Linux Mint 9

I have been playing with my desktop computer and I think I have now learned just enough to be dangerous.  Which means, of course, I’m going to talk about it.  I have made the leap and taken this box to the world of Linux.

I have been playing with Linux for a couple of years but always in a dual-boot set-up.  This an old box so it still had Windows XP on it.   I never made the transition to Vista but I did keep it up to date with all of the security patches and even had Service Pack 3 installed.  As we get down to the end of the life span of XP, I had several options.

- Do I spend $150 and go to Windows 7?  That would entail a clean reformat of my hard drive and a full installation of the operating system.  I have done this before so that didn’t really scare me.  But the idea didn’t excite me, either.  My netbook has Windows 7 and I am very pleased with how it runs, so I am not really a Win7 hater.  So I downloaded the little program from Microsoft that would check my computer and tell me if I could upgrade to Win7.  It said I could upgrade but I didn’t have enough machine to really take advantage of everything Win7 had to offer.  So, basically I could shell out a C-note but I would still be limited in what I could do.

- Do I get a new computer?  I would love a new, more powerful computer.  Like I said, this one is getting old.  And what guy doesn’t like a new toy?  But, I don’t really have 6 or 7 hundred dollars just laying around.  Somehow I don’t think the Rev would go for that.

Or.  .  . do I look for something entirely different?  As I said at the top, I have been playing with Linux for a couple of years but never really got serious about it until this summer.  So I figured it was time to give it a serious trial.  I had installed Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron in a dual boot set-up and was pleased with that.  It seemed to work okay on my computer and had enough programs to do what I wanted to do most of the time.  So I started to use it as my main platform.  Instead of just playing with it, I put it to work.  And what I found was that it worked just fine.  About the only time I really needed to boot into Windows was when I needed to use Quicken to pay some bills.  Quicken just doesn’t run in Linux and even using Wine didn’t work very well.  But all I really used Quicken for anymore was Quicken Billpay.  I have used Checkfree since the early days when it was a stand alone start-up, before Intuit bought it.  I really like the convenience of online bill payment.  But when we moved to Des Moines we switched banks and they offered free online billpay.  No more $10 per month for Checkfree.  I signed up for that service pretty quickly.

That, I discovered, was the last road block keeping me from dumping Windows.  So now I started to look seriously for a Linux flavor that I liked.  I first upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 Maverick Meerkat.  That is a great program.  Everything just worked.  It has OpenOffice to replace Microsoft Office.  I could use Firefox and Chrome for browsers just like I did in Windows.  I even found that I liked Presentation better than Powerpoint for creating my slide show from our vacation.

Now I was hooked on Linux.  So I started looking around at others.  Puppylinux is a wonderful little program you can run off a disk on even the most basic computers.  I downloaded Fedora 13 and tried that from a live cd as well.  Very nice.

But I kept reading about these guys that were taking the latest Ubuntu version and tweaking and polishing it up.  They call it Linux Mint.  It was supposed to be the best distro for a newbie like me who had grown up on Windows and really wasn’t into programing.  So I downloaded the image and burned a disk to try it.  It had all of the power and strength of Ubuntu in a really slick, user-friendly package.  It was like being used to driving a Toyota and being handed the keys to a Lexus.  Everything seemed familiar and much like what I had become used to only it was nicer and smoother and full of pizazz.  I know - that isn’t tech speak, but I don’t claim to be a techie.  I’m just an old furniture guy trying to get another year or two out of his computer.

So two weeks ago I did it.  I reformatted my hard drive.  I wiped off all remnants of Windows from my machine and I installed Linux Mint 9 “Isadora” on this old box of mine and I haven’t looked back once.  I have been playing with setting this up exactly how I want it.  And you want to know the best part? There are literally thousands of programs to do everything I want to do and they are all free.  And they are easy to install.  The hardest part is choosing.

So you will see a new gadget on the right side of this page.  It is a link to Linux Mint.  If you are interested in trying something new, check it out.  I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Peace.

Dell Inspiron Mini 1012 Review

This will be my first attempt at a product review. I want to say up front, I make no claim to be a computer expert so this will not be a technical review of this new computer. My intent is to share my experience for other plain old people like myself.

I have been playing with this mini for about a month now and I really like it. I think I have succeeded in setting it up the way I want it.

Just a brief description of the hardware. This one has the Atom N450 processor, with 1 GB of RAM. It has a 160 GB HDD, a 6 cell battery and the operating system is Windows 7 Starter.

First of all, I am impressed with Windows 7. Just turn it on and walk through the start up and you are off and running. Windows 7 immediately found my wifi connection, logged on and was updating before I even realized what it was doing. It couldn’t have been simpler. This also came with some extra trial software that I didn’t want - more about that later.

The key board is almost full size and just fine for my use. I’m not a high-speed touch typist so I’m not terribly picky. I find the keyboard has a nice feel to it. The keys have a solid feel though some may find them to be a bit stiff.

I’m very impressed with the battery life. The 6 cell battery along with the N450 processor give this little guy a good 8 hours of battery life for my uses. I just plug it in at night and it is good for the day.

Since I use this little guy mainly for web use, I have done some set up to make it work for me. That is where the work comes in. My use for this mini is to have it in my lap in the evenings so I can check the news sites and do my general, recreational surfing. And in this case, I am using it to write this blog post.

Here is how I have set this up:

First I removed the McAfee anti-virus program that was pre-loaded. I have been using AVG on my computers for several years now and have been very pleased with that program on my desk-tops. I use it here and find it works just as well.

Since this is not going to be a business computer, I had no need for MS Office. That 60 day trial may be nice, but I don’t need the programs and definitely don’t want the expense after the 60 days are up. Especially since it didn’t include Outlook.

I replaced it with OpenOffice. That gives me the programs that I want without the expense. I also chose not to install the database program since I have never used it on my other computers. Right now I am also playing with a word processing program called AbiWord that I think is ideal for a mini like this. It is a small program but has all of the features that I want for basic text creation. I’m writing this in AbiWord right now. And I just found how to add a hyperlink, so it hasn’t failed me yet.

Now comes the real meat of the set-up. I want to go online, what browser should I use? I started with IE but wasn’t impressed. It isn’t all that fast with this processor and only 1 gig of RAM. Also, it takes up so much screen space with it’s task bars and headers. I soon discovered that the 10.1“ screen on this little mini is a limitation that has to be considered. With IE, I found that I didn’t get to see much of the web page that I was most interested in seeing.

I had seen some others suggest that Google Chrome is the way to go so I tried it out. I have to agree - Chrome is the choice for a browser when you have a mini like this. The minimalist screen and the smaller footprint makes it the better choice. Chrome has become my browser of choice. Then all I had to do was hide the taskbar on the bottom and I was set.

Oh, that reminds me - since I dumped Office, IE and most of the pre-installed garbage I had no use for that funky taskbar that was at the top. First I tried just hiding it but it would jump out and get in the way when I was trying to go to the buttons at the top. Then I tried moving to the left or right but it still just got in the way when I didn’t want it around, So finally, I just dumped it. There is the option of turning it off or deleting it. I chose to turn it off on the off chance that some day I might want it back. I am not impressed with that little feature.

Well, all in all, I am very pleased with my Mini 1012. It surfs well and I can write the occasional text document without any problem. I’ve used it to play mp3 files and it works well for that as well. I doubt it would be a good gaming station but I’m not a gamer and it isn’t built for that. In all, I would definitely recommend this to the general user interested in a small, portable net computer.

Hope you liked my first attempt at a product review. I don’t imagine I will be doing a lot of this kind of thing but who knows?

Peace.