At Work

Because Ubuntu is a free operating system, they don't feel the need to shove the version in your face in quite the same way their commercial counterparts do. So, when you're on the threshold of doing an upgrade, it's nice to know what version you're upgrading from.

There's a quick, command based way to discover what version of Ubuntu you're using:

cat /etc/issue

Alternatively, for a more detailed output, try this command:

cat /etc/lsb-release

This will return the version of Ubuntu that you're currently using. I used it prior to upgrading, and also after the upgrade to verify that everything had been successful.

It was this post about GDM themes in the new version of Ubuntu that prompted me to install the latest version of Ubuntu tonight.

GDM (short for Gnome Display Manager) themes are a fast and convenient way of changing the default login theme for Ubuntu with very little effort. Check out the Tech Source post I linked to above to see examples of sexy login screens you can simply download, install and use.

As usual, I'm going to walk you through installing a custom GDM theme in a few simple steps:

Sweet! A new version of Ubuntu is always an exciting occassion: the release schedule is always way more frequent than Windows, and there's always some fascinating development that makes the upgrade worth your while.

So, tonight I'm upgrading my older version of Ubuntu from 8.10 to the latest release, which is 9.04. Otherwise known as Jaunty Jackalope, although the emphasis on animal names seems to be significantly played down on this version.

With this edition, the upgrade process is its easiest ever. Here's a quick step-by-step showing you how to upgrade your version of Ubuntu over the Internet:

Something that bugs me in Ubuntu is the default text size for window titles and desktop icons - it's far too big. How do you change it?

Well, in Ubuntu 8.10, you browse to the System -> Preferences -> Appearance programme, and on the Fonts tab, you should be able to set the font size to your liking. I shrunk the font down to 8. I think this is pretty readable and saves a bit of space on screen.

Of course, while you're in the Appearance programme, you can modify the actual display fonts for your screen and whether they're bold or italic.

There you go, another quick tip. Hope this helps some of you out.

I briefly had a dual boot setup a few years ago. Booting between Linux (I can't remember which distro) and Windows XP was always clunky. Two problems normally come up:

• With each subsequent kernel upgrade in Ubuntu, you get an extra two lines of boot options. Eventually, it becomes hard to find the Windows option, which is inevitably at the bottom of this endless list of kernel options.
• When you're using Windows XP as the primary OS, you want it to be the default Operating System rather than Ubuntu. Another possible option is having the computer automatically boot into the last used OS.

A bit of history. Back in the day, you had to manually edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file. This was - as much old-school Linux was - archaic, confusing and dangerous. Who knows what you'd mess up by deleting an option or screwing something up.

These days, configuring your GRUB is infinitely easier. Why? Well, like the rdesktop tool we talked about yesterday, there's a GUI interface to help you tweak GRUB to perfection.

In deciding to run Ubuntu in a Windows environment (I run a Windows server as well as a couple of Windows XP machines), one of my key concerns was being able to connect to those Windows machines.

Now, looking around Ubuntu, you might come across an application called Remote Desktop Viewer. This will happily connect between Ubuntu machines and computers running VNC servers. But it doesn't do RDP (Remote desltop protocol) which you need to connect to Windows.

What you need is the rdesktop command line utility or the Terminal Server Client, which is a GUI front-end to rdesktop. The client is quite useful if you're not especially fond of command line working. If you've used the Remote Desktop tool in Windows before, the interface is quite similar.

From what I can see, in my version of Ubuntu (8.10 - Intrepid Ibex), both rdesktop and Terminal Server Client are installed by default. Unfortunately...neither are integrated into the program menus, so you've got to run them from a command.

Lisa and I had a meeting with somebody the other day. As we sat in her office, the lady nodded toward an ageing PC and bemoaned the fact that "once you buy a new computer these days, it's almost immediately out of date".

It wasn't the time or place to argue, but of course I feel differently.

Sure, if you're locked into a Microsoft based system, you're going to find yourself in a viscious upgrade cycle. You'll constantly be watching for the latest version of Microsoft Office or anxiously wondering what their forthcoming Operating System will mean for you and your business.

Now, my main machine in the house is easily 4 years old. It was a highly specced Dell Dimension XPS system back then. Probably not as wonderful by today's standards, but still a fine system. Its only upgrade has been an additional 2Gb of RAM, and it's still a star performer. So, in my opinion, the hardware platform has stabilised.

The Windows World

In the world of software, things are much different. On Windows XP, I'm mostly committed to Free or Open Source applications: Aptana for web development instead of Dreamweaver, Notepad++ for quick text editing, OpenOffice forword processing and spreadsheet style stuff. Comodo for firewalling and antivirus.

I'm still using a fairly old version of Adobe Photoshop, but it does the job for my needs, even if it is missing some of the features of the newest version. GIMP's an acceptable replacement...I suppose. The only thing that's really tying me to Windows right now is the amazing Windows Live Writer.

I haven't made much fanfare on here about becoming self-employed.

Oh, in my head I wanted to write a sermon about how good it feels to be achieving a lifelong dream. The last few months at Howden, I was becoming more and more aware of how bogged down in paperwork we were becoming. It's hard to be passionate about something when you can't move for filling in forms.

So yes, leaving to work on my own business has been a great feeling. Liberating. Empowering. Lots of big motivational words like that.

But I'm a realist too, and I don't want to pen some high and mighty words that'll come back to haunt me later. It's a fact of life that the online advertising market is contracting at the moment. Revenues so far have been fine, but you'd be a fool if you thought that money just comes flooding in when you've got a website that's doing well.

On Wednesday 24th September, I handed in my notice at work. As of the 1st of November, I'll be a free agent. And I'm not going back into paid employment for the moment - I'll be working for Unreality TV.

A little over three years ago, Lisa and I started a little blog about Reality TV. I was working for Cleaver Fulton Rankin and doing a bit of web design work in my spare time to bring in extra cash.

Unreality TV has had its share of ups and downs. The first year was the worst, as we balanced the growing readership with the relatively poor revenues the site would bring. We toyed with having a forum. The forum failed twice, then caught on in its third incarnation.

We spread ourselves too thin, trying to start blogs in different areas, then realising that we didn't have the time to commit to them all. After a crisis discussion, we decided to scale back massively and concentrate on Unreality since it was our biggest (read: only) successful brand.

Two years of further hard work (mostly on Lisa's part) have resulted in a very successful site, averaging a million pageviews per month and a couple of thousand forum users.

A cracker story from work this morning - I've just pulled into the office car park, and the security guard is chatting to one of the inspectors. As I approach them, the inspector points just beyond my head.

Not initially realising what he's pointing at, I look back, slightly bewildered, and ask him what he's on about.

"Not very observant, are you?" comes the reply, "I'm pointing at that big ferry sailing down the channel. I'd love to be getting on that right now..."