Way too much shit goin on. I've already given up on SUSE. Aside from the fact that it was very difficult to set up anything other than what it comes with, I've been looking into it on the Internet, reading about the 'deal' Novell has with microsoft. Novell is paying Microsoft not to sue them for copyright infringement, but made a statement that they infringe on no copyrights with the new release of SUSE. Doesn't make any sense. In my opinion, Microsoft is trying to get a foot in the door with a company that puts out quality Linux. Being really cynical, one would think they are looking to eventually squash Linux altogether... either that or exert as much control over it as they can. I can't see it happening though. As many people that put lots of personal time into it without reimbursement, it would be a daunting task.

Anyway, I scratched SUSE, and looked at Ubuntu again. After downloading the CD image, I installed it on 3 machines in a little over two hours. It loads the bare minimum, but most anything you would want for a computer is easily downloadable with a few clicks. I've decided to put one together myself with Linux From Scratch, or LFS, but I haven't got around to starting it using Ubuntu, I've been too busy checking out Ubuntu. Something I did find interesting, SUSE out of the box didn't recognize my SATA drives, while Ubuntu did. Neither came with MP3 capabilities, but installing xmms fixes that. After less than an hour I was also able to play most video formats, VLC is installable from the main menu.

On top of all that, I had to replace a fan on one of the video cards, my son's computer is less than optimal because the USB ports rarely work properly, and the big CRT fried this morning.

The real reason I'm here... we were out and about and my wife and I both noticed gas prices went up. It's been just over a week; oil companies don't even care what the perception is any more. Is that paranoid? Maybe, but gas prices shot down from over $3 in some places to just above $2 over a few months. Now, they are going back up. Who knows.