Rob's Project: Getting Ubuntu Doing What He Needs

[Rob Farquhar]

Hi, everybody. Sorry for not posting in a while.

A month ago, I blew my stack over some issues I was having with my 
current desktop PC setup. At the moment, I run a dual-boot of Windows XP 
SP3 and Linux Mint. There are some basic tasks I do in one OS that I 
seem unable to do in the other, and resetting the computer several times 
a day is winding me up.

I'm hoping that you fine folks might (if you have the time, of course) 
give me some advice on getting one operating system doing as much of 
what I want as it can. Although I'm currently running Mint, I'm more 
than happy to skip back to Ubuntu should Linux wind up being the basis 
for my system.

Now, I must warn you that I'm still very much a novice to the terminal 
and the like, and while I'm willing to learn, I'm still leery of 
solutions that seem overly technical, like OS emulation.

Anyway, to kick things off, here's what I want from my PC, with some 
notes on how it's working (or not) right now:

- I'm starting to get back into serious writing at the moment, so this 
is the main thing I want from my PC. I use OpenOffice under Windows as 
well as Linux and I've been using Dropbox to ensure I'm working on the 
most current version no matter which boot I'm running. However, if I 
want to use my Brother MFC-465CN multifunction unit (printer, fax, 
scanner) I have to boot under Windows; I have no idea how to set it up 
under Linux and naturally Brother's website isn't the most helpful.

- While I'm writing I'd like to be able to listen to music. My main 
music collection is on Windows, managed by iTunes, which also manages my 
podcast subscriptions and syncs with my 8GB iPod Nano. I've bought a 
couple of tracks from the iTunes Store but I'm not too fussed if I lose 
access to these.

- Naturally, I browse the web. In theory I can do this under either 
boot, but I've noticed that Windows seems to manage the multimedia side 
of the web a little better, especially when I'm trying to play high-def 
content.

However, since mid-last year, Windows XP has had serious browsing 
issues. No matter whether I use Firefox or IE, it's a coin-toss as to 
whether any given site I go to will actually load:

    * Sometimes the browser will load the page title then sit and think.
    * Sometimes it'll partway load the page then sit and think.
    * Sometimes it will give me a 404 or similar for a site other than
      the one I was trying to get to.
    * Sometimes it'll load the page source, sometimes for an entirely
      different site than the one I was trying to get to.
    * Sometimes it'll load a single graphic from the page and insist
      that that's everything.

Stopping the load and refreshing rarely works, either.

Oddly enough, this problem started recurring within a week of the last 
time I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled everything.

- I use Thunderbird under Mint, but it's still version 2 and I have no 
idea when the Mint folks will be updating Mint 8 (Helena). I was 
starting to like using Version 3 under Windows, but I'm a little 
paranoid about having my correspondence under that platform.

- I'd like to use Skype a bit more often than I do, as I can't get Linux 
to recognise the microphone that plugs into my SoundBlaster Audigy 4 and 
I have no idea whether there's some switch tucked away in alsamixer that 
I need to flip.

- My mobile phone is a Motorola RAZRv9. In my ideal computing world, I'd 
like to be able to sync its address book up with Thunderbird, which I 
can't even do under Windows. I'd also like to access (and maybe even 
edit) the .amr format voice notes I can make on the phone.

- The last thing I do with my PC is play games, like Dawn of War II, 
Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2. This is becoming less and less of a 
priority (especially as I have an Xbox 360).

Ultimately, I'd like an “at my fingertips” computing experience, where 
everything I want to do is a handful of clicks and a smattering of 
seconds away at any given moment. I'd be willing to tolerate a dual-boot 
setup if all I used Windows for was gaming, though.

So what do you think? Can I accomplish my dream? What will I need to do?

Cheers, folks,

Rob Farquhar