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Archive for category Computers

What got me to try Linux?

Mar 9

Posted by ScottW in Computers | No Comments

Ever ask yourself that question? What got you to try Linux in the first place? I found myself thinking that recently and was figuring it had to do with it being free for the most part but the more I thought about it, the more it became apparant that there was so much more to it than just cost.

I first started trying Linux several years ago when I was becoming frustrated with all the annual fees for virus, malware, spyware, etc. protection. One of which, that was supplied by my ISP at the time (cable company), allowed my system to be hacked over-night. How does 144 viruses and trojans sound to you? Scary, huh? Well, that’s what they found in it after just one night of leaving it on by accident. Yes, it was Windows XP. And yes, all 144 in one night.

This left me feeling even more like a sucker for believing the anti-virus companies had my best interests at heart so the trek to find something more suitable and reliable got started. Read the rest of this entry »

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VirtualBox, Health and The Mystic Bird

Feb 28

Posted by ScottW in Computers | No Comments

It’s been a while since my last post and it’s mostly due to my playing  around with VirtualBox on my Win7 box. That and some minor health  issues that mostly have to do with my knee. Not going to bore you with  bum knee stories so let’s dive in on the good stuff!

I now have CrunchBang Linux, Linux Mint 8 and Fedora 12 installed in  VirtualBox with CBL being the only one giving me any issues so far to  date. The issues don’t stem from the VirtualBox end of things but more  along the end of the OS itself. Seems they take a humorous view of  their system and say that the name means that at any given time it may  go ‘Crunch!’ ‘Bang!‘ and that’s all she wrote! At any rate, I’m still  working it out to see if I can solve it without re-installing the OS. Read the rest of this entry »

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A Week with Win7

Feb 19

Posted by ScottW in Computers | No Comments

It was last December when I posted last about my new Win7 install and  my initial thoughts so seeing as I’ve been spending some ‘quality- time’ with it this week it’s high time I wrote an update on it.

Recalling that I’m pretty much into Linux more than Windows these  days, I’ll be fair and honest about my week with Win7. Actually, I am  still being impressed somewhat with Win7 so far. I actually think M/$  got it as close to right as they’ll ever get with this release.

Other than a simple to fix sound issue last January, I’ve not run into  any OS related glitches to date. Vista was all over the map with  issues but Win7 seems to be pretty much settled in. Read the rest of this entry »

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VirtualBox – Update with a Laptop Twist

Feb 9

Posted by ScottW in Computers | 2 Comments

As I mentioned in my previous article about Sun Microsystem’s (Oracle) VirtualBox, I’m looking to use it for testing other distros of Linux instead of installing to a permanent location on one of my hard drives. This affords me a couple of advantages over the more popular methods:

  1. I can install/delete an installation much easier.
  2. No concerns about partitioning.
  3. I can actually import/export from one virtual machine to another.
  4. I can use either the virtual OS or the host OS as I need to.
  5. In the case of a virtual Windows installation, I can rest easy about possible viruses, malware, etc. not affecting the host system. A major plus!

I’ve gone the dual-boot methods in the past and even had 3 different OS’s installed on one machine that all worked just fine. However, using VirtualBox will now enable me to do pretty much the same thing without having to mess around with the partitioning of the host system. Remember to keep in mind that I’m still getting used to VirtualBox so my reports here are based solely from a novice’s standpoint, OK? ;) Read the rest of this entry »

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Trying out Sun Microsystems’ VirtualBox

Feb 5

Posted by ScottW in Computers | Comments off

Just a quick note to tell you all that I’ve started experimenting with Sun Microsystem’s Virtual Box as a way to try out other distros of Linux that I find interesting. This allows me the opportunity to test them out, play around and see if I run into any issues before committing to installing one of them to my regular production machine.

Admittedly, I’m probably behind the curve on this as a lot of folks have been doing this already. However, not all distros come as a LiveCD for testing so this virtual environment scenario will allow me to give them a go without wiping my base Linux installation of Linux Mint 8.

So far, I’m pretty stoked about this as I really liked trying out different distros from time to time. I’m going to follow this up soon with more details on my experience with VirtualBox.

I’d appreciate any input from you folks on a good distro to try too. At this time, I have CentOS 5.4 and CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01 lined up for starters. What others would you recommend?

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Unwinding with Linux backgrounds

Jan 23

Posted by ScottW in Computers | Comments off

Been killing time this morning after work downloading and trying out some new themes and backgrounds for my laptop. Kind of like the general look of things so far.

Background is called ‘GreenGnomeDebug’ from gnome-look.org and the theme is called ‘Ubuntu-Dawn-X’ from the same site. Took some basic fiddling to get things the way I wanted them but so far, so good.

Think I’ll call it a day. ;)

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A basic computer question

Jan 11

Posted by ScottW in Computers | 2 Comments

Just an FYI folks, this is not a poll to bash any operating system. More to the point, it’s just an informal poll to allow me to see what it is that the folks that read this blog as well as the ones that follow me on Twitter, use for their everyday computing. Nothing more, nothing less. So, if you’d feel so inclined as to add your info, I’d be obliged.

Just to kick things off, I use both Linux Mint (8) [laptop] and Win7 [desktop] with Ubuntu 8.04 server edition with Ebox as a home file/print server [2nd desktop]. The laptop is used for my everyday computing needs and the desktop is for movies, games and music thanks to the surround sound system connected to it.

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A Day of Fixes (sort of)

Jan 10

Posted by ScottW in Computers | Comments off

Today marks a day of fixes here and rightly so. Got the ‘ol home file/print server going although, not with the box I intended to use. It had way too many issues to be of good use. I’m going to recycle it after removing the hard drives. I wound up using the Lenovo box with the 320 gb hard drive and installing Ubuntu 8.04 server edition with Ebox. Works like a charm and the file sharing was easier than I originally thought.

I also found a cure for the sound issues on my Win7 box and I was amazed at how many others were also experiencing the same problem. Anyway, below is the fix for the ‘no sound while dvd plays in win7′ issue:

Basically go to Sound -> Speakers (right clic) -> Properties -> Advanced -> Uncheck : “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device”.

Now, I’m going to enjoy a movie and kick back for a while. ;)

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