Being a newly-minted Linux Ubuntu user has destroyed my technological confidence. Think you understand your laptop? Try reconfiguring your BIOS or disabling your ACPI settings, or converting Ogg Vorbis files in order to use your iPod, or running script after script in the scary Command Center, whose bleak, blinking interface shows me just how weak I am in the face of this monster called Open Source Software.
I've come to some sort of impasse with my Toshiba A135, whose original settings were designed for optimal functioning with the not-so-optimal Windows Vista. I've had to disable the suspend/hibernate settings, and have managed to have a script run automatically on startup in order to allow my system to recognize external devices. (You can imagine how scared I was upon realizing that my "new" computer wouldn't recognize my external hard drive, which contains all my files, music, pictures...) I'm currently having some compatibility issues with music files, juggling between Rhythmbox (music player), GTKpod (iTunes for Linux, but no playback capabilities), and Sound Converter (to convert those .ogg files), all which require their own very tricky set of plugins.
While this all sounds like a huge pain, it give me the same smug satisfaction as does anything handcrafted. Why make beer when you can buy it? Why go out of my way to scoop spices into tiny bottles at the co-op when I can just buy the pre-ground stuff at Key Foods? It's all a part of the same cycle, in my eyes -- using your own energy and creativity to make good use of what some enormously generous individuals have made available to the public for free or at low cost. Using free software to convert files in order to use them on my free operating system is nowhere near as large of an inconvenience as paying some Microsoft person to develop my software, provide me with nonsensical updates, and give me useless tech support. And what do you end up learning from that kind of experience?
No comments:
Post a Comment