Two New Vector Linux Machines

[tomh38]

Okay, they're not really new, but they're new to me.

First One:

Gateway 7422GX Laptop.  The specs are here (if you're interested).

I got it from my downstairs neighbor for $100, who bought a few years ago during his last year in college.  After a semester the machine got bricked because XP got a virus and wouldn't boot.

Step 1:  It was a college guy's computer, so I had to clean off all the Cheetohs dust and finger smudges.
Step 2:  Peeled off the AMD, ATI, and Windows XP stickers.
Step 3:  Installed Vector Linux.  The only challenge was getting the Broadcom wifi to work, which required ndiswrapper.  Everything else went smoothly.
Step 4:  Popped off the Windows keys and spraypainted them black (they now match the rest of the keyboard, they're just blank).

With 2 and 4 I'm not trying to make any kind of statement; I just don't like corporate logos on my stuff, e.g. if I can avoid it I don't buy clothes with any logos or other similar markings.

Step 5:  The lid was pretty scratched up, so I got a friend of mine to cut a piece of sheet metal to size for me.  I then spray painted that black and attached that to the lid.  Then I strategically placed some masking tape in various places, and sprayed the rest of the lid the same color.
Step 6:  The fan seemed to be running a lot, and the screen flickered when I moved the monitor.  So I Googled and found a guide on how to fix these problems.  For the screen flicker, the inverter needed to be secured better and kept from touching the inside of the case.  For the fan problem, cleaning out a lot of dust, lubricating the fans, and putting new thermal paste between the processor and the heat sink solved things.

It's now sitting on a side table right next to me.  The GLMatrix screensaver is running.  I'm still not a laptop guy, but it is nice to have around.


Second One:


HP Pavilion 514n desktop which somebody left out for the trash.  The specs are <a href="http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Gateway/7305GZ/4204sp49.shtml"[/url]here[/url] (if anybody is interested).

Step 1:  Used VL Live CD to make sure all the hardware was working.  Everything was fine.
Step 2:  Wiped XP from the hard drive, nuked the "restore partition" (which was corrupted anyway), created several ext3 partitions.
Step 3:  Installed VL 6.0 Light, which runs very smoothly on it.  I ended up installing Xfce, which is what's running on it now.
Step 4:  Added some RAM, bringing the total to 512 mb.

I'll probably give the HP to a local school where I help out with the computers some times.  I guess I'm keeping the laptop.

Once again (or twice, depending on how you count things), Vector Linux has come through for me.

My thanks to everyone on the VL team who made this possible.

Tom

[hata_ph]

So nice...

[nightflier]

Well done. 

On new machines, I also peel the stickers off and uninstall all the trials, demos and other junk.
It amazes me when I see old computers that still look like something from Nascar, except the stickers are old and faded.

[retired1af]

Uninstall? Man, I blow off the entire hard drive and load from scratch! 

[tomh38]

Okay ... I know this is somewhat unrelated, but it's somewhat related also ... I'm curious.

Is anybody else a little annoyed when they see something like "Sent From My iPhone" at the bottom of an email?  I'm not singling out Apple here; Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. add a little bit of advertising on their email services also.  I suppose with at least some of them it's the default sig.  Do people even know that they're being used to disseminate a little bit of free advertising for these companies?

I'm glad that when I send out an email, Vector Linux doesn't automatically put in a little plug for itself at the bottom of my message.

[retired1af]

Some leave it in there as a badge of honor. Some AV programs do the same thing. I've asked my old man on numerous occasions to rip out the AVG sig that goes out with his emails. I still get 'em. **banging head on desk**

[MikeCindi]

So you took advantage of your downstairs neighbor? 

[tomh38]

MikeCindi:  Yeah, I know it looks that way from what I wrote.  I should have added that I offered to fix it for him (would have been easy) for free before I offered to buy it from him.  Needless to say, he declined my offer.  I think he equates "PC" with "Windows" which for a lot of people means frustration because of crashes, virus problems, updates which cause more problems than they solve, etc.

So now he and his fiancée share a Macbook.

I see it as more of a win-win. 

[MikeCindi]

Well, it is nice to have a portable PC on occasion and that one should shine with VL. As you say a nice win-win although I'm not too fond of mac personally.

[w2ibc]

Well, it is nice to have a portable PC on occasion and that one should shine with VL. As you say a nice win-win although I'm not too fond of mac personally.

im not a fan of mac ether. but portables are nice. i myself have a HP pavilion ze 5300 2.4ghz P4 w/ 512 ram got VL light on it.

[budulay]

Is anybody else a little annoyed when they see something like "Sent From My iPhone" at the bottom of an email?  I'm not singling out Apple here; Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. add a little bit of advertising on their email services also.  I suppose with at least some of them it's the default sig.  Do people even know that they're being used to disseminate a little bit of free advertising for these companies?

I'm glad that when I send out an email, Vector Linux doesn't automatically put in a little plug for itself at the bottom of my message.

Yeah, that used to annoy the heck out of me.
That's one of the reasons why I switched to Gmail - so I can stop appologyzing to people for stuffing their mailboxes with useless ads.

With 2 and 4 I'm not trying to make any kind of statement; I just don't like corporate logos on my stuff, e.g. if I can avoid it I don't buy clothes with any logos or other similar markings.

I don't mind the hardware manufacturer's labels - after all, they are the guys who actually made the laptop, but the ms label's got to go
BTW, great idea about the windows keys, I will be glad to do the same as soon as I'll have some free time on my hands.

[tomh38]

Okay, just to throw in my $.02 ...

As far as Apple Macs go, I have mixed feelings.  I would never buy one for myself or anyone else.  The main thing isn't the money (though they are very expensive) ... it's the GUI.  The hardware seems to be solid as far as I can tell.  The actual OS seems to be mostly FreeBSD with a Mach kernel, which is fine as far as I'm concerned.  But I find the actual OS X interface (Aqua or whatever they're calling it) to be annoying, and pretty much impossible to configure in such a way that I wouldn't find annoying.  One time a Mac evangelist (this guy was an actual employee of Apple, I know most of the users aren't like this) tried to convince me that OS X was superior to Linux.  One of his arguments was "But you can run X11 on it!"  The only response I had for that was laughter.

I also prefer an OS which is as much Free/Libre/Open Source as possible (though right now I'm using nVidia's proprietary driver, so I can bend some on that).  So, if somebody gave me a Macbook (unlikely), I think I would wipe the hard drive and put Linux of some variety on it.

As far as the iPhone is concerned - I would never buy a computer (and that's what it is, a PDA/Phone/Fart Machine/Etc.) that I couldn't put whatever software I wanted to on it.  A lot of people seem to be impressed that the App Store has so many applications available which do so many things.  I don't deny the truth of that, but I do point out that if Apple doesn't want people to have a particular application, all they have to is not allow it into the App Store.  Then, if you want it, you have to have a jailbroken iPhone, and that introduces another set of problems which seem like too much trouble for me.

[nitehawk]

Sounds like you got a really sweet deal with the computers (plus Vector)!  Yeah,...besides my P4,..I have 3 PIII desktop 'puters that are running Vector Standard.  Nothing else seems to work as well on them.  I used to have Puppy on them all,....but Puppy never seemed to be as "complete" as Vector is  (besides,..Puppy's future is questionable...no one knows which way it's going).  Vector is solid,...and it sure can make these older computers "sing" can't it?   Everyone seems to think older computers that can't run Windows, aren't worth anything.  Boy are they wrong!