CD Burning with Brasero

Recently I”ve become a big cd burning aficionado, I’ve burned quite a few cds and dvds this past couple of weeks.  I go through phases, sometimes I burn and other times I could careless.  Probably because some of the windows applications spit out the disk telling me there are errors.

My favorite burn engine in windows world is a program called image burn.  You are probably familiar with it.  Some may prefer Roxio, Nero or an array of other burn engines.

I was scared the burn engines in Linux would not be up to par with those in Windows.  I was afraid they were quirky so I decided to give brasero a shot. After burning 3 cds, I was relieved.

My windows disk in hand ready to get rid of Linux if anything should go wrong, was put back for safekeeping.  So far so good.

First Impressions of the Gnome Desktop

For Window’s user’s the Gnome desktop will be very familiar. You have task bars – in Gnome-Linux speak, they’re called panels.  You can place those panels anywhere you like.

In the screen shot, I have chosen to auto-hide the panels just like I chose the task bar to hide automatically in Windows.

This theme is called Fire Dragon

There are many themes to choose from just as in Windows.  Linux also has special 3D effects that make the desktop interesting. But I’ll get to that in a later post.

If you’re like me, you’ll change your theme everyday to find one that suits your personality.

And if you’re creative you can create you’re own themes.  I for one am not gifted in that area.        Same as Windows.

As you can see its all familiar and nothing to fear yet.  In the next few posts I’ll talk about the menu system again similar to Windows.

So you may ask. If this is all very much like Windows, why even switch to Linux?  Which is a very good question one that I wrestled with myself.

Many users have what is called a dual boot system.

A dual boot system is having two operating systems on one hard driving or if you have two or more hard drives, one on each hard drive.  When you start your computer,  instead of  booting right into Windows or Linux, there is a choice, either Windows or Linux and you have a few seconds to make that choice or its chosen for you.  Some keep Windows around for gaming.  I’ll get to that too.

Someone told me on irc chat–yes they still use irc–that the difference between Windows and Linux is the difference between ignorance and knowledge.

The founder of Microsoft even said that Linux was the best Os, that he never liked Windows with all the crashing and rebooting.

http://www.bbspot.com/news/2001/06/gates.html

So he didn’t like his companies product.  If not why wasn’t he more pro-active and just rewrite Windows totally from the ground up instead of just building upon last years model?

I’ll take a moment to spend a few words on Linux’s support system.  There is ton’s of it.  And by tons I don’t mean dialing an 800# getting someone from India after being on hold for hours, who when you explain your problem to them will read from their script even if it doesn’t pertain to your individual problem. (I’ve never called the tech support, I’m just speculating here)

If you have a problem or questions there are many avenues you can go to, depending on the “flavor” of Linux you choose, Ubuntu, Debian, PcLinuxOs, Fedora etc, there is ton’s of support by the Linux community.

Irc or Inter Relay Chat

Freenode.net is where you’ll find many channels my favorites are

#Ubuntu, #Ubuntu-Beginners

In those channels you’ll find the help you need or answers to your questions. But be patient and wait your turn, there will be others in there too.

http://www.ubuntuforms.org

Feel free to post your questions and someone will post an answer well many will post an answer.

Youtube has many Linux tutorials.  Some good and some not so much.

I had to play with the desktop to convince myself that I made the right choice.  And I think I’m coming to the conclusion that I am, but there is still that nagging doubt that I’m doing the right thing.

It’ll take time and I comfort myself with the fact that my desktop  is still  Windows. One day at a time.