Geeky Update (Nokia, Saga, TR, Malazan Empire)

I've mentioned in one of my previous posts that I've been following what’s been happening to Nokia. I used to be a fan of the company. They are were the biggest multinational technology corporation based in Europe. Their products were ground breaking. Nokia released phones with front cameras, QWERTY keyboard, smartphones and touch screen phones way before Blackberry, Apple or Samsung even dreamed about them. They used to have a very good understanding of future technologies and dominated the market for many years. I used to proudly own their products.

That was up to the point when their new CEO took charge, Stephen Elop. I’m not going to go through Nokia’s downfall. I went through most of it here. However, not completely unexpected, the news arrived that Nokia was sold to Microsoft! Elop who used to work as the head of Microsoft’s Business Division before jumping to Nokia in September 2010 probably helped MS buy Nokia phone division cheap. Just check Nokia’s share prices for these last years. It’s a shame though.  I feel for the all the people who lost their jobs recently and for those who will lose it in the future. The evil Empire Strikes back.

On another different tone, I’d like to introduce to you the world of Saga! That’s a graphic novel for adults created by Vaughan and Staples. Vaughan is the writer of things like ‘Y: The Last Man’, the ‘Runaways’ and co-writer of the TV series ‘Lost’. The plot of the story can be described as ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in space with aliens, warlocks, robots, ghosts, mercenaries and all the rest. It’s about a young couple from two different worlds in war (tech vs magic) trying to escape with their new-born child. It might sound a bit unoriginal, but believe me the art, characters and storytelling is exceptional. Saga is now an award winning series and I would recommend it to anyone with a desire to read something different than what mainstream Marvel or DC have to offer at the moment.

What’s next? Oh, yes. PC games! I’m in the process of finishing ‘Tomb Raider’. Yes, the remake of the old platform/shooter. The development company did wonders at bringing Lara Croft to the new era. Keeping the same approach of having a female heroine trying to solve simple puzzles by climbing here and there and moving stuff around while shooting baddies and evil fauna works perfectly well. Unlike other disappointing remakes like SimCity (oh, what a waste of money), the publisher Square Enix manages to create a likeable character that evolves through the game trying to escape the island of Yamatai. The island itself of course holds many secrets waiting to be solved and sets a visually stunning setting for Lara’s adventures. If you liked the old Tomb Raiders, I guarantee you you’ll like this one too.

Finally, I couldn't finish this geek update without a book reference. So, I'd like to introduce to you the world of the ‘Malazan Book ofthe Fallen’. That’s an epic fantasy series written by Steven Erikson. OK, so it’s not a single book. It’s many. Ten books to be precise that consist this series. For the time being I’m going through number 7 (Reaper’s Gale) but I have to say it’s really good. For those who don’t know about epic fantasy, try to think ‘The Lord of the Rings’ or ‘Game of Thrones’ and empires, witchcraft, demons, various peoples, gods and all that.  

I’m trying not to read all books one after the other. I read other stuff in-between. I finished beforehand ‘American Gods’ by Neil Gaiman! That was also a good, interesting, read but I shouldn't divert from my main topic. The Malazan Empire holds many dark stories, twists in the plot and of course many different characters and point of views that make the books not that easy to read. Lots of people criticise the author for the number of characters with tongue-twisting names, the variety of locations and the deities involved.

At first, they story looks a bit problematic and lost without a true purpose. There are way too many characters with their agendas. Especially if you’re reading the first book and you’re unfamiliar with the author’s ways, it seems pointless. What I have to say is hold on. In every book that I remember there is a closure of some shorts, even if there are some cliff hangers for the future issues. It all makes sense in the end. To give you an idea the book I’m reading now has more than 1,200 pages and a list of points of view that’s very difficult to count. I’m loving it though and I can’t easily put it down.   

That's what my geek little bizarre world is all about these dates. Not sure how interested you are, but I'll keep you posted nevertheless...

Geeky Update

It’s been a while since I’ve last done one of those.

Firstly, I want to mention a Marvel graphic novel that I read recently. I’ve been reading comic books since I was a small boy. I remember laying wake from excitement in my bed in anticipation to a trip to the city where there was a proper comic book store, where I could buy things that were not available in the small town I grew up in. Since then, lots of things have changed. I’ve lost that children’s excitement, but not my total interest in them. What I do now is instead of purchasing the bi-weekly or monthly releases; I wait a bit and buy complete graphic novels or collections.

