Well, once more was time to update the kids’ desktop. And now i see that did pass two years and i did not solve this “desktop” problem yet…

In the last post my intention was change it to OpenSolaris, but i really like Ubuntu and GNU/Linux, and i think is just fine the kids learn that the OS is just a tool to get the job done. And there are many, many tools out there.

The OpenSolaris idea was just because of… ZFS. ;-)

Well, that Ubuntu desktop is a “monster”. Really, everytime i need to do anything on it, i see what a bunch of applications and customizations it has (for my kids an my wife). Well, and now with these problems around OpenSolaris distro, maybe would not be a good idea anyway…

Many, many games and tweaks that did make my sons love GNU/Linux. But nothing that makes much more sense right now, because many of the new games (steam), and flash stuff run on it out of the box. But there are some games that i did configure a long time ago, and between many updates, they are still there (aptitude keeps saying that to me), and working! I have a environment with many apps, and shortcuts that was the “first” contact between my wife and a computer. ;-) That is “home” for her…

Everytime i say: “Do you still play this”? And the answer is always: “Yes”!!

So, the problem is not about the OS or ZFS. The last one would make my life easier in the upgrade procedure, and i always remember about it when a new LTS (Long Time Support) Ubuntu is released. But the real problem is a shame: Backup. In fact, i did see many silent data corruption on the boot drive while i was doing the upgrade, and a few days ago we have lost the secondary drive that had one little partition where i had “some” backup. But the sad reality is that i did fail… badly. I need a decent backup procedure for that desktop.

All the “real”(professional/family) important stuff are on my MacOSX laptop, that has a spare USB drive as a backup (\o/). But that drive that has died was, for a long time, “home” for all our family pictures. Imagine… no, better not.

In the end, the new Ubuntu LTS desktop is nice. The look is great and is really, really fast! It’s wonderful to have this level of quality and support for free! It’s unbelievable!  And with a Debian foundation, the distro is rock solid. Canonical elevates the GNU/Linux OS to a whole new level. If we pick the “mission statement” from canonical, we do realize that they get straight to the point

Thanks to all Ubuntu community and abviously for Canonical that sponsor this whole project!

No more Hardy Heron… now it’s time for Lucid Lynx.

ps.: Let’s see if i will post about my ZFS NAS/Backup server in the future, or another sad history about this desktop. Well, i have more three years… ;-)

peace