I chose to cover PC-BSD first because not many people are familiar with it. Unix is the bastard stepchild of desktop operating systems. And yes, I know Apple OS is based on UNIX, but don't tell Apple fanboys... they get upset when you mention that.
So, PC-BSD is a very attractive, polished, modern desktop alternative that is easy to use, and does everything Windows does. You can download it for free HERE. Or if you want the full DVD installation for your collection of obscure stuff to show off when your friends come over, you can buy it HERE for $29.95. It's a great conversation starter. So, just choose the Intel/x86 or 64 bit version to download or purchase, and away we go.
If you've never installed an OS before, trust me when I say, it's really quite easy. There are thousands of tutorials and tips available to help. Unless you have a really old laptop with some oddball hardware, such as modem/NIC combo adapter or a laptop modio, you won't have to worry about your hardware being compatible. But if you want to check anyway, (I did) you can check here. I've installed this OS on several machines and only run into one problem with a modem/NIC combination card that was in an old IBM Thinkpad.
Before you get started, if you have more than one hard drive, do yourself a favor and disconnect all drives except the drive you are installing PC-BSD on. Unless you are familiar with the UNIX partitioning scheme, I'd recommend using a small hard drive that won't be shared with other operating systems, or have any additional storage partitions on it. In short, dedicate the whole drive to PC-BSD when installing.
Assuming your system is configured to boot to your DVD ROM, upon initial boot, you will be given several choices, the two we are concerned with are #1. Boot Installer, and #3. Boot in Live Mode. Choose #3 if you want to test the system, and see what the finished product is going to look like. This is another way of checking compatibility. Make sure your sound, video, and internet adapters are installed ok. Choosing this option makes no changes to your hard drive, the whole OS in run from your system's memory. The speed of Live Mode is not an indication of the speed of the OS after full installation. I tried it on a Pentium 3 laptop with 256mb of RAM, and it was almost unusable, compared to my multi core desktop with 4 gigs of RAM, where it ran quite well.
If option #1 was chosen at boot, the next screen you will see is the hard drive selection screen. choose the drive you want to install to, and use the entire disc, then confirm to continue. When prompted, INSTALL THE BOOTLOADER. BSD will not boot without it. You will be given choices of which software to install, then another confirmation prompt, then the installation process begins. Depending on your hardware, this will probably be about a 15 to 20 minute wait.
After installation, you will be asked for 2 passwords. The first is the "root" password. This is the password you will use to make major changes to the OS after installation. If you are a casual PC user, you will probably never use this password, but DO NOT FORGET IT just in case. The second is your username, and user password. This will be used every day. If you want PC BSD to start and log in to your desktop automatically when you boot, check the "Auto Login" option. I like logging on to my OS with my password, and it's an easy extra layer of protection from would-be hackers. Confirm changes, and wait for installation to finish.
After removing the disk and restarting your computer, PC-BSD will start for the first time. It doesn't boot as fast as Windows or Linux, but it's not irritatingly slow either. The fireball in the lower left hand corner is the "start button", you will find all the applications and configuration there. You will also find the "Software and Updates" under System. From there, you can install Your chat client, Facebook, Skype, or whatever other internet services you use.
Poke around, explore. see what PC-BSD has to offer you, as a casual user. You won't be disappointed. There is an application for everything, and it's all free.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Hardware Tells the Story
I took 3 factors into consideration when deciding which operating systems I was going to be married to for the next couple months. 1) Dependability. 2) Hardware Compatibility. 3) Familiarity. I wanted an OS that I didn't want to have to rebuild every day, or tinker with to make it usable. I also needed something that would work with my current machine. I'm testing these OS's on an AMD Phenom II 790 FX platform with a new Nvidia Graphics card. I also wanted to use a desktop environment that I was already familiar with and enjoyed looking at.
When tossing around possible choices for the most dependable OS, I had to consider a BSD, or UNIX OS, with a nice desktop environment. There are several variants of the BSD's these days. The most widely used are the server implementations, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD. These are command line OS's and very minimal graphical interface. GUI's just aren't needed when administering a server. Yes, you can install FreeBSD and add any desktop environment you want, but this is incredibly tedious with an extremely high learning curve. In short, it could take you weeks or months to have a fully functional modern desktop operating system. There are several desktop BSD projects as well: PC-BSD, KFreeBSD, TrueBSD, Evoke, RelaxBSD and a couple more. I chose PC-BSD because it is the most polished, end-user friendly of all the choices, and because I've used it before.
When it came to a Linux distribution, the possibilities are almost endless: Ubuntu, Arch, Mandriva ,PC LinuxOS, Slackware, Freespire, Puppy, DSL Linux, Mint, Fedora, Sabayon, and so on, and so on.. etc etc.. some I have used, most I have not. There's just too damn many for one person to really get a good feel for every Linux OS. The ones that stuck out most in my mind as candidates were Ubuntu, PC LinuxOS, Sabayon, Mint and Fedora. I excluded the rest because I wanted something I could have up and running in less than an hour. I also wanted to stay away from the command line as much as possible. I could go into a 3 page dissertation on why I chose what I did, but that would take way too much effort. I chose Kubuntu because it's pretty, dependable, and liked my hardware. Ta dah!
