02.15.2007

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Don says:

I've been working on the ezine pretty much all day long and running back and forth to my computer-building desk tinkering with a 400 MHz Intel Celeron.   I've tried to install several Linux distros which are supposed to be great for older computers.   I tried Caos Linux which didn't run at all, SaxenOS Linux which ran so-so, DesktopBSD which didn't run at all and PC-BSD which ran so-so.   By this time I was beginning to feel a little frustrated even though I didn't really expect any of them to work; the point was, and is, to learn more and I'm certainly doing that.   I made one more try at it, this time with Xubuntu.   In all honesty I didn't expect Xubuntu to work very well either but it fooled me.   Lisa's playing with it at the moment, downloading some games from the repository, and she told me to tell you it's surprisingly fast.   As I do with all my Linux computers I put 256 MB of RAM in it which represents a total investment of around $20 with some careful ebay bidding and the rest of the computer (motherboard, case, CPU & power supply) are things I scrounged from friends or local computer shops at little or no cost.   What good is it?   It would be perfect for a senior citizen who simply wanted to surf the web and have access to email; or it would be great for a young student who's going to grow up in a world where computer skills are essential to survival.   Even if I'm unable to find a home for it right away, Lisa and I will tune and tweak on it as our Linux skills improve so it'll be that much better a system when we do find a home for it.

Our Linux adventure began in February of 2006, a year ago, and for most of the last year we've been getting past the confusion and frustration on tenacity alone.   We've groaned, moaned and complained most of the way but we never considered giving up on Linux.   In retrospect I have to say Linux is a lot more complicated than Windows and having to un-learn some Windows habits makes it that much more difficult.

When we proofread this page Lisa stopped me right here to make a totally valid point.

When we bought our first Windows computer the Operating System was already installed and all we had to to was learn how to use it.   Linux would be just as easy to learn if we just didn't have to install it ourselves.   If somebody else would just install it, tweak it, make nice-nice with it and then deliver it to us, Linux would be a dream come true.

She's right too.   Very little of the time I've spent learning Linux has been about using the software.   The software is fun, fast and mostly awesome, seriously.   There are some applications, like the spreadsheet in Open Office, or the Gimp, which have learning curves but there are tutorials all over the web and no matter where you live you can usually find a Linux Users Group so serious help is an email away.   If you're impatient, most distros have IRC chat sites where you can go get help any time, day or night.   Configuring an IRC client is challenging if you've never done it but there again you can find a detailed tutorial with google and the software comes with the installation.   PCLinuxOS, for one awesome example, has an icon on the desktop for an IRC Client and it comes configured and ready to go.   You simply click on it, make up an interesting nickname, type it in and type in your question.   The answer is usually fast, and accurate.   We got an answer to a newbie question at 3:30 AM, within seconds!   (try that with Windows, go ahead).   While I'm bragging about PCLinuxOS I should also mention that it comes as a live CD with an "Install to Hard Drive" icon on the desktop.   Double-click that icon and the adventure begins.

Another thing that makes Linux difficult is having so darn many choices but exactly how is that different from choosing an automobile?   What choice have we ever had with Windows?   I wouldn't recommend to anyone that they give up Windows cold-turkey but if you've got an old computer stuffed in a closet or you see one in a flea market that can be had for very little I'd encourage you to take a shot at installing Linux on it.   Failing that, invest in a collection of live CDs so you can try out several "flavors" of Linux without installing anything or making any changes at all to your existing computer.   Live CDs suck if you have a dial up connection but you don't have to go online to look at a live CD; every live CD we've tried has recognised and configured our DSL connection with no problems at all.

You know, that's something I wish I could understand; why exactly is it that with Windows you've got to install drivers for the motherboard, the modem, the video card, the sound card, pretty much everything in the computer but it's unusual to need a driver for anything with Linux?   Oh sure, there have been a few times when I had trouble getting Debian to recognize a particular sound card but that's the exception not the rule and I can't even change the monitor on my windows computer without it insisting on "installing software" (i.e. a driver).   Granted, Windows rarely asks me for my Windows CD when I change the monitor but every monitor I've used, with every flavor of Linux I've tried, has worked the first time.   Yes, with Debian Sarge (the stable version of Debian) I can usually improve the monitor performance by tweaking it a bit and that wasn't so easy to do, the first time, but by now I can almost do it in my sleep.

My hope is that by the time Windows ceases to support my Win2K Pro system I'll be comfortable enough with Linux to pick a distro I like, install it, and never look back.

Happy trails y'all.

Lisa says:

The nearby town of Bluffton, TX has a rich and fascinating history.   It has been destroyed twice; once by drunken cowboys shooting up and burning down the town in 1883 and again with the damming of the Colorado river which flooded the town in 1937.   Both times, the town moved and rebuilt, but it was never to see its former prosperity.   This seems to suit the residents.   The only two structures that survived both these occurences were the school and the Bluffton Store.   I work at the store one day a week and enjoy the friendship of the owners, Janice (NeeCee) and Dennis Gauman, and thoroughly appreciate the opportunity to meet the neighbors.   It's a friendly place, this part of Texas.   I fell in love with it the day I moved here.

Lisa and NeeCee

Of course, one thing that disturbed the townsfolk was the fact that when the dam was functional, the cemetery containing their family members would also be covered by a lake.   In 1930 a new cemetery was constructed and donated "by the Emery, Peck and Rockwood Development Company", the original contractors for the job of building the dam.   Indeed.   Anyway, they got a nice new cemetery and the occupants were exhumed and reburied.   I like cemeteries, they're quiet and peaceful and in most cases, kept up well.   One cool thing is, I've never had anyone wonder what I was doing there, most people just assume it's my business.   This is a different place: most people will assume most anything you choose to do is pretty much your business.   I like it.

The Bluffton Cemetery