The Alternative OS

I have this old Compaq laptop that I really like because it is very thin and lightweight. The only problem is that it only has a P3 600Mhz CPU in it and Windows runs like a slug on it. It literally takes 7 minutes to boot up; I’m not joking or exagerating! I had heard that one way to breathe new life into your old hardware is to ditch Windows and install Linux on it. I had read good things about the Ubuntu distribution on the web, so I figured, what the hell, why not give it a try?

I downloaded the installation setup from the Ubuntu website and I had a choice of either making a dual boot setup or completely overwriting my Windows OS with Ubuntu. Since I don’t have a large enough hard drive to have both Windows and Linux on my machine simultaneously, the decision was simple… kill Windows! The installation process was very smooth with absolutely no glitches or warning messages. Once it found and configured all of the hardware (keyboard, mouse, etc.) it finished the install. I rebooted just to see how long it would take to boot up. I was very amazed that it finished booting in less than 2 minutes!

The Ubuntu distribution comes with Open Office. I fired up Office Write and Office Calc (the replacement for Word and Excel) and I was very pleased to find that it successfully opened all of my Word and Excel documents. Furthermore, since I’m not much of a “power user” in either Word or Excel, I found that I had no problems navigating, using commands/functions, changing fonts, etc. in Office Write or Office Calc. As far as I’m concerned, I never have to use Word or Excel again.

There are still many commercial applications that won’t run on the Linux platform. A couple of important ones for me are Adobe Photoshop and Quicken. I’ve heard people say that Gimp is a worthy replacement for Photoshop and that there is a suitable replacement for Quicken that will read Quicken files. I’ll have to give Gimp a try and do some research on the Quicken replacement. I will certainly keep my desktop machine running Windows just because I have a lot of time invested in Photoshop and I can’t see dropping Photoshop anytime soon. In fact a number of my “dyed-in-the-wool” Linux friends keep one Windows machine around just for this very reason. I’m guessing that Microsoft must be paying Adobe big bucks under the table not to port Photoshop to Linux!

I still have a number of things left to try out before I can safely say that I’m 100% sold on Linux. So far I’m very happy with Ubuntu running on my old laptop which I’m primarily using as my email and web surfing machine. It certainly boots and runs much faster than when I had Windows 2000 running on it. Let’s just say that I’m 99% sold on it!

Are Flower Photos Passe?

Have we gotten so jaded by photographs of flowers that when we see one we say "Oh no, not another flower picture"? I think we can all agree that flowers are beautiful, but is it cheating to take a photo of one and then call it art because they are inherently beautiful and the photographer is doing nothing but documenting that beauty? Is this any different than taking photos of kids or sunsets? Talk amongst yourselves….

10 Reasons Why…

… I won't give up using my 35mm film SLR (not in any particular order):

1. I love that loud distinct "click" when I depress the shutter button.

2. I love seeing the rewind knob rotate whenever I advance the film.

3. I love knowing that I can make an image (at 1/90 of a sec.) even if my battery is dead.

4. I love knowing that I can use 3200 ISO speed film when I photograph in very low light situations.

5. I love the look of my color prints after shooting with Velvia slide film.

6. I love the feel and the weight of an all metal camera body.

7. I love the permanence of negatives and slides (as long as you don't lose the shoe box!)

8. I love the look of my B&W prints after shooting with Kodak BN print film.

9. I love that gritty, grindy sound the self-timer makes before the shutter is automatically tripped.

10. I love how the film canister drops into mid-air and into my open palm after rewinding and popping open the camera back. I actually do this on purpose and say "Tada!" when it hits my hand.