If you read any of the blogs that I do, you've probably already seen Bill Gates' 2003 complaint about Windows Update. Windows Update is a piece of junk. It's always been a piece of junk. It probably always will be a piece of junk.

What's really disappointing is that it doesn't have to be. Take a look at the package manager in Ubuntu Linux. It's probably the same in many other flavors of Linux, but I don't have experience with them.

Anyway, package manager is simple. When there are new versions of software or new patches to the operating system, it puts a little notification in my taskbar. When I click the notification, it tells me what is available for update. It even separates them into recommended vs optional, and tells me a little bit about each update. I can choose some, all, or none of the updates to apply. When it's finished updating, sometimes I have to restart. It puts another notification in the taskbar, and then that's it. I can restart when I'm ready.

Windows, on the other hand, is much more obnoxious. By default, it doesn't want to tell me what it's doing. When it finishes, it pops up a window that tells me to restart now or later. If I say later, it pops up again in a couple of minutes. And again. And again. Look, Microsoft, sometimes I'm at work and don't have the time to restart. Sometimes I'm in the middle of something and just don't feel like restarting. Why can't I have that option? Why can't you just show me a little "You need to restart at some point" notification and leave it at that?

And we're not even talking about Vista here. This is XP on my work computer. And the only reason Windows is on the computer at all is because it's a work computer.

I've restarted now, and everything seems to be fine. I don't know what update it did, but everything still works, so it can't have been too big a deal. Nice to see Microsoft still patching XP - I guess they realize that Vista sucks, and most people who don't have to upgrade haven't (and won't).

It's been about three and a half hours since I complained about the lack of 64 bit Flash for Linux. Just a minute ago, I was checking out the latest on my RSS feed, and there was a Flash video on BoingBoing. Firefox popped up the little message, asking if I wanted to install the plugin.

I figured it wouldn't work, but I did it anyway. The package manager installed flashplugin-nonfree, and it worked! I can watch YouTube videos! I can use Google Analytics! Even MLB GameDay works! It's amazing!

So, I apologize, Ubuntu. You've been so good to me, and I nearly kicked you to the curb just because Fedora put out a new distro.

But I'm back now. I'm right back on the Ubuntu bandwagon.

On a side note, I'm available for freelance complaining. This is not the first time I've complained about something that was magically fixed soon afterwards. For a very reasonable hourly rate, I'll complain about something that you'd like fixed.

Results not guaranteed. Nor even expected.

I tried out Fedora for a few minutes. The Gnome desktop looks just like Ubuntu. I'm going to do some research and see what the real differences are.

When I rebooted into Ubuntu, I had some upgrades to install, which I did. One of them popped up this message:

A security certificate which was automatically created for your local system needs to be replaced due to a flaw which renders it insecure. This will be done automatically.

If you don't know anything about this, you can safely ignore this message.

That's pretty awesome.

I've been pretty underwhelmed by Ubuntu 8.04 - Hardy Heron. I upgraded from 7.10, which I was pretty happy with, and I'd kind of like to go back. I haven't been getting crashes or freezes or anything like that, but it's not more polished and stable than 7.10.

Also, Firefox 3 Beta is annoying. A couple of the plugins I really like for Firefox 2 don't work yet, and the new features aren't cool enough to make it worth the upgrade for me.

I also suspect some of my dissatisfaction is not 8.04's fault - the lack of 64 bit Linux support in Adobe's Flash is a huge pain. There are some websites that just don't work without Flash (Some of them, like Google Analytics, are actually useful). And I can't get Flash to work anymore. But it wasn't working in 7.10, either.

Anyway, I just downloaded and burned a live cd for Fedora 9, and I think I'm going to try it out. I don't know if I'll replace Ubuntu, but it's worth a try. I can still be a smug Linux convert with Fedora. Maybe even smugger because Ubuntu is more mainstream than Fedora.

So how's this for a great Friday evening:

I'm sitting on the couch. To my left, the windows are open because it's a gorgeous spring evening. Right next to me on the couch, the wife is napping, waiting for the Celtics game.

I have a kitchen full of beer and wine left over from my birthday party last week. We have the ingredients ready for dinner, pasta with tomatoes and asparagus, plus some cauliflower poppers.

In front of me is my brand new work computer, on which I've just installed Launchy, which everyone should install on their Windows machine. It's similar to Gnome-Do for Linux and Quicksilver for Mac - I've been using Gnome-Do for a while and I love it, and wanted something like it for my Windows work machine.

And speaking of Linux, my personal laptop is currently downloading and upgrading to the latest version of Ubuntu, Hardy Heron.

