An Insolent Southern Man

I've always been a bit savvy when it came to computers. No, I'm not on the programmer or developer level, but I'd say a decent user - more or less. I wouldn't call myself a complete computer geek. I'm not ready to join the Geek Squad at my local Best Buy store. But ever since I broke my leg, I've been stumbling around, messing with my computers more and more. At first, it was a tweak here and there in Windows Vista. Next came the upgrade to Windows 7. After that, I got more and more interested in making a dual boot computer. I've seen several blogs online about making what's known as a "hackintosh," but after further reading, realized that neither of my machines here at the house could be configured to run OSX. Boo. :-(


The next option was Linux. At first it started with the CD. I've read that you can get into, and recover data from a crashed Windows PC with an Unbuntu CD. So, I downloaded and made my own CD just in case I ever needed it. You can also run the actual OS from the CD. So, that led me to playing around with it more and more.



The interface, I like. It looks a ton better than Windows. Almost looks like a Mac. (I've got it tweaked.) It boots up really fast. I mean like, sign in and it's up and ready. The internet seems slower, but I don't know why. It just does. Navigating my way around and installing programs and fonts? That's a different story. I'm getting there, but it's taking a lot of Google-ing. Another thing that irks me is that I can't run Photoshop or Lightroom. That almost ruins it for me. (I know there is a way. I've already looked at it, but getting it done is a different story. I'm close, but not there yet.) However,  I am able to access my e-mail, calendars, documents, even Twitter with ease. I've run system updates, and even installed Dropbox and Chrome. I did this blog post from Chrome in Ubuntu.

So I'm still a noob. Still trying to figure things out. I'll keep plugging away at it. I have however, officially crossed over into the land of the computer geek. I guess it won't be long before I'm talking regularly about code or wearing shirts with witty phrases written in binary.

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