Experiences with SuSE Linux 10.1

I can't say I've been highly sucessful with Linux up to this point, but I have built a loyalty to the SuSE distribution. My first experience with Linux came in 1999 when I bought a copy of Red Hat 5.1. I did some reading through the internet and in the Red Hat manual before my install, so I understood how to partition and what to expect during the installation. I was able to get Red Hat to install without a glitch, except for the fact that my video card wasn't supported. I wasn't able to get Red Hat to boot into x-windows. I tried a few things, but of course back in those days I only had one computer. It's not like today where I can install Linux on one laptop and use the other laptop or my iMac to search Google for the answer to my problems. Looking back I am trying to remember why I didn't just buy another video card. Maybe I was broke or drinking too much or something.
I tried Red Hat again with version 6.0. A guy at work copied it for me. I had the same problem; no compatibility with my video card. The next year, 2000, I was at Best Buy and saw some Linux Distributions. One of them was SuSE Linux 6.4, and it had my particular video card listed on the box as compatible. I took it home and installed it as a dual boot with Windows 98SE. About that time I upgraded my computer, and as soon as I bought a new monitor and some small parts I built a dedicated Linux box to play with. At the time I only had dial up, and I managed to configure Linux to use my Earthlink account. It was about that point that I met my wife and stopped playing with the Linux computer.

Later on I bought a copy of SuSE 8.0, but didn't get very far with it. When I try to use Linux, I always hit that one deal killing impediment right away. At this point, my wife and I were back on a cable modem, but we were sharing the internet connection through a hub with my computer working as the server. When I booted up into Linux, I couldn't figure out how to share the internet connection and my wife couldn't use the internet. I later tried to put SuSE 8.0 on an old laptop, but hit a network configuration problem and took the easy way out by going back to Windows.

I found out not too long ago that Novell released SuSE Linux 10.0. I downloaded the 64 bit evaluation version (not the OSS version) and tried to install it on my laptop (AMD Turion processor). I had some package errors during install and after start up I couldn't acheive a run level high enough for KDE to run. Recently I downloaded 10.1 and tried to install it on my older P-III laptop. It installed fine, but here's my current deal killer: Linux doesn't yet support wireless networking very easily.

Last night, I decided to go for broke and set up SuSE Linux 10.1 as a dual boot on my new laptop with XP. From my experiences, if I can just get the wireless support working, I can start to transfer files from my Windows partition and gradually resize my partitions until I can either wipe Windows entirely or keep a small partition for occasional uses. I may load Windows as a virtual machine for those few programs that I must have that won't work in wine. 

It takes overnight for SuSE Linux 10.1 to install on my 800 Mhz laptop, but it installed on my 1.6 Ghz in about an hour. It booted up and looks beautiful! My video chipset is fully supported (and I've heard very bad things about Linux and ATI). The blue background is actually soothing, and when I started this blog this morning I chose this template because it looks like that nice swirling blue that Novell has chosen for SuSE Linux. Once again, though, I can't get Linux to support my wireless. It did auto-install support for my built in LAN, so I took an unused cable off my router and plugged it into my laptop. The auto update worked great. By this point, I had to help get the kids ready for bed, so I had to give up.  (During the install, I brought my 22 month old up to play in my computer room. I really need to child proof that room.)

I read on slashdot this morning that the new Linux kernel does include support for Broadcom 43xx wireless chipsets. I'm not sure of the actual chipset that this laptop runs, but I do know it to be a Broadcom. I know ndiswrapper does not like Broadcom drivers. The driver that came with my laptop is the same driver that came with the Belkin PCMCIA card that I've been trying to get to work in my other laptop. I cannot get bcwl15.inf (may not be the exact order of letters) to work for anything on either laptop. I have a D-Link PCMCIA card for which ndiswrapper will load the drivers, but then the system can't see wlan0. Ugh.

This time, I am determined to make it work. I'm tired of messing with Windows and I am not going to install Windows Vista on any computer that is under my care.

I'll blog more about my successes and frustrations with Linux as I encounter them. 

Creativity Is So Often Overlooked

I just finished reading a series on Brad Isaac's blog about tapping the superconscious. It got me thinking. My background is in electronics and I picked up computers/info-tech along the way. I'm a mostly self-taught geek but I am working on my IT degree at the University of Phoenix. I have always considered myself an analytical thinker and have always seen that quality as admirable when it comes to my career and hobbies. I always tend to overlook creativity as a trait of artists and writers. There have been times when a problem required a creative approach but they seemed to be few and far between.

But thinking about it, can it be true that analytical thinkers have no need for creativity? I would say no; I've been in many situations where a creative answer would have made for a better solution. I just finished 15 weeks of programming classes and one thing I learned is that you can't approach programming (especially Object Oriented Programming) from rote. You can't just memorize concepts and slap them together into a functional program. Procedural programming could be done that way, but the more creative you are, the easier of a time you'll have with the field. One of my classmates added a line to her signature about programming being a blend of engineering and art. I find that to be true.

I've found my analytical thinking and lack of creativity to cause problems in other areas of my life, especially in my marriage. It seems that every gift giving occasion I am at a loss of what to get for my wife. There are times when I can't think of what to do when I have time to play with my two boys because I lack creativity. I have had problems with my school assignments because I tried to take an analytical approach rather than a creative approach to a problem. I am teaching senior high Sunday School in church this quarter, and I've found my lack of creativity to be a hinderance to putting together a good lesson for the teens.

I think I will take Brad Isaac's advice and spend some time nurturing my creative side. There is plenty of room for a computer geek to be creative.

Moving In To WordPress

I almost seem to be schizophrenic when it comes to blogging. I've been looking for the right blog service for quite a while now. I started around December of 2004 with Live Journal but went nowhere with it. I then moved to Blogger where I have made more than 60 posts. I tried MSN Spaces, which was (and probably still is) in beta, and half the time I would submit a post only to find the service down and my work wasted. I also created a family blog on Blogger but went nowhere with it. I looked at Yahoo's 360, but it seemed life too much teenage material for my needs. You can also find me on My Space, but I do little with that page other than leaving it up so that people can find me. I talked my friend into setting me up with a blog on his website. I thought that this would give me more options than blogger. Blogger does not allow trackbacks, but I've since found this to be a curse as I get 5 or 6 spam trackbacks a day to spam blogs on Blogger. The massive amount of spam blogs on Blogger made me want to leave that service. The more spam blogs show up, the more hits they may take away from me.

I've been reading blogs such as Scobleizer and I realized blog entries don't have to be very long to be effective. Quick posts can be put up to get information and thoughts out onto the web. I still often think of old school writing which requires a lot of thought and planning to go into what is written. A lot of blogs are very well done but are not treated the same was as writing a book or an article. Scoble puts up a lot of content. I hope to do that here.

I've been told that it is best to stick to a central theme in blogging. I find that productivity is a popular topic, which I am actively learning through the work of others. I plan to share anything that has helped me. I am also trying to move to Linux as my operating system of choice. I'm at student at the University of Phoenix, and I have two small boys. Sometimes when I need information on any of these subjects I can't seem to find it, so if I can help fill the gap for somebody else I'll feel like my mission is accomplished.

This is my first post on this blog. Any posts that come prior to it have been moved over from one of my other blogs.