After browsing through job ads for financial markets programmers one day I came to two conclusions. (1) Financial programming jobs are extremely lucrative and (2) the majority of financial software is built on the *nix platform. Consequently, I decided to revisit Linux, determined to work through the mind numbing roadblocks that had impeded my progress on previous attempts.

Ah yes, those previous attempts. Let me just say from the outset, as a user of an operating system/graphical user interface, I am not all that interested in the fine nitty gritty of how all of that stuff fits together. I know that statement doesn't fit in with the Jedi culture of *nix, however my first interest in any computing environment is becoming productive in my chosen domain as quickly as possible. Spending time in initd files or resolving package dependencies is just not of any interest to me. Which is not to say that I am I am not eternally grateful to those who *are* interested in such things, I am, and will be forever more. It's just that if it becomes necessary to muck about with 20 pages of cryptic instructions, just so I can progress forward to a productive state, then I will go back to the operating environment in which I am familiar and immediately productive, rather than struggle through the pain.

And so it was with some trepidation that I booted the latest Ubuntu from CD to return once more into the breech. And suddenly, the whole world had changed. The boot CD found ALL of my hardware, including the built in Intel wireless chipset (got the screen resolution wrong, but surprisingly it looks better at the lower resolution), and within minutes I had Ubuntu Linux staring back at me. Connecting to the wireless router was so trivially easy that I at first couldn't believe I was actually connected. Firing up Firefox soon confirmed that I was, and I found the whole system more responsive and snappy than the Windows environment I had left only minutes ago. So far so good, my trepidation was slowly being replaced with hope, however it was not until I made the leap from boot CD to HD install that hope gave way to enjoyment.

I have not had a lot of luck installing Boot CD distributions as hard disk installations. Multiple versions of Knoppix have failed dismally at this task. Nor have I had much luck with dual boot and boot loaders, my efforts usually ending with a DOS session and "format /mbr", so what happened next on my journey left me gaping. It was with a heightened sense of fear that I double clicked on the "Install" icon sitting on my new Ubuntu desktop. The installer asked a few routine questions and then crunch time 'How shall I partition the disks?'. The default option was to automatically resize hda5 (which I recognized as the D drive) and create the default partition table in the remaining space. I could see no advantage in second guessing the installer, so I left it as it was and clicked "Forward", and the install process started. The first messages were about the partitioning process, resizing hda5, creating partition table, writing to boot partition hd0, whoa, whoa, whoa, what was that about writing to the boot partition? Oh well, here comes another evening of getting Windows back up and running, no point stopping it now, cross that bridge when we come to it.

So the installation finishes and the installer wants to restart, I give it the OK, thinking that it will probably boot straight into Linux, and I will need to get Windows back at some future time, but no, the machine comes up, and lo and behold I have a boot menu in front of me. Ubuntu, Ubuntu Safe mode, Windows XP, Windows XP safe mode and a few others. How did I do that? I didn't, the installer did it for me! Brilliant! I almost feel sorry for Microsoft at this point. There can no longer be a monopoly when it is so trivial to have multiple operating systems at your disposal. So before I get too excited, I decide that having a menu item is one thing, but booting the OS of your choice is entirely another, so I select Windows XP, and away it goes and before long I have XP running, blissfully unaware of how it's position in the pecking order has so dramatically changed. So restart once more, only this time I select Ubuntu.

OK, first up, lets play some tunes! Ah, they are on my Windows partition. Strangely enough, although the Boot CD found and mounted my NTFS partitions, the installed version does not. OK, quick google on mounting NTFS partitions in Ubuntu reveals the menu item I need to use, only problem is, I don't have that item in my System Tools menu. Hmmm. OK, lets open up the Synaptic Package Manager and see if I can install that functionality. So I open Synaptic and type in NTFS into the search box. Bingo! NTFS support. Mark it for installation and Apply. Synaptic reaches out across the internet, downloads of the necessary packages (including ALL dependencies CORRECT versions), and installs them. When it is done, I go back to the System Tools menu, and sitting there is a new utility to mount NTFS partitions. Bada bing bada boom, the complete idiots guide to installing new functionality.

Now let me just take a moment to wax lyrical about the Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu. It is hands-down the most usefull and gratifying piece of software I have used on any platform, Mac, Windows or Linux. See the great thing about GNU/Linux is all of the amazing free software available at your finger tips, and up until recently, my experiences actually downloading, installing, configuring, finding and running this software has at times ended very unpleasantly with ze partitions reformatted and ze running and ze screaming. This sudden change in usability brought about by a simple package manager installer is an evolutionary step. Maybe not to the hard core *nix Jedis, but for the average Windows programmer, trying to make the switch with the shortest possible lead time to being productive in the new environment, it is everything. Add to that mix the incredible tool set available free for software developers, and I think you will really start to see an acceleration in the take up of GNU/Linux amoungst Windows developers, and where developers go, users (including busines)follow.

The rest of my journey so far has consisted of installing KDevelop, building "Hello World" while listening to tunes, playing with Evolution (I think I prefer Thunderbird), and remembering once more how much I hate emacs.