The Code Crusader

Happy New Year! :) I forgot to tell you, I got a snail mail from LPI that contains my certification credentials last Jan. 9. It contains my LPI Certified Membership card, a congratulations letter from their CEO, a free copy of Linux Magazine that I can claim through their website, my diploma and an invitation to take their Ubuntu Module. This will be my very first certification. Come to think of it, I never realized that I'll have my first certification for linux considering that I was concentrating a lot with programming back in college and a lot of other IT stuff. But after working as a technical support with the job responsibilities of a systems administrator, little by little, I realized I needed to specialize in a certain field of IT. That being a "jack of all trades master of none" isn't a bad idea but being an expert with something will really help a lot. So here it is. I finally found my first goal. A career that has a lot of linux in it. Be it for the enterprise or for the community.

Yep. After a year, I took the second part of my Linux exam. It was quite easy even though I've only reviewed the LPI102 Manual and did some VCE and online test exams. Even though I've finished the whole exam for only 45mins, I only decided to pass my questionnaire and answer sheet 30 mins before the time. I went home quite happy, relax, and confident that I will be having my very first certificate 25 days later after this exam. That is, if I pass. I hope my dream last night of failing the exam wouldn't come true. That would be a very bad Christmas gift and will certain ruin my New Year.

Microsoft Products sucks. There. I said it. Their products are headache. From Dev, Office Productivity, Games and yeah, the Operating System that popularized the use of Ctrl+Alt Del(which was originally programmed for debugging purposes) and the Blue Screen of Death... hhmmm ok fine, HALO's cool but come to think of it, it was Bunjie Studios who was acquired by Microsoft that made it. Also, there are rumors going around that Bunjie will be leaving Microsoft. If you really ponder on it, the great stuff inside Windows are usually the apps that are made by other companies. Games for example. Most people are having seconds thoughts moving to MAC or Linux since they don't have as much games as MS Windows. There are also popular apps like Adobe Products that needs a lot of tweaking when you "wine" it under Linux though MAC fan boys don't have a problem on this one. The problem with MS products are bugs. There are too many bugs that later on results to system crashes, security holes, development obstruction, troubleshooting the same problem all over again, portability, upgrades(vista's a memory hog) and lots of other stuff. Microsoft just got lucky that a lot of company's are supporting their stuff through drivers and useful software which doesn't usually have(if not for their community).

I'm a Windows user and has been using MS Operating System since DOS where you even need a boot disk and a system disk to execute utilities like format, copy, diskcopy, etc. But after I learned Linux both on the Desktop and Server side, I have been thinking of moving to nix. I'm using a dual-boot laptop installed with WinXP and Ubuntu 6.06(Upgraded to 6.06.2). So far, the experience was quite normal and the only reason I go to WinXP is for unproductive purposes like games and chatting. Because of this, I made a plan by having Ubuntu for my desktop(installed with XP just incase someone needs it just like my Linux Prof who's wife uses XP), CentOS/Fedora/Solaris(unix) for my servers. Im planning to do this both at home and work by April 2008 because Ubuntu 8.04 will be released by this month.

Now, why am I making this blog entry instead of shutting up and just enjoy tinkering with my servers and desktop? Well you see, I experience a virus and system corruption problem under Windows. My Outlook 2000 here in the office can't send and receive a damn email. I never experienced this with Thunderbird since I got my Gmail account which was by invitation only before. Windows also encounters a lot of bugs and the virus problem I told you about. The virus(a locally made here in the Philippines) is a VbScript virus. As a programmer and a computer enthusiast, I was able to dodge, prevent or even manually remove viruses without the need of a anti-virus since most cases, anti-viruses doesn't detect these types of locally or small time virus. But after what happened, I say I had enough. It's not that I can't fix it, I'm just tired fixing the same problem even if I can or know how. Also, since I know Linux, I already have the option to migrate. So today, I will start slowly migrating my stuff at home and at work to Open Source. Yeah, I can't remove WindowsXP here in the office because most doesn't know how to use Linux. I can't also remove WindowsXP in my personal laptop since I might need a WindowsXP when I go to conferences or meetings where not everyone uses Linux but I'm 100% sure, I'll be seeing less Windows(aside from servers running old Windows Server) starting this April and my use of Windows Applications will start to decline starting today. I'm not sure if I'll be having the standard problem since people here in the office uses Outlook 2000 but I think as long as I can take responsibility of my actions and do my job effectively without having negative effect on other people, I think everything's going to be fine. Casualty for today? Microsoft Outlook 2000.

I've just finished installing Foresight Linux 1.1 in my desktop. Even though I haven't evaluated most of it's features, I can say that the look and feel of some new Linux distros nowadays are starting to be like MAC OSx. Stability, Robustness and Reliability of a *nix platform and easy to use front-end/GUI like the OSx. Why? after I installed Foresight Linux w/c is soo insanely simple compared to how I've experienced hell from installing and using Slackware 9 when I was starting about 3 years ago, it has successfully detected ALL my hardware! It detected my ATI Graphic Card, my network, successfully configured my sounds, etc.. Aside from that, Youtube's Flash-based player is working instantly after I've selected a video! Now, if you tried other distro like Ubuntu(w/c is another very friendly distro btw), you still have to download or install a flash plugin to be able to run or view your Youtube video... Yes, its fairly easy to do especially for computer enthusiast like us. But for an ordinary user who only uses their computer for internet surfing, doing some documents or presentation and other ordinary stuff.....I don't think so. Anyway, after doing that, I let my sister(an incoming highschool student) to check her Multiply. And to my delight, she wasn't confused at all in a new environment!!!! That's freakin' great! And the only reason she wants to switch back to the Windows hard drive is only because her personal files are obviously not on the linux partition. hehehe great!

Just like what I'm saying early, Linux distros are getting much easier to use. More and more groups/communities nowadays are doing their best to provide an easy to use Linux distro. That's great! someday, Linux will have a large market share not only on the server market but also for the ordinary people. And when that days comes, I'll be there to provide them moral and technical support. :P cheers!!!

btw, if you want to try some free and user friendly Linux try...   Foresight Linux, Ubuntu, or Sabayon Linux.. 
You can also try LIVE CDs like Knoppix that you don't need to install unless you want it 
permanent in your computer This are what my friend call's a "Kid's Linux". But hey, if it's
LINUX and if it's open source, you can still customize it the way you want! :P