And now, the end is near. Yes folks, it's time to pull the curtain down over the Linux Diary. This is part 10, and Laurence and I decided that this be the final part of the diary. Now before you start booing, Laurence is interested in getting another newbie on board to do "Linux Diary 2: Judgement Day" or something.

Don't fret though, you'll still hear from me, but rather than through a newbie diary, since I'm no longer a newbie (I've compiled my kernel, upgraded GNOME, KDE etc...), it will be a new column -- my ramblings on Linux etc.

But anyway, on with the final entry for the diary. There's been a pretty big gap. Mainly due to various personal problems and not wanting to use Linux. But I've now had the computer sitting in Linux for 1 day, 3 hours and 38 minutes, so nearly 28 hours. No crashes, no reboots, just 28 solid hours of Linux goodness.

What have I been doing? Well installing a load of stuff for starters. Encountered a few problems as always, but rather than tear my hair out, now I just get annoyed for a minute or so, then think how stupid the person or persons who created the program that caused the problem, and laugh at their idiocy. This makes me feel better. I highly recommend it. It's not your fault the people who wrote the program mucked up the makefile, or in the case of RPMs -- neglected to mention what dependencies it had before you downloaded it. No point blaming yourself for the world's failings.

But anyway, I digress. I installed a lot of stuff in the last 24 hours, including 3 programs from www.psionic.com/abacus. Logcheck (which I installed, and now can't find), Port Sentry and Host Sentry. What the latter 2 do is stand guard. Port Sentry keeps an eye out for port sniffing etc, while Host Sentry keeps it's eye on login activity. I just figured that with a system that has the potential be very secure, as with me spending so much time online, I should install some security measures. Port Sentry even goes as far as to alert the script-kiddie or hacker that they've been rumbled. Pretty neat idea. All stuff is logged to /var/log/messages so you can read through and see what's been happening. Pretty cool.

No longer being a newbie doesn't mean my problems are at an end, not at all. I'm currently trying to figure out how to install both sentry programs on startup, but don't want to risk screwing my system over. Feel free to me any hints.

Another problem I have is the way some software doesn't seem to notice the 3dfx card. I have finally - after 6 weeks of fighting - managed to retrieve the files for compiling OpenGL software. Only problem now is the software doesn't notice the card and does everything through software, which means FPS in the 0.6 region. :( QuakeGL works just fine though, so it's not all bad. ;)

What else have I done lately? Not much really. Just tweaks really, and grabbing little utils that I can't do without, or are really cool and don't exist in Windows. One of those I've found is Netcomics. It has a database of online versions of the newspaper funnies (Garfield, Dilbert, you know what I mean) and when you run it, it goes off and retrieves the latest edition of the cartoon. VERY cool. Not just that though, you can specify which you'd like, and how many days worth you'd like to retrieve, so at the moment, sitting in /var/spool/netcomics, alongside the single editions of every cartoon it can download, plus 2 months worth of Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert and The Born Loser for me, and 2 months of Cathy for my wife. Sorry I can't pass on an address, but go to freshmeat.net and do a search for it. Pretty much everything I mention when it comes to software I found there.

Irritating bug of the week goes to GnomeICU. Whether it's just me, or a terminal bug for everyone I don't know, but if you quit GNOME with it running and save the settings, and you're not online when you next run GNOME, the panel core dumps. This is irritating enough, but GNOME just asks if you want to start another panel, and that's that. A much more annoying version appeared today. Enter GNOME, the panel comes up, then core dumps, then comes up again, then core dumps, and so on. In the end I had to delete a couple of configuration files just so I could get GNOME working properly again... Ah well, if that's the worst that happens in GNOME, that's good. Better than Windows. Managed to crash that the other day when I minimized a program to quickly do something. (The program being Half Life.) Usually it works fine, this time the system locked. Did ctrl-alt-del and all that did was freeze the mouse as well. Piece of crap operating system.

Of course I have found other bugs. I've also tried to find somewhere to report them, but I have yet to find out HOW, which is really frustrating as this is a bit of a show stopper for me. The bug is in the Joliet file system support. All the CD's I have data on (graphics, mp3's etc) are in this format. Now some files read okay, no problem, but the bug occurs when I try to access a file with a long name. Take an MP3 for example. I have one called "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Pelvis" (from Oedipus Schmoedipus by Barry Adamson. I highly recommend it.) LONG file name. Works fine in Windoze. Try and read it in Linux and it reports the file size wrong by about 1.5 megs. That's not much of a problem, except for the fact that that it actually believes that, so you play the mp3, and it quits playing once it reaches the time it would be at with the bogus filesize. So the song is about 4:30 long, but due to the problem is only plays 3 minutes then ends... This is a pretty MAJOR bug in my opinion. I've searched around and can find no mention of it ANYWHERE online, but of course I can find no mention as to where to report it either, hence I'm mentioning it here. If you have this problem, please write and let me know since I'd like to know if I'm the only one. Also if you know where to report the problem, PLEASE report it. It's happened on all kernels I've tried, so I have no reason to believe there is any difference between current kernels and my 2.2.10 version as I have trawled every little piece of info I could find to see if maybe it was fixed, and to be honest I don't think "the powers that be" know about it.

As a little something, I figured I'd snapshot my desktop and show it to the world. This is after the work of downloading the missing Propaganda background archives (RH6 ships with 1-6, so I downloaded 7-12 today. Again, you can find these on Freshmeat, or at least the link.) and trawling through them all. The panel graphics are from the GNOME marble theme. I just found where the graphic was, and chose that as the panel graphic. I think it looks rather good. And for those who care, note the CD player playing the new Nine Inch Nails album:) Courtesy of my Dad I managed to buy it on release day. Even went to a midnight opening to do so. Fantastic album. Anyway, that's Trent Reznor's free advertising out of the way, so moving on...

