Current weather in Linux is hot with light snow

I know I have been blogging a lot about Windows Vista lately, but I would be remiss to mention the latest beta release of Beryl, 0.2.0. I had to rebuild my webserver/Linux play box in the last day and when I got it back up and running, Beryl 0.2.0 beta 2 was something I definitely wanted to check out. I had been playing with openSuSe but decided to move back to Fedora Core 6 after a myriad of problems and annoyances with openSuSe 10.2.

Installing the OS went without a hitch and after the requisite upgrading of the nVidia drivers, I embarked on installing Beryl and all the associated packages. Luckily, this is getting easier. Package sources like Livna make getting the drivers and such a snap. The installer for Fedora Core 6 really is one of the nicest out there. The openSuSe installer is just as nice, but something about Fedora looks more polished to me.

This was a great learning experience for me. The goal was to create a Linux based development environment for the latest Wordpress build. It was an adventure for an admitted Linux dabbler, but I managed it all in less than a day so I feel pretty good about that. I feel especially good since part of that included a trip to CompUSA to replace a dead CPU fan that was causing the machine to overheat and shut down. My main tasks were to install Fedora, Apache, PHP, MySQL, MySQL Admin, Samba, SSH and get it all talking and working. I do my web development on Dreamweaver on a PC so having them talking is paramount.

Beryl beats Aero
I really like the new Vista interface, it’s pretty, trendy and translucent, but my Linux machine, a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4 with 2GB Ram and a 128MB Geforce FX5200 is really looking sharp. For full wow factor, I turned on the snow, put a slick wallpaper on it, a translucent theme, enabled the taskbar thumbnails, etc. I have included a screenshot for your eye candy pleasure. As you can see, it’s lighly snowing in Linux land right now.

One of the features I think you cannot beat, is how you can put the mouse cursor in the top right corner of the screen and instantly tile all windows across all desktops and simply select the window you need to access. The desktop is automatically rotated and you are ready to go.

This experience has definitely increased my comfort in the Linux operating system as well as my knowledge of the file structure and the ability to navigate via the terminal with little trouble. I have definitely enjoyed it and am looking forward to starting on Philoking.com’s redesign.

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