I started using Red Hat Linux in 1999 after having a brief flirtation with Corel Linux in 1998. Looking for alternative and free software became a hobby. I could see that Microsoft was going to continue being really expensive and overworked/engineered software as XP dawned upon the market. XP was relatively stable, but 98 was the best and easy to work around. I thought that Millennium was a joke and never even bothered with Vista--hearing the reports from friends and the media about how screwy it was.
When Red Hat became Enterprise Edition, I saw the Fedora Core project as a great alternative to Windows, and installed it on an old Pentium III in 2003. That old machine ran just as quick as my Pentium 4 Dell laptop with XP SP2! What caused that old Pentium III to pass through the veil was its power supply finally gave out, and it was old enough to just frankenstein the hardrives and other hardware that was still compatible with the computer towers of the time. I still have data files from those old drives that have followed one incarnation of the computer to the next. So it is possible to have a computer that "evolves" over time.
I eventually steered away from Linux for a few years because of college, and I had little choice but to return to XP for a while so I could use some of the software that was part of the curriculum for my ear training and sight singing course. Otherwise I would have been able to remain with Linux during that time, but WINE wasn't as sophisticated or updated and didn't lend to hardware support like it is today.
My return to Linux was in 2010 when I installed a copy of Debian 4 on an "expendable" laptop that I purchased from a friend. It was an old Compaq and one of the first Pentium 4 models they made in 2001. It had seen better days, but once I replaced the XP that wouldn't upgrade to SP3 (didn't have the memory or speed to run a large paging file) I realized that Debian was a superior operating system. I had that computer set up with Debian for a long time, several months, with no incidents. I took the computer with me to Pennsylvania on a trip to visit family for Christmas 2010 and it performed smoothly. It ran so well, that despite the fact the laptop weighed a ton and was bulky compared to the newer ones, it was like having a new computer. . .
It was running great, until I "broke" it by doing something foolish trying up upgrade the kernel. So a friend gave me a live cd of "OpenSuse" and it had Debian as a backport so it was able to read Debian archives and package files. So for more than a year, the computer ran great. I used it for doing my books for my tattoo shop for a long time. But like many of the Linux distros, it eventually would no longer update and the apt-repositories changed, so it was impossible to do the updates without having the right ppa's.
That computer was then retired and import accounting and word-processing files were uploaded to the cloud on the INTERNET and I returned to using windows for a while again.
I had a nice HP DV6000 laptop that I bought used from a friend in Belfair, and one day it decided not to turn on anymore, right about the same time that my tower did the same (my frankensteined computer that morphed into XP SP3 for the business.) So it left me without a computer for the first time. Even my android Dell tablet died! So my phone was my only link to the Internet, and I was having a fight with the service provider and their scrupulous billing practices.
So I started to troll the ebay through my iPhone application and found my current laptop, an HP/Compaq tc4400 (tablet computer). It has the flip screen that spins around into a tablet mode, has a Wacom-based stylus for the screen, and a fingerprint scanner for logging into it. It is a commercially used computer and I've seen people using them that work for UPS and communications companies. The price was right and I offered them 125.00 for it and they accepted my offer. It was said in the ad that there would be no operating system on it when I received it.
To my suprise and (delight) the seller installed Linux Mint 10 (Julia) on it. I really liked Linus Mint and it was compatible with both Debian and Redhat based packages. For a while, I didn't have any issues with the upgrades, but it was becoming more and more obvious that apt was unable to connect to many of the ppa's in the sources.list and backporting was just a waist of time. Linux Mint uses women's names to define their incarnation/release that is current, and they were already up to Olivia (Linux 15). I read on a forum that there was a way to upgrade using apt-get, but it was risky.
But before getting into that, I'll describe the software suites I'm using.