Had big time problems with Lynx. Decided I wanted a newer version. (Found a link to another text based browser that supports Frame by rendering them as tables, but I lost the address. DAMN!) Downloaded said new version. Previous readers can probably see this coming... Yep, failed dependencies... So, disappear off to grab the required files, installed them, THEN Lynx installed... Except when I try to run it it came up with some REALLY obtuse error about a shared library... For the 3rd time, I ditched a newer version of Lynx and reinstalled the one off the Redhat CD...

Solved my GNOME compilation problems. Took a 15 meg download, but I solved them. I downloaded every GNOME devel kit I could find. FINALLY GNOME specific programs compile. This, combined with the OpenGL compilation problem ranks as the most irritating and long winded problem I have had in Linux.

Last night Bill Turner and I decided to try and have a game of Freeciv. I set up the server, things were fine. We started, and the server bombed as vital files were missing. SO nice of it to let me know that then rather then WHEN I RAN THE SERVER TO START WITH... Sheesh! Some of these programmers... Can't bitch too much though, when I eventually got it sorted out (only to find Bill and I had then missed each other entirely) by saying "to hell with it" and downloading the new source and compiling (surprisingly painless!) I discovered that Freeciv is a VERY professional looking game. I'd say the graphics are better than those in the commercial Civ games. (And I'm a veteran, the original game got played to death on my Amiga.) I look forward to FINALLY playing it online. If you're interested in getting together for a game, drop me a line. I'm -0700GMT just so you know:) Never got any replies to my request from people in response to my request for players for any of the online games in Linux. Ah well, the offer still stands if you're interested.

Just checked, I've now been running 28 hours and 13 minutes. Man am I tired... (BAD JOKE!)

Either I'm getting a LOT better in Linux, or I've had relatively few problems lately. I think it's the former. As I said above, the GL and GNOME compilation problems were by far the biggest hassle I've had in Linux, and I finally managed to nail down the solution to them. Took some work but I managed it in the end.

So, my Linux journey have been 6 months roughly. From complete newbie to, as a friend said to me, journeyman. I'm not a newbie, but I'm most certainly not an expert or guru. Yet.:) When I first started this diary, I was using RH5.2, and to be honest, while I liked it, I thought for the most part it was crap. Sure, it was nice to use a decent stable OS, but RH5.2 wasn't really "there" if you know what I mean. All that changed when I got a copy of Redhat 6. Redhat 6 seems LIGHT YEARS ahead of RH5.2. I think GNOME plays a big part, but the software that comes with RH6 just seems better than 5.2. I still have a CD of 5.2, which came in very handy when I wanted a version of Netscape that actually WORKED for me. (4.07. Can't beat it:)) RH6 was really the birth of my Linux addiction. Things just started to click. Rather than "who cares if I screw it up, I can reinstall" it has become "oh God I hope I don't wreck it doing this after all this work". I don't know, RH6 just seems more rewarding than 5.2. While I've had to install RH6 3-4 times to start with, I'm at the stage now where if I lost it all I'd be heartbroken (hence I'm archiving the essential stuff up to my Windows drive as we speak, then I'll have to leave Linux (*sob*) and go to Windows so I can use my rewritable CD.

In the 6 months I've been doing this, I have been elated using Linux, and I have been utterly infuriated by it. For the most part my normal opinion is nearer the former than the latter. (The reverse applies to Windows.) I can honestly say, with hand on heart, that I, who pushes systems to the extreme, who managed to total my wifes hard drive when we first got together by pushing the system to the edge (well, OVER the edge to be exact), who has made computers that had never crashed before crash, have yet to managed to crash Linux. Sure, I screwed up some kernel compilation stuff a few times, but that's not any big deal. I have never had a show stopping crash. X froze on me a couple of weeks back, a quick ctrl-alt-backspace, run StartX, and I picked up where I left off. No reboot, none of that silliness. The only time I have rebooted Linux is when I had to go to Windows.

The longer I stay in Linux, the less I want to return to Windows. I still have a few areas I need to cover. I need an HTML program that is like Dreamweaver. (Anyone who says Netscape Composer can kindly join the line over there by the elevator going down to hell. No self respecting HTML designer will use that nasty little thing.) Secondly I want a decent news program. I use Agent in Windows, and to be honest, it's spoiled me. I love that program.

Oh, and of course, more games would be neat. HEY! You gotta have a little entertainment. :)

Final conclusion at the close of the diary? Linux rocks. The only MAJOR problems I see are the whole library/dependency issues. That's enough to put anyone off. (It has me on occasion.) If they can get that sorted out, then Linux has a very real shot of getting onto "average Joe's" desktop, if it can just get over that pesky Microshaft hurdle. (Though with MS' constant attempts to shoot at Linux ending with them shooting themselves in the foot, the hurdle may collapse without any assistance.)

So there we have it, the final entry to the diary. In the future it will be held up as a legendary piece in the history of Linux. (HEY! I can dream can't I!) I've "met" some interesting people through this column, made some good friends, and had a lot of fun. As I said, I will still be around on The Bits, just not writing the diary. I'll be writing about anything Linux related that takes my fancy.

One final thing, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has sent me things. I won't mention any names lest people track you down and try and take advantage of your good nature and generosity. You all know who you are, and I am extremely grateful for all you've done. Thank you.