Check out Corbin Fowler's new site

I'm now hosting Corbin Fowler's FowlerMania site at CWG Services. Corbin wrote Searching for Truth, Justice, and the American Way which my company, CWG Press, published last year. It's an excellent collection of essays and letters that prove philosophy is not only alive but highly relevant. Check out his site at www.chfowler.org.

Has it only been a week? Ubuntu rocks.

Ubuntu doesn't feel like a radical departure from my normal way of working, anymore. It feels like home.

I had used Windows for ten years; I tried Ubuntu and a couple of other Linux distros, in dual-boot setups, but I never got the guts to switch, to make something that was not Windows my main operating system.

Until a week ago, that is. Why is it that I now spend time working with my computer, using my computer, being creative with my computer, letting myself do what I want to do without the constraints of what others have provided for me? It's because it's become fun again. I don't have to live with Windows any more and I have gained freedom rather than giving up functionality. It's fun to play with the computer now. It's fun again, and as a result I can do far more.

Has it been only a week? It feels like I've had this setup forever. It feels so normal.

Should Windows 7 be a free upgrade to all Vista Ultimate users? | TalkBack on ZDNet

Should Windows 7 be a free upgrade to all Vista Ultimate users? | TalkBack on ZDNet: "Windows 7 is Vista
My puters came with Vista Home Premium preinstalled. They worked pretty well, and I never jumped on the anti-Vista bandwagon. However, I've noticed that Microsoft likes to release things before they are ready, and then sell upgrades to a version that (mostly) works right. That's unethical. That's unacceptable. That's common practice in the world of software and I've worked for companies that did it.

I think the recent move by Microsoft to allow users to download and use the Windows 7 RC1 for a full ywar is a step in the right direction. However, I've taken the precaution of installing it in a virtual machine, running inside Ubuntu, which is now my operating system of choice. I have this vm with Windows 7 so that I can help clients who actually use Windows as their operating system of choice, or who use Internet Explorer as their browser of choice. Also there is still some website software out there that only works under Internet Explorer, so I need an environment where I can use it. I prefer the full-virtual-machine solution to using Wine because it provides a degree of separation from my native Linux software. There won't be any 'glitches' where Microsoft destroys the competition's environment, or at least the accidents are more likely"

Defected!

I've switched to Ubuntu as my primary operating system on all my computers. An initial install is just about as easy as installing Windows; a seriously customized version like mine is a bit tricky at least until you get the hang of it. I have added a virtualbox that runs the Windows 7 release candidte, and that was surprisingly easy.