According to an Evans Data survey, more software developers are thinking Linux when choosing operating system requirements for their new products:

"the total percent of developers targeting any version of Windows has declined significantly – by a full 10 percentage points - since this time last year. This continues a gradual downward trend in actual Windows targeting that has been continuing for the last two years."

Windows is still holds its pole position, but RedHat and SuSE are catching up.

"Total Linux targeting has increased by 34% from 8.8% targeting a year ago to 11.8% now"

Well, good news then...Especially since Vista users are not as many!

See more here. BTW, reading Evans Data reports requires you to register.

Whole story and screenshot from here.

OK, I promise to drop the subject soon enough. But the adventures from yesterday need to be remembered. By me at least.

So, after having read the installation instructions the night before, I started installing yesterday. Well of course the it all froze at a certain point. Why? It was related to some BIOS settings, Enhanced Mode/Compatible Mode something. Apparently SLES needed the Compatible Mode.

So, I got some help and I started installing Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9. Cool distro, old though. Really old for my hardware, no it did not work. But I managed to install it and see how cool it was (it practically did everything on its own, click-click, next-next, just like Windows).

The masters have then gathered and discussed what I should try next. A newer distro, first of all, friendly with the uninitiated. Yes, right now I am a typical user. I can't be bothered with commands and terminals. Basically because I don't know them yet. So we then got an Ubuntu CD.

This time, it all went great. The installation procedure of Ubuntu is a very smart one I think. Extremely easy, everyone can do it. It is also performed from a Live CD. So while you install the distro (as it can take a while), you can also experience it: surf the internet, play a game, whatever makes you happy.

Personal likes:
- the Synaptic Package Manager! Imagine this, you update it to have all repositories up to date. Then you simply search through dozens of packages for any software you might like. Select, thrn install :)
- the great theme color: orange, a really nice orange. The theme color is also applied to other installed software: GAIM, Firefox and Thunderbird all have an orange bar.
- Thunderbird instead of Outlook (after all the issues I have encountered with Outlook on my Windows XP installation, this is a true blessing).
- A lot of pre-installed software which means less wasted time. Open Office is not my personal favorite, I have to give Microsoft what's Microsoft's: Word, Excell, PowerPoint still rock.
- more workspaces (i.e. desktops, more of them)
- the fact that it is all so new and challenging and because I feel this crave to learn more.

Personal dislikes (Disclaimer: I am a newbie, if some of these things exist or are fixable, I might change my mind later):
- what happened to Arial??? Where is it???I want it back!!!
- the fact that I know so little about it
- GAIM is pissing me off really bad at times. Until I figure out stuff, with help of others, of course :)

This is a pretty new experience for me. I've had to deal with quite a few during the past few months. The most recent one was last night. I could not sleep until 6.30 in the morning. I managed to then sleep for about two hours and then got up and left to get the Baiadera tickets. This particular day in the office will prove quite challenging.

What I most hate about insomnia kicking in is that you cannot do anything with some relevance attached to it. Just stay in bed and watch a movie or something. Luckily for me, I had Grey's Anatomy on DVDs to help me through the night.

Going back to more interesting aspects: I will get my very own Linux training with one of the very best (a colleague I appreciate a lot). And yes, today is the big day when SLES 9 will be installed on my computer. Wish me luck...And no kernel panics! I already know what that looks like...

As part of my real attempt to getting to know a little about Linux and Linux distros, I have spent the last two hours reading installation and configuration instructions for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. It has been delightful...Yeah, I again feel like there is so much I need to know. To quote the status message of a friend quoting a forum post author, "I know shit, but some shit is still unclear". Well, the amount of unclear stuff seems to keep growing and growing.

Anyway, tomorrow I will gather all the bits and parts of courage hidden within me, and give a try to install the distro on the 6 CDs now staring back at me :) Will let you know how it goes. If I fall in love with Linux and decide to quit Windows, I'll again let you know.