Friday, January 18, 2013

What's the advantage of running Linux in your RAM?

Q. The way I understood it, a tiny Linux distro like Puppy or Tiny Core still needs to boot from SOMEWHERE e.g. a CD, pen drive, hdd before it loads into RAM, right? And it'll also need a medium to save the changes you've made to the system on.
So why not use LESS RAM and have it boot from an internal medium like a hdd or flash where anything else can be saved as well?

A. there are many use cases for running in ram or a "live" distro. your hdd or os went kaput and you want to try to mount it to save any data. you have no need to save data such as a linux-based firewall appliance like pfsense. you want to test a distro first before committing and installing. you want to run memtest. as you can see running in ram means you're not modifying the existing system's os.

how do i build a computer with 2 small processors?
Q. i have bought a lot of old school computers. i would like to rebuild them and give them to less fortunate children for home use they presently have next to no hard drive so when i replace the 500mb hard drives with 20gb i will need more power from the tiny processors so i figured i would see if i could run with 2
some of these motherboards appear to have 2 places. is it possible to transplant? how?

A. Nice gesture petes mom! Don't get discouraged yet! However there are a few more problems, than just trying to install two processors for power.
(You can't. Don't try it. Motherboards that have two processors are for server computers anyway. Slower than heck, compared to the same processor speed in a single processor computer. They check and recheck the data before it is used. Dual core technology is a whole different 'game', and I'm not referring to this.)

So you got the 20GB units to work? Went past the harddrive limitation size on these old computers? http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/hard_drive_size_barriers.htm

Next up is the O/S. Unless you have a Windows installation disk, for each and every computer. You could use a 'mirror image' of each Windows O/S on every harddrive, and transfer it to the 20GB ones.
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm Free software
Windows license states, "One genuine copy per One computer".
I hope these aren't Win95! lol! Win98? Ummmm, hmmmm,wellll,
Whatever!
When Windows is installed on a computer,(Activation, not Register.), it assigns 'codecs', to three major components,
1.Processor
2.Harddrive
3.Motherboard,(More specifically the BIOS program, on the BIOS chip, on the motherboard)
Change any two of these hardware components, and Windows wants to be re-activated. Sometimes just changing the harddrive, or processor does it.

Did you know that the Linux O/S uses less processor, and ram resources? Did you know the way the kernel is built, that it's virtually spyware/virus, etc., free? Did you know that 98% of Linux distro's,(Distributions), are FREE, and you can download them off the 'net?
Do you know that with installing Wine,(Free), Linux O/S'es can play Windows based games? Do you know that there are 1000's of free applications and programs for Linux? There is a free Office program,(OpenOffice.org), that looks very similar to MS Office, can run MS Office based documents, etc., plus anything composed in this program can be run on a MS Office based computer? (Doesn't lose files either!)
1.http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
2.http://www.linux.com/articles/60208 (I love it! They have a Cyber Defender Anti-Spyware advertisement, on here! lol! Apparently they've never read the ARTICLE!)
3.http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/iso (I have downloaded 3 distro's of Ubuntu this way. Takes about 1hr and 45 minutes using a medium speed DSL connection. I always follow the directions implicitly, and have found that Infra Recorder, is WAY better than any version of Nero that I've had! (It's free also!)
4.http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installingsoftware
5.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qyFwZeC-DQ
6.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSGf9pFupjg

Edit: It's because they are Server motherboards. Like this,
http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/item/15184
(By the way, scroll down to mid-page on the next link. They start with Intel Celeron's for Socket 370. They have Pentium III's also. Check the price. I know it's good stuff, because I have bought two motherboard's from them. One was a medium speed gamer board. They go FAST! lol!)
http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/category/CPU000)

Depends on the age of the dual processor server board, but some of the old ones also needed voltage regulators. These are plug in modules, and there is one per processor.

(Need sum help? Email me with your questions. My background? I started, around the time Windows 3.1 was the 'hot' thing. Also click on my avatar.)

Edit 2: What I meant about the top paragraph above in parentheses, is that if it were a Single processor socket motherboard, you can't install two processors. With a Dual processor socket motherboard, of course you can!
Your added comments, came after I posted this.

Linux distros that support closed software but not Ubuntu?
Q. The newest update of Ubuntu (Natty Narwhal) is shit. I picked Ubuntu because I wanted to be able to use mp3s and flash with the least amount of trouble but now it's just getting harder and harder to work as a programmer.

I would like a distro that would support these things and allow easy install but I don't need the pretty gui and user friendly interface. If I wanted that I would have bought a mac.

A. I'm not sure what you mean when you said you don't want a pretty gui, because most people who want their proprietary drivers and codecs enabled out of the box want the pretty gui. If you are looking for a more simplistic look i would recommend a different desktop enviorment other than kde or gnome. Perhaps a light one like xfice or enlightenment.
Well, i'm not sure if it was the new unity desktop enviorment that you didnt' like or ubuntu in general, so i'll suggest a few work arounds for both. Zorin os is one of the easiest distributions i have ever used. It is based upon ubuntu, but it uses the older classic gnome desktop envelopment (2.32 i think it is.) It looks very similar to windows actually, and everything works out of the box. But you still have the ubuntu tools such as ubuntu tweak and the software center, so if you just didn't like the distribution in general that may not be the right solution. Also, kubuntu is ubuntu with the kde desktop environmental. But again, that is just a unity work around, and doesn't change ubuntu in general.
PcLinuxOS is very easy to use as well. It is based on Mandriva, so it has nothing to do with ubuntu or debian. Everything works perfectly out of the box, and it is very easy to customize. It comes with any desktop environment you want, be it kde, gnome, or enlightenment. It has everything enabled out of the box.
There are certain distrobutions such as tiny core and bodhi linux that are fairly simply and have a very minimalist approach, so that you can completely customize its look yourself. Therefore, as it comes it is very minimalist, lightweight, and simple. However, due to its minimalist approach not everything you need will already be installed, so just know that if you go down this rout.
Mandriva, Pclinuxos, zorinos, and as already mentioned linux mint are easy to use and come working out of the box. Distrobutions such as bodhi linux and tiny core allow a more simplistic approach that still provides a fairly easy experience. But the fact remains, that if you want an advanced or simplistic interface you are going to have to go for a more advanced distrobution where not everything will work right away, and it will take time to get going. I hope one of these will suite your needs, email me if you have questions.



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