Fedora Core 4 on my laptop

I had a bit of spare time at the office this week, so I decided to install (definitevely) linux on my laptop. I decided to go with Fedora Core 4, as I'm more familiar with Red Hat. I managed to get to a fully functionnal setup within a few days. The only thing I haven't worked out yet is getting my external display to work. I have a 17" external monitor which adds a little of workspace.

I replaced Outlook with Evolution and its Exchange connector. I was already using Firefox for internet browsing and Thunderbird for my personal e-mail and newsgroups (via Gmane). XMMS instead of Winamp and all other little gadgets (archive manager, etc.) have their equivalents on Linux. I bought Driverloader to be able to use Windows driver for my integrated wireless network card. All of this works pretty well.

I do have a few complaint, though. It is slow. Slower than Windows :(. And I have stability problems. Of course, Fedora is bleeding edge, but... Evolution tends to crash (Evolution-Storage) and is a lot, lot slower thant Outlook, even with regular IMAP accounts. I use the multiple option destops, and when I put Thunderbird on, say, desktop 5, I get back to my main desktop, I hear the sound of a new message coming in, so I go back to desktop 5 to find my Thunderbird not responding. Also, I can't make the Eclipse CVS plugin work and one menu is broken (this one apparently has been fixed and there will be a new rpm soon.

PS: while I was writing this article, I discoverd that there are shortcut keys for Firefox plugin Foxytunes. CTRL+right arrow: next song. CTRL+left arrow: previous song. CTRL+up/down arrows manages the volume level. Neat :)!

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