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.

Holiday Season Family Gaming

So we are a few days away from Thanks Giving one of my favorite holidays here in the USA. Yep another day where we can eat until we cant feel our legs. Now my wife loves this day because she loves to cook so our house always ends up with a mass amount of people. Just what do we do to keep all those people happy because we don't have cable TV so there is no football in this house, which is fine by me I'm not much of a sports watcher anymore; hockey was always my sport to watch.

Now last week I spoke about using old hardware as a media machine using Plex. So there is always something for people to watch and we have Netflix and Hulu on the Amazon Fire TV. So the parents will have something to watch but what the kids? Well they can join the parents in watching a movie or they can head down to the basement were we have a TV with the Wii/WiiU and the old X-Box setup. Here is where the problem come in, the age difference of the kids. The oldest one will want to play the more graphic games then what the little ones should see. Yes, I know we all did it ourselves when we were younger and we made it. But back then we did not have the powerful gaming machines we do today, the graphics are some time too close to the real thing. So I think its a good idea before this holiday season to stop for a minute and have a quick chat with the kids about what should be played with company around. Tell them to try to stick to the more family friendly multi player games you know, racing, sports, goofy ones; and when the family is done eating the littlest family members are watching a movie then they can break out the heavier games the old kids like to play.

Its also a fun idea to get some of the family that don't think gaming is good for kids to see the more family fun said of games, and get them to play a round with the kids. It's a nice way to break down the ideas that the media paints on games and the people that play them. The holidays are a wondrous time to year, getting the family to sit down and game together is an event I love to see happen around my house, hope it also happens around yours too.