I used to think I knew a fair bit about computers. Not as much as my husband-to-be, and certainly not as much as many, many people I know, but more than average. I can find files. I can install programs AND keep them updated. In fact, I can set them to automatically update, if I wanted to, which usually I don't, because I like to rule my computer like a paranoid dictator. I can even use Macs. In any case, my computer has never had a virus and I know all kinds of acronyms and abbreviations. Go me!
Then I installed Ubuntu. Why did I do this? I had read that I'd have to learn more about how computers actually functioned if I worked in a Linux environment. And a trusted* source told me that Ubuntu would probably run lighter on my tragically outdated system (you really don't want to know how bad it is) than Windows XP.
So now I have inadvertently given myself another project. My laptop used to be like an aged Labrador - slow and practically useless, but familiar and friendly. Now it's akin to an allergic walrus. It's still slow and useless, but now it's also alien, irritable, and "friendly" is not a word one uses to describe a walrus, is it? And yet, I'm quite attracted to the idea of taming this beast. So now my main projects include learning web design, practicing tae kwon do, finding a job, and making friends with Ubuntu. I'm right now re-learning how to get my wireless card operational. Literally, that is what I'm doing on a Saturday night. The disturbing thing is that I enjoy it.
The desire to learn everything is a strange kind of masochism.
*Trust no one. Google everything.
On the Ubuntu front: I feel your pain. I just recently replaced Win XP with Ubuntu 11.10 on a doddering old laptop: so far it's been a rather underwhelming experience. But, like you I am soldiering on in my efforts to tame the beast!
ReplyDeleteP.S. If I were you I'd copyright the phrase "Trust no one. Google everything." and then sell it to Google! That's the 21st century equivalent of "In God We Trust. Everyone else pays cash!"
I really like the UI on Ubuntu - very clean. I think the main source of difficulty is simply that it's new. I've been a Windows user for so long that the Windows organization has become intuitive. Now I have to relearn everything...I mean, I *get* to relearn everything :)
ReplyDeletePS: Good idea - I'll check it out!