Extra Hardware - Linux

I have already talked about using some old hardware as a media server in order to re-use some of the hardware you have laying around. But what about even older hardware below the dual core models? Or even some old laptops since they have lower end parts over the desktop models? We all know that Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP and too old hardware to use Windows 7 or newer. Well its time to try a different OS, Linux. But Dark, isn't Linux a OS for very advance users? Well not so much anymore. There are tons of different distributions for Linux out there and here are a two that I have been messing with for older hardware.

• Lubutu (for old hardware)
  
  
  
  

Lubutu is a very compact system for older hardware and very easy to install with their graphic installer. If you have a machine that can not go past the old 4 gig memory limit you can load an older version of it I have found that version 12.04 was the last one that really works well for these machine that can not hold up to the bigger memory limits and once you have the system loaded just clicking the update to latest in the software manager will get the newest version loaded witch is 15.10. Now for the layout of the system is very basic and fits very well if the user is use to the XP style layout. For using the interest it has loaded by default Chromium this Linux Chrome web browser.

• Fedora (dual core systems)

Now for the "newer" systems that have dual core and more then 4 gigs of ram I have been messing with Fedora. Its a cleaner version of Red Hat for home use and free. This works very well for the people that are use to the MAC type setup of the GUI. Installing is very easy as it walks you threw all the items. I have also found this works out of the box for those pesky HP Laptops with their Boardcom wireless drivers that always cause Linux users some headaches from time to time. This also has FireFox Mozilla loaded for web use which tons of people are use to. I have found it works really well for battery time on my HP DV5000 laptop. This OS is very usesfull and full of software since it was built on the Red Hat design for packages.

Now this wasn't a huge dive into Linux as there is so much to talk about each OS and how they work. The best thing to do, is download the package and do what is called a "Live-CD". What this lets you do is boot of the CD you just made and try the distro before you even install it to your PC. Giving you a chance to see if its right for you. This way you can go out and try many different types of Linux before you even install anything to your PC. Please check out this link for more distros of Linux you can try.

Extra Hardware - Plex Media Server

If you're a PC-Gamer/computer person then you are a lot like me and have a tons of extra hardware laying around. So with all this you try to find uses for the older hardware and trust me there are many uses for it. Just because its no longer the top of the line super fast machine to play the latest greatest games you can still do a lot with it. I am going to be writing some articles about what to use this old hardware for and some of the software I use around my house. 

Lets be truthful, kids can be very hard on today's media formats for video entertainment. DVDs are the most common, and don't hold us well to scratches. So with this I decided to create a media center machine out of some of my old hardware laying around, and when we buy the kids a new movie I encode it into a stream able video format that my Amazon Fire TV can view. Cutting down on the destruction of the DVDs yeah they maybe a cheap format but lets face it, your sick of buying another copy of Frozen for the sixth time at ten bucks a pop which is getting pricey ($10 x 6 = $60) and that just one DVD the kids are breaking, you will go broke by the time the kid hits second grade if you haven't gotten them to put the movie back correctly and lets face it my 11 and 9 year old still have issues with getting that right. 

So a new media setup is needed just what do I use well... Plex (view features)

Plex is a multi media server system, with very little technical knowledge needed. Plex allows you to share you media anywhere you want across the Internet to your own devices you allow using an account you create. So you can share you media be it movies, music, and photos to your phone, TV, tablet, and even your game console. 

So lets get the technical break down out of the way. Plex minimum requirement have two settings, with trans-coding or w/o trans-coding. Since you want to be able to watch your videos on any item I recommend with trans-coding. These specs are at least a Duel core 2.4 processor, if you are going to have a lot of devices on at once I recommend a quad core, at least 2 GB of ram, Windows Vista or newer, OS:X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or newer, or you can have to following versions of Linux running(Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS or SuSE Linux) You can read more about it here. 


My server specs are the following:(white case)

• AMD Athlon II X2 2.9 GHz
• 4 GB Ram
• Windows 7 Pro x86
• Network is a Wired 10/100 Ethernet
• Seagate 80 gig 7200 rpm (boot drive)
• Western Digital 500 Gig 7200 rpm (videos, photo, music; ex Plex drive)

The fist thing I would so with my server is make sure my OS is fully setup and any virus scanner is loaded and ready and everything is up to date. If using an older machine, I would do a full reload of the software, if restoring from a big box supplier (HP, Dell, or so forth) I would go threw and remove any software not needed for basic PC usage as the machine will just sit some where and not be used by a user. Next set would be to setup where my media is stored. I would recommend creating a folder named Plex, then do a break down from there. One folder for each item Photos, Videos, Music. This give the software a clear place to find the files and also helps for saving the items to a simple location. Once this is all done you can download the Server Software. Follow all the steps from the installer. It will ask you to create an account this is key as you will use this log in to connect any device you are using with Plex. 
Once this is all done, you can go to your device you want to connect. We use the Amazon Fire TV in our living room so I use Plex to stream all my media to that. Each device has its own setup the software will cost you five bucks but once you have bought it on one account you can load it to all your devices you have that account on. So our two Fire boxes both have it. Now that you have it loaded on the device just log in with your account and boom if you followed all the steps in the setup you should see all your files from your server. 

This wasn't a major break down of how to setup a new Plex server, but I hope it gave you some ideas of what to do and how to think about sharing your media with kids around. 

Have you built a media center for your home?  What software did you use? or even the hardware you used?