Idiot learns to use linux

It's like having a whole new computer. It's fast, it's not too difficult, it's even quite good looking. I'm getting to enjoy the apple-centric linux distribution (yellowdog) I've installed.

My computer can take it without any troubles. It's the user, though, who's feeling the pressure of self-education. Trading a slow OS for a quicker one is pretty good but I wish I'd also traded up my own intelligence while I was at it. I've been thinking about this, and I think I've got a good analogy for it. I think that going from Mac OSX to linux is a bit like switching from a Camry to a pushbike in inner city traffic. Stay with me here.

The Camry is great by any standards, and any fool can drive around in comfort. It's safe, it's secure, it's predictable and easy to use. It doesn't take any energy of your own, because the engineers have done pretty much everything they can to stop you from hurting yourself. You can tool around with your favourite CD on and not worry in the slightest. On the other hand--it's expensive to buy in and to keep running, it gets a bit boring after a while, and it's slow in an environment that doesn't suit it (the inner city traffic. Are you all following me?)

Now to the pushbike. Now not everyone can ride around no matter if they'd like to or not. Frankly it's a challenge, especially for the (mentally) unfit like me. It takes a lot of practice to stay up and avoid the hazards of riding. At first in fact it's exhausting. On the up side: it doesn't cost anything, you improve your fitness and you move about a lot quicker than you used to.

I'm looking forward to my bruises and grazes. My bag's packed with band-aids and mercurochrome. I've been warned against sudo rm -r. Let's see how we go.