I love Linux. It is a fantastic operating system/platform with ridiculous power and flexibility, and I wish I could use it for all my computer needs. I’ve attempted to do just about everything with it, and try as I might, there are some areas where it just doesn’t fill what I need with my creative work. Don’t get me wrong, it’s more than capable in many areas, and I use it exclusively for production servers for my clients. But for creative work (such as for music production), I have yet to find a way to integrate Linux into my workflow. That doesn’t stop me from trying every once in a while.

True to my inner geek, I will admit that I periodically enjoy sitting down and relaxing with new Linux distributions and open source apps and seeing what they can do. Yes, I’m not embarrassed to confess that fiddling with Linux is one of my many strange, entertaining past-times.

If this post doesn’t interest you, dear reader, please skip it, but do come back some other day when I post something else that might fascinate you. For now, I will briefly engage my inner Linux geek and share my brief impressions of the current state of Linux on the desktop with Ubuntu Linux 9.04 Beta, while watching a sci-fi-horror-zombie-martial arts movie.

First, while I’m an advocate of open source software, that doesn’t make me a detractor of traditional commercial software or other operating systems not normally associated with the open source movement. I’ve paid my dues in the Windows and OSX universes (not to mention *nix, and earlier Mac OS, AmigaOS, OS/2, BeOS, DOS and others), but Linux holds a special place in my heart. I don’t completely know why. I just like it. I’ll have to explore why I like Linux so much in another post.

One of my areas of creative work includes producing music and audio. Unfortunately, Linux and open source software in general have yet to deliver what I need for music production on the Linux platform. Yes, there are some outstanding music and audio applications (and I’ve tried just about all of them), but out of necessity I have to continue to use commercial pro audio apps, like Sonar, Cubase, ProTools, Live, Reaper, etc. and my library of plugins and sounds.

I’ll discuss my platform of music production choice in another post, but for now I’ll just say that if I could do what I need to do with music in Linux, I would consider completely switching most of my computers exclusively over to Linux. But alas, for my personal music production needs, Linux is still out… which means that I must continue to straddle the OS worlds. But what about other computing needs?

What about writing, browsing, listening to music, burning, daily in-and-out things? Can Linux on the desktop handle all that? Well, the short answer to that is YES, of course! It’s been great at that for quite a while, if a bit quirky around the edges sometimes. What about the desktop experience? Is it easy to use? Short answer: YES, of course! Provided you invest a few minutes to learn your way around. Any user-friendly variant of Linux includes outstanding desktop interfaces from KDE and/or GNOME, and a vast array of awesome apps and tools, from office productivity programs to simple games. And it all works beautifully (for the most part), it’s FREE (in the open source way) and it’s fun!

Why hasn’t Linux taken over the world by now? Well, that’s a great question I’ll reserve for another post, and there are some very real, obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why it hasn’t and won’t completely take over the world any time soon. But is it a really usable platform for desktop users, today, in 2009? Oh yes, it can be, and the latest incarnations of Linux are better than ever. Compelling, really. Amazing, often!

So what about this famous Ubuntu Linux distribution? Is it that good? Damn right, it’s that good! I decided to take the Ubuntu Linux 9.04 beta out for a spin, and I can sum up my experience with it so far simply like this: IT ROCKS!

I was simply blown away by how smooth the whole experience was, compared to some other Linux distros I’ve tested and used in the past. Especially for a beta.

I decided to try out the Ubuntu 9.04 beta on my new little computing friend, my MSI Wind netbook. Like many people recently, I bought a tiny, cheap netbook that I take around with me when I don’t want to lug around a “normal” laptop or worry about breaking/losing something really valuable. A netbook plus Ubuntu 9.04 seemed like a match made in laptop heaven.

First, to begin my relaxing Linux installation evening, I decided to watch a movie. I discovered to my delight that my Tivo had recorded another mindless sci-fi channel special called “I Am Omega” that was just perfect for the task of installing Linux… not too riveting to prohibit me from multitasking, and not too idiotic to force me to channel surf. The film piqued my interest. After all, it had zombies, and was loosely (er-hem, very loosely) inspired by the excellent sci-fi classic novel I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson, from what I can tell. Yes, I Am Omega also appears to be a blatant attempt to profit off of Will Smith’s version of I Am Legend, while also hearkening back to the Charleton Heston classic Omega Man.

I Am Omega. Get it? Good. Oh, they got me without trying so hard. I Am Legend + Omega Man = I Am Omega. How could I not at least press play and see to what mysterious new heights these brilliant, original filmmakers would take such a venerable story?

