I haven’t forgotten my Linux roots, and always do my best to keep up to date with the progressions there. Admittedly, I’m more passive about it now, but always get excited when I see a new version of Ubuntu come out.

Naturally a huge concern of mine when I used Ubuntu as a primary operating system was image editing. Adobe has the industry standard, but I always root for the underdog.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is by far one of the most impressive contributions to open source I’ve ever seen. I know many people have taken issue with UI decisions over the years, but you have to admit it’s a stunningly impressive piece of software that’s been ongoing and active for almost as long as I can remember.

The latest thing to really impress me about GIMP is AdaptableGIMP, which is

… a modified version of the GNU Image Manipulation Program that makes it easy to create and share task-based interface customizations.

There’s some really neat innovation happening here, which even as a partially experienced GIMP user I’d find helpful. The fact that it’s community powered in a sense is even more exciting. Check it out:

So, in essence here, the UI updates itself to accommodate your specific task at hand, and tries to be as helpful as possible (without interfering) along the way. I’ll be keeping my eye on this.

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I still use Media Temple’s Grid-Service to host a number of development sites as well as some daily-use applications. I happened to be working on Iron to Iron’s production server, making some optimizations to APC (Alternative PHP Cache) which I use in conjunction with W3 Total Cache.

If you’re not caching your WordPress installs I definitely suggest getting on board with W3 — it’s honestly stellar.

While I was poking around some documentation, I stumbled across a quick how-to on making APC work with (mt)’s (gs). I’m not sure why it never occurred to me that it’d work, but it’s great! If you’re running your WordPress site on Media Temple’s Grid-Service, definitely take a few minutes to get APC up and running with W3 Total Cache.

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Crop and Resize with GD

Above all, the most asked question was “why only ImageMagick“? I really don’t have a solid answer for that, other than the project itself was a way for me to get into using ImageMagick in a bit more detail than I ever had. I’m very happy to say that this version (as well as any future versions) now has equivalent ImageMagick and GD installations. You can choose one or the other in both the demo and download sections.

Demo: GD Crop and Resize v1.1

Demo: ImageMagick Crop and Resize v1.1

The demos and downloads have been removed temporarily due to a security issue. Replacements will be linked as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience. Please discontinue use as soon as possible until a revision has been posted.

Converting to GD wasn’t a major undertaking thanks to the helpful comments on version 1.0. It did take some time getting the slider to properly convey dimensions that would result in an accurate recreation of the image. One thing I have noticed is that the GD version seems to result in lower quality output when compared directly to ImageMagick. If you’ve got a server with both GD and ImageMagick installed, take a minute to use the same image in both demos to see what the differences are. I plan on looking into this much further, but if you’re a bit more knowledgeable on the subject, I’d love to hear what you have to say. Could the answer be that ImageMagick is simply a superior piece of software? I noticed that GD gives you the option to control the quality of images when using certain functions, so I left image output at 90% for the time being (the default is 75%).

If you have any positive or negative experiences with the new GD version, please feel free to post your findings either below, or in an email to me. I’d be greatly appreciative of any data that comes through.

Updates to the server side

There were a number of fixes that needed to be done to the server side of things straight away. First and foremost was Linux dependency. I must admit, a Windows server didn’t cross my mind when I was working on version 1.0, so I tried to polish things up a bit in that regard. The mv lines have been replaced, as well as an update or two elsewhere. There could very well be some more Windows-specific issues to be dealt with, unfortunately I don’t have any Windows servers at my disposal to test with. Feedback in this area will be particularly helpful.

A small series of updates I made was to the file upload process itself. The example now only accepts files with a MIME type of image/jpeg. Future versions will allow for more image formats, but I’d like to do some more research before including it. There are also some checks on the filenames themselves, as there were some issues with particular circumstances in version 1.0.

There was some logic repair regarding the $maxWidth and $maxHeight variables you can set in the first step. As per request, $minWidth and $minHeight have also been added. This should allow you to really narrow down what image dimensions will result using these variables in conjunction with the Cropper UI. One issue that has not been included yet is taking the minimum and maximum values set in the first step into account when users have reached the resize stage of version 1.1. This will be handled in a future release.

Finally, the last noticeable feature to be added server side was the inclusion of image rotation. When the final image is presented, image rotations of 90, 180, and 270 degrees will be available as well. You’re able to pull apart the code to retrieve which image you’d like to use, and can also include auto-generation using a form whenever you’d like. This was a larger hill to climb when it came to GD as none of the servers I have access to had PHP compiled with GD bundled, therefore giving me no access to imagerotate(). As reflected in the source, a function was written as an alternative, and appears to work just fine. It checks to see if imagerotate() is available before taking the extra CPU cycles doing it ‘by hand’.

Updates to the Cropper UI

I can’t credit Dave Spurr enough for his Cropper UI that powers the entire front end of the cropping mechanism this installation provides. He had made a number of updates after my version 1.0 release, so first things first I went ahead and upgraded to his most recent version.

The second most asked for feature was a specific alteration to the Cropper UI itself. Whether it be minimum dimensions, maximum dimensions, or something else, it seemed like many people would like to use the script, but the openness of the Cropper UI was in fact a limitation. I made an effort to indicate that Dave Spurr included many of the requested features right out the box and documented them well on his website. To help with the version 1.1 demo, I’ve included a few Cropper UI instances to demonstrate its robustness. When you check out the demo, you’ll see a new option to choose the crop type you’d like to use. I’ve included the following by default:

Basic crop

Includes the most basic version of the Cropper UI. Unrestricted as far as crop dimension is concerned.

Ratio (16:9)

A 16:9 ratio will be applied to the Cropper UI. There are no restrictions for width or height.

Minimum Dimensions (200×200)

The Cropper UI will require a minimum 200px by 200px crop area and will not allow anything less.

Minimum Dimensions (200×200) with Ratio (1:1)

The Cropper UI will require a minimum 200px by 200px crop area and will not allow anything less. It will also apply a 1 to 1 ratio when adjusting the crop area.

Maximum Dimensions (200×200)

The Cropper UI will require a maximum 200px by 200px crop area and will not allow anything less.

Maximum Dimensions (200×200) with Ratio (1:1)

The Cropper UI will require a maximum 200px by 200px crop area and will not allow anything less. It will also apply a 1 to 1 ratio when adjusting the crop area.