I will tell you that what I've discovered when researching literally 200+ distributions is that Linux and BSD desktop hardware support has come a long way in the last few years. I mentioned in the first post that one of the reasons i always returned to Windows was hardware issues. This is pretty much a thing of the past. My video, sound, sata, printer, webcam, various mp3 players in the household, cameras, and phones are all supported in Linux with no problems. You may still find oddball hardware (like my Magic Jack, grr) that do not work in Linux, but believe me when I tell you, someone is working on it.
Next post I'll go over the installation of PC-BSD followed by the installation of Kubuntu.
When tossing around possible choices for the most dependable OS, I had to consider a BSD, or UNIX OS, with a nice desktop environment. There are several variants of the BSD's these days. The most widely used are the server implementations, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD. These are command line OS's and very minimal graphical interface. GUI's just aren't needed when administering a server. Yes, you can install FreeBSD and add any desktop environment you want, but this is incredibly tedious with an extremely high learning curve. In short, it could take you weeks or months to have a fully functional modern desktop operating system. There are several desktop BSD projects as well: PC-BSD, KFreeBSD, TrueBSD, Evoke, RelaxBSD and a couple more. I chose PC-BSD because it is the most polished, end-user friendly of all the choices, and because I've used it before.
When it came to a Linux distribution, the possibilities are almost endless: Ubuntu, Arch, Mandriva ,PC LinuxOS, Slackware, Freespire, Puppy, DSL Linux, Mint, Fedora, Sabayon, and so on, and so on.. etc etc.. some I have used, most I have not. There's just too damn many for one person to really get a good feel for every Linux OS. The ones that stuck out most in my mind as candidates were Ubuntu, PC LinuxOS, Sabayon, Mint and Fedora. I excluded the rest because I wanted something I could have up and running in less than an hour. I also wanted to stay away from the command line as much as possible. I could go into a 3 page dissertation on why I chose what I did, but that would take way too much effort. I chose Kubuntu because it's pretty, dependable, and liked my hardware. Ta dah!
I will tell you that what I've discovered when researching literally 200+ distributions is that Linux and BSD desktop hardware support has come a long way in the last few years. I mentioned in the first post that one of the reasons i always returned to Windows was hardware issues. This is pretty much a thing of the past. My video, sound, sata, printer, webcam, various mp3 players in the household, cameras, and phones are all supported in Linux with no problems. You may still find oddball hardware (like my Magic Jack, grr) that do not work in Linux, but believe me when I tell you, someone is working on it.
Next post I'll go over the installation of PC-BSD followed by the installation of Kubuntu.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Introduction
This is a blog about my migration from Windows to one of two other operating systems I'll be using over the next 30 days. I've chosen Kubuntu and PC-BSD as the two candidates for reasons we'll get into later. First a little about me...
I've been a Windows user (thief) since 1996. It started with my first computer. I had an off brand pc that crashed. I looked into purchasing Windows 95. It cost $90 or $100 if I remember correctly. Now I think I was making $4.50 an hour back then. $100 investment in a machine I couldn't define yet didn't make sense when it meant no food or gas for a week or two.
A friend had just purchased the new Windows 95 CD installation and wouldn't shut up about how easy it was. He offered it to me without even considering the legality of multi end user licensing. (I hate that phrase) I installed the OS, gave the disc back to him, said "Thanks man.", and went on my merry way enjoying the brilliance of the Start Menu. The brilliance of my tiny ass hard drive? Not so much.
This is where I tell you I was already a thief. I had a copy of a copy of Office from when I was in the military. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume the statute of limitations has expired on that one. Sorry SSG. Davis.
A few months later 2 things happened to solidify my 24 year career as a digital thief. I upgraded my hard drive and installed a dsl connection in my home. With faster access to newsgroups and ftp's the world was my oyster. and all for free!! I installed Win95, Win98, Win ME and Win XP for friends and family thousands of times. You want Win 98? Not a problem , I've got a copy of that. Win ME? Sure, I have a copied upgrade disc and a copied Win 98 disc. Win XP? No prob just remember to set your BIOS clock back every 30 days. Photoshop? Quickbooks? Office? Got ya covered. I learned how to use GamePwn, SoftIce, Game Jackal, Daemon Tools, Alcohol, and a dozen other imaging utilities to crack games, mount fake disc images and steal the latest and greatest games daily. I was an avid Napster user. I was already a newsgroup troll. I jumped to eMule and eDonkey when I saw the death of Napster coming. I was an early adopter of the torrent protocol when everybody else was using virus laden downloads from Limewire and Frostwire. If you needed it, I was the guy to get it from. Legitimate copies of the software you needed illegitimately installed without viruses or malware. That latest movie? No, I won't charge you anything for it, that's a crime. Just bring me a DVD, I've already got the image ready.
