Are you a luddite?

Since you are reading this blog dedicated to using Linux on older hardware, you might be interested in the techonology luddites:

When it come to technology, newer isn't always better. We head out in search of the people who consider good enough to still be good enough.

Read more about old hardware and retro tech users in the article published in the PCPlus!

50 Linux Discussion Forums

More than a year ago, I posted three articles listing a few dozen Linux discussion forums. I suppose it is time to republish the list, now in one article. Furthermore, I added a few more discussion forums just in order to have a nice title with exactly 50 discussion forums dedicated to Linux and other free Unix like operating systems.

If your favourite discussion forum is missing from the list, please add it in the comment box!

1. Absolute
   
2. Arch
   
3. BSDnexus
4. CentOS
5. Clonezilla
   
6. Crunchbang
   
7. Crux for PPC
   
8. Daemonforums.org (BSD)
   
9. Damn Small Linux
   
10. Debian
    
11. DeLi
    
12. DesktopBSD
    
13. Dreamlinux
    
14. Elive
    
15. Fedora
    
16. Fluxbuntu
    
17. Foresight
    
18. Frugalware
    
19. GeeXboX
    
20. Gentoo
21. gOS
    
22. GParted
    
23. Knoppix
    
24. LinuxConsole
    
25. Linuxquestions.org
    
26. Mandriva
    
27. Mepis
    
28. Midnight BSD
    
29. Mint
    
30. OpenGEU
    
31. OpenSolaris
    
32. openSUSE
    
33. PC-BSD
    
34. PCLinuxOS
    
35. Puppy Linux
    
36. Sabayon
    
37. Sidux
    
38. Slackware
    
39. Slackware (Linuxpackages.net)
    
40. Slax
    
41. Slitaz
    
42. TinyCore
    
43. TinyME
    
44. Ubuntu
    
45. Ultimate Edition
    
46. Vector Linux
    
47. WattOS
    
48. Wolvix
    
49. Yoper
    
50. Zenwalk

Free software for economists

As an economics and business student, I somehow googled my way to Alan G. Isaac's Software for Economists. Alan presents a nice collection of free software that can be used by economists and other scholars as well.

Linux Ecology-HOWTO updated

I just noticed that the Linux Ecology HOWTO has been updated in September. If you have never read the HOWTO, you certainly should take a look at it. And don't forget to check the latest updates in the Guides section of the Linux Documentation Project as well.

WolframAlpha is a Computational Knowledge Engine

Just a short notice today.

WolframAlpha is a computational knowledge engine that seems to be able to compute an answer to many of my problems. For example, it can compare stocks and do all kinds of fancy math.

Less is more

Links for Thursday: Minima | Minimal Mac | The Minimalist

Officially geek

The very simple Twitter script I published yesterday has received more attention than I expected. It was even linked to in the article "10+ super geeky ways to use Twitter" in Downloadsquad!

Cheat sheets in one place

Cheat sheets are practical for all of us who cannot remember the keyboard shortcuts of editors, command line arguments of Unix applications or basic rules for Bash scripting. Fortunately for us, there are some nice collections available:

* Cheat-sheets.org provides heat sheets, round-ups, quick reference cards, quick reference guides and quick reference sheets in one page.
* Scott Klarr has released a Linux-Unix cheat sheets - The ultimate collection

These two collections are a valuable aid for us who just cannot remember everything.

Another blog by me

As if trying to write one blog in English was not enough, I decided to start another blog for international audience. In my new Niche blogs with Adsense I write about my experiences with using Adsense on several niche blogs.

To be honest, I am not doing more than a few dollars a day with my blogs. But maybe I will learn something about eBusiness while writing for the other blog. At least I have learned incredibly lot about using Linux on old computers when writing this blog.

But don't worry, I will continue writing this blog also in the future!

The Economist recommends netbooks with Linux

It is always a pleasure to see mainstream publications advocate free software.

This time the widely read The Economist recommends netbooks with Linux. Furthermore, the author of the article sees no point in installing Windows instead of Linux:

Yet increasing the specification only makes sense for people who want to run (and to pay for) Windows and specific Windows-based applications. The extra hardware and software costs start to push the price of a netbook towards that of a standard laptop, which will invariably be better because it has a bigger processor and superior graphics. For many users, the basic, free software shipped with a netbook will be quite enough.