Fixed Dimensions (200×200)

You’re provided with a crop area at a fixed size of 200px by 200px. The drag handles are also removed as an added convenience.

Minimum Dimensions (100×100) & Maximum Dimensions (200×200)

With this option, you’re limited to a crop area range scaling from 100px by 100px to 200px by 200px.

The Cropper UI is quite impressive in and of itself as you can see by the number of options you can apply by changing some values. For example, one thing I didn’t include in the demo is a Cropper UI that is limited to minimum and maximum dimensions as well as an aspect ratio of 1:1. You can easily invoke a Cropper UI with these attributes by creating a new file (lib/init_cropper/min_max_ratio.js for example) and inserting the following:

function onEndCrop(coords, dimensions) {
	$('cropX').value = coords.x1;
	$('cropY').value = coords.y1;
	$('cropWidth').value = dimensions.width;
	$('cropHeight').value = dimensions.height;
}

Event.observe( window, 'load', function() {
	new Cropper.Img(
		'cropImage', {
			ratioDim: { x: 1, y: 1 },
			minWidth: 200,
			minHeight: 200,
			maxWidth: 300,
			maxHeight: 300,
			onEndCrop: onEndCrop
		}
	);
});

Swapping in this JavaScript would invoke a new Cropper UI for your image with a minimum dimension of 200px by 200px, a maximum dimension of 300px by 300px, as well as an aspect ratio of 1:1. Going further, you’re also able to specify a minimum or maximum for a height or width alone. This will result in a Cropper UI with handles only on the top and bottom if you wish. I would definitely suggest checking out the official website for Dave Spurr’s Cropper UI for more details

Download & installation instructions

Installation is very straightforward. Download links to follow.

1. Download the GD or ImageMagick version
2. Extract
3. Upload to your webserver
4. Give write permissions to the working folder and subfolders
5. Begin using the demo

Download GD Crop and Resize v1.1 (.zip)

Download ImageMagick Crop and Resize v1.1 (.zip)

The demos and downloads have been removed temporarily due to a security issue. Replacements will be linked as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience. Please discontinue use as soon as possible until a revision has been posted.

Many times, if you’re experiencing odd behavior such as pages turning up blank, there is an issue with write permissions on your server. The demo will need write access to the directory in which it is stored as well as the working folder and all folders within it. Errors with the code itself will more than likely be output to the screen. If that happens, please feel free to post your errors at your earliest convenience.

What about AJAX?

Another request that popped up more than once was a request for an AJAX version, something that didn’t require the page to reload. I thought about working out something such as that but quickly dismissed it, at least for now. My intention with this project was to provide something which would be used by the widest audience possible. Too many times have I seen examples too far into their own development to prevent me from writing something from scratch. In my opinion, an AJAX version of this example would prevent easy adoption and inclusion for many developers. AJAX may be a possibility for a future version, but I’d like to seriously consider as many angles as possible. This directly relates to the (lack of) design when looking at the demonstration. I wanted to keep things minimal in order to create the least work for anyone who wants to try incorporating this into something they’ve written.

I hope at the very least, the GD version presents itself as useful to at least a few people over the coming months. I do plan continuing work on future version, I simply hope it doesn’t take as long as this revision has. Please provide any comments you’d like, especially bug reports, and enjoy the demo!

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So why did I switch to OS X?

There was a long time where I had no interest in anything Apple was doing. I’m not sure how to provide much detail, but I was put off by Macs since working with them in high school. There are a number of Macs in my office, but a lack of interest prevented me from doing much of anything with them.

It’s no secret that Apple stole the hearts of so many people in the design and development communities. Each may have their own reasons, and many take the time to let others know why they enjoy Apple so very much. Their reason didn’t appear to be because they’re (all) blatantly against Microsoft, the reason seemed different. When the Internet repeatedly became, dare I say, plagued with articles written about just about anything going on in Cupertino; my interest was piqued. To put things simply, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

It was about the software

A major driving force for my interest in OS X was the software. Time after time I would read an article referencing this gift of an application; TextMate. I watched a few screencasts and my jaw dropped; snippets would change the way I work completely! I tried my hardest to find a Linux equivalent, and ended up finding something that would suffice by using SciTE with TextMate style snippets. I was instantly hooked to tab-triggers. Not only do they save you many keystrokes, they can help you avoid frustration from forgetting a quote or semicolon somewhere. I came across E Text Editor at some point, and was again drawn to TextMate. The application was far superior to what I had pieced together using SciTE; I really wanted to learn more about it. Reading a few articles had me convinced that it truly was a fantastic editor for my personal use.

Another factor contributing to my eventual Apple endeavor was Adobe. While I had no major problems using a virtual machine to get Windows XP up and running, it was quite a resource hog paired up with Photoshop. Booting the VM and then running Photoshop would bring the machine from a steady sprint down to a moderate jog. Slicing and cutting comps approached annoying in the increased time it took to get things done. While running Windows inside a VM really wasn’t a huge deal, I’ve got a bit of OCD when it comes to productivity.

Additionally, I began to question what I would do five years down the road when it came to working in Photoshop. It’s flat out essential for me at work. I tried to picture Adobe taking the time to announce their effort to port the most popular applications from the Creative Suite to Linux, but we all know that isn’t happening any decade soon. I refused to explore the possibility of running Windows Vista, so would I continue to use Windows XP until the day I retire? Neither option sounded very compelling.

It was about the hardware

It’s true that there have been quite a few articles published which act as a horror-filled documentation of an individual experience with Apple, but they’re computers. Bad things happen from time to time, take a look at some of the review threads on Newegg, you’ll find opinions from one end of the spectrum to the other for nearly every product available. Overall, I heard many good things about the hardware itself. I checked things out in more detail and I was impressed with what I found. The build quality of Apple hardware is impressive, and that’s a huge selling point for me. I’ve had my fair share of “discount” hardware and been sorely disappointed.

One thing I was also looking forward to was the “it just works” factor. With Linux, things will definitely work, it’s just that sometimes they require a bit of elbow grease to get the gears turning. If you’re into that sort of thing (which I can truly say I am), then Linux is really that much more fitting for you. I had a lot of fun working with Linux, but when it came down to it, I wanted to get work done faster. Plugging in an external monitor and having OS X automatically enable the display and find the native resolution was a welcome change to editing xorg.conf. There are many more details about the hardware itself that was a selling point, but the overall quality of Apple products was another attractive feature to look forward to.

