Old Computer? No Problem! Linux Saves The DayC

CrunchBang Linux

Want to know what utilizes 54.3 MB of RAM idle at 1% CPU utilization on a Gateway M250 laptop? CrunchBang Linux, that’s what!

It’s always a breath of fresh air when you are able to resurrect older hardware that most people would throw right into the trash with a dash of Linux.

Granted, this M250 laptop isn’t in its default config…I’ve updated it from 512MB of RAM to 2GB of RAM…which puts it at the maximum it can recognize. It is running a Pentium M 740 Processor that runs at 1.73 Ghz and was part of the Centrino line from Intel. It’s not breaking any land speed records but it hums along nicely. I can upgrade it still to a Pentium M 760 and then that too will be maxed out. For now, this laptop would run Windows XP normally and probably not do a fantastic job at it with a bunch of apps installed.

With Linux, I can load it up with just about anything I want and things just work. If you haven’t taken a look at CrunchBang Linux in a while, you should do so immediately. It’s like straight up octane fuel for your older computers. I’m pleased that CrunchBang uses Debian for its base so that I am not in want of obscure packages and it uses Openbox, one of my favorite window managers, for its default desktop.

During the writing of this article using Firefox…er Iceweasel 8.0…it’s humming nicely at 175MB of RAM being used and about 15% CPU. Very pleased thus far. I’ll include a screenshot below and I’ll do a more in depth review of CrunchBang soon.

Remember, don’t throw out your old computers/laptops. Resurrect them with Linux…particularly a VERY well put together and nice distribution like CrunchBang Linux!

GUIDE: SSH Basic Command

I have had people asking me about SSH commands, and the basic commands, to at least get them going.
The list below is not meant to be a complete SSH guide, but more so a list of some of the basic commands and what they do, as well as the proper formatting for the command.
I’ll start with what I think is the most basic, and work my way up.

Command: cd
Format: cd /directory/you/want/to/go/to
This command is the most basic, and widely used.  The cd command is used to move to the directory you specify.

Command: cp
Format: cp /directory/you/want/to/copy /directory/where/you/want/to/copy/to
The cp command will copy the file or folder you specify in the first portion, to the location you specify in the second portion.


Command: mkdir
Format: mkdir /directory/you/want/to/create
mkdir creates the directory or folder you specify

NEWS: Thunderbird 9.0 Beta 1 Released!

Thunderbird is a great email client from the same people who brought you the Firefox browser.

Thunderbird gives you IMAP/POP support, a built-in RSS reader, support for HTML mail, powerful quick search, saved search folders, advanced message filtering, message grouping, labels, return receipts, smart address book LDAP address completion, import tools, and the ability to manage multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts.

Migration Assistant
Under the Help Menu, you can find the new Migration Assistant to help you set up Thunderbird the way you want it. If you liked the old toolbar from Thunderbird 2, you can quickly make that change with the Migration Assistant. You can also install add-ons from the Migration Assistant like Advanced Folder Columns and Compact Header for your message display window.

Mail Account Setup Wizard
Prior to this new feature you had to know your IMAP, SMTP, SSL/TLS settings. Now all you need to provide is your name, email address, and password and the new email account set up wizard will check our database and find the email settings for you.

One-click Address Book
One-click Address Book is a quick and easy way to add people to your address book. Add people by simply clicking on the star icon in the message you receive. Two clicks and you can add more details like a photo, birthday, and other contact information.

Attachment Reminder
The new attachment reminder looks for the word attachment (and other words like file types) in the body of your message and reminds you to add an attachment before hitting send.

Activity Manager
The Activity Manager records all the interactions between Thunderbird and your email provider in one place. There’s no more guess work. You only have to look in one place to see everything that’s happening with your email.

  DOWNLOAD HERE  

Thunderbird 9.0 Beta 1 For Windows

Thunderbird 9.0 Beta 1 For Mac OS X

Thunderbird 9.0 Beta 1 For Linux

NEWS: openSUSE 12.1 Released!

Yesterday, the openSUSE Project has released openSUSE 12.1, eight months after 11.4 and the first release since SUSE officially became a subsidiary of Attachmate. With 12.1, openSUSE brings major improvements to openSUSE tools and users' favorite components like GNOME, KDE, LibreOffice, and DigiKam.

The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, this program provides free, easy access to openSUSE, a complete Linux distribution. The openSUSE project has three main goals: make openSUSE the easiest Linux for anyone to obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world's most usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users, dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux developers and software vendors.

What's the biggest change in openSUSE 12.1...??

TIPS: Guide to Dual Booting

Guide to Dual Booting (PDF) tries to cover the basics: from a detailed Windows, Ubuntu or Fedora installation guide to various issues users may encounter like what happens if you install Windows after Ubuntu and how to get Ubuntu back by restoring GRUB or adding Linux to the Windows bootloader (using an utility that lets you tweak the Windows bootloader, called EasyBCD), which may seem easier for users coming from Windows.

And to make it complete, the guide also covers removing either Windows or Linux from the dual boot setup.

Download Guide to Dual Booting

Thanks to Satyajit for the guide and tip!

