There is all this news about these long time Mac fans switching to Linux and Apple needs to look out.  I was wondering what all the fuss was about so I thought I would try it myself.  I am not crazy and instantly switching.  I didn’t put it on my work machine.  I installed it on my mac mini that I have running as a local server.  The built in drive is to small for me to use portable home directories with my powerbook.  I actually have the Mac OS installed on an external fire wire drive.  This leaves the internal 40 gig drive with nothing to do so I put linux on that drive.  The last time I installed linux on anything was about ten years ago with the help of my friend Tim on a power mac that I had at the time.  It was serious stuff with manual partitioning of drive, swap size, knowing how to do that and blah blah blah... more geek terms and talk than I want to write out at this moment.  I used Ubuntu, which is the one all these Apple users are switching too.  I have to say it is good as far as Linux goes but I don’t think Apple has anything to worry about at this moment based on my experience.  I will just give you a run down of my first two hour experience and you can make you own judgement if it was user friendly or not.  Which is what Apple is all about.

I went to the ubuntu website and to the download section.  There they have iso files for all the major PC types out there.  They are live boot CDs so you can actually try the OS before installing it.  I downloaded the iso file for my Power PC mini and burned the disk using toast.  Not so easy I would say for the average user but they do have CDs to order for like 10 bucks.  So that negates that problem.  The CD booted up just fine.  I played around a bit with the the apps and quickly got tired of how long it took to load stuff off the live CD so I decided to install it.  The installer had a quick page to enter the user info and a page to pick what drive to install the OS to.  I had it reformat the internal drive and install there.  It took about thirty minutes to install everything and it was at 100% when the installer failed.  It said could not install the boot loader.  Okay this may not be so easy.  I tried it again and had the same problem at the very end.  I was about to give up, but I had one more thing I would try.  I unplugged the two firewire drives I had connected and installed again.  This time no problem installing, but it was an hour and a half after I started.  I don’t think most people would try that long compared to getting an Apple product and having it work the first time right out of the box.  I would say that most PCs work out the box, but they are so full trial programs and crap I don’t want on there that just slow it down.   The first thing I do with a brand new PC is wipe it clean and install windows again.  Have you ever tried installing windows on a PC with just a Windows installer CD?  I could tell you some nightmare stories about trying to track down drivers that didn’t come on the PC's restore CD’s and were not available on the web for download.  With an Apple CD installer it has worked every time and everything was installed right the first time.  Okay end of rant.

After logging in for the first time it download about 40 megs of updates and security fixes.  I had to reboot again after the updates.  Typical for everything I have used except for Sun Solaris.  The installer includes many apps you are going to want to use right away.  The first one I used was Firefox.  The first problem I ran into was a site using flash.  It needed to download the plugin.  I told Firefox to go ahead and find it and install it.  It reported back that it could not and to visit macromedia’s website.  I went there and found the installer for flash on linux.  It downloaded a tar file or some compressed file like that.  I can’t remember at this moment.  Now this is where you would loose most normal computer users.  I doubled clicked the file and it said it said it would put it in /tmp which I knew where to look for it but I know an average user would not.  So I went to the tmp folder using the window system and double clicked what looked like the installer file.  A new window popped up asking which app to use to open that file.  Okay, time to read the read me file.  In there it tells me to use the command line and what command to execute to install the file.  Okay you really lost the average user there if you had not already.  So I open the terminal program and run the command and I get back that this installer does not work on power pc.  Okay, so no official flash support in linux on power pc.  I kept using firefox to visit some other sites I have worked on and I notice the border lines on pictures are huge, as in that is not one pixel like I had them set at.  They also look blurry.   Then I think to myself what is the screen resolution set at?  The LCD screen hooked up to the mini sucks if it is not set at the native resolution.  I go to change it and it is set for 1024x768.  Okay, now the blurry graphics are starting to makes sense so I click on it to change the settings and guess what, that is all the higher I can set it at.  Talking with friends who have used linux this is one of the biggest problems plaguing installing linux.  It hardly every gets your video card settings right.  So I visit the web forums to find out how to change it.  I have not done it yet but it involves the command line again and editing configuration files and knowing the refresh rates of your monitor and so on.  Not so user friendly.  At the same website I noticed the graphic problem I click on a mp3 file to download and listen too.  It downloads and tells me I need to install a decoder for the mp3 file.  What?  When I look there are apps installed to play media files but I have to download a decoder?  This install of linux is starting to loose me at this point. 