At the end of the day

Finally, I went ahead and picked up a MacBook running a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, popped in 2 gigs of RAM, and went on my way. The first couple days were all discovery, but nothing out of the ordinary. I had spent nearly two years in a Linux-only environment, so I was partially used to working with an entirely new operating system.

I made the switch to Mac about six months before the time of this writing, and I can say that overall I’m glad I did. I now see why so many designers and developers simply love OS X. With a bit of tinkering, you could make a Linux installation look quite good, but OS X is quite stunning out of the box. The great thing is, applications follow suit. Many applications written for OS X pride themselves on their design.

After six months, I can say that I’ll probably be sticking with Apple for the foreseeable future. The software is great, the hardware is great, and the aesthetics are a nice bonus. I wanted to make sure I had at least some experience before writing that I had made the switch, whether it be good, bad, or great. I really enjoyed my time working with Linux, and had there been a native version of Photoshop to accompany it, I may have never made the switch to be honest. I still use my Ubuntu machine quite a bit. It’s an in-house development server, a file server, as well as the machine on which I capture and touch up photos (using LightZone which used to be a free download for Linux). Linux is by far the operating system I would suggest to someone looking to change things up a bit. You’ve got all the benefits of a UNIX-based machine (as you do with OS X) without the cost. If you’re not strapped to working on tight deadlines, Linux with a virtual machine to run that application or two you simply can’t live without is a completely great solution.

I hope this article didn’t come off as my waving a brand new Apple flag, I simply wanted to offer my experience of switching from Linux to OS X as opposed to the usual Windows to OS X move. If you’ve been back and forth asking yourself whether or not a Mac is for you, the best way to find out is to try. I know it’s an expensive trial, but simply working for a few minutes on a friends machine really doesn’t help you see whether or not OS X is for you. If you’re simply itching to rid yourself of Windows, give Linux a shot with a virtual machine. You really can’t go wrong with a free operating system filled with free software.

I hope to offer some more detailed accounts of what I like about OS X, but I thought I’d test the waters with a bit of an introductory article to see if it’s anything readers have an interest in. Would you rather me not single out software/hardware in what I write? I know that articles written about Apple in general can come off a bit fanboy-ish, and that’s what I’d like to avoid, as I’m not trying to tout OS X or Apple in any way. If readers might be interested in finding out more about the tools I use and my process with them, I’d be more than happy to put some pieces together over the next few months.

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One such product is WebKit, the open source Web browser rendering engine used by Safari (as well as a number of other products). It’s very important to keep in mind that Safari and WebKit are two very different things. Safari is a Web browser that uses WebKit as it’s rendering engine.

The WebKit developers put forth the effort to port WebKit to Qt, which is, as stated by the developers:

Qt is a comprehensive development framework that includes an extensive array of features, capabilities and tools that enable development of high-performance, cross-platform rich-client and server-side applications.

Qt is truly cross-platform and allows deployment on a wide range of hardware configurations, as opposed to other “cross-platform” products that are restricted to Windows and Mac OS X. The fact that the WebKit developers put forth the effort of porting to Qt4 gives users the ability to run their rendering engine on any platform. Thanks to their hard work, it’s quite easy to run a WebKit-based browser in Linux.

Preparing your Linux system for WebKit

I’d like to be explicit in saying that the following instructions are geared towards a fresh install of Ubuntu 7.04, but should be applicable to a wide variety of Linux distributions. First and foremost you’ll need to add extra repositories. After you have followed those steps we can begin.

There are a number of packages you’ll need to successfully build a Qt4 Web browser that uses WebKit.

sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev libxslt-dev gperf bison libsqlite3-dev flex build-essential subversion

There will be a lot of additional packages to install, so don’t be surprised if the list of packages for installation is significantly large.

Obtaining a nightly build of WebKit

Next, we’ll need to use Subversion to check out the WebKit source. The following command will check out files to a folder titled WebKit within your working directory, so be sure your working directory is appropriate (I used my home directory).

svn checkout http://svn.webkit.org/repository/webkit/trunk WebKit

You will be able to monitor the checkout process as each file is listed in your terminal.

The checkout will take some time, as there are quite a few files to download. When the checkout is complete, you’ll see the following message:

Building your Qt4 WebKit browser

When the checkout is complete, you can initiate the build of your Qt4 WebKit browser using the following command:

QTDIR=/usr/share/qt4/ WebKit/WebKitTools/Scripts/build-webkit

The script will take a minute to prepare the build, and then the process will begin.

This step can take quite a bit of time depending on your hardware configuration, so take a few minutes to have a cup of coffee and relax while your browser is being built. Your terminal will scroll with hundreds of lines of build commands and more, so don’t feel the need to sit and watch it build (unless you’re interested — I was).

When your build is complete, you’ll see the following message:

Running the browser

A successful build means you can run your Qt4 WebKit browser using the following command:

WebKit/WebKitBuild/Release/WebKitQt/QtLauncher/QtLauncher about:blank

A very basic browser window will appear with limited controls and an address bar. There will be some information scrolling in your terminal, but it can generally be disregarded.

You’ve now got a native WebKit browser to play around with in Linux. I took a second to attach the launch command to an entry in an panel using the WebKit icon. It’s more convenient than keeping the command saved somewhere to copy and paste when I’d like to test in WebKit.

You can also add your WebKit browser as an entry in your Applications menu using the menu editor if you prefer.

Some quirks I’ve come across so far

There are a few things that will appear out of place. First and foremost, you’ll notice that form inputs will have, what seem to be, a random background-color. I may be completely mistaken, but I haven’t looked into things deep enough to find the rhyme or reason behind the discrepancy. From what I can tell, if the input is styled with CSS, the style takes precedence over any ‘default’ colorization.

The next issue I’ve come across is that you’re not able to work with xHttpRequest. This is another issue I have not researched in enough detail, but if anyone has any insight regarding an inability to make use of XHR, I’d be interested in reading about it.

Finally, the only other quirk I’ve come across so far is that you’ll need to include http:// in any URL you enter in the address bar. While this may seem like a small detail to write about, after my first successful build I spent a few minutes thinking that something went wrong.

Things to keep in mind

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that you’re running a nightly build of WebKit, not the build Safari is using. The nightly versions are much more advanced than Safari’s WebKit, so some of the quirks that appear in Safari may be handled in your Qt4 browser.

