Friday, September 2, 2011

New Linux Lappy

I've decided at long last to go straight Linux for a new laptop project.  I scored a Pentium D Dual Core Acer laptop a week ago.  Special thanks to my old friend Pat Fisherman for doing most of the dirty work.  You see, the laptop was sitting for ages, and nobody tried to fix it. (by ages I mean since 2008, when it was 'fried' by the then owner)  The power supply attachment on the laptop busted and burned out the laptop.  After buying a $20 part off Amazon.com Pat was able to install the new part and we were up and running!!  I was amazed!  This is a good $300+ laptop, that was basically free!!

 When we got it running it was booting into Windows XP.  Looks like the prior owner had only ever used Internet Explorer and it was running really sluggish.  Tried to test out the wireless, after a little tinkering got that running.  Wow... what would happen next?  Pop up.  Pop up!!  Pop up!!

Holy shizah!!  this thing was covered in viruses!!  I quickly powered the thing down and looked about the room.  I thought to myself, I might need to reinstall Windows... then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the new Linux Mint distro CD I made a while back...  Hmmm,  Linux.  Do I go straight Linux?  What about all of the applications that I love to use in windows world?  I'm pretty much a linux noob, could I get the hang of a UNIX based OS?  Aw, screw it!  I slapped the disc in and ran the install completely wiping Winders off the laptop.

Linux came up, without any issues.  Displayed a nice welcome screen, walking me through the entire install process.  Before I knew it I was up and running.  A quick connection to the Internet through a Ethernet port and Mint was able to completely and automagically update all drivers and bring me up to speed on all the security and application settings that I would need to get the most out of my laptop.  I know what you're thinking right?  What am I a freakin' Linux commercial?  Well, seriously... it really is like this!  It just runs better.  No silly pop ups, no windows virus protection garbage, no dealing Microsoft period! And best of all.  It's FREE!

So generally, I use my PC's and now this laptop for a few things.  I do the regular browsing around, emails, facclerbooking..etc etc.  who doesn't.  I also do some(albeit crappy) film project editing, game playing, FTP uploading, website editing, and just general writing of papers/projects (Open office).  So, for pretty much everything I do, I have found a Linux equivalent for.  There are endless amounts of GREAT Linux games available(Probably another whole blog entry!) so I'm set there.  FileZilla is great for uploading massive amounts of files, also Gtorrent, is a uTorrent copy and works exactly the same for any file sharing needs.  Open Office is perfect for visio, or word projects, even comes with some good website development tools.

Now for editing movies.  Apparently there are LOADS of options in the Linux world.  I've done some research on a few distributions of some really powerful, free editing softwares, and I have to say, I'm impressed!  I'm starting to dabble with OpenShot and LiVES.  LiVES is way beyond what little experience I have at the moment.  I have to learn to slow down and not just slop things together.  Whereas I'm pretty comfortable with OpenShot already.  It's an easy program to dabble around with.  Seems a bit limited, pretty similar to Windows movie maker.  Just better quality.


Well, so far so good.  I made the transition, and so far.  I'm not looking back.  I have to use a Windows 7 OS at work, and that is enough for me to be done with the same old hassles of dealing with Windows Operating Systems.  I really like everything in Linux Mint thus far, and I'll keep everyone up to date if I run into any problems!

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

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