So, I have sports, food and drink, computer geekishness, and my fabulous wife. I have no idea what more I could possibly want.

So, you have a new Thinkpad. I have a T61 with the Nvidia 140M graphics card. Ubuntu Fiesty doesn't seem to like that card, and it's been a pain in the neck to get it working. But it's working now, and here's how I did it.

Before we go any further: This tutorial is just what worked for me. I make no promises, guarantees, or anything else. This may turn your brand new computer into a really pricey paperweight. Use of this tutorial is ENTIRELY at your own risk. I am willing to give advice if you get stuck, but I'm a Linux noob. The Ubuntu forums are likely to be more helpful. Anyway, I make no promises, I just want to share what worked for me.

First, the regular installer doesn't work because you don't get any sort of GUI. So, go to the Ubuntu downloads and get Ubuntu 7.04 Desktop edition. You want the version for 64 Bit AMD and Intel computers. Below the green download button, you want to check the box where it says, "Check here if you need the alternate desktop CD. This CD does not include the Live CD, instead it uses a text-based installer." Then click download.

You know how Windows probably asks you to open it with whatever your cd burning software is before you even download the file? Well, don't do that. I tried, and it didn't work. If you are not familiar with MD5 checksums and burning ISO images, check this tutorial. It should tell you all you need to know.

Once you have your cd, put it in your cd drive and install using the text-based installer. The only issue I had with the installer was partitioning the drive. I have a 120GB drive. I read somewhere that Vista requires 30GB (As an aside, good grief, Microsoft, no wonder old Windows machines run really slowly. Do all your operating systems have such ridiculous requirements?), so I set my partition to 90GB. Well, Vista took that to mean something really, really bad happened, and now wants me to recover Windows. It refuses to boot. Some may see this as a blessing, and I'm not going to argue, but I had hoped to keep a working Vista install for those rare cases when it's just more convenient to use Windows. Anyway, getting Vista to work is a project for another day. That's why this tutorial is provided with no guarantees.

Once you have Ubuntu installed, you have to boot into the recovery (that is, text-only) mode. Log in using the user you created during installation. Then the real fun begins.

Install development tools

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Setup ethernet connection

sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

Add the following to the file:


auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Save the file and close. If you don't know how to use VI, Google is your friend.

Restart networking

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart


Test to see if it works

ping www.google.com

Stop pinging. Someone can probably tell me how to ping like Windows, where it tried a few times and then stops, but I didn't bother to look it up.

ctrl-c

If you get this error - sudo: timestamp too far in the future: Try rebooting with Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Remove old Nvidia file

sudo rm /etc/init.d/nvidia-kernel

Disable the installed Nvidia driver

sudo vi /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Add this line

DISABLED_MODULES="nv nvidia_new"

Save and exit.

install nvidia drivers

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx

sudo nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals --composite

Restart

sudo reboot

Update Ubuntu (This might have been a good idea earlier in the game. But this is where I did it.)

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Restart

sudo reboot

Get the new Nvidia driver installer

Create a temp directory in your home folder

cd

sudo mkdir nvidia_temp

cd nvidia_temp

Download the driver installer

Make sure to check this url - it's current as of 8/28/07

sudo wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/100.14.11/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.11-pkg2.run

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.11-pkg2.run

It will ask you about runlevels. Ubuntu apparently doesn't do
runlevels. Continue with the installation. Mine had errors, which I ignored.

Reboot, this time start up in regular mode. You should have a
functional graphics card.

Unfortunately, it's only partially functional. Mine only supported 1024X768, which is totally unacceptable.

Reconfigure X

From the menu at the top of the screen, select "Applications", then "Accessories", then "Terminal" to open a terminal window. At the prompt:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

This will open a little wizard. You can leave all the defaults for the most part. However, it is important to select "nvidia" instead of "nv" from the big list of drivers. Select "1280X800" from the list of resolutions. When it asks to specify "simple", "medium", or "advanced", just pick simple and choose "Up to 14 inches". That is, assuming you have the 14" screen like I do.

Now, you can click the red icon at the top right of the screen, reboot, and your screen resolution should be set to 1280X800.

Update: I finally got around to checking the sound, and it turned out I had none. However, if you go to this Ubuntu forum thread and follow the instructions from forum user fmhoyt, sound should work fine.

From here, you're on your own. The Ubuntu Forums are great. Lifehacker loves to talk about Ubuntu. Del.icio.us is also a really good resource for cool stuff to do with Ubuntu. There are lots of cool apps and tricks and whatnot. So, have fun.

Resources:

• http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=72490
• http://onlyubuntu.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-to-install-beryl-with-latest-nvidia.html
• http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/100.14.11/README/index.html