Lately, I bought a graphic novel titled “Avengers: the Children’s Crusade”. It features mostly the group of heroes called Young Avengers. I had a glimpse of them in the Marvel’s “Siege” storyline but I didn’t know mostly anything about them. They are as the name implies the new generations of super heroes that aspire to become like the proper Avengers and were formed during the time the senior Avengers team was temporarily disbanded. The graphic novel overall isn’t bad. Its art is quite nice and the storyline good. I would give it higher marks if it didn’t include dead people from the past coming back to life. It always puts me off when that happens.

 In any case, I was happily surprised to find a proper gay couple in the team. Wiccan, a powerful wizard who could be the reincarnation of Scarlet Witch’s son, is in a relationship with his alien shape shifting male teammate Hulkling. They properly refer to one another as boyfriends; they kiss and complain when given a room in the Avengers mansion with separate bed. The whole situation is written in a very realistic and respected way. There aren’t many gay characters in comic books and it’s always nice when I come across them. The Young Avengers series was discontinued, but a new version is coming up that still features both Wiccan and Hulkling, even if changes to the rest of the cast have been made:

Since, it is the beginning of March, I can’t not mention my upcoming birthday. It’s next week! Yay! Anyway, I was looking for a present for myself and I was delighted to find out that the new SimCity will be released on the 8th of the month! That’s so very appropriate. I’ve been a SimCity fan since the very beginning. I used to play it when the game still looked like this, back in the 80’s:

So, I can’t really miss it, when it looks like this:

I don’t normally pre-order stuff. I’m generally cautious before proper reviews are written and games are properly tested. I’ve made an exception in the past for the Elder Scroll’s latest release, Skyrim, and I didn’t regret it. I was extremely confident that Bethesda would deliver. In SimCity case, the preliminary previews I’ve read are quite good. Also, I trust the development company ‘Maxis’ and Will Wright. I’ve played every SimCity release there was. I love this type of strategy, resource management and control games. Another amazing example of the genre is Civilization. That’s another series of games I utterly love.

Finishing this post, I’d like to mention that EA, the company that now owns Maxis, is hosting next week a one-day conference in New York to discuss lesbian, gay and bisexual issues in the video game industry. That same company is the one that published with Microsoft the games in the ‘Mass Effect’ series. It was highly criticized when same sex couples could be formed in the last release of the game as I mentioned here.

Goodbye Nokia

Or how a company can let you down…

After my very first mobile phone which was a yellow Ericsson many years ago with one line of a black and white screen and tiny buttons, I switched to Nokia and I stick to it. I went through many different models, including some legendary ones which still function even today. I always believed that Nokia makes really good, sturdy and resilient phones. They might not jump onto new technologies quickly but they were innovative, like introducing WAP to mobile phones, with good hardware.

One of my first Nokia phones! Simply immortal

After focusing on phones with good cameras like the N81 and N86 that including an amazing 8MP camera before many of its competitors, I decided last year that it was time to try a smartphone. Even before it was released, I fell in love with Nokia N8 by watching the promo video on the Nokia website. The phone had good enough specs and featured an amazing 12MP camera. I wouldn’t go for an iphone (I’m reluctant to follow the masses) and most Android smartphones weren’t that impressive (low battery, bad camera etc) at the time.

When it was released reviews were a bit harsh on it. Everybody said that the phone itself was good, but its operating system crap! However, Nokia released a note that the Symbian operation system will receive updates and will get better and the company will support developers in creating enough applications to support their new Symbian smartphones. So, while I suspected that the OS would be a bit bad, I bought the phone I think very early February 2011. It went all downhill after that.

Innovative 'Matrix' phone

Elop, the relatively newly appointed Nokia CEO (and previous Microsoft employee) released a memo about how ‘Symbian is a burning platform’ and that Nokia should abandon it! That happened around 2 weeks after I bought the phone (which wasn’t very cheap)! That memo was the beginning of the end for Nokia at least for me and I can explain why. It affected developers who refused to work on Symbian applications. Which serious company would spend money to create apps for a dying platform, even abandoned by the company who created and supported it for years? However, without any applications, how can a company expect to sell smartphones?

That memo had tremendous effects on the company itself. Elop singlehandedly rendered all Symbian phones obsolete without having to offer an alternative. He said that Windows Phones would be the future of the company, however the first Nokia Lumia with WP as an operating system was months away from production. The company lost its credibility and its sales dropped so significantly that it now faces tremendous financial issues.

