Open Source

A year and a half ago, I was introduced to Linux.

Before that I'd heard the word Linux before, but thought it some mysterious language thing that was reserved for computer programming geeks and hackers, which honestly when it started out, it was. It turned out to be just another kind of operating system.

So it was that I tried Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), which was honestly a "not bad" operating system. It's main selling point is, of course, that it is completely free and comes equipped with one of the best user supported communities I've ever seen. Literally thousands of safe user created and supported software is available to do everything from coding, to music, to art, conversion of files, gaming, and read every e-book format known to man. It also comes with WINE, which allows you to run most windows applications if you so choose (even install MS-Office). Overall the extreme customizability of Ubuntu made it fun to use. All that was great, but it was wrought with little problems. Problems that occur when you don't have a multi-billion dollar company paying people to pay attention to these little details.

So I stopped, and went back to Windows XP. Then I got a virus. It destroyed my windows. I naturally panicked as my entire year's worth of work was on my laptop, including my research, the back-up of which was on the hard-drive that got stolen from my bag on the trip to Lebanon. I came very close to crying, and started fervently praying like there was no tomorrow.

In flies Ubuntu to save the damsel in distress (ME).

See Ubuntu comes with 2 amazing things. First there's this really great option when you burn it on a CD. You boot from the CD and it asks you if you want to try it out live before installing it. Second, Ubuntu works right out of the box. No need to install drivers, download anything. You just install it, and it works. Period. So I inserted the CD, boot my laptop, and "tried" it out. It just worked. There it was. I could access all the information on my split hard-drive through Ubuntu. It wasn't lost. I could even look at the windows C drive and check out my files. Long story short, I reinstalled the new version of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), which let me keep my split hard-drives and not overwrite them, and reinstalled Windows on the old C drive after formatting it (all of which was super easy to do with the new Ubuntu installer especially for people not experienced with installing operating systems), and made a dual boot for my laptop.

Karmic Koala is awesome, it solved pretty much all the problems that Gutsy had and worked right out of the box. It's customizable to whatever degree of cuteness you want. Now I use Karmic Koala for the most part and Windows only rarely for Matlab. Even then there's a free open source program that runs m-files available on Linux called Octave, but I haven't tried it yet.

What I love about it, is the very friendly robust community of users out there, and the fact that it's open source. Knowledge is free for all.

But enough about Linux. I just want to tackle one little topic before I go.

Hala likes macs. I strongly suspect a Haitham influence here, what with this and the whole we didn't land on the moon thing, but I'll let that go for now.

I know Houda has a Mac, so a warning and disclaimer to any and all Mac/Apple lovers: If you can't handle the following, you might wanna cover your eyes.

Just to correct the mis-information on the mac. Hala was saying something about how macs are better because they handle data graphically so they are faster. I'm not sure where you got the sadly incorrect information. The truth is, that was maybe true 20 years ago, but more recently they started getting behind in functionality compared to IBM computers since the latter has become so efficient. That's why my dear Hala, Apple switched to regular IBM processors some years ago so that they don't get behind in the market. Your beloved Mac-book Pro is actually completely Intel Inside with pretty much the same specs as a DELL, ACER, HP, or whatever brand you prefer, including the core2duo processor and NVIDIA graphic cards. According to Habib (who actually knows this since he works in this field), the only thing that's better about the mac is their own well designed slim and light electronic board upon which they place the processors and cards. Other than that and their shiny package, it's exactly the same.
See specs on the apple website here.

So while you might want to get a 15" Mac-book starting at $1699 for the minimum specs and pay for fanciness, I'll stick with my so far wonderfully performing with no hardware glitches 15" Acer with similar processor specs, a better graphics card (358MB dedicated versus their shared 256MB memory one), larger storage (320GB versus their 250GB at the min price), a built-in subwoofer on mine for my audio, and a cool look that comes at a price tag that's currently a whole $1050 less!

As for the Mac-OS, let's not go into the whole built so idiots can use it issue, and treats the user as a child who needs to point at a picture of what they want to get it. I used Mac for a while working with a friend on a project. I really feel stupid when I use it, and have to remember what the icons for matlab/word/safari/help-files, and the half a dozen other programs I'm usually running, all look like all at the same time otherwise I can't find it. No words, because as Steve Jobs said, apparently "People don't read anymore". Reminds me of "Idiocracy", which is a great movie. Watch it. I mean seriously, I know people like it when things are flashy with big shiny new icons, and things rolling around and throwing it away, and it's very much like a cool new toy, but functionally speaking, it gets annoying 5 minutes after trying to use it for serious work. Not to mention I dislike proprietary software that makes you use only Apple software (unless you're running Windows on mac but then why the heck buy a mac in the first place).

Edit: Just one more thing. The ACER Aspire that I linked, which is a slightly newer model than mine, also has that 2 finger throw away thing that you love so much. Overpriced much?