Day Three
Posted on 14 Nov 2008 at 15:00
It's newsletter day at PC Pro (sign up at www.pcpro.co.uk/registration), which is the one day of the week I don't want my operating system turning on me like a rabid dog.
My investigations into yesterday's monitor problem reveal it's all Nvidia's fault: the drivers for my graphics card are detecting my monitor, but choosing to ignore it, much as you would your girlfriend's annoying mate. Normally you just head into the control panel to fix this, but in true Linux fashion having the drivers is no guarantee of having the software allowing you to play with them. Another scout around the internet and I find the command to download the control package, and after a quick fiddle Fedora lurches onto my monitor, but at the price of completely rogering both displays. More fiddling only makes the situation worse, until finally I luck out on the forums and find the command to make it all better. A quick jaunt to safe mode, a few lines of commands later and hey presto, TwinView is enabled and it's almost as if I'm computing in 2008.
With the monitor problem solved in a world record-equalling hour-and-a-half I'm bristling with confidence, and turn my attention to that pesky email problem. An hour later, as the office fills up with my Windows-loving workmates, I've tried every combination of account information, every plug-in, read every help document and I'm no closer to fixing anything. The newsletter beckons and in pure desperation I flip over to Ubuntu and try setting it up there instead. Two minutes later I'm reading my work email. No fuss, no drama. I typed in exactly the same settings and it worked. I've killed men for less.
I bash out the newsletter and soon the time comes to print it for proofing, which means getting the office printer set up. Remarkably, and through no fault of my own, it works first time. I just type in the IP address of our HP LaserJet and 30 seconds later I've killed a tree. Easy life. So easy, in fact, I decide to ditch Fedora for Ubuntu at work as well.
Author: Stuart Turton
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