Posted by: bofe | July 12, 2006

WGA - Linux’s Switch Campaign (sponsored by Microsoft)

My primary desktop operating system is now Ubuntu. This month, it’s cool to use Ubuntu because big shots like Mark Pilgrim and Cory Doctorow (former Apple preachers) have switched.

Ubuntu pronunciation:

Ubuntu, an African word from Zulu and Xhosa, is pronounced “oo-BOON-too”. See the other FAQ on its meaning, it’s a worthwhile read, and no, you’re not the first person to wonder. -)

The primary motivation for my switch to Ubuntu was Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). WGA is a ploy by Microsoft to get users to actually pay for their software or switch to Linux. It’s much more effective than Apple’s “Switch” campaign.

Here’s the process I used to go through:

  1. Obtain Stolen Windows XP Key
  2. Install Windows XP (and SP 2)
  3. Crack WGA
  4. Get ‘critical’ Windows patches
  5. Wait for WGA cracks to be worked around by Microsoft
  6. Be denied Windows patches from MS
  7. Repeat steps 3-6 ad nauseum

Yeah, I could just pay for Windows. I can’t afford to drop $200 on an OS right now. I won’t ever spend that kind of money on an OS now that I’ve used Ubuntu.

Ubuntu meets my computing needs for free. My computing needs:

  • Web (Firefox)
  • Instant Messaging (gAIM)
  • Desktop Weather (gweather)
  • Music Jukebox (amarok/xmms, haven’t decided yet)
  • Editing PHP/HTML/JavaScript/XML (Eclipse with PHPEclipse, vim, gedit, haven’t decided)

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Responses

Heard Bluefish was good too as a text editor typing thingy for coding. Never used it, though.

By: Stephen Mizell on July 12, 2006
at 22:13

have to find more creative ways to acquire xp keys such as writing down the key on the computer’s sticker at subway when you buy a combo meal, NOT THAT I HAVE A FRIEND WHO DID THAT OR ANYTHING

By: adam on July 13, 2006
at 01:31

Well, Zend Studio also runs in linux, but it’s PHP only really… Komodo I think may have a Linux client as well, and it’s PHP/Perl/Python and may have abilities/extensions for other languages as well… pretty nice program last I looked at it.

By: Rickp on July 13, 2006
at 06:30

Automatix ( http://www.getautomatix.com/ ) is a really useful getting-started package installer for smoothing out that first installs of Ubuntu. (”WTF? MY MP3s WON’T PLAY”)

I’m running Kubuntu, but I might install Gnome over it to just play around and see if I like it better. (Though running a complete switch like this would be a big hassle and if I like Gnome, I’ll just re-install with Ubuntu). KDE’s getting the job done fine, though… but after a while it does sort of start to take its toll on the old laptop hardware.
I have a legit copy of XP, it came with my computer, I just got tired of Windows not working every time, so far Kubuntu has.

By: Charlie on July 13, 2006
at 08:51

Don’t you miss iTunes though? :( I know I do.

By: Matt on July 13, 2006
at 09:50

rick,

i had forgotten about zend studio. i’m going to give it a try right now…

By: bofe on July 13, 2006
at 18:05

Tru nuff… it’s a good product. It gets ragged on a good bit for not being quite up to snuff with MSFT IDE’s and the like, but it does run on Linux quite well, and for my money, I like it a lot. It has CVS/SVN integration that works very well, or you can set it up to edit files directly over an ftp or ssh connection (I had constant live connections to 5-6 servers at my old job to do that, plus another 2 projects under source control using an SVN server).

It’s a good product but still has a long way to go with some stuff. You can also install the server on your local computer (installs apache/php + mysql I think) and then point your debugging profile to the local server. Then, when you render code from your own machine, you can do all sorts of analysis… what chunks are taking the longest, where are your bottlenecks, what functions are eating time, are there any obvious leaks, any obvious security holes, etc… well, i dunno if ALL of those are in there, but it does a ton of analysis for you, plus you can line-by-line step-through php code to find out where an application is crashing. Combine that with some hefty self-written try-catch-throw code that writes errors + stack trace to a database with a timestamp and you can debug any error anyone ever has on your site basically.

By: Rickp on July 14, 2006
at 06:58

I keep Ubuntu running on a virtual machine for variou work related tasks that require the use of linux. I have considered using it for my desktop, I just never have because quite honestly I don’t know linux near as well as I should.

By: Chris Sanders on July 14, 2006
at 09:20

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