Now let try this from the other side of the fence as in not using an Apple product with the simplicity of iLife apps included with a Mac but with a PC.  If I was Microsoft I would be scared of this ubuntu installer.  The install went fine.  You have an Modern OS that is being supported and works on older PCs(Thats right I am talking about all your pre windows 2000 versions Microsoft just said they would not fix for vulnerabilities found in the code).  Not only that open office is installed too. You don’t have to spend 500 dollars on a office sweet full of features you will never understand how to use when all you what to do is write a letter in word.  The installer includes your web browser and an email client that works with an exchange server.  You can download free apps that can do video editing, photos and play music.  With a little work you can get it to even work with an iPod.  Unlike Macs, most general computer users I know using a PC are not surprised when something does not work or has a conflict.  So when the screen resolution doesn’t come out right they just go thats a PC.  Most complaints I have about this install are problems I have experienced using windows too.  I just have to pay for the pain in butt I get from using windows. With a little more time on it I believe I would feel comfortable setting people up with this version of linux over telling them to go out and upgrade to xp or vista if all they do is write some word docs, surf the web, write some email or take some photos with their digital camera.  Time will tell.

Yesterday I was cleaning out under our stairs.  There is a large storage area and many boxes went in there that have not been touched since we moved in.  In an effort to reclaim some more storage space I went through the boxes to see what could be thrown out.  While opening a box I found my old Sega Game Gear and a stack of games.  I thought I had lost this thing.  The AC adaptor was with it so I fired it up and most of the games worked accept three of them.  If it works for the old NES it may work for these dead games.  I gave them a good blow of air, popped them back in, turned on the Game Gear and they worked again.  Attached was this huge magnification device called the Sega Super Wide Gear.  It allowed you to see the screen better as well as keep outside light off the screen.  Click on the image for a larger view.  Unlike most devices these days like my Nintendo DS Lite, the Game Gear screen is an old passive LCD instead of a active LCD.  I will let you read more about that technology yourself but in short the screen was not good and keeping colors from bleeding and it could not turn on and off colors quickly.  This made fast moving games unbearable to play.  The simple games were the most fun to play. 

Here is a list of games I still have and a few I remember owning:

• Columns - A Tetris like game.
• G-Lock - A fighter game.  This one is one of my favorites.  It was simple and fun and I spent most of my evening last night playing this one.
• Shinobi - This game was a lot of fun and looked great on the Game Gear.
• Shinobi II - This also was a very fun game but impossibly hard at the end.  I could never finish this one.
• Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse - This was actually a very good platformer on the Game Gear.  I dare say better than Sonic because you could see what was going on.  Even though it has Mickey Mouse as the star it was not a kids game and was really hard to finish.
• Star Wars - Wow this game sucked.  When I tried playing it again today it still sucked.
• Super Monaco GP - This game was okay.  It was really hard to judge how sharp the corners would be and you would slide off the track, hit a sign showing you which way you where already turning and bring you to a complete stop.  This in turn would almost guaranty you would loose the race.
• Mortal Kombat - No blood?  When this game came out it was the same story about video game violence.  Since kids may be playing this game the developer hid the blood in this game.  Do you think I remember what buttons to push when I turn it on to see the blood.  Blood is what Mortal Kombat is all about you know.  It was still a good button masher but I never could finish this one either. 
• RC Grand Prix - This game sucked.  If you hit the side of the track you came to a complete stop and the computer racers never hit the side.  From the very first race you would have to race a perfect three laps to win.  Not worth it as the tracks were very narrow.
• Devilish - I didn’t buy this game and the short term trade must have turned into a long term trade with someone as I am missing a few of my other games.  It is basically a fancy bricks kind of game.  Trust me I wish I had my old games back.
• Sonic the Hedgehog - It was fun to play if you were not moving fast.  Oh yeah you are always moving fast in sonic.  This game was lost in the trade.
  
• Joe Montana Football - I remember it was fun but it is no longer part of my collection.  I can’t believe I lost my football game for Devilish.