Very good phone 

As a customer I felt like I was stuck with an outdated phone making me angry on a company that I used to like. Nokia focused more on creating the Lumia series and the preannounced Symbian updates arrived with months of delays. Now, after months of waiting I’m running Symbian Belle. It is so much better than the early Symbian version but it’s too late, too little. There are hardly any good applications released on this platform for months. That is the reason that I refuse to go for the Nokia 808. That phone was awarded as phone of the year in the Barcelona conference at the beginning of the year for featuring a staggering 41MP camera! However, it runs Symbian and not generally supported even by Nokia itself.

Generally, Nokia and Elop are all about the Lumias now but I refuse to follow them. I see the same mistakes happening. They announced that not any of the existing Lumias can be upgraded to version 8.0! That means that if I buy a Lumia now, I’ll get stuck with yet another obsolete platform. Why would I do that again to myself? Not to mention the mobile phone carriers who are boycotting Windows Phones since Microsoft bought Skype! Skype is loathed by them. I feel bad for all the people who lost their jobs working for Nokia but things look very gloom for the company now. Its market share dropped so much in such a short period of time. Maybe Microsoft will buy it… I don’t know. If you want to read more about it, this blog by Tomi Ahonen is simply amazing. He used to be in Nokia and simply hates Elop's guts! You can read how a CEO put his company in turmoil. 

But as a let-down customer I say goodbye to Nokia and hello to Samsung! 

Gay Evolution of the Video games

I think it was a year ago when I had lots of free time and I asked my fellow readers / bloggers / online friends of a good PC game to play. Gauss Jordan back then suggested Mass Effect. I got Mass Effect 2 and I loved it. Thanks for that by the way. I never thanked you for the suggestion.

Since I liked the 2nd game, it was only natural that after I read some very good reviews about it, I got the recently released 3rd instalment of the game. Thank you so much for the birthday gift JJ! Since Skyrim was getting a bit old and after I spent many (way too many) hours playing it, I’ve now started devoting my free time in ‘Mass Effect 3’. And boy was I for a treat?

The game takes place in the future, in space. There’s an evil alien invasion and you, Commander (I think) Shepard of the spacecraft Normandy are trying to save the Galaxy. It doesn’t sound like the most original story ever but the details, subplots, graphics and action make it a really interesting and captivating game. While Shepard’s trying to unite the various species against the new common threat, he (I’m playing a male character) interacts with his ship’s crew, gets to know them and finishes missions provided by them.

One of the crew members is Stephen Cortez. He’s a Lieutenant and pilot for the good guys. While I as Shepard was visiting the deck, I was told that I need to speak to Stephen, so I headed down to the Armoury. There I find a crying Stephen, so I asked him what’s wrong. Do you know what he said? His husband died on one of the evil alien invasion? I’ll repeat that: ‘his husband’! I was like wow, that’s cool!

Cortez crying over his husband

So, I did my research. I don’t want any spoilers for the plot of the game, so I was cautious on what I could find. Apparently, Stephen is the only opening gay character of the game that was actually even married. There’s also the possibility to have ‘intimate’ moments with him if you are a male Shepard. You can select the gender at the beginning of the game. So, I’ll see what the future holds.

Shepard and Cortez

This development is not something completely new. In Skyrim as well a male character could marry another male NPC (that’s Not Playable Characters for the non-geeks). This option was also allowed in the ‘Sims’ series and these are only three widely accepted games that I just thought of. Compared to the Sims though, both Mass Effect and Skyrim are considered to be violent action packed games which I believe have a different (male, younger, heterosexual) target group than ‘The Sims’. So, are gay characters in video games becoming mainstream? There’s even apparently a gay sex scene later in the game if you decide to make Steve and Shepard an item. I’ll definitely make that happen…

On the other hand, I have found some online forums where this option is condemned and homophobic hatred comments are posted. I’m not going to comment on them and decide simply to ignore them. I do love the existence of gay characters in video games. People from various backgrounds should have this kind of incentives. It’s even nicer to have a gay Commander fighting to save the whole galaxy! Gay characters shouldn’t follow stereotypes.

