A Sixth Venture Into Linuxland

Last week I read a couple positive reviews of Novell's OpenSuSE 10.1 release and decided to give linux yet another chance to become my main desktop OS. I've tried this several times before, starting with RedHat 7.3, then Mandrake 8 and 9, SuSE Linux 9, and most recently (last year) an attempt to get Gentoo up and running. The biggest "failure" was likely Gentoo, since I only had it up in a VM and once I installed it (an invigorating, nerdy exercise), I barely touched it.

As a desktop OS, my previous experiences with Linux have been disappointing, hence my death grip on Windows. Obviously, the desktop experience in RedHat wasn't anywhere near NT4/2000 at the time I tried it. It was extremely clunky, the GUI (Gnome) was very slow, and it was difficult to discern what apps I needed to use to accomplish my Windows-equivalent tasks. Mandrake was much better from an installation/configuration perspective, but I still found the environment to be more a collection of utilities rather than a single OS. I began using KDE as my window manager/desktop environment and I liked it much better than Gnome. SuSE 9 Pro had better hardware support and package management than Mandrake, but the desktop environment was still clunky, and it still wasn't obvious where I had to go or what utilities I needed to use for basic system admin tasks. I'd consult texts or online resources for answers to those questions, and instead of finding a simple "To do this, use this like this", I found "You can do this with aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, eee, fff". Well great, that's a nice selection of tools, but how do you use them? (I know, RTFM...)

Enough background, on to my initial impressions of OpenSuSE 10.1. I installed it last night in a VM, and it took about an hour to complete. I pretty much accepted the default settings and chose KDE (v3.4) as my desktop. The installer correctly identified my VM hardware, including video and network, I didn't have to configure any of it. The only change I made was the screen resolution. After setting a root password and creating an account for myself, setup was complete. I would put that installation on par with that of Windows XP. Simple, and results in an initial setup that "just works" (you anti-MS folk can insert a virus/security joke here).

Reboot, and I see a typical linux boot process, with lines of text explaining each event occurring while the OS initializes. Once that's finished I was presented with a very nice looking graphical login screen, kind of a mix between Windows XP and OS X. I logged in and was dumped into KDE 3.4. Nice. Graphically, I am really impressed with KDE. The window frames look professional, the KDE menu is well organized. I didn't have a chance to do much else but test out Konqueror, KDE's file/web browser. I was curious to see how certain sites looked, since Apple's Safari is based on the Konqueror rendering engine. Sites like CBS Sportsline are obviously targeted for IE, and until Firefox 1.3 was released I couldn't use another browser to view them. However, I was pleased to find that Konqueror displayed CBS' page just fine. The page rendered properly, and all the client-side javascript appeared to be working as expected.

My initial impression of this linux distro is very positive. My only beef so far is that the desktop environment still seems a bit slow, but I think that's because it's running in a VM. Assuming all goes well with further testing, I'll install it on my workstation and find out just how slow or fast it really is.

Baltimore Baseball: Feast or Famine

Because I'm making this post at work, I'll throw a little code in here so at least I'm programming something ;)

if (theOrioles == CRAP)
{
    switch (myMood)
    {
        case MOOD_HAPPY:
            hopeForAReboundTomorrow();
            break;
        case MOOD_DISGUSTED:
            changeChannel();
            break;
        case MOOD_OUTRAGED:
            rantAndRave();
            break;
        case MOOD_DELIRIOUS:
            dealOrNoDeal();
            break;
        default:
            watchMoraAndTejadaBat();
            watchGibbonsMakeAssOfSelf();
            changeChannel();
            break;
    }
}
else
{
    // warning: this statement generates the compiler error
    //  "unreachable code"
    cheerObnoxiously();
}

And just so you're wondering, right now myMood == MOOD_OUTRAGED. Take a look at the O's roster and see if you notice anything. Done? Maybe you didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but watching the O's for the past 6 years or so has driven me to give this piece of advice to Flanagan and Co. Pay attention, Mikey, this one's for you:

Just because a player hails from Latin America doesn't mean he's a good ballplayer!

Ahem. I don't mean that in a bigoted, racist way. I'm simply saying that country of origin shouldn't be the sole factor in determining a player's value or potential. It seems to me that around five years or so, give or take, MLB imported some tremendous Latin American talent, such as Alfonso Soriano, Albert Pujols, Miguel Tejada, etc. It appeared, from a moron's perspective, that Latin America was brimming with megastars, and all you had to do was land in the Dominican Republic with a plane ticket and you could leave the airport with the latino Babe Ruth. That was probably close to the truth very early on, as teams swooped in to gobble up the best Latin America had to offer. Unfortunately for teams like the Orioles, they missed that bus. So now it seems like the O's are focusing exclusively on latino "talent" in the hopes of uncovering a superstar. Fat chance.

Guess what, guys. Most of these kids just aren't very good. "Sendy Rleal? How do you pronounce that? Yeah, I can't say it either, so he must by dynamite! Sign him up before the Yankees get to him!" Meanwhile, Brian Cashman is chuckling to himself in the back of the room.

Hey O's front office and talent scouts - are you paying attention to what's happening on the field? Rleal sucks. He's 26. His stuff is mediocre at best. He doesn't have the mentality to be dominating. He rattles easily. He doesn't think through an entire at-bat. He's just not a good pitcher, and I don't think Mazzone can help him much. Luis Matos? I guess being part bionic man (titanium shin) hasn't helped him. He still sucks. Can't hit, can't throw. He chases down balls in the outfield pretty well but that's it. Here's a tip - give the guy some vitamins with his meals every day so his body stops falling apart. Raul Chavez - who? Exactly. Luis Terrero? He's a poor-man's Tony Tarasco, so what does that tell you? I know he's just filling a spot while our starters heal up, but c'mon. Why not give Fiorentino some extra MLB at-bats while we can? Julio Manon? Who's this guy? I haven't seen him pitch, probably because I've already changed the channel by the time he enters a game, but it doesn't sound like he's lighting hitters up.

I guess that's enough of a rant for now. I'm just tired of sitting at home and watching the Orioles parade a bunch of never-will-bes in front of me, hoping against hope that they've managed to find the next Pujols or Johan Santana. Trust me, they haven't. Yes, Tejada, Melvin Mora and Javy Lopez (before the 1st-base fiasco) are the real deal. I just wish the O's would realize that latino ballplayers are just like everyone else - some are great, most aren't. Nationality doesn't make a ballplayer.