Let my introduce myself. My name is Mark Biegel and I am a web designer and programmer.

Things I love are:

• Designing and programming websites
• Doing the same for mobile html5 apps
• The same again for any web based thing
• Hacking stuff up so it works the way I want it too
• Xbox and WII
• Tiny RC helicopters (we all gots to have fun)

Why did I start this blog?

I was always a happy web designer, using Windows at my day job and therefore just continuing to use it in my day to day life. I always wanted to make the change over to a Mac, but due to the non customisation setup I just never made it there.

There came a time where I upgraded to yet another laptop, this time a Dell. This was my second Dell and I was used to the great performance of them. This time I cashed up and got myself the top of the line 13inch XPS so I could use it for some gaming as well.
This things specs were a total beast. It came pre-installed with Windows Vista....The Dell’s specs were good, fast CPU, boatloads of memory and a good independent Nvidea card. None of that onboard crap for me!

Anyone who actually used Vista will know the pain that I am about to share.

My laptop ran great for a while, but it was no show stopper for the price I paid for it.After a while I got the lines of death and sure enough the graphics card had fried, but Dell was on the ball and withing 2 days I had a whole new motherboard in the XPS. GREAT!!

A few months later, the same thing happened again. I told the Dell guy that the laptop gets so hot that it can actually burn my legs! He said, they do run a little warm. (pfft)

By my third motherboard I was getting sick of this slow crappy EXPENSIVE laptop that was being out performed by a $600 student version. Dell finally told me that in their design specs, the never knew Vista would be a power hungry heat machine and my small XPS just could not disperse the heat. They also politely said “Sorry dude, not our problem”.

So I lashed out and upgraded to Windows 7 when it came out in the hope that it would run smoother and less intensive. AND IT DID!
The XPS still got hot, still burnt my legs but at least I still have the same motherboard and it stopped cooking the graphics card.

One year later...I have waiting and waiting to get a Mac. I thought “enough is enough” I am making the change! I was wanting to get into iPhone app development and I needed one anyway. By some stoke of fate my iPhone 3GS is about to fall out of it’s contract and I have been intending on getting an iPhone 5 when they come out.

Being the impatient person that I am I started looking at what Android devices were out. OMG, they are kinda cool!

So my computer is still a piece of shit, but the HDD just starts ticking and I suddenly cant account for about 30 GIG of space that should be there. Cant afford a Mac so its new HDD time.It sparked a light in me, I LOVE fiddling with crap! Windows is shit, WTF can I do! So I decided to try out Linux again. I had failed miserable with it over the past years, but this was the perfect time to try again.

I fell in love with Ubuntu in an instant. My trusty XPS was...wait for it... FAST, QUIET, COLD.

So I build my setup to what it is now, and as for my passion for Apple and my endless wait to get a Mac into my budget.....

I'm an Linux and Android fanboy now!

So while I’m on it I might as well try and use as much open source software as I can.
Who needs Photoshop for web design...its just web design, Gimp can handle it! If you have the skills that is, and here we are now, at this blog where I will share my experience and tips of being a web designer who is now using Linux and non traditional software to do my job better than I ever have.

Hope you enjoy!