Winders FLP

Last night I was bored sitting around, so I decided to give Linux Mint a go on the Athlon, using my spare 80GB sata drive. About five minutes after I got it installed and updated, I was like "Yeah, I still really don't like linux..." so I pondered alternatives. I remembered that I have a great CD for Windows XP FLP, which is basically what you get when you mix Windows 2000 and Windows XPpro speed wise, but in terms of actual usability it's just like incredibly fast Windows XP. I installed that (in about 20 minutes!) and then got my drivers up and going, and I've had no problems whatsoever. This will probably end up becoming my actual production OS on the Athlon. It runs things like itunes8 and picasa3 just like as they were in Win XP. The only "problem" I've had thus far is SP3 not wanting to install, but that doesn't make the biggest of differences to me, because I can get all the other updates.

gigabit ethernet G4 and work

The other day Lando and I hit up the ECU surplus, and we both picked up dual 450MHz gigabit ethernet G4s for $30. Unfortunately they had neither RAM nor HDD, but when we brought them back to my place we got them set up with parts. Right now mine has 512MB RAM and a few different HDDs in it, with OS 10.4/OS9/maybe Debian later on it. I've also clocked it to be a dual 500 now, which is pretty cool.

Also, I officially start work on monday, mostly it'll be getting oriented and meeting all the people in charge of stuff. I'll also probably get paired up with a "tutee" which will be pretty cool.

Right now I'm thinking about nabbing up another HDD for it and giving debian a whirl.

At the Library!

Here I am, at Brown Library in Washington. It was a rather nice ten minute bike ride down eight blocks or so I was a bit hot but not terrible, and the traffic was heavier than I would have thought but I didn't have any incidents or near runovers. Other than to pay my fine, which I've yet to do by the way, I'm not sure why I came to the library. One book I'd actually like to look for is "IceMan" which they probably don't have, but you never know.

Also, I somehow killed perl on the server, so my irssi client is screwed. No idea what the heck I'm going to do there. This is one more reason I hate linux. Too many dependencies makes it so damn confusing. What I might just do when I get home is start moving all the data I can on to DVDs, which I need to do anyways, and then just nuke it and toss ubuntu server on there. Too much to think about right now, but I'll probably end up doing it anyways because from what I've heard ubuntu server is more manageable than debian with server stuff installed. Not to mention great support. That's all for now, prolly will be several more libraryblagposts before I leave.

Redoing XP on the Athlon

So basically after I got xubuntu all installed on the athlon, I decided to boot back to XP and do something, but unfortunately the install of XP got canned. I don't feel like going into the details because it's so depressing but basically I had to end up doing a COMPLETE reinstall, loosing datas. Most of them were mirrored on the thinkpad so it was ok.

Rain!

Suiting. The second I publish that post, the GX1's updates finish. Tsk tsk tsk.

In other news, it has started to RAIN! Which means the fan in my front window is pulling in deliciously cool air. Mmmmm it's nice. Also, starting to install on the athlon.

Woot! (and rambles)

I just came back upstairs, and the xubuntu install is finished!

[presses enter to reboot]

[waits]

You know, the main disadvantage to having 320MB RAM in an old system like this is waiting so long for it to be tested, I think last time I timed it it took about 40 seconds, and that was with 256MB.

[waits more]

Woot, GRUB :D

Woot again, Xubuntu booting/loading bar! I'm just now noticing this, but the HDD activity LED on the front of the GX1 doesn't appear the be blinking. Odd...

Yay, at the login prompt now! It's funny when your OS starts faster than your RAM tests. I remember when I ran BeOS on this (still do, actually) it took about a minute to boot to the usable desktop, and only the last eight seconds or so was actual BeOS.

[logs in to xubuntu]

Xubuntu 8.04 looks really nice, now that I'm on my home LAN and I have crap deleted off the athlon (I had like 30GB of dupes, lol) I might go for dual boot.

Ok, logged in w/ loaded desktop. Grrr. I can't get more than 800x600@32 on this. I know this video chip & vram can do 1024x768@32. Alas, XFCE4 at 800x600 looks pretty nice honestly. Time to check for updates! ... Woo, updates installing!

Okay while those install I'm going to ramble for a moment. First off I've decided that I need to start tagging my blog posts. Not to make them easier to find or categorize, but because all the cool kids are doing it these days. Weather or not I'm going to go back to all my previous posts and tag them is unclear, but certainly all my future posts will be tagged.

That was enough rambles for one paragraph, and my updates just finished downloading, so while they actually install I'm going to move the my music library off the thinkpad onto the Athlon, because I like having synced libraries. Augh, crap. The thinkpad did the thing again where when I RDP into it from the athlon, it turns off it's internal screen and won't turn it back on unless I force reboot it... *Grumble*

I am, however, becoming incredibly intrigued by the idea of putting Xubuntu on the athlon now though. The last time I tried was when I was in Richmond, and if I remember right the main reason I was turned off by it was because there is only mediocre support for my wifi card in linux. But here at home I'm connected to the straight up gig-e switch, so things are different. I still won't have amazingtastic video drivers or whatever, but all my games are in windows anyways so who cares.

Blarg these updates are taking forever. I think what I'm just going to do is finish this post now, and then slap xubuntu on the athlon. Yeah.

Later Gators.