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For those without geeky leanings (which is likely most of you reading this), Dapper Drake is the development nickname for Ubuntu Linux 6.04. It's scheduled to be released next month, but a number of prelease versions have dropped.After wanting to hurt myself after using Kubuntu (same as Ubuntu, but with the KDE (ugly in my eyes) desktop instead of pretty Gnome) and having a little fun with Damn Small Linux, I figured "what the hell, the laptop should be a dev box with the PowerBook coming in a week," and dropped Dapper Drake Flight 4 on the lappy. The install went all right, the updates butter smooth (but Easter Mass long on my slow lappy) and I found a bunch of fun new packages to install. The improved Add/Remove utility now shows a lot more packages than the Breezy Badger (previous version of Ubuntu) Add Applications utility. One of the new apps installed by default is Ekiga. It's an updated version of GnomeMeeting, which is basically an internet video phone. They've added SIP support, an open communications protocol. It's the same that Gizmo Project uses. GTalk will soon be interfacing with SIP networks. But that's not why I'm excited. While playing with Ekiga, I got to the video setup for it. I have an old Creative NX webcam lying around from my Windows days. It's never worked in Linux. On a whim, I plugged it in. At first, nothing, but after messing with some other video settings, I saw that it posted. It tested fine and pulled up my image when I clicked the webcam button. My webcam works in Dapper! But that's not all. With the two previous versions of Ubuntu I've used, the two elusive pieces of hardware have been that webcam and my Remote Wonder II. Moving a mountain is easier than settting up these particular devices. But, traditonally, after each new install I test them both, and get exactly nowhere. So, not expecting much, I plugged in the USB reciever for the remote. It lit up, as ususal, sucking power from my lappy. I grabbed the remote and hit the pointer surface. The mouse pointer moved. It was amazing! Many of the buttons worked without having to do anything extra. I was able to set up some shortcuts to the buttons, and map commands in Xine (video/DVD player) to the controls. I've got my remote back. Strangely enough, the very same night I was telling my roommate how much I loved that remote, and how I've missed being able to use it. My remote works in Dapper! There's still a lot of work to be done on that laptop. I don't know how much will work, as Dapper itself still needs some work before the final release. But I'm now looking forward to the release. Release week is always a cool time (and we get them twice a year), but now I can finally use all the hardware I've wanted to use with my main PC for a year now. Christ, has it really been a year? Last April, Hoary Hedgehog (Ubuntu 5.04) came out. I'd been dabbling with other distributions for a couple months, but hadn't settled on anything. I was also still dual-booting with Windows XP. After spending a couple weeks with Hoary, I fell in love and kicked Windows to the curb. Hard. One year on, I'm very happy with that decision. I've got Cedega to run my old Windows games. I've got software to play every audio and video format under the sun (save for DVD-Audio, but due to DRM restrictions and sheer lack of adoption, it's likely not coming to Linux any day soon. I can always just listen in 5.1 audio if not 24-bit in the future). I've got powerful Internet applications. I've also got a PowerBook coming next week. It'll fill in the holes, like having better VoIP recording for the podcast and improved DVD ripping and authoring support. It'll also have iTunes, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I'm pretty sure my iPods are. Plus, the PB itself is ultraportable, which makes it great for my upcoming trips. I'm rambled enough. So much for sleep tonight, but as the tag says below, I'm giddy :D Rap with you cats after weigh-in tomorrow.