Quick Computer Update

As you'll recall from last week's tale of woe, after resurrecting my sucky hp hardware, and installing Windows (from an old CD I had from a previous computer, because hp doesn't see fit to provide its customers with media), I had no network. Browsing Google News, as I often do, I stumbled on the announcement of the Gutsy Gibbon release of Ubuntu Linux. I am proud to say, that our home computer is back up and running - Windows free! Ubuntu is pretty slick. There are a few rough edges, and some things that will take some getting used to, but most things remain the same. We've always used Open Office for word processing and such, Thunderbird for e-mail, and the Firefox browser, so 80% of what we do doesn't change at all. With a little poking around I got RhythmBox supporting mp3 files, and it does a nice job managing our music and updating our iPods (though when I rip a CD, the track times are WAY off). Now, if I can find a good, reliable backup strategy, and figure out what to do about anti-virus software (no, I do NOT believe that since I'm running Linux I don't have to worry about malware), we'll be good to go.