Due to the version discrepancy, you can’t depend on a nightly build of WebKit sufficing for a legitimate test in Safari. It is useful, however, to take a quick look at overall structural elements of your designs before making the effort of moving to an OS X machine.

Footnotes and inspiration

I was originally drawn to working with WebKit on Linux by a post on the same subject at as days pass by. I had followed his instructions and ran into a few issues. Going on his advice, I joined #webkit on irc.freenode.net and started discussing a few issues with one of the developers there. He (or she) was extremely helpful in assisting me to successfully build WebKit. I was also directed to a Wiki page which included similar instructions to the post on as days pass by. I felt compelled to write this post based on specific instructions surrounding Ubuntu Feisty but would like to give much credit to the hard work of others.

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Like Windows & OS X, Linux does type too

I’ve been a Linux user for some time now, and Linux is my platform of choice both at work and at home. My distribution of choice is Ubuntu not because it’s the most popular, but because I’ve tried a wide variety of Linux versions, and Ubuntu works the best for me. I say this because I’m going to focus on the fonts that ship by default with Ubuntu, so there may be some discrepancy among distributions.

While the list of Web safe fonts we have come to know and love is relied heavily upon, it can be very beneficial to include similar default Linux fonts in your font-family as well.

What about msttcorefonts?

msttcorefonts is a Linux package providing many Microsoft fonts for easy installation. Personally msttcorefonts is one of the first packages I install when setting up a new Linux installation, but it can’t be assumed that every other Linux user does the same. I’m sure there are many people who choose not to install the package as well, leaving readers out to dry when a bulletproof font-family is not provided.

The fonts provided with msttcorefonts are as follows:

• Andale Mono
• Arial Black
• Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Comic Sans MS (Bold)
• Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Impact
• Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Webdings

Taking into consideration Common fonts to all versions of Windows & Mac equivalents, there are a number of fonts often included in designs that readers running Linux will never see (by default).

• Book Antiqua
• Charcoal
• Helvetica
• Geneva
• Lucida Console
• Lucida Grande
• Lucida Sans Unicode
• MS Sans Serif
• MS Serif
• New York
• Palatino Linotype
• Symbol
• Tahoma
• Times
• Wingdings
• Zapf Dingbats

Using a fresh installation of Ubuntu, I took some time to find Linux typefaces that closely resemble fonts commonly used in Web design. I have purposely left a number of fonts out due to their rarity in actual use. The fonts you won’t find in the following screen shots are:

• Webdings
• Wingdings
• Zapf Dingbats
• Symbol
• MS Serif
• MS Sans Serif

While Linux does ship with a couple symbol-based fonts, I have chosen to exclude them due to character inconsistencies

Linux equivalents to common Windows and OS X Fonts

The following aren’t meant to be exact replicas of fonts from Windows or OS X. They’re merely a similar typeface to use as a last resort in your font-family for us Linux users.

Arial

Charcoal

Comic Sans MS

Courier New

Georgia

Helvetica

Lucida Grande

New York

Tahoma

Times New Roman

Palatino Linotype

Verdana

I know some of the above examples are a stretch and certain flagship characters don’t quite fit, but in my opinion they’re pretty close. That is much of the reason behind the existence of multiple equivalents for certain fonts. I’ll leave the final decision up to you and your good discretion.

There are still a few fonts to go over

Unfortunately there was a list of fonts to which I was unable to find a Linux equivalent:

• Book Antiqua
• Impact
• Monaco
• Lucida Console
• Geneva
• Lucida Sans Unicode
• Trebuchet MS
• Arial Black

While these typefaces don’t have a similar equivalent in Linux, all is not lost. You should always provide a very generic “failsafe” font at the end of your font-family in an effort to at least control whether your font is serif, sans-serif, or monospace.

Keep Linux Web fonts in consideration

Many people find Linux to be an afterthought as far as target audience is concerned, but Linux is exponentially increasing in popularity as an alternative to other operating systems. As a Linux user, it’s easier for me to keep an eye on inconsistencies and try to compensate in the best way possible. Web design should be bulletproof & your choice of type should be no different.

Hopefully the above screenshots will help your font-family of choice to become that much more bulletproof now that Linux users aren’t forced to see the lowest common denominator.

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Customizing browser form controls with user CSS

A small post over at Open Switch clued me into an article with instructions on how to prettify the Firefox widgets (screenshot provided). The post provided readers using Linux a way to improve the aesthetics of the various form controls provided by default in Firefox.

I was intrigued so I took a second to run the small script, after a quick Firefox restart all of the ‘default’ form controls had a new and improved look. At first glance, they’re a vast improvement over the stock controls originally offered. Naturally, I became curious as to what exactly was happening under the hood.

I began poking around the shell script, inspecting the installation process. To put things simply, the script appends two style sheets as well as a set of six images to complete the new control designs.

The purpose of user styles

User styles are designed to allow readers the ability to control how their browser displays content by default. While user styles can still be influenced by site CSS, user styles can have great affect on the final display of any webpage. A good way to think about user style sheets is giving your reader the ability to infinitely expand various dialogs in their browser preferences to include any aspect of a documents design.

In my personal experience, however, I don’t think that I’ve come across anybody that has taken the time to customize their default font size or link colors, let alone use an entire style sheet.

Does anyone you know use their own style sheet?

In your personal experience, have you ever run into a reader who uses a custom style sheet? I personally don’t use one, and haven’t seen any circumstance in which a user style sheet was used.

The Firefox form control updates put a different spin on user style sheets, however. This script doesn’t require that the reader have any working knowledge of CSS, yet a custom style sheet will be applied to all documents after installation. This concept isn’t something that had occurred to me before, but it could be a trend that becomes more common in the future.

There is a moral to this story

What I took home from installing these custom Firefox controls is that user style sheets can have a strong impact on the CSS I author. While some of the applied CSS in this example is overridden by author CSS, there are other selectors that need attention to achieve the look I originally intended. Some of these specific selectors are proprietary, and the thought of having to nullify or correct them wouldn’t normally cross my mind.

Authors have absolutely no control over user styles, and in all honesty, stressing over the possibility of their presence isn’t in our best interest. What’s important to do, however, is be mindful of the possibility that a reader may have a user style sheet for accessibility purposes over aesthetic reasons.

A user style sheet that bumps up the default font size is very important to readers with impaired vision. User style sheets can also be used to improve color contrast by default by forcing a certain color and background-color. These things are important to keep in mind, and the best thing we can do is compensate our CSS with a bulletproof design.

