We recorded our first weekend of development for the sake of history. Enjoy.

An important note here, for those of you that don’t know, I’m a tried and true Mac user. OS X makes my heart sing, and ever will. I am not abandoning my true love here, just waiting for the rumored new Macbook Pro’s that are hopefully coming out soon.

I’ve been curious about Linux for a long time, and with the quasi hype that’s been surrounding Ubuntu of late, I thought to give it a shot. At the time of this writing, I’m nearing the end of my second week of working with it. I’ve been through two distros, including the fully supported Gutsy Gibbon 7.10, and the Beta (and now thankfully full RC) Hardy Heron 8.04. Though this is no surprise, both versions have better out-of-the-box driver support for the laptop I’m using than Windows Vista Ultimate.

First thing I suppose I should say, if this is any sort of a review, and take it from a die-hard PC man of 10+ years, and a die-hard Mac loyalist of 3+ years (No, not Steve Balmer, me.), Linux is not for the faint of heart [read: n00b].

If you don’t know what “command line” means, or aren’t willing to delve into an often much-more complex realm of computing required to make some of this goodness work, I recommend either staying away from Linux altogether, or snagging a machine that comes pre-loaded with Linux, such as those offered by Dell.

I will say that as a designer, some of the visual interaction that you can configure in Linux are just shy of 100% hotness:

I have everything that you see in this video running at the time of this typing and more. It’s amazing how smoothly the system runs when doing insane things like wrapping an HD video around the 3D cube of your desktop switcher… mmm… nerdy goodness.. I know some of the stuff you see there seems a bit over the top, and I’ll be the first to admit that it is, but a large portion of the added glory that is Compiz-Fusion (native to Hardy Heron) not only increases the quality of my user experience but the effeciency as well.

All that flashy crap aside, the best part of Ubuntu that I’ve run into thus-far is that it’s completely free, and extremely extensible. The Add/Remove Programs option in the Linux “Start Menu” is nothing short of mind blowing to anyone that’s used just about any computer in the world in the past decade or so. You need something? Open Add/Remove programs and search for it. E.G.: I needed an FTP program. I searched for, found, and installed an excellent (and completely free) FTP app in less than a minute.

The obvious downsides are a lack of official support for high-end development software (Photoshop/Flash/Etc.), and the difficulty required to get around said lack. I will say that I have Photoshop CS2 and CS3 running perfectly on my machine, but not without overcoming the aforementioned fear of command lines and embracing my advanced computer-hacker-ninja-magic skills.

I suppose I could continue with an in-and-out detailed review, but I think I’ll just go ahead and end it with a brief summary:

Ubuntu is great. It’s not for everyone. It’s fast, effecient, and excellent for your everyday computing needs. For more advanced usage, I recommend advanced skillz. It has extremely advanced visuals for those willing to figure them out, and some really good out-of-the-box hardware support that is downright impressive for an open source project. But that said, it’s still not ready for the mainstream, or the everyday user. I’ve done more hacking and tweaking these past two weeks than Ghengis Khan during a weekend village raid.

Final verdict: Buy yourself a Mac + Textmate + Transmit + Photoshop and never look back.

I’ve been a wannabe entrepreneur for as long as I can remember, with Table Racers in elementary school, which were basically inverted airplanes that you blew gently on to race (25 cents apiece), a locker candy shop in middle school (yeah I was that guy), and randomly assorted businesses and ventures that usually involved Charles in some way or another. Side note here @Charles: You rock my face d00d. Smart. Sexy. Designer. Sexy Designer. Keep on rockin’. :)

Side note here @Charles: You rock my face d00d. Smart. Sexy. Designer. Sexy Designer. Keep on rockin’. :)

All that said, I strayed from my entrepreneurial ways for a stint as a Barista at Starbucks, an IT Manager at a TV show called Designing Texas (where I was also wrangled into an ad designer/video editor position from time to time), a web designer for LearnVisualStudio.NET, and most recently as a documented Ninjaneer at Pursuant.

I have been blessed by so many amazing mentors and teachers in my life, and would be nowhere without the support of my friends. My passion for the web really sprang into life when I was but 13 years of age. My best buddy Cabeeb came over and showed me the wonders of web development courtesy of Geocities and Notepad. Sweet mother of all that is good and pure I love that man. Look out Caleb. Major man-crush.

: ahem :

All that man-loving goodness aside, that was a glorious day. I wish I still knew the URL to my Geocities page. I go on a hunt for it roughly once a quarter.

From there, I’ve been mentored over the years by my own desire to learn, and by absolute ninjas like Daniel Mall*, who suffered through so many “Do you mind looking at this code, and after crying for an hour, telling me what’s wrong with it?” conversations he should get a medal for.

Development ninjas coupled with mentors in business like my broseph Donnie, and Pursuant founder and CEO Matt, have made my education extremely varied, and I’m looking forward to the future with about as much explosive excitement as this kid:

Note: That little guy needs a tranquilizer to the neck.

I hope for many things to come, but most of all, I hope that I can pass on some of the impact that my mentors and friends have had on me in my life. I want to not only be a success, but to help those around me be successful as well. My thanks to those that have given their time and love and patience to me over the years, and my special thanks to the people at Pursuant, and especially to Matt (twice linked!), Ross (start a blog d00d.) and Jason for their incredibly selfless encouragement to me in the pursuit of Fuor.

A special shout out to one Michael Manes, for being on the Dart rail late that Friday night. My life wouldn’t be the same without our mutual mockery of that would-be drunk d00d, and for the job that you got me soon after. Love you man. I’d better see some published pages soon, or you’re gonna get your ass kicked. I’ve been practicing since we last threw down.

At any rate, I’m sure I’ll post more on the adventures to come. Fuor looks to have a bright future, and I’m sure we’ll grow and be stretched as we step out on our own and learn the ways of the Fuorce.

*I think I’ve officially reached the “unhealthy obsession” number of links to the DMallosaurus. Sorry buddy.