Running IE under Ubuntu

I've been wanting to install Ubuntu on the laptop ever since I got it. The Edgy live disc detected all the hardware flawlessly (for Googlers, it's an Acer Travelmate 5610), with the only "tweak" being trying to remember the wireless network's password. (edit: Almost all the hardware. The TI 5-in-1 card reader remains invisible.) I was getting real close to dual-booting into XP (I need Internet Explorer), and the only thing holding me back was the impending release of Feisty on April 19th. (Check out the upcoming features.)

Then I ran into IEs4Linux. It runs your choice of IE 5, 5.5 or 6 (or all of the above) under wine, and it installed easily and flawlessly for me. I didn't expect that at all! My luck running apps under wine, especially MS ones, has been spotty at best. But this gave me no problems whatsoever. Either wine is becoming less irritating or this is an awesome install script. Or both.

I haven't tested it with whackloads of sites, but I don't really intend to. The idea is to test my own pages, not to actually (hahahaha) "surf with IE."

IEs4Linux installs Flash along with IE, if you develop in that. Support for IE 7 is in beta.

Now, the impending release of Feisty is the only thing holding me back from completely wiping Windows from the laptop.



(This post comes with six seven free parenthetical remarks. (No, seven!))

Daylight Saving Time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday

Apparently this is a problem for Windows users. Ubuntu (Edgy) is fine. I don't know about Dapper or earlier versions, though. If you're nervous type zdump -v /etc/localtime | grep 2007 in the terminal.

galoot@cowbell:~$ zdump -v /etc/localtime | grep 2007

/etc/localtime  Sun Mar 11 09:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 01:59:59 2007 PST isdst=0 gmtoff=-28800
/etc/localtime  Sun Mar 11 10:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 03:00:00 2007 PDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-25200
/etc/localtime  Sun Nov  4 08:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Nov  4 01:59:59 2007 PDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-25200
/etc/localtime  Sun Nov  4 09:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Nov  4 01:00:00 2007 PST isdst=0 gmtoff=-28800

March 11. Yup. We're good.

Ubuntu

Mrs. G's computer finally died, taking Win98 (I know) with it. When the dust finally settled, she had a better computer running Linux. She likes it.

Yeah! [fist-pump]

A day later, my Microsoft-loving geek friend, who is too old to be going through a mid-life crisis, called me up to ask "what version of Ubuntu should I install, 6.04 or 6.10?" Once I stopped sputtering, I recommended Dapper.

Yeah! [fist-pump]