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SciTE – My New Favorite Editor

SciTE is (freely) available for both Linux and Windows, but this article will dedicate itself to the Linux install process as it is the only environment in which I’ve set it up. Furthermore, the details of the installation process will be specific to Ubuntu 6.10, as it is my distribution of choice, but the install process itself should be similar on just about any version of Linux.

Installing SciTE

SciTE is easily available to install by executing the following in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install scite

After you enter your password, SciTE will be automatically installed and setup. You can also install SciTE using Synaptic Package Manager, but I prefer the command line. SciTE can be run by entering scite in the command line, or using the menu: Applications > Programming > SciTE Text Editor.

By default, SciTE doesn’t include the snippet functionality offered by TextMate, but incorporating all of the hard work by Mitchell, SciTE Snippets are easy to implement.

Implementing SciTE Snippets

I spent some time trying to grasp how to actually install the snippets plugin Mitchell developed. Following his documentation proved to be quite useful and I had SciTE Snippets up and running after a bit of trial and error. It involved a process that some people new to Linux may find intimidating, so I’ve decided I would try to use the SciTE binaries offered on the site. Not only do you get working Snippets, you’re provided with a new look and feel for SciTE itself. A large library of Snippets are included to work with and add upon and I found it to be a great starting point for using Snippets in SciTE.

The binaries Mitchell offers are stored on Google Code and available for Windows as well as Linux. Download the latest Linux Binaries (scite-tools_linux_bin_r3.tgz at the time of this writing) as well as the Source Code (scite-tools_src_r3.zip at the time of this writing) which will come in useful later.

Extract scite-tools_linux_bin_r3.tgz

tar xzvf scite-tools_linux_bin_r3.tgz

Copy the new SciTE binary over your installed version

cd scite-tools_linux_bin_r3
sudo mv /usr/bin/scite /usr/bin/scite.bak
sudo cp SciTE /usr/bin/scite

The binary has now been copied to your existing installation, it’s an updated version compared to the one offered in the Ubuntu repositories. You’ll notice that if you run SciTE, not much has changed; we’ll still need to copy over Mitchell’s configuration files as well as his included snippets.

Extract scite-tools_src_r3.zip:

unzip scite-tools_src_r3.zip

Implement configuration and Snippets:

cd scite-tools_src_r3/
sudo cp -R * /usr/share/scite/

Just to be clear, not only have you copied over the configuration and included Snippets, you’ve also copied the source. If you feel the need to remove the extra files, feel free to do so. Now that the configuration files have been copied, you can run SciTE again, and you’ll see it’s received quite a makeover:

SciTE Snippets are now at your disposal using the CTRL+i keyboard combination after typing your trigger.

Customizing SciTE Snippets

While Mitchell includes many of his personal Snippets, I have a certain way of writing markup, style, and code. Each developer will want to make adjustments to existing snippets — as well as add some — in order to streamline his process even further and take full advantage of their presence. Managing your Snippets is actually quite easy if you follow the conventions established by Mitchell. Your snippets are stored in /usr/share/scite/scripts/ and organized according to language.

Creating Snippets is well documented on Mitchell’s site, and he even offers a Ruby Snippet Generation Script which can come in quite handy. Personally, I found the example Snippets offered in /usr/share/scite/scripts/html/snippets.lua to be most helpful in understanding Snippets and how they worked. I simply manage the snippets I wish to use in that file and it’s worked out well so far.

Mitchell has provided a really great tool for many people, free of charge. He has provided screencasts which show his Snippets in action, including a demonstration of how to use scopes, a very powerful feature he’s included.

Customizing the SciTE interface

When using SciTE for the first time, I was surprised not to find a Preferences dialog. Like anybody, I have preferences as to the type used in my editor, so I was looking to make that simple change. Instead of a Preferences dialog, you’ll need to edit a configuration file. While I’d much prefer to have a GUI dialog, having to edit a configuration file really isn’t that big of a deal to me, but I know many people would look at the application as inferior for that very reason.

Regardless, the configuration file can be edited by selecting Options > Open Global Options File within SciTE. The associated file holds all of the preferences you’ll want to tinker with to get SciTE to look just how you want it. If you’re using Mitchell’s configuration, you’ll notice he took the time to reorganize this file, making it very easy to manage.

SciTE (especially with Snippets) is my new favorite tool

I’ve found that creating Snippets can be a lengthy process, but one that offers great benefit. Using Snippets allows you to work at a much faster pace without getting ahead of yourself and losing focus. It takes away much of the tedious aspects that come with writing markup. The speed benefits alone made switching from Bluefish/Quanta worth it. I have a feeling that many editors will incorporate such a feature in their upcoming releases.

It goes without saying that SciTE has all of the features you would expect in an editor: line numbering, code folding, syntax highlighting, etc. I’m very pleased to make the switch to SciTE, and I definitely recommend it to anybody who isn’t willing to fork over the cash for a copy of E. I’ve only been working with SciTE a short time so far, so if anybody has any tips or tricks they’re willing to offer, it would be great to post them as a comment.

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I’d like to provide an update to what I’ve learned about using Linux in my day-to-day personal and professional work. After much testing and many changes, I think that I may be able to offer some prospective users some direction in their switch to Linux.

Software

This article will concentrate mostly on software solutions, mostly unique to Linux. I’ve had many experiences generating from suggestions provided in the comments of my first article, and after two months of usage, I have some conclusions to write about.

Revisiting Editors

There are many reasons a developer chooses one editor over another. Whether it’s a particular feature they can’t do without, application speed, or overall usage experience, it’s rare to find a developer who hasn’t gone back and forth between multiple editors before settling on their favorite.

As it last stood, I was head over heels for Bluefish, but after a few weeks using it at work, I began noticing a couple of the shortcomings that had been mentioned. Once any particular file reached a couple hundred lines in length, highlighting would take noticeably longer which began to wear my nerves. I also found myself missing certain features I had become used to in the past. Such things as code folding and current line highlighting. While those features are quite small, I’m used to them and prefer their presence. A hunt for a possible replacement resulted. Working from the huge list of recommendations provided in the Intro, I began using a different editor every week, trying to see which gave me the best experience. While some may say a week is not nearly enough time to determine whether or not an editor is for you, I thought it was sufficient.

