Right! I was going to keep my mouth shut, but I have decided that venting is better for my mental health than just keeping a lid on it (besides, Gary and Dan are going to have field day with this one for months!!!)
So, you may recall that I upgraded to a brand new computer a few months back. My first ever brand new computer.
I bought a power house one because its got to last me for a long time and because I hope to get into more photography and HD video editing…. So, I got me a quad core (with hyper threading, so yeah, I got an 8 pot screamer) with 12gB of RAM and 2.5Tb of hard drive.
Nice.
I put Ubuntu (Linux) Studio on it as it is set up for this sort of machine and function.
I was pretty happy for the first few days, as you are when you get something like this going…. Then you start using it and the cracks appear.
First up, I have fallen in love with Adobe’s Lightroom for my photography. It handles my RAW photos with ease…. The problem is that there is not a version for Linux. So, I installed the Sun VirtualBox. This allows me to run Windows XP on my computer, and on that I can run Lightroom. The problem is that VirtualBox only uses 1 CPU no matter what. They openly say it on their web site…… As if that is not bad enough. Linux throttles things back if you don’t need all 8 cores going flat out, it brings them back to 1.2Gh if they are not doing anything…. So yeah, my Lightroom is running on half of one core….. Yeah, it runs like a wet three legged dog.
Not happy Jan, not happy at all.
Then I go to burn a CD of some photos for one of the make up girls. No problem. 2 days latter I go to burn another. No. Don’t think so. You think that I can get the CD draw to open… not on your life…. Turn to my source of answers… Google… yeah, seems I am not alone. Most everyone that does much burning has the issue.. The way to fix it? Reboot……Hmmmm, sounding a lot like Windows here, move the mouse? Reboot your computer……
On top of all that the sound on YouTube videos only works once… Uh Huh, you watch 1 video and you have to restart your browser……. I am trying to view some photography videos, and its losing its fun factor when you have to restart after each…… Flash and Linux, a match for insanity it would seem.
Lastly I wanted to share a directory for the family. One place for all our photos and music, one place to back up everyone’s Linux laptops (yeah, we are all running Linux on our computers, the kids love it)….. You think I can share a directory over the network. Nop, don’t think so.
A few hours with Google, no joy, and I am thinking I need to get a life!
So, a few days back, I had a thought……. I have the cart before the horse… I need multimedia before Linux here….. I am not doing anywhere near as much of that intense Linux sort of thing anymore, I just want my photography and video stuff to ‘just work’, I know, I will load Windows7 on and do everything in that… how hard can it be???
HAH! Before you get all clucky Gary, let me tell you how long all that lasted!!!!
So I downloaded a 30 day trial version of Win7. Burnt it on Terry’s computer (my DVD was still jammed shut from the last attempt) and installed it…..
Funny how Ubuntu can fit on a CD at around 700mB and have a fully functional computer after an install, Windows needs 3.7GB and the video is broken, no sound and only USB1……
Of course while all this happening (or not happening), my web site is down. Not that big a deal, there are only 4-5 of you hitting it every few hours, but still, its in the back of my mind that I need to get my site up pretty quick……
So, I throw WAMP on it and copy my site over.
The blog is broken and so is my photo gallery. Only the two most important aspects of my site.
Digging around I find that the blog is messed up because of the mySQL settings, get that sorted, the photo gallery is much the same, so I get that sorted.
HOWEVER, I soon find that I can not upload photos to the gallery… not much good having a photo gallery that you cant add photos too.
Some quality time with Google tells me that I need to make the photo gallery directory (and sub directories) writable.
Ok, so some more time with Google teaches me how one might go about that.
For the record, in Linux you say ‘chmod 777’. That’s it.
4 hours latter with Windows, I give up…. I am a broken man. I don’t care about Lightroom speed or burning CD’s, I just want it to work….. so, I rebooted back into Linux and all is good with the world again.
I was beaten down from the lofty world of Windows7 because I could not for the life of me make a directory writable. It always reverts back to read only.
I was an interesting few days. I am all about using the right tool for the job. I guess I am at the place where I have a pretty interesting job and no one tool is going to do the job.
The answer is to reproduce the same set up I had in Buninyong, two computers. One Windows and one Linux, side by side. Together, getting the job done…. If only my pocket was that deep…….
