Erik Marshall

Ultimate Goal: Install Fedora 4 Suse 10.0 and move to a primarily linux-based environment. Current Setup: 1-40GB HD, two partitions, one NTFS with Windows install (C:), one linux with Mandrake 10.0. 1-160GB (D: and E:), two partitions 80/80, both NTFS, primarily for data. (D: was originally FAT32, but I apparently reformatted it at some [...]

[Read more →]

Firefox 1.5rc1 just came out. I am downloading it right now.
Julie’s been having browser problems, and so have I lately. Firefox has been hanging on occasion, which may be the result of an extension, or maybe it’s just buggy. I downloaded the flock beta (thanks Jill), but haven’t had time to test it much. [...]

[Read more →]

I don’t have an IPod, but even for listening to podcasts on my desktop, a podcast mananger is indispensible. I have been using ipodder to automatically download the 10 or so podcasts I regularly listen to, but I have found it to be a little buggy and slow. I do like the ITunes integration, where [...]

[Read more →]

Sung to the tune of “Mary had a little lamb”:

Mandrake 10.1 is out
One is out
One is out
Mandrake 10.1 is out
I think it’s really great.

Yes, it is more geeky software stuff. As you may remember from this post, I have been trying to slowly end my dependence on Microsoft products. Well, I’m getting closer. I finally [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve been using Blackboard for many years now, and every time I get fed up with it, they update it and make it a little more accessible or easy to use, or add a new feature, keeping me barely hooked. Well, I really am tired of it now. It is too clunky. You have to [...]

[Read more →]

Thunderbird Release Candidate 1 is out for testing. I like it so far. It has integrated RSS, which rocks. I think I have finally done away with Outlook, as of tonight. I’ve been using RSS Bandit and Sage for RSS stuff, but I want to share my RSS feeds so I can access them from [...]

[Read more →]

This article (free registration required) in the NYTimes offers some interesting information on the continuing browser wars, and the increasing popularity of non-IE browsers.

I almost never use IE now, preferring Mozilla Firefox, and, more and more, Opera. Firefox has many more features, and the addition of extensions greatly increases functionality (e.g. RSS reader, CSS editing, and many others). Firefox also has better CSS compatibility, but it pales greatly in comparison to Opera, which offers compliance with the latest CSS specs.

[Read more →]

Like many people, I am trying to decrease slowly the amount of interaction I have with Microsoft products. I have a dual-boot system with WinXP Pro and Mandrake Linux 9.2, on which I use Windows probably 90% of the time (in Windows now, in fact). I have been happily using Mozilla Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox for some time, and use IE less and less, if at all (an article at Lockergnome gives good reasons to switch). I have downloaded OpenOffice.org, and will begin using it immediately. I still use Outlook, and that will be the hardest thing to get rid of, but I will try.

Why? Partly because I want to support open source, partly because of M’soft’s business practices. Also, I like options, and I want to be sure that we always have them. I’ll keep you updated on my babysteps away from M’Soft, and proprietary software in general.

[Read more →]