On top of that, I was intrigued by the familiarity of the actor playing the main character of I Am Omega. He was driving me crazy, but then I realized — the Chairman from Iron Chef America! Yes, Mark Dacascos himself. So now I was hooked.

Mix classic sci-fi influence with an indie-film spirit, derivative script, impressive and yet sometimes glaringly out-of-place martial arts moves, then throw in a connection to one of my favorite Food Network shows, and I had the perfect background film for installing Linux and tweaking it to my heart’s content! With the subtly-refined acting skills of Mark Dacascos on display in the background, I was ready to begin.

I just had to get Ubuntu onto my netbook, and so I downloaded the ISO image from Ubuntu’s website (www.ubuntu.com).

But since I have no optical drive on my netbook (an MSI Wind variant, remember?),  I had to install the ISO onto a USB key. I was too lazy to do it the hard, normal way, so what about the quick and easy way? From Windows no less? Well, I found an awesome little utility called UNetbootin that was so insanely easy to use, I have to mention the original author’s name and send him a big thanks out of pure respect! Thank you, Geza Kovacs! Great work!

After installing the beta Ubuntu ISO onto an old USB key via UNetbootin, I rebooted off of the USB key right into a Live version of Ubuntu. Beautiful! How easy was that? Zero effort so far.

I threw caution to the Wind (pun intended), and I just installed it right to the hard drive. I allowed Ubuntu (a beta, no less) to handle the messy work and repartition my hard drive and install itself, right then and there. I decided I wanted to see how it managed the repartition and saving of my Windows XP boot partition, plus installation of a boot-loader. Now, folks, don’t try this without taking precautions! I had a backup and I urge you to do the same. While it went well for me, your mileage may vary (obligatory exculpatory comment).

Then, I rebooted the netbook off the hard drive and to my utter shock and awe, the simple interface of Grub bootloader came up and gave me the option to boot into Ubuntu Lunix or back into Windows, without a hitch. Nice! Very smooth, no hiccups so far!

I chose Ubuntu for boot, and in under 30 seconds I was running Linux off the hard drive… smooth as can be. Now for the tricky part… wireless. I was fully expecting I’d have to do some work to get the wireless adapter working, but oh no, not with this version of Ubuntu! Wireless worked without a hitch, right out of the box! Again, your mileage may vary.

Maybe I lucked out with the wireless adapter I had, but man, was that easy, and surprising. Prior versions of Ubuntu didn’t have compatible drivers ready for this model of netbook, from what I understand, so I was more than pleased with the results.

I spent 15 minutes customizing the desktop, and adding several packages for basic functionality, such as Flash 10, MP3 playback, Skype, etc., all without breaking a sweat.

Just as things couldn’t get more bleak for Mark Dacascos in I Am Omega, things couldn’t get better for me. I was up and running, surfing, testing YouTube, WordPress, OpenOffice, some games, audio playback, and so on. Wow! This beta of Ubuntu really is amazing. It actually works on this cheap little netbook. And it works well!

In fact, I was outright humbled by the collective skill of all the passionate experts and open source developers that made Ubuntu the perfect one-stop OS experience. As I sat there, waiting for the dramatic and disappointing ending to I Am Omega, I was stunned at how my little Ubuntu installation and testing session turned out to be as great as the movie was un-great.

Not to be disrespectful to the filmmakers, since I know how hard it is to make a movie… and I’m scoring an indie film this year that will undoubtedly be criticized by folks like me, but well, I Am Omega wasn’t exactly fine cinema, let’s put it that way. In other words, Ubuntu rocked, and I Am Omega un-rocked… but I’m still a Mark Dacascos fan!

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the “official” release of Ubuntu 9.04 but as far as I’m concerned this beta version is ready for what I need on this netbook.

In one ridiculously easy installation, I have a fully-featured Linux installation that does everything I need a netbook to do. I’m not done testing it, but for any basic cloud-computing need, it is beyond totally usable. In fact, maybe it’s ideal.

So far, it appears to boot faster than Windows, is inherently more secure, and in one quick install, I have a powerhouse little machine. Plus, it looks good. As always, I appreciate the attention to detail the Ubuntu and GNOME folks invest into their work.

Well, that’s it for now, my geekish friends who have made it all the way to the end of this post. I’ll install the final version of Ubuntu 9.04 when it comes out, and I’ll probably go so far as to kick Windows altogether off this netbook, with a few well-placed kung-fu moves inspired by Mark Dacascos himself. Hi-yah!