From Windows to Linux

I took the plunge this afternoon. I double-copied most of my data to two disks, so they would be accessible from both (I did this because linux was having a little trouble with one of the Windows "dymnamic disks").

Once the data was copied I began the installation. I quickly encountered the large FAT-32 volume bug and had to disconnect all external drives. Once unplugged the installation went smoothly.

I decided to go with XFS as my file system and formatted 2 of my 3 large disks making the first a system disk, the second my /home disk. The third disk contents are being copied as I write and will become my /Work disk soon. I also have a 4th disk, smaller, FAT-32 formatted and I use that to store a lot of "junk."

I have managed to get Chrome installed, my email accounts plugged in, my chat accounts plugged in, etc. I did manage to get the Cisco AnyConnect client installed and to the point where it appears to work, but I had trouble with my work connection. I'll have to reboot and check that out later. The process of getting the Cisco client involves installing 32 bit libraries and copying firefox libraries into the Cisco client's lib folder.

Since work is my priority, I'll be focusing on that tonight. I need to get the connection squared away, then I need to rig ssh+svn so I can access our code. I also need to get a few extra apps installed, like the official version of Sun Java, altho' I might try to get JBOSS running with the OpenJDK version. We shall see. I also want to get JDeveloper and the Oracle client libraries installed if possible.

Once all the work stuff is squared away, I can focus on getting Wine installed and work on getting several of my games going. I was excited to read that Torchlight works very well under Wine and the Steam client should fare as well as the store-bought CD-ROM version of the game.

As I mentioned before, I will meet some limitations. I won't be able to watch my Netflix instant queue from my computer. I also had to export my iTunes music to non-DRM format. I wanted to wait to do the same for my video library, but I got antsy while waiting on the conversion company to help me out with an issue. So what I will have to do is copy my video library to my son's computer and run the software there. It will take a couple of days to complete. Perhaps I can get this started before we leave for vacation, then clean up when we get back.