What I found is that there is an editor out there for everyone under the Linux platform. From vim to jEdit to Aptana, there is something to suit your needs, whatever they might be. I can’t provide a general recommendation for anybody simply because everyones preferences are different. Out of all the editors I tried (and I tried just about every one I could find), I think I’ve settled on one.

Quanta Plus

Quanta Plus is an editor based partly on Kate, therefore inheriting Kate’s speed and versatility. Quanta Plus, unlike Bluefish, has code folding and current line highlighting, the small features I had come to miss. It will highlight a document significantly faster than Bluefish once line counts exceed a couple hundred. Something I hadn’t run across before was a feature that Quanta Plus refers to as Document Structure. Essentially it’s an outline for any document you’re working on based on the structure of whichever language you’re using (XHTML, CSS, etc.). I think as I get used to a feature like that, I’ll use it more and it will help with productivity. There’s also a plugin included by default which I can compare to Dreamweaver in that an inline dropdown menu appears with contextual information based on any tag you’re editing. What makes this instance different, however, is that the dropdown appears not only with predefined items such as classes or ids you’ve used in your document, it also offers color code and word completion which can come in handy sometimes. It also includes the expected property value options. On top of that, Quanta Plus has integrated CVS support which I look forward to using once our CVS repository is setup.

So far I haven’t found any major shortcomings to Quanta Plus. I’ve only been using it a short time but I’m very pleased with the feature set and reliability it provides. As a Gnome user, the KDE interface of Quanta Plus takes some getting used to, but overall that’s quite minor.

Web Browsers

Cross browser testing was discussed in good detail in the previous article, but even more so in the comments. Some information was provided that I had neglected to include in my writeup.

Konqueror in Comparison to Safari (Webkit)

As indicated, Konqueror is based on KHTML, which was the base Apple used for Safari. This can be a great benefit and save everyone from having to track down a way to test on Safari. Since switching to Linux, I’ve tested any site I worked on in both Konqueror and Safari to see if I could find any discrepancies. For the most part, Konqueror absolutely rendered a site exactly as Safari did, including any tiny quirks. One major change that I’ve found so far is the difference between the two in their rendering of various forms. For one reason or another there would be a missing input in one browser or another, usually due to space restrictions or otherwise. Unfortunately I think that as a developer, even using Linux and Konqueror, you should still test for Safari on a Mac. It is a good way to get a quick look as to what any problems might be, however.

Internet Explorer 7

With an official release of Internet Explorer 7 just around the corner, it’s important to test in that browser as well. Unfortunately IEs4Linux hasn’t included IE7 into the package yet, but hopefully that will happen soon enough.

Update

As stated below in the comments (thanks Roy!), the IEs4Linux developer has actully succeeded in running IE7 under Wine. Quoting the developer, it’s usage can be considered “pre-pre-alpha” so your results may not be too stable, but this is really good news for Linux Web designers/developers.

Still in Need of that One Application?

If it turns out there’s still that one application stopping you from making the switch to Linux, there’s still hope. You can solve that problem through the use of virtual machines. Using a virtual machine you can install an operating system within Linux. This lets you run that particular application without the hassle of rebooting all the time.

VMware

VMware is a completely free virtualization solution that I would definitely recommend if virtualization is something you need. After installing VMware, you can setup as many virtual machines as you need in order to install what you use, especially the one app holding you back from completely switching. Using VMware you can continue to use Photoshop, work in Flash, or test natively in IE7.

Image Editing

Solid image editing is definitely a requirement for me, I think it’s important to have legitimate tools to work with. The two tools I use primarily for image editing are Pixel and the GNU Image Manipulation Program.

Update on the GIMP

From what I can see, the GIMP basically has a cult following. Many people find the interface intimidating and just can’t work with it. Others just don’t like it because they feel the name is inappropriate. And then there is a whole slew of people who have no problem working in the GIMP and actually enjoy it. Regardless of how it’s received, I have a few tips to make it more useful.

First and foremost, layer boundaries should be hidden. I don’t quite get why they’re displayed by default but at least you can turn them off — their presence quickly clutters things and makes any file really confusing to work with. Alan White has written up a small list of some really great tips on starting out with the GIMP. One that I can whole heartedly support is making one big ‘toolbar’ out of the two windows put on display by default. To do this you can drag the various panels from place to place by clicking and dragging their title section as shown below:

Once you grab the panel you can drag it from one window to another and it will attach itself. You can either add it as a new panel to any particular window or an additional tab of a current panel. To add something as a new panel of a current window you will need to drop the panel on a horizontal bar within the target window. The horizontal bar will only turn a new color when you’re hovering the right spot so you will have to move the mouse around a bit until you’ve got it right. If you’d like to add a tab to an already existing panel, you simply drag into the target panel and you’ll see a black outline appear where the tab will be added. If you’d like to change the order of tabs you can simply drag to reorder. This is one feature of the GIMP that I had overlooked in the past but proven to be extremely valuable in making the interface more natural to use.

Update on Pixel

Although I’m using GIMP more and more, I couldn’t live without Pixel. I love its implementation of live effects and the more familiar interface. On the other side I’ve found it partially difficult to work with blocks of text, as the word wrapping is something to get used to. I’ve also run into a few issues with brushes in Pixel, but nothing huge to complain about. My last issue is the fact that there’s not pressure support under Linux, but the developer is awesome and has indicated that it’s coming.

Latest news on Flash

I had recently come across an article detailing a method of copying an installation of Flash piece by piece into an installation of Wine on a Linux machine and having it work. While it may in fact work for some people, it comes with some licensing issues and seemed a bit hackneyed for my taste. On the Flash plugin front, PENGUIN.SWF (Flash Plugin for Linux official blog), Flash 9 for Linux looks like it will be arriving quicker than once thought, which is great.

FTP Update

As I had said earlier, FTP clients for one reason or another, are less than pleasant to work with (for the most part). Reading through the comments I was guided in many different directions. Again, each solution had pros and cons and I began sifting. gFTP wasn’t doing anything for me and was more trouble than it was worth, so after trying many of the other suggested applications, I’ve pretty much settled on FireFTP, an FTP client plugin for Firefox. As I began getting used to the plugin, I became more pleased with the idea behind it. Personally, I spend most of my time uploading pieces of a client website that I’m working on. The fact that I can open up an FTP client in a tab of my browser makes perfect sense. It’s one less app to have open and puts things within easy reach. So far FireFTP has been great and stable for me and I think I’ll stick with it.

