I've installed many distributions of linux (different versions of Red Hat and Mandrake) over the past seven years to play around with and the install process was always a little cumbersome. The user doing the install was always required to have some technical knowledge to get things installed and configured. I have to say though that Mandrake 10 was the easiest, that was until now.

I installed Ubuntu 6.10 last night and it was a breeze. It actually took me longer to get Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 installed and the Virtual Machine created than it took to install Ubuntu on the Virtual Machine. If you are looking for a Linux distro to install on a spare machine or even your primary pc then I would definately recommend Ubuntu.

It actually comes preinstalled with all the applications that the average user needs. This is one of the things that makes it (in my opinion) the best Linux distrobution thus far. Some of the applications that come preinstalled are:

• Open Office 2.0
• Firefox 2.0 web browser
• Evolution Mail email client
• GAIM Internet Messenger
• 16 different games
• GIMP Image Editor
• A Movie Player
• A Music Player
• A CD Audio Ripping Application

Oh, and before I forget to mention; The installation CD for Ubuntu is a Live CD. This means you can boot up from the CD and try out Ubuntu without even installing it on your pc. Talk about easy to just dive in and try things out!

The guys that have been working on Ubuntu have done a wonderful job.

Now that I have Ubuntu installed, I need to get Mono installed so I can start doing .NET development on Linux. This is the whole reason I installed Ubuntu in the first place.

I've decided to make the leap into Ubuntu; well sorta. I'm going to run it in a Virtual Machine for now. I'll set it up in a multi boot on my main pc once I'm more familiar with Linux and related stuff, but then again I may keep it running in a virtual machine if virtualization works out well enough.

Below are the steps I took to get things setup.

Step 1: Install Virtual Server 2005 R2
Since I have Vista x64 installed on my pc; I am forced to use Virtual Server 2005 R2 instead of Virtual PC 2004 because VPC'04 wont install on it. Before installing Virtual Server 2005 you need to install/enable IIS on Vista first. Oh yeah, and don't forget to install all the IIS6 Compatibility stuff. This post helped me with this; Installing Virtual Server on Windows Vista Beta 2

Yes, I know I could use Virtual PC 2007, but I want to try not to put Beta software on my primary box if I can help it. But, once Virtual PC 2007 RTM's I'll be installing it and using that instead. But, for now we'll just continue along...

Step 2: Make sure the Virtual Server Adminstration website has the appropriate access rights.
You'll find out if it's not setup correctly if you cannot create a new Virtual Machine as described in the next step.

If the access rights aren't setup correctly; heres what I did to get it to work:
1) Goto the IIS Manager
2) Open up the "Advanced Settings" dialog for the "Virtaul Server" virtual folder within the Default Web Site.
3) Change the Physical Path Credentials from "Application user" to "Specific user" and enter the username and password for a user that has Admin rights on the box. Ok, I know this isn't the most secure way (and I don't recommend it if you don't want everyone that accesses the VS Admin Site to run as Admin), but I am installing this on my Home PC and I don't have those Security concerns on this box.

Step 3: Setup a Virtual Machine that will be used to install Ubuntu on
Look at "Chapter3: Setting Up a virtual Machine" withing the Getting Started Guide that is install when you install Virtual Server. This document can be found in: Start Menu - All Programs - Virtual Server - Getting Started Guide

Here are the steps I followed:
1) Open the Virtual Server Administration web site within IE
2) Click on "Create" under the "Virtual Machines" section in the navigation bar on the left side.
3) Fill out the required/desired fields:
Virtual Machine Name: UBUNTU
Memory: 256MB
Virtual hard disk: Select "Create a new virtual hard disk" - Size: 16 - Units: GB - Bus: IDE
Virtual network adapter: Connected to: Internal Network
4) Click the "Create" button

Step 4: Install Ubuntu on our Virtual Machine
Follow the instructions within the Virtual Server Getting Started Guide to do this. Below are the steps I took:
1) Open the Virtual Server Administration web site withing IE
2) Click on the "UBUNTU" option within the "Configure" popup menu under the "Virtual Machines" section in the navigation bar on the left side. If you just created this Virtual Machine it will open up this page upon finishing its creation.
3) Click the "CD / DVD" link under "UBUNTU Configuration"
4) Select the "Known image files" option and enter the fully qualified path to the Ubuntu installation ISO image file. In my case I am using the location of "E:\UBUNTU\ubuntu-6.10-desktop-i386.iso".
5) Click the "OK" button
6) Now that you're back at the Virtual Machine Status page; point to the the Virtual Machine name (in this case it's UBUNTU) and Click "Turn On"
7) Once turned on; run the Virtual Machine Remote Control Client - this can be found in Start Menu - All Programs - Virtual Server
9) Type in the location of the Virtual Machine to connect to and connect to it. In my case it's "vmrc://chrisdesktop/UBUNTU"
10) Follow the Ubuntu setup program

If you have any issues getting your Virtual Machine setup within Virtual Server 2005 R2 just reference the Getting Started Guide.

For help with the install process of Ubuntu check out the How To Configure Ubuntu For Microsoft Virtual PC 2004

The Apple iPhone has been confirmed. I wasn't anticipating much for this thing, but it sure looks sweet. There are no keys, you just touch the screen. There seems to be alot of posibilities with this. The iPhone also runs Mac OS X.

Here are some links to images of the iPhone:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-apple-iphone/
http://codinghub.com/iphone.html
http://flickr.com/photos/beausf/351847182/in/photostream/

I wonder what kind of development tools/options they will have available for the iPhone. Since it isn't from Microsoft, it wont have the .NET Compact Framework; which is too bad since .NET is so awesome. But, I'm sure Mono will run on it since it runs Mac OS X.

Lets step back and think about this product; is it truly innovative? umm.... No it is not! The iPhone is rather similar to a MS Windows Mobile Phone with the exception of the large touch screen with no hard keys. Really, when you get down to it they are both just mobile phones with PC functionality that can fit in your pocket.

This thing certainly intrigues me, but I don't believe I'll be purchasing one anytime soon. Besides it only works with Cingular and my cell provider is US Cellular.

FREE copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007 and Microsoft Office Groove 2007 when you attend a Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office system, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 launch event!

The luanch events are happening between Jan. 16th and Feb. 26th; so be sure not to miss the one nearest you.

Now this is pretty cool! Microsoft seems to be building a reputation of giving away some of their big products for Free at their respective launch events. They have also done this back in 2005 with both the Visual Studio 2005 Standard and SQL Server 2005 Standard products. It's too bad they don't do this with Windows Vista.