table in a room by itself, which everyone else seems to think is reserved, so we always play in there in private. Normally there’s a waiter we like that’ll come in and joke around with us, but today, he saw us coming in and said that he wasn’t working that room, that Stacy was, but she was better looking than he was, so we’d probably like it more. So we agreed and went on in and started playing. Soon, we met Stacy… and all our jaws dropped. It’s amazing how hot some people can be, even without trying. All she was wearing was one of the restaurant’s golf shirts and a pair of black pants, and yet she was probably the hottest looking chick we’d seen in weeks.

It’s really quite amazing how incredibly good some girls can look in the simplest and most ordinary of outfits, while other girls look less than perfect in the exact same clothes. It’s also amazing how much an incredibly hot chick can distract you from your game of pool. Every time she would enter the room, we’d all just stop and stare as she moved from one table to another refilling our glasses or clearing away our mess, then immediately resume our game as soon as she disappeared from view once again.

Speaking of clearing away our mess, it’s also quite amazing how well one will tip someone for horrid service just because they find them sexually attractive. Stacy was so incredibly hot, but also so incredibly far from being a good waitress, and yet we all suddenly found ourselves tipping 20% or more for our meals… If she’s only getting tipped based on her looks, and not on her serving abilities, I suppose she made a good choice working at a restaurant that is big on pool, because the people who frequent it are mostly male. However, it makes one wonder what the chances of enticing her to try something, oh, like a strip club, would be… With a body like hers, I have no doubt she would come out very very well at the end of the night. $300 and 7 marriage proposals later, Stacy goes home to a boyfriend named Chris… oh, sorry, that was one of those fantasies I warned you about in the welcome message. Oh well, back to my hum drum day. It’s time to head home now that I’ve wasted a little more company time…

You know, something odd occurred to me the other day. I was sitting on my bed reading for Psychology, when I suddenly remembered something from wwwaaayyy back in High School.

In my Junior year, I was taking English 3 Honors. Every week, our teacher would give us a set of 20 vocabulary words out of our book, as well as a list of varying lengths that she randomly picked each day. In any given week, we would have to memorize anywhere between 20 and 80 words, to be tested on 10 each Friday. This is in no way an unusual occurrence, I’m sure (although the volume may be a bit more than most are used to), however, it did spur us to seek “alternative means of success”, shall we say?

This success came in the form of some “Helpful Study Aides”, if you will. No, not quite your typical vocabulary flash card? While they were cards, they weren’t exactly used for studying. Every week, I would print up small cards with each word and a short 1 to 3 word definition of it, which would nicely hide under a piece of notebook paper and show through just enough to read the definitions you needed. What started out as two friends helping each other raise their grade to a passing level soon grew into a vast cheating conspiracy.

At its peak, out of a total of approximately 70 students in 2 English classes, I was distributing 50+ copies of these cards each week. People would walk up to me at lunch and just stand beside my table and say “3” or “5”. I would glance around, reach into the back pocket of my backpack and pull out the number of cards they needed and slide them across the table to them. It was so amazing how popular they became, without any of the teachers or administrators ever actually finding out. It was like a drug ring. If I’d been charging even $1 for each card, I’d have been rich by the end of the semester.

Unfortunately, the empire went through a drastic reduction. Apparently the teacher got a little wise to my friend and I cheating (since we did, after all, do it less than 3 feet in front of her desk)and one week she abruptly got up and ripped the papers off our desks and sent us outside and then down to the principle’s office. We were told that we’d be excluded from any grade-related honors and kicked out of the Beta Club, in addition to our parents being notified. As it turns out, it was obviously just a scare tactic. We were never excluded from anything, weren’t kicked out, and our parents never found out a word about it.

Just one of the “interesting” experiences of my Junior year in High School. Most of my other experiences aren’t pleasant enough to remember or repeat, but there are smatterings of interesting experiences that I’ll remember for a lifetime (obviously).

Note: This story is absolutely 100% true and from my real life experiences. Fear my uber cheating abilities and watch for a story on some of my other cheating adventures!!