Over the past year or so I have become more interested in open source software. Open source software is typically developed by a community of developers, distributed freely, with access to the source code and permission is granted to use, modify and distribute this source code, so long as it is not sold commercially. More about the ethos of open source software can be found here.

The linux series of operating systems are mainly open source OSs that are built around the linux kernel. My first attempts with linux was with one of the oldest, best known and most stable - Debian. The installation on my laptop went fine, however getting the wireless network card to work proved too much for me and I gavce up on linux for a while. Next I tried Ubuntu, and I have stuck with it since.

The idea behind Debian is that everything in the distribution should be open source. The driver needed to operate the wireless card on my laptop is proprietary software, hence the problems I encountered installing the ipw220 driver. Ubuntu is based around Debian, with modifications, and comes bundled with some proprietary software. I don't mind using some proprietary software if it means I can use wifi, graphic cards etc.

The pages I will create here will mainly be notes on problems I have encountered and how I have solved them and reviews of software that I have used. They will probably be of limited interest to others, but if these pages can help you, good!