"desktop" innovations
Jul. 29th, 2010 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittySome of you may recall that a while back, I took about a week out of my life to refurbish my old laptop and turn it into a fake desktop. In the process, I was able to increase the speed of that station and donate my old desktop to charity.
Since that time, I have been using my fake desktop in a few ways. As an alternate computer, as a secondary backup, as a computer that my friends can use, and perhaps with the most interesting results, as a testing ground for new software. If I want to try out a new piece of software or a Firefox extension before deciding whether I like it, whether I want to use it on my regular computer, this is where I do it. This is where, for instance, I tested Panda Cloud Antivirus, to discover that it was in fact much less resource-hogging and maintenance-demanding than McAfee while still being just as secure.
I am seriously considering doing another test of something new on the fake desktop. To be more specific, Ubuntu Linux. I don't actually love Windows Vista. No, that's an understatement - I've actually never even liked Vista. That shit updates itself like it gets off on it. It updates just for fun, like every other day. Plus, there are all these little annoying things bundled into the install - games, but you have to pay to play! Little messages saying "Wouldn't you like to try Lightscribe? Just buy discs four or five times as expensive as the ones you're using, and save two seconds writing on the disc with a Sharpie!" Or, "Thirty days of this is free and then you have to register." Plus, it keeps trying to get me to use Explorer. And don't get me started on the new Windows Media Center.
Many worthy geeks use Linux, it is the OS of choice on my favorite tech blog Lifehacker, ,and I understand it is virtually virus-free. Booting from a Linux disc is also one way to recover Windows data when things have gone south. It's starting to look better and better.
If you have any pros or cons to share, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, stay tuned for the next installment, which is likely to be "LadyA backed up her fake desktop and made an installation CD."
Since that time, I have been using my fake desktop in a few ways. As an alternate computer, as a secondary backup, as a computer that my friends can use, and perhaps with the most interesting results, as a testing ground for new software. If I want to try out a new piece of software or a Firefox extension before deciding whether I like it, whether I want to use it on my regular computer, this is where I do it. This is where, for instance, I tested Panda Cloud Antivirus, to discover that it was in fact much less resource-hogging and maintenance-demanding than McAfee while still being just as secure.
I am seriously considering doing another test of something new on the fake desktop. To be more specific, Ubuntu Linux. I don't actually love Windows Vista. No, that's an understatement - I've actually never even liked Vista. That shit updates itself like it gets off on it. It updates just for fun, like every other day. Plus, there are all these little annoying things bundled into the install - games, but you have to pay to play! Little messages saying "Wouldn't you like to try Lightscribe? Just buy discs four or five times as expensive as the ones you're using, and save two seconds writing on the disc with a Sharpie!" Or, "Thirty days of this is free and then you have to register." Plus, it keeps trying to get me to use Explorer. And don't get me started on the new Windows Media Center.
Many worthy geeks use Linux, it is the OS of choice on my favorite tech blog Lifehacker, ,and I understand it is virtually virus-free. Booting from a Linux disc is also one way to recover Windows data when things have gone south. It's starting to look better and better.
If you have any pros or cons to share, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, stay tuned for the next installment, which is likely to be "LadyA backed up her fake desktop and made an installation CD."
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 04:57 pm (UTC)bonus, the live cd is also an install cd, so you don't have to burn 2 discs.
<3 ubuntu.
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Date: 2010-07-29 04:59 pm (UTC)Thanks for chiming in.
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Date: 2010-07-29 05:02 pm (UTC)but yes, do it. nothing to lose right now except a $.10 cd-r.
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Date: 2010-07-29 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 06:22 pm (UTC)After a lot of time and effort I was able to install Ubuntu. It took me learning a lot of programming and going back to command lines (reminded me of my DOS days).
It's still pretty awful. I know a big part of that is the cursor is too small to see and the keys are really too small to use. Of course, these are XO-specific issues.
I have a new desktop and a new netbook and I'm running Windows 7 on both. I'm finding Windows 7 to be pretty good so far. The version for the Netbook is called Starter, which is really a misnomer since it's a full version, just designed for a netbook.
(Though I still had to use command lines to find my MAC addresses for them, so even Windows hasn't said goodbye to command lines).
So far, the biggest pain using Windows 7 is that it's hard to Google it. XP and Vista are easy search terms. But "7" is not a good search term and even "windows 7" in quotes turns up a lot of useless results. Clearly Microsoft didn't consider search engines optimization when they named it.
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Date: 2010-07-29 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 11:10 pm (UTC)clearly, they expect you to use bing. hahaha.
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Date: 2010-07-30 08:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 08:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 07:29 pm (UTC)Yay for Ubuntu forums, or I wouldn't have even gotten this far!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 07:30 pm (UTC)(Why don't I have a tech icon, I wonder?)