TIPS: Add PPA Work-around For Linux Mint 12 RC

There is a bug in Linux Mint 12 RC related to adding PPAs: when you add a PPA using "add-apt-repository", the .list file (under /etc/apt/sources.list.d/) uses "lisa" as the code name instead of "oneiric". Since the PPAs are not using the Ubuntu code name, they won't work and when running "sudo apt-get update", you'll get a "Failed to fetch [...] 404 Not Found" error.

A work-around is to edit the .list files under /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ and replace "lisa" with "oneiric", but to make it easier, I've updated Y PPA Manager with a work-around for this bug, so adding a PPA through Y PPA Manager should work as usual, without having to tweak anything else.

To install the latest Y PPA Manager in Linux Mint 12 RC, open terminal use the commands:

HOWTO: Protecting Data with Encrypted Linux Partitions

In these days data is more important especially if its a laptop. Where in we store variety of data either it be personal or office. so I have created this article where we can safely store the data securely. I will be explaining the procedure for it.

Once you have a nice new empty partition, you'll encrypt it with the cryptsetup command. Be very sure you are encrypting the correct partition:

# cryptsetup --verbose --verify-passphrase -c aes-cbc-plain luksFormat /dev/sda2

Linux Mint 12 “Lisa” RC Released!

Linux Mint 12 (right now a release candidate) definitely stands out in the crowd of Gnome 3.x Shell Linux distributions. It seems the Linux Mint team cares deeply about giving the community what it wants but doesn’t have. Linux Mint 12 is a Gnome 3.x Shell distribution that stands out on its own because rather than accept the default Gnome 3.x Shell interface like most Gnome 3.x Shell Linux distributions have done Linux Mint 12 tries its best to emulate the Gnome 2.x interface through the use of Gnome Shell extensions.

New features at a glance:

• Gnome 3 and MGSE
• MATE
• Artwork improvements
• Search engines

For a complete overview and to see screenshots of the new features, visit: “What’s new in Linux Mint 12“.

Known problems:

• MATE 
• Nautilus actions 
• Adding PPA repositories 
• Apturl and apt:// 
• Moonlight 
• Upstream issues 

System requirements:

• x86 processor (Linux Mint 64-bit requires a 64-bit processor. Linux Mint 32-bit works on both 32-bit and 64-bit processors). 
• 512 MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage). 
• 5 GB of disk space 
• Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution 
• CD/DVD drive or USB port 

Source: blog.linuxmint.com

TIPS: Installing Linux (Keeping Windows)

If you have been using Windows for any length of time you will have acquired some expertise and probably built up a collection of files you don't want to lose, two reasons why you might think moving to Linux is going to be too much trouble. It isn't, trust me and read on...

Dual booting
It is really quite simple to install two operating systems on a single PC, then use a piece of software called a 'boot manager' to choose which to load when you start the computer. Microsoft's boot manager only gives you one option, to boot Windows, but most Linux distros include the 'Lilo' or more often these days 'Grub' boot manager which is quite happy to let you choose from a list of operating systems, including Windows.

Partitioning
A hard disk, or for that matter a floppy, can be divided into several sections called partitions (just like you might partition a big office to make several smaller ones). Each partition is then formatted with whatever file system you want to use, and they don't have to be the same. Generally Windows PCs only have a single partition, though some manufacturers now make a 'restore partition' where they store a backup copy of Windows and their original software bundle in case you need to re-install.

If you are going to be dual booting you will need at least 3 partitions, one for Windows (which might use FAT32 or NTFS formatting), one for the Linux OS and one for 'swap' which is used by Linux as temporary memory rather like 'virtual' memory under Windows. Linux can use various formats, ext2 is common for swap, and can be used for the main bootable partition too, though ext3 or reiserfs are more common. If all this sounds complicated, don't worry the installer supplied with your distro will take the strain. Once partitioned your disk will appear to Windows to have shrunk, Windows simply doesn't recognize the existence of file systems other than its own. Linux is more accommodating and will recognize, and make use of, a wide range of file systems.

What is LINUX ..??

Linux is, in simplest terms, an operating system. It is the software on a computer that enables applications and the computer operator to access the devices on the computer to perform desired functions. The operating system (OS) relays instructions from an application to, for instance, the computer's processor. The processor performs the instructed task, then sends the results back to the application via the operating system.

Explained in these terms, Linux is very similar to other operating systems, such as Windows and OS X.

But something sets Linux apart from these operating systems. The Linux operating system represented a $25 billion ecosystem in 2008. Since its inception in 1991, Linux has grown to become a force in computing, powering everything from the New York Stock Exchange to mobile phones to supercomputers to consumer devices.

As an open operating system, Linux is developed collaboratively, meaning no one company is solely responsible for its development or ongoing support. Companies participating in the Linux economy share research and development costs with their partners and competitors. This spreading of development burden amongst individuals and companies has resulted in a large and efficient ecosystem and unheralded software innovation.

Over 1,000 developers, from at least 100 different companies, contribute to every kernel release. In the past two years alone, over 3,200 developers from 200 companies have contributed to the kernel--which is just one small piece of a Linux distribution.

source: linux.com