• Sonic The Hedgehog
• Sonic The Hedgehog 2
• Sonic The Hedgehog 3
• Sonic & Knuckles
• Sonic 3D Blast
• Sonic Spinball
• Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine

I got my Nintendo DS Lite this weekend.  This is a great little portable video game system.  There are already lots of technical reviews out there to go read so I am going to just talk about what was new to me.  First off the last hand held video game system I owned was the Sega GameGear back in ninth grade (15+ years ago).  The problem with that thing was anytime anything moved on the screen it blurred.  Try playing sonic on that thing sucked.  You could not see a thing once you got moving.  The other problem was battery life.  It took six AA batteries and two hours later you had to replace them, not to mention the weight from six of them.  Yes, it was portable but you always ended up sitting somewhere next to a wall socket with the AC adaptor or using the cigaret lighter adaptor in the car.   The screens on the DS are incredible.  They are very bright and don’t have any motion blurring.  Depending on the level of brightness you pick the DS can play from 5 - 15 hours on a single charge.

The other neat feature I did not know about was the DS has built in wireless.  The GameGear and the old GameBoy you had to use a wired system to play with or against friends.  The DS games support the wireless in two ways.  Get a few of them together and they build a wireless network between them with out any supporting gear.  Most of the games support this feature.  The other way is if the game supports it, is play over internet.  Very cool.  They are marked on the box with a little logo saying Nintendo WiFi if they play over the internet.  If you don’t have a wireless router Nintendo sells a little USB stick you can put in your pc to share its internet connection. 

Another interesting thing Nintendo did was allow other gamers play off another DS game with out owning it.  It makes sense and is very cool idea.  So for instance lets say I bought Mario Kart and five of you come over without owning the game.  Your DS would download the game over the wireless network and we can all play.  In the past on every other game system I know of everyone would have had to go out and buy the game before playing together.  Now you don’t get the full game to play.  For example if you are playing Mario Kart off one of your friends DS’s you only get to select one character and not all the tracks are available to race.  Very smart Nintendo, let us play the game and if we like it we can then go buy it.  Nintendo has even taken this one step further.  Most retailers that sell DS games have what is called Download Station from Nintendo.  Now you can walk into retail store like Best Buy or Target and download games to try on your DS before you buy.  No more hoping you are getting a good game or I hope that online review was right on and I am not just flushing my money down the toilet.  Just download it and play it to find out for yourself.  Nintendo has also partnered with Wayport to provide hotspots to play your DS over the internet.  Wayport is the provider for places like McDonands.  Thats right you can now go to McDonald’s, get a big mac and then get your game on while you let that gut bomb settle in your stomach.

So why did I get one of these.  Well I have always loved to play video games but the times that I can play them have changed.  Gone are the college days when waking up on Saturday morning meant I could play till noon.  Now I have responsibilities.  I don’t have hours on end in a row to play video games.  I have to actually schedule time in my day to play.  What I do have a lot of is short periods of time to play when I am not in front of the TV.  Just some examples.

• Oil Change - They say it will take 15 minutes.  It always ends up being 45.
• When my daughter is taking a bath.  I have to sit in there to watch her.  30 minutes.
• Road trip to Colorado this summer. - Days in the car.
• When my daughter is going to sleep she wants me in her room till she falls sleep.  30 minutes.  I used to listen to some podcasts on my iPod.
• On the pot? - Haven’t done this yet and since I get mocked so much from my wife for taking the laptop in there in may become a reality.  Don’t laugh I know many of you who take the laptop in with you. - Time gaming varies. 
• On hold with some dumb companies customer support.  15+ minutes.
• You get the idea.

The DS lets you just close the top and it pauses the game.  Open it up and it starts where you left off.  No more “Just five more minutes.  I am almost to a save point” found on most TV game systems”  This is great for the times I know I will only be playing for 15 to 20 minutes. 

Lastly the games are half as much as my other latest game system, the Xbox 360.  The DS games top out at 35 bucks and they start at 20.  Granted there are games that will never work out on the DS.  Halo 3 and Gears of War will never work on a DS, so there is a reason to own both.

Overall I am excited about the DS.  It may become my main game system just because of how flexible it is for my time to play.  You don’t believe me.  My Xbox 360 writes its own blog.  Go check out how it feels.  Yellow Fuji’s Xbox 360 Blog.