Mid-Holidays news update

If I want to sum up my holidays I’d say that I spent a third of it playing Nintendo Wii with ‘JJ’ (Santa Christmas gift), one third eating or sleeping and another third doing various other things like watching DVD movies. I know that the Wii is probably not the coolest technology any more, since it was released more than 5 years ago, but:

1. It’s a much appreciated gift from lovely friends
2. It’s really fun competing against your boyfriend at Mario Kart (even if you do lose most of the times)!
3. There are some really enjoyable games you can play with friends at wii, although I can’t see myself dancing at Abba songs anytime soon…

The food we cooked on Sunday was simply superb. We had 3.5 kilos of slow cooked pork, grilled vegetables, two types of potatoes, quails with rice and a chocolate yule for desert! Needless to say that we didn’t manage to finish everything. There was even no point at serving the cheese platter we had also bought for the occasion. We had pork the day after and the day after that (in different variations)! I don’t think I can have pork in the foreseeable future. I’m not going to feel bad about the amounts of food consumed though.

What else we tried that day was having champagne with breakfast right after opening our Christmas presents! As an idea it didn’t sound bad, however it backfired. It gave to both of us headaches during the afternoon. JJ managed to sleep it off but I wasn’t that lucky.

What else happened last week? Oh yeah, my company’s Christmas party. That experience was… let’s say interesting. The other members of my intimate team didn’t go but I felt I had to, being the newbie of the company. I wanted to practice my social skills, have small talk with the managers etc. The place they had booked was a function room in a bar in central London. The music was very loud, mostly disco or pop and there were visual effects as well! Some food was served in bowls like fish balls, gnocchi and small pieces of turkey! I was interested to see what the food would be, because the invitation mentioned ‘bowl food’ and I had no idea what that was. Probably that’s a posh word to say ‘type of finger food’. There were unlimited amounts of beer and wine as well!

So, it didn’t take long since people got drunk and started behaving like fools on the dance floor. After a couple (or more) drinks I joined the fun and moved to the rhythm on the dance floor as well. However the situation got a bit out of hand, that is why I said that the experience was interesting. For example it was a bit weird watching a sixty five year old director jumping up and down screaming the ‘I’m the only girl in the world’ theme or another manager informing us what the ‘single ladies’ want to do, etc! Don’t get me wrong, in one hand I was very happy that they were enjoying themselves so much, but on the other it felt a bit embarrassing. Overall, the party was fun and I laughed a lot. I’m not sure if I’m going next year though unless I make sure that people I know well join me.

Other than that, on a very different subject, my Nokia N8 broke down last week. I have to admit that I wasn’t generally ecstatic about it, but it served its purpose. I believe that the N8’s hardware was really good, fashioning a very good camera, memory, screen and speed. Its operation system is a mess though and the latest promised UI upgrade was yet again delayed for some months. Nokia is now more concerned about attracting new customers with their Windows phone than releasing a previously promised upgrade.

Anyway, I was sitting at my desk with my elbows on it, when I dropped the phone I was holding. The distance was small and I had dropped it in the past again but I think that angle of the collision broke the screen. I’ve now sent it to service to see if it can be fixed, but I’m not very optimistic. The screen was functioning in a way that I could stop the alarm I had previously set, but it still remained completely black! That can’t be a good sign. That Nokia was the first smartphone I had and I was used to the extra functions. I fear I might need to replace it, although I am not going for an iphone. I was thinking of a cheaper Samsung Galaxy Ace till I can renew my contract next July. I’ve read that it is a decent phone. Do you know / own it?

It’s coming…

Greek news update: In a very short period of time and after a blackmail set by the EU, the referendum has been cancelled and the Greek Prime Minister stepped down. A coalition government will be created whose new PM is not set yet. I believe this to be good news although I do remain pessimistic about the country’s future. I fear that the new government will be equally inadequate as the previous. Funnily enough there’s an article in the CNN that ‘How Greeks have stopped dreaming of the future’ which is exactly how I feel at the moment.
 
However, I’m going to change the subject. I don’t want to bore you with this kind of things any more. They’re very depressing as they are…

So, I’d like to announce how happy I am that the 11th day of the 11th month of 2011 is finally approaching! Apart from being a very peculiar date that happens only once in a century, there is another reason this date is special (at least to me)! The 5th instalment of the Elder Scroll’s game is being released: Skyrim! The ‘Elder Scrolls’ are a series of a single player RPG game! The third instalment (Morrowind) and the fourth (Oblivion) were two of my most beloved computer games ever. I’ve spent lots (and lots) of time on them which I extremely enjoyed. I lost hours of sleep on them which I haven’t regretted.  (Yes, I am such a geek, as if you didn’t know)

So, naturally I hope that the fifth one will be as good as the rest.  And for the first time, I have preordered this game from Amazon!  Usually, I wait for user comments or online reviews to purchase a PC game. You never know if it’s going to be a flop. However, I hope Bethesda, the company that will release the game, will not disappoint. I only hope 2 things. First that my PC will be able to deliver sufficiently the beauty of the game and the second that it will arrive on release day, this Friday and not be delayed. You hear me Amazon????

