Encephalosponge » Soaking Up Life

I was inspired by the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell to show off my new desktop look.
In traditional Lifehacker style, I’ll mention the pictured applications. The operating system is obviously Ubuntu. Avant Window Navigator is my dock. The IM application is Pidgin, which includes the Facebook Chat and MusicTracker (displays currently playing [...]

Until recently, I didn’t toy much with the default “look” of Ubuntu. I changed my wallpaper and that was about it. But one of the great things about Linux is how customizable it is. I hadn’t toyed around much with Screenlets or Avant Window Navigator, despite having both of them installed. [...]

Ubuntu is now being sold at Best Buy (both in-store and online) for $20, which includes 60 days of installation and setup support from ValuSoft. Someone noticed this a few days ago and posted it on /. but now Ars is giving us the full scoop on this great idea from Canonical and ValuSoft.

In my hurry to finish Monday’s post on Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix, I failed to fully grasp the announcement of Dell’s new “mini-Inspiron” netbook/UMPC/MID/subnotebook/whathaveyou. It’s going to ship running the new Ubuntu software (or WinXP) by the end of the month. We’re talking about a main-stream, awesome subnotebook that a ton of people already [...]

As was expected, Ubuntu announced a new version of its operating system specifically targeted toward netbooks [via Engadget]. This is following the success of OLPC XO laptop in bringing about subnotebooks such as the now famous Asus Eee PC and a number of followers including the HP MiniNote, Elonex ONE, Everex Cloudbook, MSI Wind, [...]

Well here’s a way to kill two birds with one stone. I’ve been meaning to try out the new Wordpress gallery feature on my blog. I’ve also been meaning to see if my Ezonics EzCam IV (EZ-314) webcam works under Ubuntu now. Since it does (plug ‘n play), I was able to [...]

I just ran across a very nice set of Ubuntu tutorials by psychocats. They’re very well written and are often accompanied by lots of pictures. Awesome resource!

I just read a great little article on the new Wubi (Windows UBuntu Installer) installer, found on the new Ubuntu Live CDs. Looks like they’ve really nailed it. Now switching from Windows could not be any easier for non-technical users.

Today marks the release of Ubuntu 8.04, code named “Hardy Heron”. This is the day that occurs twice a year to celebrate the culmination of 6 months of hard work from the folks at Ubuntu, Gnome, Linux Kernel, and the thousands of other free software organizations who’s work is combined to make Ubuntu possible. [...]

I think one of the best examples of how free software can work great (and be even be sold) is Dell’s adoption of Ubuntu. They can take free software (Ubuntu) and custom-tailor it to work on their specific laptops and desktops. They can even custom-compile their own Linux kernels that they don’t contain [...]