2010 Projects: Go Open Source

I’ve been so busy lately between work (did some extra hours because of a co-worker’s operation) and getting ready for uni I forgot about this blog until Rubenerd left a comment overnight.

Anyway, now that I’ve remembered, it’s time to post about fulfilling another one of my 2010 Projects things: going open source. This update comes to you from Firefox 3.5 under Ubuntu 8.1 Intrepid Ibex, unlike all previous updates which have been from Firefox under Windows.

First I used GPartEd to wipe out the Linux Mint installation that I had but never used (and had forgotten the password for). Then I shrank the Windows partition to 42Gb and set up partitions for the swap area (6Gb), Linux (42Gb) and my home directory (the rest of the disk… 140Gb in total).

I first tried setting up Ubuntu 9.1 Karmic Koala. It worked fine until I updated it, then the updater gave me an error about read-only filesystems. On restarting it wouldn’t mount something or other and the GUI wouldn’t start.

So I wiped it out and reinstalled. This time the installer failed (same error about read-only filesystems).

So I tried the CD installer (as opposed to the DVD). Installed fine, updating produced the same read-only error.

At this point my bootloader was borked. So I got on my wife’s laptop and downloaded Ubuntu 8.1 Intrepid Ibex and burnt it to DVD.

After installing *that*, it booted up fine. Set it to use Internode’s quota-free mirror of the repositories, updated… and it worked! And it’s been fine ever since, I’ve installed Linux versions or equivalents of everything I used to do under Windows, and it’s going great. Even writes fine to my NTFS formatted external hard drive. I’m keeping the Windows partition because I will need some Windows software for uni, but 95+% of the time I’m in Linux.

I guess I should post some links to the things I’ve mentioned:

• Ubuntu Australia since I’m in Australia, I’ll link to the local site.
• Internode download mirror where I got most of the software I used from. Doesn’t count towards your quota if you’re one of their customers.
• GPartEd the open source partition editor
• Ubuntu entry on Wikipedia just in case anyone wants more info.
• finally, Linux Tux t-shirt I found while looking for the logo I used at the top of the page.

2010 Projects: 52 Books

Adding another project to yesterday’s list of projects to start in 2010… the 52 Book Challenge. This was originally the 50 Book Challenge as seen in the Livejournal community of the same name. I must admit I haven’t used Livejournal much since I got onto Twitter, and this blog is sort of replacing it.

Anyway, the point of the 50 Book Challenge is to read 50 books in 12 months. That breaks down to just over one book a week. I’ve done it in previous years, and decided to do it again this year. Except I remembered it as being the 52 book challenge, or one a week. After writing about it on Twitter, a couple of people decided to start the 52 book version and tweet about it, using the hashtag #52books. So, any tweeps wanting to take up the challenge, mark your tweets. I’m about an hour away from finishing my first book for the year, and I’ll post a review/progress type post tomorrow.

(in related project news, I bought myself a week-to-a-view diary today to help track progress.)