If these two conditions are met I will say ‘bye-bye’ to the normal, physical world (for a short period of time at least) and dive into a vast mythical world of magicians, orcs, conspiracies, elves and dragons. See you on the other side!

PS. If you call me and I don’t reply, don’t try to yell louder. I’m probably wearing my headphones. It’s better if you throw something (light) at me.

Some things never change…

I was preparing a post for the latest news on Greece. It’s a topic always on my mind (for obvious reasons) but I decided to spare you the tediousness. It’s Monday, not a great day by any means, so I’m trying to think of a subject to present that is more appealing and less sad. Since I can’t find a specific one, I will just mention recent things I had on my mind…

I’m now finishing the third book of the ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ by R.R.Martin. That book was split in two in the UK, so I am officially finishing book 3B. For those who are interested in Fantasy books, I have to say is a must read. I generally love the fact that each chapter is written from the perspective of different characters, some of which are the bad ones. I also love the complexity of challenged characters by nature like ‘Tyrion’ also known as the ‘Imp’.

nice adaptation...

The story is very complicated with lots of different characters with their own agendas. I don’t want to give away too much but there are way too many people interested in gaining the control of the throne making the story complex and interesting. In the meantime there is a very dark and scary menace looming on the North and another exiled heir to the throne gathering forces to the East. What I mostly love in the story is that characters the reader thought are there to stay, find death in a horrible, almost easy way. Has anyone seen the telly series?

On another geeky issue the new iphone, version 5, will be released early October. I’m really looking forward to seeing Apple’s new tagline. Will it be ‘It changes everything yet again once more’? I know many of you are already converted to the Dark Side, but I hope to stay in the boring, yet functional and geeky Jedi Side…

Since, this post is turning into a geek theme, I’ll keep on. Am I the only one who things that ‘The Big Bang Theory’ is really good? I believe it’s very well written. I don’t how old the series I’m watching now on UK television is, but I still find it hilarious.

Speaking of television, I have to add that I highly enjoy ‘Qi’ as well! This is the only knowledge comic ‘quiz’ show, if you can call it that. Where else can you learn that the ancient Greeks were using bread (baguettes) as dildos or the fact that Coke without colouring is green and that the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world is Lego?

that's my official goodbye to summer...

Geeky Wednesday…

It’s no secret I’m a geek. I love my gadgets, my computer games, my comic books, fantasy novels, sci-fi movies and learning all sorts of technical stuff other (normal) people find boring. I simply have a thing for them. I am also the person my friends and relatives will come when it comes to finding answers to computer problems and issues. I’m not the best one there is and I do believe my knowledge in certain issues is limited, but in most cases I do know where to look for an answer (that’s the engineer in me).

By the way: what’s the difference between a ‘geek’ and a ‘nerd’? Which is worse?
I mentioned I am a geek and not a nerd because I do have a social life and I know how to behave with other human beings who haven’t watched ‘Star Wars’ a million times or aren’t a fan of ‘The big Bang theory’!

Anyway, this is my geek update.

This Christmas, I’ve purchased a new laptop. I got a Sony VAIO E series that is able to run games I couldn’t play before. So, I’ve recently restarted devoting some time to them again. Playing games is not such a high priority (as it used to be) and I do it only when I want to relax at home. I’m not addicted or anything. I still prefer spending time with friends and ‘JJ’ than sitting at home in front of a 15’’ screen.

Loving Strategy and RPG games, I bought ‘Starcraft II’, ‘Fallout 3’ and ‘Civilisation V’. I wasn’t disappointed by any of them. Starcraft II is amazing and lives up to the expectation of its predecessor. It took Blizzard 12 years to release the sequel to ‘Starcraft’, which is one of my favourite games, but it was worth it. It only has a single campaign, for humans, but there are quite a few battles to keep you happily occupied for a long time. The graphics, physics and tactics of the game are all very appealing. I can’t wait for the release of the rest of the campaigns.


