Linux: Why I made the switch

There are many websites out there that make the case on why you should switch to Linux. For example, http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/ is an awesome site for this purpose. And if you are a business and you want to benefit from the stability and higher quality found in Linux/UNIX systems, please go to http://www.adeliecg.com/ for Springfield's Open Source Leader.

But for this page, I wanted to show why I made the switch and how I went about it. I have always enjoyed computers. When I was in my early teens my older brother purchased an IBM 486 66MHz with an outstanding 4meg of ram. He quickly jumped that up to 16. Everyone wanted to come see the latest rocket-ship of a computer. It was a beauty. Rocking Windows 3.1. Well the orders were that I was absolutely not to touch the computer. My listening ability then was about as good as it is now, and I went on it all the time, always trying something, and… typically breaking it. Obviously, that resulted in me having to fix it before my big bro came home and pummeled me. That fear of fury taught me how to work on computers. I have been tinkering with them ever since. At this point in my career I am a Windows administrator. So I know my way around the operating system and used all of the versions from 3.1 on. In fact I was quite the Windows fanboy.
A friend of mine, however, wasn't so short sighted, and wanted to learn more about the Linux community. He quickly liked what we saw, and tried for a long time to get me to try it. I really couldn't just do that. I had a home based employment that required me to use Windows. Once that passed, I really had no excuse but I continued to use Windows, until I got a new pc with one small problem… no operating system. I had no Windows license and no money to buy one with, and being a reformed pirate I decided not to go back to my old ways. So I tried Linux.

Some links that might help you if you make the switch!
http://www.linux.org/lessons/beginner/index.html
http://www.linuxlots.com/~jam/
http://linuxreviews.org/beginner/

The first distro I tried for my desktop was Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/). I liked it overall. It was very simple to use, and the coolest thing (as with any distro)--- tons of free awesome software. CD/DVD/Blueray burners, rippers, games, office suites… you name it, there is a free app for it. Instead of having to buy or pirate it, you can get it for free!

http://iso.linuxquestions.org/ (which distro is right for you?)

So that made me very interested. But I didn't like Gnome, so I tried Kubuntu. I liked it much better, I would highly recommend KDE. I like 3.5 and what they are doing in 4. The reasons I went with canonical (http://www.canonical.com/) is that like that their distos where based on Debian (http://www.debian.com/), which is a solid distro for anything, to high end serving, or a simple desktop. what I didn't like, as a power user, (see if this makes sense) it was so simple, that it made it harder to do more advanced things. I am struggling to find an example (I will try to remember one and put it here) but whenever I wanted to make any system changes (like how my hardware reacted to the software) different from what they gave me, it was always complex and quite a hassle. My friend who I mentioned earlier, was using Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/). I was considering going to pure Debian, but he talked me into Gentoo. Now Gentoo does rock, once you get a stable system off the ground. It is fast, powerful and very customizable, but it is a pain in the butt; in fact, there is a 12 chapter installation guide found here http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml that outlines how to build Gentoo. It's certainly the erector set distro of Linux. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I do love it. I will admit my Gentoo Linux computer can be quite a pain, but it also trumps anything I have compared it to in the Linux, Microsoft or Mac Worlds. So I am stuck with an awesome stable system, that whenever I do have problems I can go to well documented forum, and IRC channels that have Gentoo developers in them.
The greatest thing I can say about Linux is, you get a more stable, more powerful, more customizable system than you have ever seen. The desktop environments found in Linux are amazing, and it only gets better. look at a brief list of various software options below.

Here is a list of the awesome free software found in Linux!

Applications
http://www.openoffice.org/ Awesome Office suite
http://www.virtualbox.org/ Have windows, mac or whatever virtually!
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html The best web browser!
http://amarok.kde.org/ Great music player
http://www.gimp.org/ Amazing image manipulation program
http://k3b.plainblack.com/ Great burner software
http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/ I rip all of my dvd's and store them on my server so I can keep my dvd's like new.

For a list of games
http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/items/free_games/index.php?lang=

Is you PC running slow?

SafetyNET

This issues topic: Why is my home computer running slow?

Why is my home computer running slow?

I hear that question more that anything else. There are many possible reasons why your home computer is running slow. Here are some tips you can use at home. (Legal Disclaimer: If your computer starts smoking, blows up, or anything you don’t like after reading this article, it’s not my fault)

1st Have you deleted all of those temp files?

Deleting unused files allows Windows to run faster by freeing up valuable hard disk space. These unused files are typically Temporary Files, URL history, cookies, form history, and files present in Recycle bin.  It’s also not a bad idea to remove programs you don’t use anymore. An easy way to do both is by using the free program Ccleaner (www.ccleaner.com).

2nd When is the last time you defragged your computer?

A fragmented drive causes a slow system. Imagine your hard disk is a huge file cabinet with millions of drawers (thanks to Roberto Di Cosmo for this comparison). Each drawer can only contain a fixed amount of data. Therefore, files that are larger than what such a drawer can contain need to be split up and housed in many file drawers. Some files are so large that they need thousands of drawers. Of course, accessing these files is much easier when the drawers they occupy are close to one another in the file cabinet. Windows basically works like this: it empties the drawers when a file is removed, splits up any new file into smaller pieces to fit the size of a drawer, and randomly stuffs each piece into the first available empty drawer anywhere on the hard disk. Defragmenting your hard drive basically puts all the files back together in a nice and proper order.

Easy steps to defragment your drive:

1. Click start, then click, run.... 

2. type: "defrag c:" or "defrag c: -b"

The -b switch will invoke a boot sector defrag which will speed up your boot process. Run it a few times.Note, if using windows vista, or 7 you will need to type cmd, then right click on it and choose run as an administrator. 

Or download the free application like Defraggler (www.defraggler.com/)

3rd Too many craplets running

What is a craplet? Some computer nerd in attempt to be funny meshed the, “C” word with applet (another name for a program), to make craplet. It’s basically any program on your computer that you really don’t need, but it’s a running anyway, using the computers valuable resources.

Some of these are like Adobe Acrobat Reader which  has a program called Reader_sl. These programs run as your computer starts up. Some more examples are qttask for QuickTime, ituneshelper for iTunes, jusched for Java, realsched for Real Player, and the list goes on and on. By disabling these start-up apps, you will free your computer from doing unnecessary processes while it’s trying to boot up. Most of these programs are really just checking if there are any updates for the program it is associated with. Adobe reader will still work, even if Reader_sl is disabled, for example. Note if you have an Ipod, you might want to leave the itunes files alone.

To remove them:

either use the startup tool in ccleaner or 

1. Click start

2. Go to run

3. Type msconfig, and click ok

4. go to the start-up tab and uncheck the apps you don’t want to started when your computer boots up

(CAUTION: don’t uncheck everything. Some of these applets are needed when your computer starts up, like your virus protection. You can find out by Googling the name of the applet.)

A program that helps remove craplets is called pcdecrapifier (www.pcdecrapifier.com). Its very easy to use, and has the ability to backup any changes that are made. You can also go to http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/ and do a free scan of your computer. It will provide you with suggestion on how to secure and speed up your machine. If you’re looking for security scans, http://www.auditmypc.com is another great site.

Of course these tips will only do so much, low ram, ancient PC, you might want to install a minimal Linux distro like Xubuntu. 

My New Site!

Hi, and welcome to my new blog site. My plan? To share with you my computer problems and solutions. I hope to document things that I deal with, and how I fixed them. I hope you find it helpful!

~AdelieMan~