Lucky for me, we’re probably going to be setting up a CVS repository on a new in house development server, so the only time I should be using FTP is upon a site launch, which will be completely great. I’ll be able to edit sites in development within a working environment which will allow me and my co-workers to work at a much faster pace in the long run.

When Things Go Terribly Wrong

Along with all the positive experiences with switching to Linux, I’ve also had the benefit of experiencing one of the worst circumstances you could run into at any time. I recently sat down to a frozen desktop, unable to force quit anything and it was impossible to get any sort of response. At first I disregarded it as a fluke and hard reset the machine. To my surprise, the machine wouldn’t boot. It was acting strange during POST and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. After hard resetting a couple more times I was able to see the familiar Ubuntu boot process and took a second for a sigh of relief. Before I could exhale I was looking at an error message I had never seen before, telling me the filesystem was unreadable and I need to run a disk check. Luckily there were instructions on how to do just that included in the error message, or else I would have been completely lost.

My First fsck Experience

The instructions told me to reboot and force fsck, which I did. Upon doing so I was faced with countless errors including disk parity errors, I/O errors, filesystem flag errors, and many other error types I had never heard of before. I was forced to come to the conclusion that the hard drive had failed. Panicked that I had also lost the second drive (where I keep all my backups) I tried to figure out what I could do. This was my first experience with a mission critical drive failure.

Linux Basically Saved the Day

I still had my Ubuntu Dapper install DVD lying around so I decided to check out what trouble I could get into from booting the DVD. It can’t get much worse, right? After booting, I was able to create a couple mount points and mount both hard drives to see what damage had been done. To my surprise I could still browse both hard drives. My backup drive seemed to be operating normally, while I was still able to check out my home folder. For those who aren’t familiar, Linux creates a home folder for each user which contains all the configuration files related to any personal or application settings that user might have. Until now I didn’t think much of it, but in this case it was completely wonderful. Essentially I was able to copy my home folder from the damaged drive onto my backup dive, replace the damaged drive, and copy most of that home folder back into a fresh reinstall — and basically carry on from where I had left off.

Most of the applications I use are included with many default Linux installations. After a few minutes, the remaining apps are installed and I’m almost to where I left off. Given my home directory, I’m able to copy over my configuration directories and things are exactly as I had left them. Personally I think this a great position to be in should a hard drive fail for you (if you’re good about keeping up-to-date backups).

Is Linux Still Working?

Overall I’m still absolutely pleased with my switch from Windows to Linux both at home and at work. If anything I honestly think I work faster, smarter, and happier. Given my recent experience with hard drive failure, I’m glad Linux provided the functionality to get back up and running very quickly and easily. I’ll definitely be looking into some automated nightly backup solutions over the next few days due to the fact that a RAID setup isn’t in the cards for me just yet. I don’t plan on retreating back to Windows any time soon and I look forward to working with Linux for a long time to come. I’m not trying to push anyone into checking out Linux and switching, just cataloging my experiences thus far.

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I’m generally not a fan of Apple/Mac/Jobs and I’ve grown to dislike Microsoft/Windows/Gates. I don’t say that to offend anyone, so please don’t take it the wrong way. We all have our reasons for the setups on our desks. This article is going to reflect my opinions of using Linux for Web development, not knock or support anything else.

Why I Choose Linux

I’ve always had an interest in Linux, and over the past few years I’ve become increasingly frustrated with Windows. My first Linux installations weren’t an absolute disaster but at the same time I had no idea what I was doing and found myself back on Windows in a matter of hours. Regardless, my interest was there.

Some months ago, I decided to give it another shot. I use both a laptop and a desktop at home and thought that since I only really used my laptop for minimal tasks, it would make a good test bed for Linux. My venture began with Fedora Core and to make a long story short, a bad update rendered my display useless and I had no idea how to fix it.

Enter Ubuntu. I don’t remember where I first read about Ubuntu Linux, but what struck me was all the ranting and raving about its out of the box compatibility with a wide range of hardware — especially laptops. I thought I’d give it a shot with the 5.04 release and I was delighted with the results. All of my hardware worked just fine, including my WiFi, which was a feat in itself using Fedora Core. I now run Ubuntu 6.06 on that same laptop, my main home machine, and most recently my setup at work. After working out all of the customizing issues at home over the course of eight months or so, I finally feel comfortable enough to be using Linux both personally and professionally. Using it for work will be my true test, and I’d like to record my findings here.

Getting Set Up

The only issue I was faced with using this particular distribution of Linux was setting up and managing dual monitors. I have grown to know and love a dual monitor setup and I’m not sure I would want to cope without.

nVidia Makes Life Easy

Luckily all of my video cards are nVidia based, which is a great thing because nVidia has taken the time and effort to publish video card drivers for their chipsets under Linux. Following the proper documentation you can have their drivers installed in minutes, which is a blessing compared to setups with other chipsets from what I’ve read.

Getting two displays up and running isn’t as easy as checking “Extend my Desktop to this monitor” in Linux. I had to manually edit a configuration file, but using the nVidia provided options, setup was painless and I now run a dual monitor system as I was in Windows.

What About Your Wacom?

I didn’t have to do a thing to get my Wacom tablet up and running in Linux. It was working out of the box for me using Ubuntu 6.06 so there really isn’t much to write about the setup. Support in applications is another issue I will touch upon in a bit.

Software for Web Development

The abundance of equivalent software for Linux for general tasks are heavily discussed in other areas of the net. I’m going to focus on the applications that I find essential for Web development.

Email and Web

I was already using Firefox and Thunderbird on other platforms, so using them required absolutely no change. All of my choice extensions work under Linux and I had no issues with the migration.

As a Web developer, I needed to have other browsers at my disposal for testing. I was able to install Opera with ease and my only real hurdle was Internet Explorer. Luckily after a bit of searching I came across IEs 4 Linux. This beautiful script will install a version of Internet Explorer 6 on top of WINE to allow me to test for IE6/Win.

Have you Heard of Beagle?

Something I’m really excited to write about after a few months of typical use on a Linux setup is using Beagle. For you Mac users, Beagle is most closely compared to Spotlight in OS X in that it keeps an archive of all files on your disks for easy searching. I think it’s going to be great to be able to search all files, Emails, even Gaim logs on the fly and instantly. If you haven’t heard of Beagle, check out these videos of Beagle in action — I’m very impressed with it so far.

