Well looks like a distro switch is in the cards for my notebook. The decision came down my way as I discovered Ubuntu is apparently, useless with captive portals. You know, those hotel/book store login pages to access the provided wifi. Whatever ever reason Ubuntu Edgy fell on its face here and what is even more comical, the complete lack of response from their forums after three different attempts to seek an answer. Based on this and a response from the folks behind an Ubuntu variant, Linux Mint, I will be moving over to that distro come this weekend. From what I have been told, Linux Mint has better implementation of the GNOME network selection tools that I would otherwise get via APT. As a matter of fact, the network selector is offered in the default install. So considering this, moving over to Linux Mint makes the most sense for my notebook. Seriously Ubuntu, captive portals, how could this not receive an response? Even considering the inclusion of improve network tools in the upcoming Ubuntu release, Linux Mint already beat Ubuntu to the punch a long time ago. Sad. Moving on. I have software migration tools that work for both distros, so all is well.

Back at the home front, Ubuntu is cruising right along on my desktop. But it looks as if I will need to be upgrading to Vista for some software developement duties, therefore I was told today that I will be sent what I need here fairly soon. But this leaves me with the prospect of trying to blend together an existing Ubuntu install along with a new copy of Vista. Do I need to uninstall Ubuntu? Not at all.

Thanks to this great tutorial, adding the extra OS ought to go smoothly. I will admit that the tute looks like a lot to deal with, but in reality, it is merely a thorough how-to. Besides, should things go badly enough that I need to reinstall Ubuntu (or just move this to Linux Mint as well), APTonCD will make the migration of software very easy.

And of course, should I wish to keep XP, there are options here as well. Frankly, Linux is my desktop of daily use and Vista will be for development purposes. So I doubt I will see much need to keep XP at all. Still, it’s nice to have options.

[tags]vista,upgrade,linux,ubuntu,linux mint,apt,software[/tags]