eddy2099.com

It is no secret that I am a Windows person but being a software developer myself, I have always been curious about other operating system and that is why I bought the Apple iMac years ago and did plan to get a new Apple Macbook once MAC OS X Leopard is out to replace my 4 years old Dell 600m Laptop but that is another story altogether.

So you may ask, what has the Apple to do with this story. Well, the thing is that I develop shareware for the Windows platform and little while back did create a simple program for the Mac. That was way back in 2001/2002 and surprisingly without any promotion, the program is still selling so I figured that there is definitely a market for it. The Mac OS X Leopard delay actually got me thinking since I do not have unlimited funds so I would need to get the best available option. I read about Codeweaver Crossover for Mac and what they did was to customized a version of WINE for the Mac OS X environment for the Intel-based CPU. It definitely looks like a great potential because now Windows program can run on the Mac OS X without rebooting and directly from the Mac interface. This actually means that if it works for my software, I do not need to rewrite any thing as a whole new market is opened up to me. Definitely a cool deal.

Well, the opportunity arises a few days ago when my trusty Dell 600m laptop’s Windows XP Pro decided to stop running programs. I still needed Windows but thought that this time since I needed to reformat the harddisk, I could partition it so as to be able to accommodate CentOS Linux so I downloaded the 6 ISO for CentOS 5.

The Windows Installation went smoothly then I went ahead and installed CentOS. I only have a few requirements, 1) Install WINE, 2) Install a Web Browser which supports JAVA and 3) Play my music and video collections (mainly MP4).

The first time I used QTParted, I messed up the Windows Partition so I had to reinstall it again. Then the CentOS installation went smoothly but when I tried to install and run some Linux program, it did not quite work. The Add/Remove program did not work because when I tried to add, it just tell me what it was going to add and when I confirm, it froze there. Okay. Then I tried playing my MP4 files, it told me that it does not have the MP4 decoder so that was a bummer. I tried going to my online banking website which requires Java Virtual Machine, it tells me that I needed to manually install that and I had to use terminal to do that. It did not come with WIFI support too. I tried installing some programs and the nasty message about not being able to find some dependencies flashed in front of me. That was nightmarish. I decided that I had enough and deleted the CentOS partition. I supposed it is great as a Server Operating System but it has years to go before it is made for the end-user.

I thought that was the end for my Linux adventure until I found an old copy of Ubuntu in my cupboard so I decided to get to the Ubuntu website and found that they have a new v7.04 which offers one-click installation for programs so I thought I give it a try. There was just 1 ISO file to download and the installation went very smoothly.

The first thing I did when I launched it was run Totem again and although the first time round it told me that it cannot play MP4 becomes i does not have the decoder, it gave me the option to download the whole decoder pack. I am impressed. Now not only my MP4 works, the Flash Videos works too. Then I went through the Add/Remove program and added a whole bunch of stuffs including Java support, WIFI support and most of all WINE.

When I launched Firefox, I had no problems with my online banking site. I had WIFI Support (I am on WIFI now) and I tried installing the Windows Program I have written in WINE and it installed and worked. Wow! The only thing is when I uninstalled a program, it still shows up in the WINE Folder. That is a minor issue.

So overall, Ubuntu is definitely worth the try if you want to have a Linux desktop. It is easy to use and some of the programs are familiar like Firefox, Thunderbird and Open Office. I am indeed impressed. So no that I know my programs works with WINE, I am sure that it can run through Crossover (which runs WINE) on the MAC OS X on the Intel CPU.

There is a lot I need to learn but I am discovering new things along the way.

Wow! Finally after the long wait since Saturday, I am finally back online at Digitalpoint.

I just received this email in my post which reads

Dear eddy2099,

Digital Point Forums

I would definitely like to thank Richie Ni for helping me along the way. I was going out of my mind during the whole issue but I am finally back. I can basically do anything and everything that I would be able to do in the past.

Guess I will be busy replying those threads now. Thank you once again.

Well, it has been a while since I last posted anything here. I have been busy with work and I seems to be neglecting my blog and myspace. I guess I should spend sometime to keep the world updated on what is going on here.

Last October, I decided to move my sites which were hosted on The Planet’s dedicated servers to a reseller’s account because I thought that I should concentrate more on work rather than just on administering my servers. I found one which did appear to be highly recommended and they were quite good in the beginning and thus decided that since I am going for the long term, I went with their annual payment plan and did the prepayment. All was fine until about a month ago when they decided to make some changes to their server. Then suddenly, I was routed through Cogent and I was like experiencing numerous of incidents of slow access and downtimes. That cannot be good for business.

The final straw came when their server was like overloaded and took about 8 minutes before I can see a web page which really sucks. Before this, I knew that I was not going to sign up with them and plan to move out by mid August this year just a month and a half before my plan expires so I went hunting around. With the final straw, I decided to bite the bullet and move. I mean if I stayed, I think my business will suffer badly because I depend on my customers to visit my websites and if they cannot get it them, I will not earn an income.

At that time, I pretty decided that after several experiences with bad services with the reseller’s plans, I wanted to go back to dedicated servers because I love the control. You know having been on the driver seat for 6 years, the urge to drive is still there. I did consider going for the Virtual Private Server (VPS) solution but in the past I tried them and they were pretty slow. I thought the same happened. But after a review by someone at Web Hosting Talk, I decided what do I have to lose and got my 512mb VPS server from Futurehosting.biz after reading all the great reviews about them. I thought since they gave a 30 days money back guarantee, what do I have to lose so I signed up. Within minutes, I got responses and in 2 hours, the VPS was up and running. It was indeed quite neat and easy to use. I’ve managed to move my sites over and well, the speed was great. I love how it is that they provided a managed service too and that helped me a lot when I messed up a few times as their support was ready to help and not criticized me for my silly mistakes which were too many to mentioned. So pleased was I that I upgraded to their 768mb VPS plan. Great price with a great service so what more can I ask for ?

Back to the reseller’s account, I did complained about it and told them that I was to terminate my plan which they did. However, they were unable based on their policy to refund me the unusued portion of the service. Anyways, I’ll just consider it as lost. To compensate me for their numerous downtime, they actually offered me a 5gb backup space till the end of the year. I guess it is not all lost.

I had deal with another company which was good and came highly recommended but after a few months, service level dropped and I decided to quit but the same No Refund Policy came up again.

I guess in the end, it is probably better to stick with the monthly payment, well sure you be paying slightly more and you need to be prompt with your monthly payment but it is worth the while. In the end, when it comes to business, friendship and relationship should take less priority. It is no point sticking with a sinking ship because you know the captain. Save yourself so that you can save others on another day. Go down with the ship and people may remember you for a while and after which they may forget you.