Operating Systems
I’ve been struggling to get Ubuntu up and running on my computer well enough that I don’t long for Windows 7. I thought I almost had it, but then I realized that DarkTable, the open-source alternative to Adobe’s Lightroom, is fairly limited in the spot/local edits it can do. This means in order to process photographs in the way I prefer, I would have to use both DarkTable and Gimp, whereas Adobe has included enough in Lightroom that I usually don’t need to send the file to Photoshop.
But then an even worse problem appeared. My wireless card, which works flawlessly in Windows 7, worked great in Ubuntu… for 3 minutes. And then the transfer rate slowed to molasses. The end result was 3 days of googling and messing around with configuration files. I think I have the problem sorted out, although why the power settings on a desktop would have been interfering with the proper performance of a wireless card is beyond me. If the problem does come back, my only recourse would be to try updated the Linux kernel or use a different networking device that’s better supported in Linux. That’s not something I would relish…
I am excited to try using the FOSS mathematics software Sage over the next few weeks. I’ve put that on my desktop as well as my travelling laptop. Between Sage and Octave, I’m hoping to reduce my dependency on expensive engineering software - not because it’s a problem now (I can get licenses through the University for free for the foreseeable future) but because it might be in 5 or 10 years. It’s always better to have a head start! Plus, the FOSS software movement is always worth encouraging through personal usage.
Nothing in this post is new territory for anyone trying to make the switch to Linux, or reduce dependencies on commercial software. It’s always a hassle. In fact, I’ve tried several times before but it just didn’t take… I wonder what fatal flaw I might encounter this time that will make me give up?