Loving Ubuntu 7.10

When my sister asked me to help her with a web site in April, I took the opportunity to expand my professional skills by developing it in LAMP: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and pHp. I'd dabbled with Cygwin when I knew shell scripting was best suited to the task at hand, but that was the extent of my open source skills.

So I took a laptop that was past its prime -- the network card only worked intermittently, and the graphics capability meager -- and installed Ubuntu Feisty on it. It's worked pretty well, and I've been able to muddle through the learning curve to get the project underway.

I'm an update-aholic, so when Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" was released, I was edgy and feisty (lol) to get it. There were several kinks: first attempt failed because duh! I ran out of battery power. Second attempt: my network card went on vacation again. Sigh.

I tried the Live CD, then got back on track with the Alternate version. Luckily plenty of other computers around to allow for sneaker-netting.

The Apache upgrade was another hiccup: I had to re-configure pHp and chmod permissions.

I brought it into work and one of my IT guys wrestled with the wireless NIC to get that on our office network. I never could get that done under Feisty. But now I can easily roam, connecting to my home or office network without intervention whenever I'm in range.

But I confess: I love Ubuntu 7.10 for the eye candy. Transparent terminal. Clearlooks, Darklooks depending on mood. Transparent panels top and bottom. I'm a sucker for transparency, it seems.