Piccolina
Executive Chef
Hi all,
I doff my hat to my husband this weekend...
For some time now our computer (which is not the newest of models!) has been acting up. It's crashed a couple of times, refused to load windows many times and had some other assorted problems. We need the computer, and buying a new one is out of the question for us, so this weekend it was "operation revamp the PC".
Yesterday Tony (hubby) had the hard drive on the bed and did all sorts of things to it, removing drives, adjusting this and that. Brain surgery for a hard drive
Getting ahead of myself though. Before that we backed up all of our really crucial files as we would not have the Windows driver hooked up any more (that's where all the main files were). Many things and programs vanished with it (the Windows driver), but we just looked at it as one of those cut your losses situations. The other option of no computer at all makes having less programs, etc seem like a very decent choice! So many hours of backing up later he began work on the hard drive.
After that was done (a bit of tweaking was involved) and the computer started we installed Linux. Linux for those who are not familar with it is a different operating system from Microsoft Windows (or Mac OS). It's a free-ware program (many versions by many different makers exist and the majority of them are free and available for downloading off the net). This was actually the first step we did - that is we downloaded (to 3 disks) the linux program we wanted to use.
I sat in awe as he worked away, doing thing I could never imagine knowing how to do, and through a little trial and error getting things straightened out. It seemed that we were having issues with getting the Linux system to pick up on our internet connection and in fact by the time I drifted off to sleep last night (somewhere around 1am) Tony was still working on that aspect. When I awoke this morning he said that though it had kept him up to 4:30am he had got the net working and things were (at a basic level) good to go! Yeahhhh!!!
Sure, not all computer programs and applications are compatible with Linux, but unless a major driver issue arrrises we should be in the clear and not encounter the sort of problems that Windows was giving us (fingers crossed!!!) We can run Modzilla and Firefox just as we were before and there is a instant messaging application that lets you use any number of IM programs (like MSN or ICQ) through it! Now it's just a matter of finding things like a DVD player application and so on, but it's a huge relief to be typing this - as I was worried that our poor old computer might not pull through yesterday (not for Tony's lack of skill - he floored me in this area! But because it's not the most high end of computers and is a few years old.)
So that was basically my weekend, Tony & I and the computer. And now I get to learn all about Linux and how to run everything on my desk top and all the neat features that it has. An intense and very interesting two days, that's for sure
I hope everyone else enjoyed your weekend BTW Are there any other Linux users amongst us??
I doff my hat to my husband this weekend...
For some time now our computer (which is not the newest of models!) has been acting up. It's crashed a couple of times, refused to load windows many times and had some other assorted problems. We need the computer, and buying a new one is out of the question for us, so this weekend it was "operation revamp the PC".
Yesterday Tony (hubby) had the hard drive on the bed and did all sorts of things to it, removing drives, adjusting this and that. Brain surgery for a hard drive
Getting ahead of myself though. Before that we backed up all of our really crucial files as we would not have the Windows driver hooked up any more (that's where all the main files were). Many things and programs vanished with it (the Windows driver), but we just looked at it as one of those cut your losses situations. The other option of no computer at all makes having less programs, etc seem like a very decent choice! So many hours of backing up later he began work on the hard drive.
After that was done (a bit of tweaking was involved) and the computer started we installed Linux. Linux for those who are not familar with it is a different operating system from Microsoft Windows (or Mac OS). It's a free-ware program (many versions by many different makers exist and the majority of them are free and available for downloading off the net). This was actually the first step we did - that is we downloaded (to 3 disks) the linux program we wanted to use.
I sat in awe as he worked away, doing thing I could never imagine knowing how to do, and through a little trial and error getting things straightened out. It seemed that we were having issues with getting the Linux system to pick up on our internet connection and in fact by the time I drifted off to sleep last night (somewhere around 1am) Tony was still working on that aspect. When I awoke this morning he said that though it had kept him up to 4:30am he had got the net working and things were (at a basic level) good to go! Yeahhhh!!!
Sure, not all computer programs and applications are compatible with Linux, but unless a major driver issue arrrises we should be in the clear and not encounter the sort of problems that Windows was giving us (fingers crossed!!!) We can run Modzilla and Firefox just as we were before and there is a instant messaging application that lets you use any number of IM programs (like MSN or ICQ) through it! Now it's just a matter of finding things like a DVD player application and so on, but it's a huge relief to be typing this - as I was worried that our poor old computer might not pull through yesterday (not for Tony's lack of skill - he floored me in this area! But because it's not the most high end of computers and is a few years old.)
So that was basically my weekend, Tony & I and the computer. And now I get to learn all about Linux and how to run everything on my desk top and all the neat features that it has. An intense and very interesting two days, that's for sure
I hope everyone else enjoyed your weekend
BTW Are there any other Linux users amongst us??
