Now if those two things aren't reason enough to check out a site, I just dont know what is....
http://www.excitementmachine.org/

OK, maybe I overexagerated just a bit.

G's original idea was to take a windows luser and put them in front of Knoppix to see what happens. Since Knoppix was about the only thing I could get running on my system, I didn't see much of a problem there, and decided to get all clever by suggesting we try some of the distros like Lycoris, Xandros, or Lindows.

Unable to find any ISO's of Xandros or Lindows, I decided to get really fucking clever by downloading Undeadlinux. Not exactly a distro for the fresh windows refugee, but probably the distribution with the most attitude per byte. Not to mention more spelling errors than one of my webtips.

I actually started preparing for this little adventure24 hours before Miss G actually arrived. Old HD out, fresh mini HD in, Lyoris burned, installed, and......
nothing.

System not found error.

Fuck that, lets try undead linux.

Repartition, reformat, and.....
faulty installation script.

Okay, I can deal with this, get the newest undead, burn it, and...

System not found error.

I am not the most clever guy, and fdisk and cfdisk still makes me kind of nervous. I realized I must be doing something wrong, but had no idea what so I figured I would see what windows did. Besides, it seemed like a good excuse to finally see if XP is really all that its cracked up to be.

Aside from the fact that the installation seemed to take forever, I have to admit I was impressed. It didn't make me restart the machine 162 times, recognized almost all of the hardware, and actually ran for more than 5 minutes without BSOD'ing on me.

It also gave me a raging migraine that took 2 parkamed and a blindfold to get rid of. That is one BRIGHT UI. I kept waiting for Tinky Winky or Po to wander across my screen and scream BIIIIIIG HUUUUUUUG. Where do you suppose MS hired their designers from, Playskool?

I wiped that drive faster than Shrub can say "Wheres my Daddy".

I don't know why I let myself get talked into these things.
A Linux desktop test? Trying out a couple of those oh so luser friendly distros that promise to make it real easy for microsoft refugees to jump on board the dumpster-tech tanker known as linux?

Oh yeah, no problem, let me just romve my frontal lobe first okay?
what the hell was I thinking....

I'm still reeling from my exposure to Windows.
I havent had a productive days since I let that beast into my studio 3 years ago.

98 didn't want to play nice with my USB toys, ME totally fried a drive, 2000 won't let me do desktop spanning with my dualhead video card.....

It seems like whatever I want to do I have to take my computer out behind the woodshed and teach it how to behave.

Of course, this meant I immediately started playing with the alternatives. BeOS was sweet and fast and worked great as long as your hardware was old enough and you didnt have any real work to get done.
And then there is Linux. Linux makes me wish I was a programmer. Then I could stick with it and be rid of my various headaches forever. I'm not a programmer though. I USE programms. Design and media production may not seem that hightech to most coders, but with the file sizes and filters I work with, a stabile, fast machine sure does come in handy.

Too bad there aren't any useable programms for media production on linux. The GIMP is handy in a pinch, but the interface and functionality still has a way to go before I would use it to get any real work done.

Broadcast2000? I always wondered if the people who made that ever actually needed to get a video done on deadline not to mention the smallll fact that it has an even worse interface and functionality problem than the GIMP.

At least the office type stuff met up with my next to nonexistant needs. Surfing and using media files works okay once youve gone through dependancy hell. And of course there is always the fact that linux actually allows me to get my files between PC's and Macs without all too much discomfort. It just doesnt do much to help me create any of those files.

So since my studio was just a mess of misfunctioning pc's and ageing macs, I figured what the hell, do the test. Great chance to play with some of the new distros right? Whats the worst that could happen......

I guess my usually overactive imagination failed me this time.

More pics of Miles at the fm4 birthday party.

Mr. Megill just doesn't appreciate art....

Guitarist from MIA