Monday, January 18, 2010

Linux

I have not been on my windows system since I installed Linux on my old desktop. My laptop sits there just looking at me. The only time I use it is to try different live distros. I will be bed ridden for a few days. Got a knee scope real soon. I can sit in bed and play with my computer and Linux.
The more I learn the better I get. I am having so much fun. I hope that Linux catches on and Microsoft feels the pinch. Free is good. Freedom is good.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Linux works

I am just so happy with Linux since I put it on my desktop I have not been on my Windows laptop except to let the anti-virus run. I am keeping windows because I do have some programs that run under windows and not Linux and I have not tried it with Wine yet. If it works with Wine I will get rid of windows totally.

I am so impressed with how Linux works and how most internet works with Linux. There are some sites that will not work except with windows. Oh well guess I don't need to visit those sites.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Having so much fun

I really forgot how much fun computers were. Now that I am not fighting with Anti-Virus every day losing time on the computer. I forgot that it would sometimes take hours for Anti-Virus to go through its cycle. I don't have that problem now. I have not used my Windows computer in the last 2 weeks. Except for to turn it on and let the anti virus run. What a waste of a computer.

Windows is nice if you could use it out of the box. But you can't you have to get Anti-Virus in order for it to work. So you just spent 200+ dollars for the OS then another 60+ for Anti-Virus. Then anything you want to do on the computer you have to buy software for.

You want to burn a CD buy some software 30 - 120 dollars.
You want to draw pictures with photoshop your looking for another 120 to 400 dollars
You need to run a business? Microsoft Office? 200+ dollars Accounting software another 200+ dollars.

Where does it stop?

Moving to Linux I can do everything at no charge. I spent 60 dollars on a hard drive and that was it. I want to get a few more hard drives so I can do TIVO and Security and a Web Cam.

So what is the cost of Linux over Windows? A couple hundred dollars vs several thousand. Hmm sounds like a no brainer.

I am having too much fun with my computer and Linux. There are a few places I cannot go cause only Windows or Mac will run the pages. Will not work under Linux. Too bad. They do not want my business. That is fine. There are plenty of other sites I can go to.

Hope you move to Linux and save money too.

My suggestions for moving to Linux are:
Ubuntu or one of it variants.
Fedora,
Open SUSE,
CentOS

There are plenty of others as well. If you want to pay for Linux I would suggest:
Mandravia,
Red Hat,
Linspier
They all charge for Linux. Its the same Linux as the free but you are paying for their knowledge. If you can afford it and don't want to spend some time learning it for yourself then I would suggest paying a yearly fee. It will wind up costing as much as Windows over a 3 to 5 year period. Its up to you.

I like learning. So I print, and read and practice and learn. So I will be able to use my computer the way I want. If I want to do scripting I can, If I want to do drawing then I can, If I want to use Open Office I can. The options go on and on. If I want to do the same thing under Windows it would cost me a fortune.

Thank God for Linux. Brings back the fun in Computers. Just like it was when I started with computers 30 years ago. I did not have computers in school. I did not get into computers until I was in the Service. There I used Dos and Commodore 64. Dos at work and Commodore 64 at home.

Wordstar
Lotus 1-2-3
DBase

BBS

150 -300 Baud Modems.

Boy that was fun. Could watch grass grow waiting for a download to finish.

Same with Commodore 64. Took forever for a download. It also took a long time to load programs under Commodore 64.

I perfer Linux. There is still so much I need to learn in Linux. That is what makes it fun.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Computer fun again

It is so much fun to have computer again. I was so bored with Microsoft and Having to get an Anti Virus, and Spam Killers and who knows what else in order to get Windows to work.

I got so fed up with Windows when my XP Pro slowed down to a crawl and nothing was wrong with the computer. It actually took 4 hours to boot up and once I was there I could do nothing. I went this routine for two weeks. After which the computer only took 4 mins to boot up and I could do almost anything I wanted but it was slower than normal. Usually 5 yo 7 mins to close down. I finally gave up and on a whim and because I wanted a Linux machine I put a CD in it and moved on.

In one hour I had removed Windows and installed Linux. I had Debian on a system but could not get Debian to read my graphic card. I had web pages and info pages and no way to close them.

So Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS and OpenSUsE were the distros I was going to move to. On the live cd's they did read my hardware. I finally decided to move to Ubuntu in the end.

I made the move and have not looked back. I do need to find a web cam that will work with Linux. The printer works fine the speakers are fine everything works but the web cam. There is a huge list of web cams from which to choose from. But a $10 web cam will not work with Linux but a $75 web cam will. So free only goes so far.

If that is my only problem is having to fork over extra cash for an expensive web cam so be it. I was able to save about $300 just on the Operating System and thousands more on other software.

Best of all, it was alot of fun. The way computers used to be.