The history of Miguel’s work desk PC… Started with Windows 98, then Windows 2000, then Windows XP, formatted that about 3 times. Then finally gave up and went back to Windows 2000. I use this computer for serious work, and don’t have time to do the whole Windows support thing on it. I just don’t have an hour or two every day or every couple of days to troubleshoot Windows.
Now Windows 2000 has been pretty rock-solid, and it’s been running there, without any major hangups since September.
But since my job description has changed a bit lately, I’m doing a lot more remote stuff with ssh, a lot of php scripting and stuff like that. So my work desktop has basically turned into a dumb terminal for a bunch of linux servers.
Well, I find that I’m using the Powerbook G4 and the iBook even more and more at work. Even though the Windows 2000 PC is on the same desk, more often than not, I’ll reach over to the Mac OS X laptop to do anything serious.
So I’ve been thinking… why not just put a nice friendly linux distro on the PC? I downloaded a couple of live CDs, and for the last 2 days, I’ve basically been using a linux desktop. Guess what? There’s nothing I need in Windows. So far, anyway. I can do everything web-based and through ssh.
Sooner or later I’m just going to take the plunge and install a linux distro on the hard drive itself, but perhaps I’ll get VMware or something for a Windows session when I absolutely need it.
I’m completely impressed how much of my normal every day work I can accomplish Microsoft-free. I mean, all the servers are already on Linux, so why not my desktop?
MMMM G5 yum… WHy not get a small dell laptop the ls series a pIII 500 or something stuff 512mb ram in it and run bsd or mandrake for a portable machine. ? That is one of my plan’s.
Yeah, Knoppix was one of the ones I tried. I liked it so much, I tried it on one of the Thinkpads here, and it runs great, even detected the wireless network card.
I put the CD in, 2 minutes later, I’m using Knoppix, on a wireless laptop. Amazing.
As I just posted in another thread, I don’t think the Windows XP OS has once ever crashed on me. Last night I had a huge urge to install a Mandrake distro on a second HDD or partition… man, if only Battlefield 1942 ran on Lunix, I’d make the switch.
i think i’ll take a copy home and try it re: wireless. have a dlink card in stock but i promised it to someone else, so i’ll try an old wavelan silver.
Nope, that’s the whole point. I don’t have minutes to spare. I can’t wait for something to boot at work. That’s what pissed me off about Windows XP. So much rebooting. If I have one hour a day to do some job, that’s 60 minutes. Every minute counts!
Anyway, so I’m going to try a linux distro with VMware, so that both are always running.
[quote=“MiG”]Yeah, Knoppix was one of the ones I tried. I liked it so much, I tried it on one of the Thinkpads here, and it runs great, even detected the wireless network card.
I put the CD in, 2 minutes later, I’m using Knoppix, on a wireless laptop. Amazing.[/quote]
What mirror did you use to get your ISO image? Ive tried a few in the US and they all suck.
whatever happenned to that transmeta chip? i thought it was supposed to be able to emulate anything and run mac, windows, linus …etc.
or a dual system, saw a homemade box years ago that could flick from an Amiga to Windows NT while running. you culd be running something in OS #1 then switch to OS#2 and run something else. the guy was multitasking in amiga then flipped to NT to surf the net, then back to a paused amiga game while page loaded in NT. [it was an old 60Mhz 68060 so it was slow by todays standards]
[quote=“MiG”]Yeah, Knoppix was one of the ones I tried. I liked it so much, I tried it on one of the Thinkpads here, and it runs great, even detected the wireless network card.
I put the CD in, 2 minutes later, I’m using Knoppix, on a wireless laptop. Amazing.[/quote]
Cool. I took a look at Knoppix as well. Is it RPM based, like Mandrake?
