upgrading
I frequently tell people I run Linux at home, specifically Kubuntu, since I’m a KDE guy. For you Windows users, Linux is a different operating system (os), and KDE is the desktop I prefer. You see, unlike Windows, I get to tell my system what desktop to use, which determines how it’s laid out, what it looks like, and what features it has. Even better, most distributions of Linux, are absolutely free. As is the software that goes on it. Need a word processor? No problem, it comes with OpenOffice, a fully functional office suite that can handle most Microsoft Office formats as well. And adding additional software, again, all free, is a few simple steps, you just need to know its name.
What started it all was an update to my system about two months ago that caused Firefox, my web browser, to start having problems. Every time I went to Gmail and then tried to go somewhere else, it would crash. I could restart the browser and it would be fine, but it really irritated me. Then a browser update came along as I was about to give up and I thought that would fix it, but it made the situation worse, not better. So after a couple days frustration, I backed up my data and upgraded the os to the latest stable release version, 7.10, commonly referred to as Gutsy Gibbon.
So far I’ve experienced two problems with my upgraded system, both easily corrected - the first occurred when my system tried to update itself after the initial install, I had to search on the internet to find out why my updater didn’t want to work, and the solution was a single command line entry I could copy and paste. The second I encountered this morning, when my preferred display size was lost overnight and my resolution was changed from 1280×1024 to 800×600. Again, a quick internet search showed me how to correct the issue and my resolution is back where I want it.
I am happy to report the upgrade process is almost complete, there are a couple things I need to restore on my machine before I can say it’s all done, but those are relatively easy things I just need to find time to do. Keep an eye out my next post, about upgrading life.