Upgrade to Feisty Fawn and the evil Howtos
May 25, 2007
Last weekend I upgraded all my comps to the newest Ubuntu version “Feisty Fawn”. Started with the computer of my daughter, then proceeded with my Thinkpad Notebook, then upgraded the server. All important things are working now:
- mac style desktop
- wobbling the terminal window on terminal bell, see the howto that works
Now something serious: Things, that considered good for software development, for example DRY and striving for elegance, should also be a goal for system administration: less redundancy in the configuration files, layering of implementation for managing complexity. But what you find in Google if you have a question regarding configuration, is huge amount of howtos with chaotic config-file-hacking-suggestions. Best example if you are trying to install a new window-manager with 3d effects like compiz. One zillion howtos with disclaimer “works for me”, but everybody has a different combination of graphic card, internal and external display, hardware revision, set of installed packages and upgrade path he walked. Even great products like issue tracking and collaboration tool trac have this sort hacky howtos…
But this installation/configuration complications is nothing in compare with server applications or developer tools in the J2EE area, especially from the company with three big letters in the name. So if you are able to setup a local WebSphere instance in RAD6 or master a configuration management based on UCM, than it will be easy to build, for example, a kernel module for your laptop battery or to build a navigation system based on your hard drive shock sensor.