hello, hellm

I was interested in using a GNU/Linux distro on my desktop – it’s been Windows forever, and I had been reluctant to give up my workflow habits (though I’ve been developing under Ubuntu on my laptop for about three years).  First, I tried the live CDs for both Fedora and Mandriva.  I didn’t get really detailed in my assessment, but I didn’t like that Mandriva was immediately trying to upsell me into a paid distro, and I prefer Gnome to KDE.  So Fedora it is.

My first step was running easyLife, which got me set up with good settings and packages.  Like sudo – how could I live without it.  easyLife also installs Thunderbird and the Flash player, among many other things.

(I was pretty happy that Fedora’s default keyboard shortcuts included ctrl-alt-delete for the logout action.  I’ve set that up on the Ubuntu installations I’ve done for a while.)

My next step will be to configure the xorg settings for my trackball, something I never got right on the Ubuntu install on my workstation at my erstwhile employer.  I have a Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman; it saves my shoulder from RSIs, and it would be nice to get the orientation and buttons set correctly.  I was planning to use this as a starting point, and if everything works out, that project will probably deserve its own post.

I’ll update this more as I make progress…