Ubuntu Installations

Yesterday I installed Gutsy Gibbon on my boyfriend's Dell laptop (the Inspiron 9200). I continue to be amazed at how smoothly Ubuntu installations run; wireless (!!!) and printing worked out of the box. The one weird glitch is that at bootup, after the phrase "Starting up..." appears, the load hangs with a blank screen -- until you press Ctl-Alt-F2. No idea why, but I'll keep tinkering.

I also recently switched from Gentoo to Ubuntu on my main desktop workstation, after using Gentoo as my primary operating system for about a year. I picked Gentoo (with fluxbox!) initially because I wanted to start from scratch, know everything on my system, and gain the knowledge and experience that would come from compiling and installing everything myself. And I did -- but now I'm ready for a setup where, when I plug in my digital camera, I'm prompted to download pictures instead of digging around in /dev/ looking for the device. I know that if I want to install/uninstall/tweak/configure anything, I have the freedom to do so -- the freedom of the GPL!
When I initially put the Ubuntu live disk into my desktop, I was booted into busybox (initramfs) rather than the Ubuntu desktop; the fix was to press F6 at the boot menu and edit the boot parameters (if I recall correctly, add 'all_generic_ide' before the '--'). After that, everything installed smoothly -- I was able to put the existing contents of my hard drive in a new partition, which is now my dedicated /home partition.

This is my third recent Ubuntu installation -- at Christmas I installed it on my mom's Dell Vostro (dual-booting with XP -- I love that the installation disk makes it easy to keep your Windows installation as-is). That needed some configuration for the wireless card, but other than that everything was simple to get set up.

Since last year's Feisty (which I installed on my (now-defunct) iBook, after dual-booting Edgy and OSX) I've been totally psyched about Ubuntu; its out-of-the-box settings and programs, for ease of use, sane defaults, configurability, etc top any proprietary system I've used. Hardware support isn't consistent enough for the non-technical user to be able to install it on their own; but non-technical users rarely install their own systems, proprietary or free. Once it's set up, the modern Ubuntu distribution strikes the perfect balance of ease-of-use and workability (as good as or better than Windows or OSX) and configurability (potentially infinite, as with any GPL'd product!), perfect for any level of user.

Voting for Barack Obama

Tomorrow, I'm voting for Barack Obama. I'm thrilled that in this year's Democratic primary, I get to choose between two candidates who are intelligent, competent, competitive against Republican candidates, and committed to issues that I care about. In the general election, I'll enthusiastically support whichever Democratic candidate gets the nomination.

That said, I'm behind Obama. As xkcd points out, Obama's technology policy is a well-informed articulation of the steps government will need to take in the near future to preserve the open internet and leverage existing and new technology for the benefit of our entire society -- as far as I can tell, Clinton has no comparable plan.

And: style matters.
There's that old chestnut, electability in the general election; if Clinton ends up running against McCain, she'll have to quickly switch tactics from her current platform of "experience", and the irrational personal animosity that some voters have toward her could hurt, whoever the opponent.

But more importantly, style matters even after the election is won.
If Barack Obama becomes our next president, not only can he help bring a respectful, cooperative tone to the divisive status quo of American politics, but his charismatic style will multiply his influence far beyond the legislation he enacts. His enthusiasm is contagious; more than any other candidate, he has a chance to dampen political cynicism and engage large numbers of ordinary citizens to participate in democracy. An Obama presidency would encourage and inspire citizens to mobilize, participate, and act -- and enthusiastic citizens can accoumplish a lot.