It was early 2009 (I guess), I got my first desktop computer on a computer fair named “CAN Info Tech”. It was Intel Pentium IV with 1GB RAM and 160 GB of hard disk. It was on my choice because of the budget I had and the configuration was along one of the popular configuration on market.
I was quite excited and I had requested the seller to install lots of softwares on my machine. With my computer on room, I was exploring it.
I got a DVD labeled ” Ubuntu 8.04 Ultimate Edition” from an open source expo few months back. Out of curiosity I booted from that DVD. I was amazed to get this new interface on live DVD environment. Then in the way of exploration I had installed that OS on my system.But while I rebooted my system I didn’t get my windows on it. It was 2 or 3 day after my purchase of computer, I noticed that I had wiped all the hard drive space including the OS partition and installed Ubuntu on it. I was shocked at that moment but when I reminder that incident I just can’t stop laughing.
After that incident I learned that Linux can be used as live OS too and hence I started using it directly from DVD. As it was ultimate edition, it had many software pre-installed.
My brother used to carry a feature phone from Nokia, “Nokia 3310c”. It was a nice phone with gprs and jar support. On early days I used to download jars from getjar.com and then use it on phone. Beside being his phone, when at home that always remains with me.
One nice thing about that phone is that it supports “.thm” theme format for changing the look off the phone. From wallpapers, app icons to ringtones can be changed by applying the desired theme. We can even download theme and install on phone. One day while using Ubuntu live I come to know that the theme file can be opened by archive manager. Using archive manager I can explore the files such as images, mp3 and other configuration file used by that theme.
Suddenly a hack come in to my mind. I tried adding the photos of my own on the theme and then rename the files to match that of the previous file used for wallpaper or icons etc. After packing that theme back and applying on phone does as expected. I succeeded to get the them with my customization on it. Then I used to select my favorite theme, un-archive, find out which file is used for wallpaper or screensaver or icons and then replace that file by the desired one. My customized theme become popular among friends of my brother and I had even customized 1/2 theme for them too..
After a while I am introduced to swf animation files and the “swf decompiler”.Using which I applied the same technique used on theme to make customized swf animation.
That was my first use of Ubuntu. Then after I learned how to install it along side windows.