Adair Simone Talks

I’ve been using Ubuntu Linux for nearly five days now — see my previous report — and am still very happy.

First, however, the bad news: The system has crashed twice, requiring hard reboots.

The first came when I attempted to import some 35,000 email messages in a single folder from The Bat (running under Windows) into Evolution. This was, in a sense, understandable - though I would have preferred a message warning me to break up the file. (When I chose later on to import 1,000 of those messages there was no problem.)

The second happened yesterday morning just as I was about to show off Linux to colleagues at a workshop (of course). I think the trigger was an attempt to move messages from one folder to another in Evolution.

Later in the day, I accidentally copied several hundred messages back into the same folder, and had to delete them again. (Working without a mouse on my laptop was the reason for this slip-up; I can’t really blame Evolution or Linux.)

I also failed to hibernate my laptop successfully, and it stayed on for hours, heating up and killing off the battery. I should have waited for Ubuntu to display an indication that hibernation was successful — if there is such a thing — before closing the lid.

Now that we’ve gotten that off our chests, the good news:

One of the big strengths of using Linux is supposed to be the community, and this has turned out to be true. Both the Ubuntu Linux forums and individual friends who use Linux have been generous and prompt with advice.

Now, some observations on software, five days into using Ubuntu Linux:

Evolution is great. I particularly like its task list, which is essential for my daily work. You do not have to assign a date to a task (as you did in my Windows-based Time & Chaos) and I have found it simple to sort either in order of when things are due, or by task name. I simply preface each task name with a single word which is its category (e.g., Home) and I get a terrific picture of tasks by category, with key ones highlighted because they are due today. One of the best task managers I’ve used, and I’ve used them all.

Gnucash - I decided not to use this. I use a simple OpenOffice spreadsheet for most business matters, and what I would have used Gnucash for could be done as well by a spreadsheet. But good to know it’s around.

Putty - there’s no reason to use this — commenters here and in the Ubuntu Forums have made it clear to me that this (Telnet/SSH client) is done natively in Linux.

Skype — I was delighted to see that there’s a Linux version, which I installed. While this does not pop up automatically in Ubuntu Linux (why not?) it was one simple click to get it running on my PC (from the Skype website).

KArm — I’m no longer using this; I found a much better solution, GnoTime Tracking Tool. This replaced TraxTime in Windows.

Diet Organizer — There is no good Linux alternative to this now, so my choice is either one of the web-based solutions (which I don’t love) or to use OpenOffice spreadsheets to track weight, which is what I’m doing for now.

I want to say a word about hardware issues that have come up. The screen I see when I use Ubuntu on my 19″ Acer monitor is fantastic — I love the glossy effect, whatever you call it, that Gnome gives me.

But the display on my laptop screen — which I only saw the day before yesterday, because I only use the laptop that way while travelling — isn’t great, and is too wide. I couldn’t change the resolution either; I had no choice. I can live with this, but it would have been nice to show off the great screen I see on the external monitor also on the laptop’s own screen. (The laptop is a Toshiba Equium.)

The next big thing I need to test with Ubuntu Linux is backups — and I will try to do this tomorrow using my Maxtor One Touch 250 GB external hard drive. Let’s hope this is painless.

I’ll also need to purchase a headset and possibly a webcam in order to do Skype videoconferencing — I hope that this too will be painless.

It may have been premature to write four days ago, just hours after installing Ubuntu Linux, but my experience nearly five days into this is showing me that Ubuntu is nothing like the Red Hat I knew and hated back in 2002.

This seems to be the kind of operating system that can be installed and used by normal human beings.

Readers want to discuss the housing bubble and the jobs impact. “I wanted to suggest a topic: I want to get into the details of the last SoCal collapse that has (to date) been blamed on the Aerospace industry collapse.”

“Is there a job loss scenario for SoCal that mirrors 1990? There have be oblique references to losses in the mortgage, banking and construction industries that seem
to be the most likely candidates, but I also have an example that occured to me through personal experience.”

“I have a relative in Atlanta that has been working in the mortgage industry for the last five years. He owns a condo, but has been also been buying and flipping properties. He knows appraisers who will appraise for ‘whatever he wants,’ he can arrange for them to get the loan, and walk them through the application so that they don’t ‘hit any snags.’ I am a lawyer and advised him this is really a bad idea, filled with conflicts of interest and possible fraud, but he advised me that this is standard operating procedure.”

“This seems to me a very overlooked area of froth (as a shout out to the departing Mr. Greenspan) which might account for some uncertainty in possible housing devaluation.”

Another reader asks, “How about a job loss update? We all know about Ford and GM. How about other recent announcements? Jobs are the glue that holds it all together.”

And another, “I, too, am interested in job loss scenarios for SoCal. A few years ago Big Pharmaceutical got hit pretty hard, though I’m not sure what the real cause was. It might have had something to do with the dot com bust and the Nasdaq decline generally. I know of one chemist who was laid off at that time and only recently got a ‘real’ job again, at Genentech in San Francisco.”

“I’d be curious to know why the downturn in Big Pharm, and could it happen again. After all, they are not profitless tech startups. A big slump in pharm would have a huge effect on the northern bay area and San Diego, if so.”

“I’m not sure what the big employment drivers are in the LA area, to be honest. There are a number of smallish tech startups. There is also the movie industry. The major studios are already asking big stars to take pay cuts and they are planning on putting out less product for the next few years.”

“In my area, much is made of the fact that The O.C. is filmed in Manhattan Beach. Big deal; one friggin TV show. Yet an unbelievable amount of froth has been generated around it. I am only half-joking when I say that the local economy here consists of selling real estate to each other and teaching each other yoga.”

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