So I decided a while ago that Xen + Linux was a brilliant idea. I quickly learned, however, that Xen + Gentoo is just a pure mess. I’ve read about a lot of people having trouble with it and I personally found it hard to install.

I gave up.

I installed Kubuntu. Then I didn’t like that so…

I installed Fedora. And it’s treating me well. Until just now. I wanted to install X headers to compile a theme I downloaded to make my box look like this guy’s. So I start up Fedora’s “Package Manager” click on the package that I want (oh, and a anti-RSI program) and next thing I know I’m in package dependency hell. That’s bad for a program that claims to manage dependencies. So I’m clicking away thinking, “Alright, I must really need these random X headers.” Then it complains about dependencies. So I click a bit more. And some more. Then I click finish. Hooray! Dependencies resolved, it’s going to go download some packages for me. The first package: evolution-data-server. How did I get duped into installing that?

Grr. I miss gentoo. But to get to the state where I am now with Gentoo would have taken days and a lot of patience. I kind of like Fedora. I even have anti-aliased fonts right out of the box!

Horde Project

Horde is an open source project that consists of an application framework and a smattering of applications in various states of development. The community is very keen on outside help and it was fun getting into the project, under the hand of Matt Selsky.

• IMP - a very mature and feature rich webmail client that is used by small to large organizations. I’ve been contributing random bugfixes and small features and getting paid for it.

• Qonos - a non-Horde core application, Qonos will be similar to Horde’s Kronolith but be more part-time worker timesheet oriented. This is partially being developed for another programming team I’m involved with. Wrong. This idea was ambitious, but not pursuable for the timeframe involved. I still hope to make a homebrewed Horde app.

Personal

Every now and then I get the urge to work on something that isn’t associated with other external forces. Some people call this creativity. I call it being a geek.

• Xen on Gentoo - according to the community, it can be done, but it sure isn’t easy. I hope to create some documents and revise some existing ones that will help other ambitious people use the Xen virtualization on my favorite Linux distribution, Gentoo.