Because my computer is equipped with a stylus, I purchased a non-free software program named "MyScriptStylus." It is a little notepad that you can cursive write on and it converts it into text, in any of the programs. I love to write my book this way. I have another program I also purchased called "Writer's Cafe." It has all kind so tools for writing, and it came with another program that converts your word processing files into ePub projects for Kindle and other electronic book readers. Not only that, I continue to use GIMP for my graphics and photography, Mozilla/Firefox for web browsing, and OpenOffice.org for my word processing--linked through Writer's Cafe for my writer's tools.
Writer's Cafe is awesome. It has character name generators, timed writing assignments, thesaurus, dictionary, notepad, sketch pad, journal, and it has a timeline creator/editor with notes for character development and linking them to various timelines and story plots. It helps to organize novels and develop them into sophisticated stories that are well planned.
I also have an unlocked-for-Linux animal breeder/pedigree database program called Kintraks. I use it for my rabbitry and have my pedigree information on hand. I can trace lineage, medical information, color of animals, plan future breedings, and link it to other databases from other pedigree programs by mapping the fields together manually and importing the records or linking the databases through the cloud. It can also keep photo records of each animal. Not bad for FREE software! If I had Windows, I would have had to purchase the license.
The computer has a good battery, and when using the built-in battery power management in Linux, it can last three hours or more.
With this in mind, the only thing I didn't have for the laptop was a docking station. So I looked on eBay and found one for 12.00 from a supplier in California. Meanwhile, I tried to do the apt-get upgrade of the Linux kernel, and it didn't work out. Fortunately, I have a Dropbox account and it uploads all my data files to the cloud, the same account that I have my android and iPhone devices connected too. So pictures I take on my phones are automatically uploaded and downloaded/managed on my computer. I have been using SD/MMC to store music and personal files on and so when the upgrade killed my computer, I was able to keep my information, including my Internet browser bookmarks.
Since I broke Linux Mint Julia, I downloaded the latest version of Linux Mint Olivia, and it would not completely install on my laptop! So I tried Fedora 10. It installed, but because of the licensing and opensource policy on Fedora Project, I could not get my MyScriptStylus non-free software to work. There is a program called "alien" that is suppose to allow you to cross-platform extract Debian files into RPM packages (Redhat Package Management). I liked the Fedora system, but hated how it would not compile the make file for Alien, so I was stuck looking for another alternative, yet again.
So I looked at Debian 7. I downloaded the dvd-iso and burned it to a disk to make a live DVD for install. I got Debian up and running with in an hour and a half and had a working system again. I installed all my favorite software suites, free and non-free, and now I am COMPLETELY satisfied with my computer again. Debian offers the best of ALL WORLDS LINUX, in my opinion. I had little trouble installing the broadcom firmware for the wireless, the bluetooth functions work flawlessly so I can use my Motorola Stereo bluetooth headset. My stylus works. I download a macro editing program and created programs with icons that allow me to rotate the screen and Wacom drivers into normal, inverted, and portrait modes when I put the computer into a tablet mode. I also can use both of my displays. I have a regular external Sony 17 inch monitor. When my computer is attached to the docking station, I have the screen of the laptop in tablet mode and it is oriented so that I have and extended desktop. I also have a nice Kensington track ball, wireless Microsoft keyboard, USB printer, USB camera, and extra USB ports. When I want to go mobile. I just put the computer in "suspend" and eject it from the docking station. When I want to dock. I put the computer into suspend and attach it to the dock and turn it back on--returning to a desktop mode.
I find that I enjoy using the computer this way. It makes me more mobile and flexible with my computer needs. Debian 7 is my Linux distro of choice. I even took the gnome3 session and found steam-punk designed window themes and installed them. Gnome3 still has some issues with being user friendly, but it works nicely once you get past the learning curve. Xfce is nice too. I like how simplified the GUI (Graphical User Interface) of both of them are.
I am also discovering the value of programs like Muse, MuseScore, LMMS for music programs. So I can now do all of the things I love to do on the computer in Linux. I will never return to Microsoft so long as there are Debian distros being supported. And judging by how nicely my upgrade/return to Debian 7 has been, I think that project is going to be around indefinitely.
No comments:
Post a Comment