Good bye Linux

After 10 years of love hate (mostly love) relationship with Linux, I finally bid good bye. Like any affair, I occasionally feel the pangs and hear 'baby come back' in my head. But I think I have outgrown it. I started using Linux on the desktop in 1999 as a student in IIT Kanpur when a fresh lot of Slackware loaded PCs arrived one fine morning at the computer center. It was love at first sight. I have stood by Linux through thick and thin, wrote my Ph.D thesis on it. The high point was of course Ubuntu and how (like dellusioned flower children) I hoped that this would surely be the thing. Sadly, Ubuntu too disappointed me - too many papercuts, no baseline, blah blah. I am a little sad - and I do have a little partition on my home computer with Jaunty (which only my wife uses every once in a while). But also I feel a huge load has lifted from my shoulders. I have now embraced OSX with both arms and its a good feeling when everything works without having to break things apart. Well goodbye my love - I really thought it would work out. Well maybe some day Linux will become a popular desktop but there are too many broken bits to make it even remotely useful. Maybe I'm getting old :)

Example in logical thought

Watch O'Reilley argue in this video - now you know how some people haven't evolved beyond some point. Nature can be quite cruel sometimes.

Realplayer 11 for Linux: New deb package

Like countless other people, I use Realplayer 11.0 on my Ubuntu Linux. Traditionally, one has two routes for installation - either download and install the deb file from http://www.real.com/linux or use the medibuntu repository.

The problem with using the "official" deb is that it has countless (31 actually) dependencies - many of which are just not needed. The medibuntu version is plagued with (a) no progress bar (b) crashes in Jaunty.

So, here is a new deb file which is a repackaged form of the official deb with the right dependencies put in. If you have a deb based Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Mint etc), you will be prompted to start installation using the gDebi installer. BUT - I suggest that before taking the leap, you (a) uninstall any realplayer installation using synaptic (b) close your browser.

http://uploading.com/files/IWLOP9XX/RealPlayer11GOLD.modified.deb.html

It works for me - I hope it's useful for you too.