Actual Development in Linux

Finding a good application for writing, editing, and managing your code is essential for anyone who develops. Whether it be on the Web or otherwise, if you aren’t using a proper application your life can become much more difficult than it should be. I’m not talking WYSIWYG here, because any serious developer would laugh at its mention.

Bluefish is King for Development

I fell in love with Bluefish the instant I ran it for the first time. It is by far my favorite editor and being able to use it daily at work is a great thing for me. Why do I like it so much? Apart from the things that most of the other editors do such as highlighting and auto line indent, it has the ability to create Projects, which some of the other editors I was using never had. I am a fan of this feature because I’m working on different projects throughout the day and it is an easy way to switch. The GUI is effective, nice looking, and everything seems to be in just the right spot. I’d like to devote an entire article to its benefits in the future, but for the sake of time I’ll leave it at that.

Aren’t Fonts an Issue?

I think it’s great not to have the Windows default fonts at my disposal. It really opened my eyes to taking more time in selecting a font family due to the fact that I didn’t have many of the typical fonts used on the Web. It is possible to install TrueType fonts using Linux and if that’s something you’re interested in, it can be done. I have since installed many of the fonts I was using under windows and don’t really notice any problems using the TrueType fonts.

Creating Site Mocks

More often than not a site design begins with a mock. A static image that’s shown to the client to see if it meets approval. From time to time I’ll be able to work on a mock, but they’re usually taken care of by the designers. This brings up two situations that need to be handled by a developer using Linux. First, which application is comprehensive enough to make the design? Secondly, how are you going to work with that PSD the designer sent over?

Pixel and GIMP

GIMP is an extremely powerful image editing application. It is very feature rich, but often confusing to use. Scott Moschella’s GIMPshop and editing the keyboard shortcuts can make GIMP a very Photoshop-like experience, and given some time and effort can be effective. After some time using it, I still found GIMP to be awkward to use exclusively.

That is, until I came across Pixel. Pixel has a much more Photoshop-like interface and can do many of the things Photoshop can, and in the way Photoshop does them. It has been in development for many years and is not OSS nor is it free to use (save the demo version). There are still a few bugs in the application as it is still in the beta stage, but Pixel has some definite promise and I was more than happy to pay the nominal fee to use it.

You Can’t Forget About Flash

Personally, I don’t develop in Flash at this time. There is a very talented coworker of mine that handles the Flash projects we get so developing in Flash isn’t an issue for me. Had it been, I probably wouldn’t be able to make the shift to Linux being that I wouldn’t have a way to work in Flash.

Viewing Flash documents is another issue entirely. While Adobe provides a download for a Linux Flash player, but it’s obvious that effort was lacking in it’s development. Flash video is a bit choppy and more often than not will lag over time and the audio will desync. When it isn’t video, a Flash movie will behave more or less normally which is a good thing, I suppose. After a bit of reading I’ve found that version 9 will be releasing for Linux in the coming months and it should behave much better than the current version.

File Transfers

FTP is nothing but essential when developing for the Web. This is where my first and one of my only issues with Linux arises. The application I’m currently using for file transfers is gFTP. gFTP is great in that it works and has a GUI interface, but from a usability standpoint I’m not a big fan. The interface closely resembles the WS_FTP of 1998 and you have to use the right and left arrow buttons to make transfers. There’s no dragging from your local view to your remote view to make the transfer. That’s really irritating to me. Another problem I have with the application is that it doesn’t remember your site logins. Security risk or not, I liked it when FileZilla remembered my past few logins so I didn’t have to enter them every day. Lastly, gFTP won’t keep your connection alive, so if you’re editing code for more than about a minute, you’ll have to reconnect to the server to upload your changes. If there’s a way to change any of that, I haven’t found it and would love to hear what I’m doing wrong. Luckily, FileZilla 3 is on the way and with it being cross platform, I’ll be able to return to my old habits.

Audio is Essential

If you’re anything like me, you have music playing the majority of the time you’re working. There were many audio solutions for Linux, but my favorite by far has to be Amarok. It will organize your entire collection into a searchable database as many other audio players will do, but what I like about Amarok is that it takes things to the next level. If you’re a member of last.fm, you’re able to enter your account information from the start which is great. Other features I like are integrated lyric lookup and incorporating the MusicBrainz service to provide you a list of recommended songs based on what you’re listening to. I just really like the way it functions and if you get the chance, take a second to check it out. As a side note, you don’t need to be running KDE for it to work, I’m using it in Gnome.

So Can it Work?

After a week of using Linux at work I have to say that I’m very pleased so far. I’m mostly ecstatic about using Bluefish exclusively for writing code and I can’t wait to make more use of its features now that I’ll have the time and place to really give it a go. So far working with Web mocks has been the biggest obstacle, and I think the only solution for that will be a Linux port of Photoshop. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening any time soon as it is not in the best interest of Adobe to put any resources into such a thing.

Browser testing is completely transparent as to which operating system I’m using. With IEs 4 Linux I’m able to see the faults of Internet Explorer in all their glory, and also able to test in Opera. Not being on a Mac I’m still forced to use a coworkers machine to check out Safari and the associated Mac browsers, but that is nothing new.

Using Beagle has already become useful. It’s great to be able to type in the name of a client and have all of their associated files, emails, Gaim logs, and anything else related to them put on display right in front of me.

I think completely migrating to Linux will be a positive move for me. I mainly develop at work so I will be able to deal with the image editing shortcomings I’ve discovered. I may find that it will only take some time to learn the ins and outs of Pixel and GIMP and Photoshop can be a temporary memory until ported to Linux. I haven’t received a complicated PSD from the designers yet but I’m sure that will provide an interesting morning or afternoon. The only drawback I’ve found is that Wacom pressure sensitivity works only in GIMP, not Pixel. The Pixel developer has indicated, however, that he is working on including Wacom support in a future build which is great. I’ll be sure to include my findings in a future article.

I’m going to enjoy not having to worry about hard drive fragmentation, WGA and the garbage it brings, Vista, spyware, viruses, and the other problems I came across from using Windows. Linux is becoming better by the day and I’ll be excited to see how much further it reaches by the time Vista hits the shelves.

The next few months will be really interesting as I’ll be able to find out whether or not Linux is the solution for me when it comes to my work environment. I’d like to write again giving updates as to my findings specifically having to do with Web Development as opposed to average use.

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