’Fallout 3’ as well is extraordinary. The world it produces is massive and your character can evolve in so many different ways. There are many quests that can be completed in different ways, affecting the rest of the story, making the game very interesting. It looks a lot like ‘Oblivion’ since it uses the same graphic engine but the world is so different. ‘Civilisation V’ was a bit of a disappointment since I believe it’s not that good as the previous one. The graphics are nicer and some aspects have improved but in general I believe it has been simplified to appeal to console gamers. It can still offer some hours of fun but I’d prefer playing version ‘IV’ to ‘V’. I will now invest some time in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ and maybe ‘Dead Space’.


On the fantasy book front, I’ve recently finished ‘A game of Thrones (A song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)’ by George R. R. Martin. This book was recommended to me by an acquaintance from a gay dating site a couple of years ago. (Yes, this is the topics I have when meeting someone new.) I had bought this book in autumn but I’ve now just managed to sit down and read it and I have to say I loved it. The characters are not single dimensional and the plot has quite a few interesting twists. I like fantasy books with a dark twist in them. I bought and read the book before learning about the US TV adaptation. If anyone has watched it, is it any good? Has it started yet?


I’m now reading the ‘The painted Man (Demon Trilogy)’ by Peter V. Brett aka ‘The Wicked Man’ in the States. I generally take a break between reading a book series not to get tired by the same heroes and stories. I’ll pick up the second book of the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ later. So, I’ve read the first 100 pages of ‘The Painted Man’ and I have to admit I like his way of writing. It’s a bit too soon to say though if the whole book is any good or not but for the moment, I quite enjoy it.

Linux and me…

In theory I’m good with technology. I grew up in a family that has really good relationship with it. My parents were playing video games in a ZX Spectrum with rubber keyboard before I was born. My mother was on the phone with me yesterday about creating and setting automatically created table of contents in Word. She couldn’t remember how to do it. I started using Windows 3.1 and moved through all versions of Windows. The only reason I still haven’t installed Windows 7 is because I’m only using Linux at home now. I formatted my laptop in November when Ubuntu 9.10 was released and I have only that installed. It’s been three months now and I can say that I ‘m very pleased with them.


In general I really like Linux. There are so many different distributions that there must be one out there to fill your needs. I’m not that experienced in them but I am happily now getting to start to know them. What of course is their major advantage is the fact that you can get them for free. Yes, for free... After Leopard or Windows it is really a pleasure to have an OS (operation system) free of charge. I do not know about Leopard (I never owned a Mac) but Windows Vista had so many problems that it was ridiculous!

You can simply visit their website and download them. You might only get charged if you order CDs or DVDs delivered to your place. What I also found very interesting is the fact that for most Linux distributions, you can create a live bootable CD that can allow you to boot into the OS without making any permanent changes to your PC.


That is how, out of pure curiosity, I first tested Ubuntu 8.4 and OpenSUSE 10.0. I am not a core programmer and the only differences I could primarily see where according to their User Interface. The first is using by default Gnome and the second is using KDE. What made me select Ubuntu though was the fact that it was able to find my wireless connection and get automatically and easily connected to the internet. OpenSUSE couldn’t see my wireless adaptor.

Having internet connection a whole new world of applications are open for you to explore. You can just as easily download almost everything from games, design tools, photo editing software and video players without even visiting their websites. You can have displayed a whole list of software packages to simply choose from.


Most people believe that Linux is very complicated and only programmers can use it. I think that Linux can be as complicated as you want to make them. Modern Linux now are quite Windows-lookalike and you will not have to open and use command lines often. Of course there can be some issues with hardware drivers (although I didn’t have any problem with them) and some command lines might have to be written manually, but to be honest, that seldom happens. Also, there are so many Linux users now and many forums to check for solutions.

What can be irritating is that not all Windows software work on Linux. You are able to find equivalent software working on Linux or you could have ‘Wine’ that ‘emulates’ and runs Windows programs, but not all of them work. If you are a hard core gamer, you will not like Linux since most new games will not load. Most of older games do work in Linux though. I am happily playing ‘Morrowind’ at the moment, without any issues. Also, if you want to work on a specific software package like AutoCAD or ArcGIS then you might also encounter problems. If you are an everyday user like me at home, just browsing the internet, playing some games and using OpenOffice a bit, then Linux is an OS for you, even if it can be slightly rough at the edges…

Ok, maybe my analysis so far was a bit simplistic or even childish but I strongly believe that open source software is the future. You can check on today’s news that Symbian is giving away billions of dollars of code by going ‘open source’. Do you think they do not know what they are doing? Also Google’s new OS called Chrome OS is based on Linux.

Binary heart