I had 10,000 justifications. I've still got a couple good ones for the music industry, but that's another topic. I have a good friend who, like me, will do anything you ask to your computer. He says he's the digital Robin Hood to Microsoft's Prince John, or Bill. We've always told ourselves these are good working people who can't drop hundreds of dollars for software they need. So, we're doing a good thing , right? Sure. Ticket prices were way too high and we didn't have a "second run" theater where I lived. I'm just helping people see that movie a little early. They're going to buy the DVD in a couple months anyway right? Right. The music companies are charging too much for cd's. Our vinyl record store closed when we got 2 damn Walmarts. We had a music store in the mall, but only if you like Top 40. And besides music is free on the radio anyway, right? Of course it is. I had to download TV shows for my family and I because we had jobs and couldn't catch our shows together when they were offered by the networks. We shouldn't have to pay an extra $20 a month for a DVR to watch something they were showing for free anyway right? Uh huh.
I felt a momentary need to go legit in 2005. I purchased Windows XP Media Center Edition and said "This will be my last and only OS!" Wow. What a bloated, ugly, half baked piece of crap. Lesson learned. I went back to my old ways.
I have used Linux and desktop Unix operating systems in the past, always trying to find that substitute for Windows Almighty. There was always an issue with it. My family would beg me to go back to Windows after spending hours at my desk cussing my screen. Whether it be hardware related, or some tool or program I liked in the Windows world, there was always a reason to go back to stealing Windows.
So, now i pay for online movie and TV streaming services, I'm a Last.fm addict, and I haven't stolen anything in a long time. The thrill is gone .Hmm. Now what? Maybe it's time to try it again..... This time I'll take you along for the ride.
I've been a Windows user (thief) since 1996. It started with my first computer. I had an off brand pc that crashed. I looked into purchasing Windows 95. It cost $90 or $100 if I remember correctly. Now I think I was making $4.50 an hour back then. $100 investment in a machine I couldn't define yet didn't make sense when it meant no food or gas for a week or two.
A friend had just purchased the new Windows 95 CD installation and wouldn't shut up about how easy it was. He offered it to me without even considering the legality of multi end user licensing. (I hate that phrase) I installed the OS, gave the disc back to him, said "Thanks man.", and went on my merry way enjoying the brilliance of the Start Menu. The brilliance of my tiny ass hard drive? Not so much.
This is where I tell you I was already a thief. I had a copy of a copy of Office from when I was in the military. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume the statute of limitations has expired on that one. Sorry SSG. Davis.
A few months later 2 things happened to solidify my 24 year career as a digital thief. I upgraded my hard drive and installed a dsl connection in my home. With faster access to newsgroups and ftp's the world was my oyster. and all for free!! I installed Win95, Win98, Win ME and Win XP for friends and family thousands of times. You want Win 98? Not a problem , I've got a copy of that. Win ME? Sure, I have a copied upgrade disc and a copied Win 98 disc. Win XP? No prob just remember to set your BIOS clock back every 30 days. Photoshop? Quickbooks? Office? Got ya covered. I learned how to use GamePwn, SoftIce, Game Jackal, Daemon Tools, Alcohol, and a dozen other imaging utilities to crack games, mount fake disc images and steal the latest and greatest games daily. I was an avid Napster user. I was already a newsgroup troll. I jumped to eMule and eDonkey when I saw the death of Napster coming. I was an early adopter of the torrent protocol when everybody else was using virus laden downloads from Limewire and Frostwire. If you needed it, I was the guy to get it from. Legitimate copies of the software you needed illegitimately installed without viruses or malware. That latest movie? No, I won't charge you anything for it, that's a crime. Just bring me a DVD, I've already got the image ready.
I had 10,000 justifications. I've still got a couple good ones for the music industry, but that's another topic. I have a good friend who, like me, will do anything you ask to your computer. He says he's the digital Robin Hood to Microsoft's Prince John, or Bill. We've always told ourselves these are good working people who can't drop hundreds of dollars for software they need. So, we're doing a good thing , right? Sure. Ticket prices were way too high and we didn't have a "second run" theater where I lived. I'm just helping people see that movie a little early. They're going to buy the DVD in a couple months anyway right? Right. The music companies are charging too much for cd's. Our vinyl record store closed when we got 2 damn Walmarts. We had a music store in the mall, but only if you like Top 40. And besides music is free on the radio anyway, right? Of course it is. I had to download TV shows for my family and I because we had jobs and couldn't catch our shows together when they were offered by the networks. We shouldn't have to pay an extra $20 a month for a DVR to watch something they were showing for free anyway right? Uh huh.
I felt a momentary need to go legit in 2005. I purchased Windows XP Media Center Edition and said "This will be my last and only OS!" Wow. What a bloated, ugly, half baked piece of crap. Lesson learned. I went back to my old ways.
I have used Linux and desktop Unix operating systems in the past, always trying to find that substitute for Windows Almighty. There was always an issue with it. My family would beg me to go back to Windows after spending hours at my desk cussing my screen. Whether it be hardware related, or some tool or program I liked in the Windows world, there was always a reason to go back to stealing Windows.
So, now i pay for online movie and TV streaming services, I'm a Last.fm addict, and I haven't stolen anything in a long time. The thrill is gone .Hmm. Now what? Maybe it's time to try it again..... This time I'll take you along for the ride.
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