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August 12, 2008
I use Linux. Everyone should have Linux on their home PC. You can add Linux to your computer and still keep Windows. If you have 5GB of free disk space you have room to add Linux to your PC. If you use your computer just for Internet browsing, email, office (word processor, spreadsheet), graphics (photos), and music then you can get by with only Linux. If you have an old PC with at least 256MB of RAM you could easily play with Linux on it. But you'll probably suffer "Buyer's Remorse" and wonder why you bought the new PC when the old one can do so much so fast.
The PC I'm using now does not have any MS-Windows on it. In addition to the above activities I also use the PC for games, games and games. Also for CAD drawing and web page creation, like this page I'm creating now.
Windows users that have taken their PC to a shop to have a virus or spyware removed or to just get it to run again should have Linux. In addition to being a much more stable system, Linux does not have viruses like Windows. There is no annual cost for anti-virus software, which is essential for a Windows PC connected to the internet. If fact there is no cost for Linux! It's free! Just download it, burn it to a CD (or DVD) and install it. You can buy supported packages from Ubunut (BestBuy) Red Hat and Novell.
You can download Linux for free, burn it to a CD, restart the PC from the CD and install Linux.
There are many companies and organizations that release many free versions of Linux.
The releases are called Distros (short for distributions).
Here are the most popular FREE versions of Linux for PCs with 512MB or more of RAM:
Ubuntu,
Mandriva,
Fedora (from RedHat),
OpenSuSE (from Novell).
If you only have 256MB of RAM use Xubuntu.
If you only have 64MB of RAM use DamnSmallLinux.
My Mom ran OpenSuSE on a PC with 384MB of RAM.
With an old PC with just 64MB or RAM you can still surf the internet with Firefox!
If you limit yourself to just Windows you still benefit from some excellent free software that runs on both Linux and Windows. The "must-have" ones are Firefox (Web Browser), Thunderbird (email), OpenOffice (word processor, spreadsheet, presentations) and the GIMP (Graphics editing package).
If you have digital photos you can make a DVD of them to give to others to play on their TV's DVD player.
With this simple Linux based How-To, you take a folder of photos, create a slideshow from it, add a
sound track and burn it to a DVD that plays in a TV's DVD player. All with free software (ad-free as well)
Making Slide Shows with Music ---> DVD for TV
In Linux for making CAD drawings I use qcad. It may be easy to master if you have used autocad for years.
But having never used a CAD package I found it hard to get started.
So I made another How-To:
qcad example in OpenDocumentFormat (odt)
The help file is in the ISO standard open document text format. Use OpenOffice (or abiword) to view it.
I used qcad to design a garden trellis I made from rebar in welding class.
The trellis spells JOYCE in the middle.
I also used qcad to draw the floor layout where we wanted to lay tiles.
Then with the hatch tool I overlayed a 12" square pattern to see where best
to start with tile #1 to minimize cut pieces in high traffic spots and
to minimize lots of very small pieces on the edges.
Its a very nice tool.
Want to see the result as a jpeg?
Sewing Room Tile Layout
Dunn County's Web site has excellent configurable maps.
Arial photos in both color and black and white.
We are in Dunn County in Sheridan Township.
With these maps you can see arial views of our place.
There are many options so here is a brief How-To for getting started using the site:
Maps - Using Dunn County GIS maps