Summer placement with Senokian, LugRadio Live 2006, Ubuntu Dapper

Summer Placement with Senokian

After a stretch of working in the fields picking vegetables (great money by the way) and desperate job searching I’ve managed to secure myself a summer placement! It’s perfect in every way except that it’s in Coventry. Luckily lauperr happens to be renting a house in Coventry and isn’t having much luck finding a job at home so we’re both going to live there for a couple of months and work. I’ll be working for Senokian Solutions writing open source software and I assume contributing to the Enterprise Groupware System. I’ll be part of the Shell Step program, though not eligible for any awards because it’s only really meant for 2nd and 3rd years (shh!). I should be starting on Wednesday.

LugRadio Live 2006

For anyone who’s still in the Bourne area I’ll hopefully be back every weekend except next week when I’ll be at LUGRadio Live 2006 in Wolverhampton. Be there or be… not square I suppose.

Ubuntu Dapper

I’ve spent about a week using the latest (long term support) release of Ubuntu Linux, Dapper Drake. I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a bold statement.

I believe GNU/Linux is now ready for the desktop.

Dapper Drake isn’t perfect, but it’s damned good and it’s definitely easier to install than Microsoft Windows. That’s understandable when you think how many years it is since Microsoft last released an operating system, but I believe that the perpetually delayed release of Windows Vista is going to alienate a lot of people, especially the minority who actually care about things like the Windows Genuine Disadvantage. I for one can’t afford a PC which could run Vista and I’ll probably only install it if I get a free copy from University. Dapper probably isn’t as good in terms of usability or style as Mac OS X but it has its own advantages. I’m not saying that GNU/Linux is going to suddenly dominate the desktop, I’m just saying it’s ready for use by the general public in ways it perhaps wasn’t before the latest release of Ubuntu.

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