After over twelve years my Palm m130 decided to go to that digital graveyard in the sky. The battery wouldn't hold a charge, the power button didn't work and the only way I could turn it on was to use a pin in the reset button. I decided to go with the Google Nexus 7 since my wife bought herself one just before Christmas and she just loves the machine.
I picked up the 16 gig version and I couldn't be happier. Most of the software I use is free and almost replaces the Palm m130 completely in functionality. The only thing I cannot find that is free (so far) is a contact manager. I want one that is very similar to what the palm has in that it records names, addresses emails and birthday/anniversary information in one spot.
The device itself runs a version of Linux and from what I see using it... It is great! I am now using it as my main machine to pick up Google mail, Facebook and Twitter. The thing just works and I have not had any issues with it locking up unlike a certain operating system I will leave unnamed. I also installed Avast as it is only a matter of time before the 'nasties' start making the presence known. I am using Avast as I have switched us all from AVG at home. I liked AVG until they made a major mess on this netbook and my main laptop that required me to completely rebuild both machines.
On another note PCLINUX finally put out a 64 bit version of their distribution and I am playing with it now. I wanted the 64 bit as it would recognize all of the memory in my main laptop unlike their 32 bit offering. Now all I have to do is figure out how to set up dual boot and use Windows 7 only for a few games and Linux for everything else. If anyone who has done this for windows 7 please leave me a note on where I can find a 'how-to-do' for this.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Friday, June 08, 2012
More converts to Linux - Part 2
My sister-in-law dropped off her daughter's tower machine for a rebuild. The first thing they asked for is for me to wipe the drive and to install Linux on the machine. They don't even want a dual-boot machine, but, pure Linux! It seems that they are tired of the viruses/trojans on windows and the A/V software is really slowing down their machine. I know Linux isn't perfect, but, is a lot more secure by default and I will be turning on all of the various options to harden the machine as much as possible. I also will build normal user accounts that cannot add/change/delete programs from the system and then show them how to use the special account with root priviliges for when they have to update the system.
I will be re-imaging the machine to PCLINUX and installing Libre Office, Games and educational packages for her as they wanted a fully loaded machine to do office work, games and allow the kids to 'play' with some of the free educational packages that comes with the distro.
I will be re-imaging the machine to PCLINUX and installing Libre Office, Games and educational packages for her as they wanted a fully loaded machine to do office work, games and allow the kids to 'play' with some of the free educational packages that comes with the distro.
Cutting Cable and going web for TV
We have cut our cable TV as the prices our cable provider charges keep going up and the quality of what is available in my not-so-humble opinion is going down. Our cable provider told us they are moving a number of channels to digital and if we want to get them we must rent a digital converter. The problem is that most of the shows are repeats and in a 30 minute show there is about 10+ minutes of commercials.
I am now in the process of building and testing a Linux box that will replace what cable TV offered us. I am finding a number of sites that offer streaming movies for free and they are legal! When I was searching for sites I found a lot of them offering movies, but, seeing the titles I know that they were pirated and I will not support those sites. I want to find sites that offer legit movies for preferably free (or if they are in Canada a minimal charge). The sites I did find even offer children show shows so our grandkids will have educational shows when they visit us.
The money I am saving will be used to buy DVDs to build up our movie library. The bonus is that we pick the day and time of movies and can pause them if we need to restock on munchies or take a break.
The only thing I have had to buy is a wireless network card ( a DLINK USB card). On my first test using PCLINUX it detected the card, found our network and prompted me to enter our key in to allow access to the network.
The next test is to move the machine down into the living room, hook it up and run the machine. I haven't decided if we will be using Firefox or Chrome for the browser stuff, but, I am not picky there as they both worked well in the test.
I am now in the process of building and testing a Linux box that will replace what cable TV offered us. I am finding a number of sites that offer streaming movies for free and they are legal! When I was searching for sites I found a lot of them offering movies, but, seeing the titles I know that they were pirated and I will not support those sites. I want to find sites that offer legit movies for preferably free (or if they are in Canada a minimal charge). The sites I did find even offer children show shows so our grandkids will have educational shows when they visit us.
The money I am saving will be used to buy DVDs to build up our movie library. The bonus is that we pick the day and time of movies and can pause them if we need to restock on munchies or take a break.
The only thing I have had to buy is a wireless network card ( a DLINK USB card). On my first test using PCLINUX it detected the card, found our network and prompted me to enter our key in to allow access to the network.
The next test is to move the machine down into the living room, hook it up and run the machine. I haven't decided if we will be using Firefox or Chrome for the browser stuff, but, I am not picky there as they both worked well in the test.
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