Ten more Linux discussion forums

My series of listings of Linux discussion forums continues with ten more discussion forums. This time the forums are for more or less specialized or esoteric distributions.

See also the first two parts of the listing if you are looking for discussion regarding some other distribution (here and here).

1. Crunchbang
2. gOS
3. Midnight BSD
4. Wolvix
5. Clonezilla
6. GParted
7. Geexbox
8. Slax
9. Foresight
10. Crux for PPC

Linux on P100 with 16 Mb

K. Mandla has succeeded in something I thought would be impossible: he has installed Crux on a P100 with 16 Mb RAM. Read his Success! IceWM 1.2.36 and Xorg 7.3 at 100Mhz/16Mb and the later Some minor improvents if you want to boldly install Linux where no Penguin has lived before.

When I bought my Toshiba laptop in 1997 it came with 8 Mb of RAM but late I upgraded it to the maximum of 40 Mb. 8 Mb were just not enough for Netscape and Windows95. I have not used the computer for some time, but I might return to it some day. I think the last OS I ínstalled on it was Minix3. Or maybe Slackware 11.0? When I get back to Helsinki, I just have to try something new with my trustworthy laptop.

About Blogging

I started this blog in the early summer 2008. I have not been able to post anything worth reading every day, not even every week. I suppose it happens to most bloggers who blog as a hobby, not as professional authors. In addition, my studies of economics and business are even more time consuming I imagined.

During the last week, I have noticed I can move most of my short notices about interesting new distributions or sites to Delicious. It certainly is a better platform for this kind of short notes. I warmly recommend you to subscribe my notes in Delicious, if you are a registered user. You'll find the necessary links in the column to the right.

Now that I decided to post in this blog, I might as well remind you of another blog worth reading if you are interested in using Linux on old computers: Linux Distribution testing - on old computers.

DebianHelp for Backups

Have you a secure system for making automated backups of your personal files? I know I should have, but unfortunately I don't have a really working system. I have just rsynced my /home to an external drive. It works OK for backing up things like digital photos or multimedia files, but is not very useful for keeping different versions of the files I work on daily.

I just found a great collection of tutorials for backing up a Linux system. The site Debianhelp is oriented towards Debian, but of course the information given here can be used with just about any Linux system with some tweaking. The tutorials should work fine with Ubuntu. I just hope I would have time for organizing my files, computers and backups into a coherent system...

Org-Mode for Emacs

For some time, I've been thinking about learning to use the org mode for Emacs. Now that I found a 45 minutes long presentation of it, I'm even more convinced about it. If I only had time, and if only my school was more tolerant of using other software than MS Office...

Elsewhere: 18 CLI Audio Tools

My regular readers have certainly noticed that I like to use command line tools even when using a system with X Windows installed. In an earlier post, I have already mentioned mp3blaster, my favourite music player. Now I have learned about many more command line audio tools.

18 CLI Audio Tools for Linux presents a nice collection of command line audio tools for Linux. I have used some of them and I will certainly use a few more of them in the future. I'm sure you will find something new there, too.

Who needs Amarok or Rhytmbox for playing mp3 or ogg vorbis files? I dont.

Elsewhere: A Freelance Author Installs Xubuntu

Giving new life to old computers is an article by C.M. Boots-Faubert published a few days ago in Cape Cod Times.

The author has decided to use an older computer with brand new Xubuntu 8.04 and found it - for us not any surprise - to be simple and easy to install and use:

What you end up with is a computer that is perfect for schoolwork and Web surfing with a new lease on life that is potentially endless, at least until the hardware itself stops working.

Elsewhere: X Window Managers

20 Most Nimble and Simple X Window Managers for Linux is a short review of 20 window managers available for Linux. See also Window Managers for X.

Elsewhere: Top 5 Tiny Distros

Just found an interesting article: Top 5 Tiny Distros by srlinuxx (05/03/2008 ). It is a short review of CDLinux, SliTaz, Damn Small Linux, Austrumi, and Puppy. The author considers Puppy and CDLinux as winners.

Emacs for authors

Those of us who earn our living by writing, not coding, might be interested in reading The Woodnotes Guide to Emacs for Writers. Before I read the guide Emacs almost drove me crazy as I had not been able to figure out how to get the word-wrap function like I need it to function.

The solution is easy: longlines-mode. No more pressing Esc q all the time!