In short: several weeks ago my computer finally crashed. Nothing new under the sun, as Ecclesiastes put it. This time I installed both the good’ol’ Windows XP and a brand-new Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. They advertise it as a “linux for human beings”. Yeah, right…
I’ve never been too much of a linux buff. My laptop is a portable office and, at times, a strategic gaming platform. Nothing more, nothing less. On the other hand I’ve been using open source software and many of my favourites were specifically written for linux, so I decided to give that system a try.

When my computer finally crashed and died (as usually in the worst possible moment; as usually it was my fault) I installed both the Ubuntu and Windows. Why not? I played a little with my brand-new toy, and I must say I was initially satisfied. Sure, it is pretty and fast (though not as fast as I thought it would be). Sure, two desktops beat one.

Cafe Karma, 3.11.1906

On the other hand installing anything in linux is a major pain in the back and is incomparably more difficult than it is in MS windows. But what the hell! Also, Ubuntu started treating me as if I were an intruder, trying to steal my own data from my own hard drives. But what the hell, typing my password 15 times an hour is not that much, is it. After all that’s what it gets when you use the safest system available.

Nautilus cannot handle Computer: locations

That’s why I wasn’t alarmed when all of a sudden the trash disappeared from my desktop after one of automatic updates. “Apparently I’m too dumb to use the trash, I can live withouht it” thought I, still ready to learn the new system. But after yet another update my precious Ubuntu banned me from using the “computer”. Yeah, you got it right: no access to any of the drives, no network settings, not even a chance to use a flash memory stick.

It turned out I’m not the only one having that problem. It also turned out that the reason my laptop turned into a platform for minesweeper was that some wise guy prepared a faulty version of GVFS for automatic upgrades. Just like that. “Hey, it’s Linux, you won’t get any viruses, but security updates will make your computer unusable anyway”.

How the heck am I to drop Windows and switch to Linux? If it wasn’t for the good ol’ Windows XP, my computer would be a piece of expensive brick, or a pile of fancy things enclosed in a plastic box. As always, the problem occurred in the middle of the night, a text I was writing was nearly done and – TADAH! – no chance to copy it anywhere.

Sure, I spent some time googling and finally found a possible solution. I should try to install the GVFS thing once again, this time from the official GNOME repository . I’ll give Ubuntu one more try, but the top is really close now.