I decided to load Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon on an older beast of a Precision Workstation that I have (Xeon 8 Cores/16 threads/12GB RAM + SSD drive). So far so good, Mint detected all of the devices and it all seems to work.

Before I get too far into it, I'm looking for opinions on this distribution. For work I run a customized build of RedHat and I also support some CentOS servers. I would have put CentOS on my Precision but I think it's not the best choice for home desktop since it's a bit outdated.

I thought about Fedora but I don't think that I want a bleeding edge distribution.

 

I have Mint on a VM here and there and other then updating the packages, I dont do anything in it.

 

^ Same

 

I've been running Debian at home for the last 15 years, ran solaris and mini-x at home before that

 

I build Linux VM's all day at work though

 

Why?

 

Cuz I'm l33t

 

So far, so good


If anyone is looking for a cheap powerful desktop machine to run Linux, there are plenty of Precision T5500 on eBay.

Paid $450 delivered for the box + $100 for SSD.

 

Quick update.

I was noticing a bunch of strange GUI issues that I initially thought were application related problems. Some of the issues were sporatic choppy youtube playback in Firefox but not Chrome, virtual machine windows not refreshing properly, and some other wierdness. I switched to the MATE GUI and everything is resolved. I don't know if those were general issues with Cinnnamon or a problem specific to Cinnamon and my nVidia adapter. I'm happy with MATE though so I will stick with it.

 

Also have Mint in a VM. Not entirely sure why, though...

 

Please don't take this the wrong way, but what's the appeal of running Linux on a desktop vs running Windows? I truly am wondering, I've never messed too much with Linux so I really don't know. I'm going to have to reinstall the OS on my desktop before too long. I've had Win7 on it since it came out. Now that I'm moving all media functions (Plex, PlayOn, etc) to a dedicated server I want to start clean.

 

It's free

It's more stable

It doesn't have viruses

It's free

 

A few reasons for me, although I orginally switched from Windows to Mac.

My wife and kids used to load a crap load of malware on Windows. The second was that I wanted something new to play with since I worked on Windows all day at work.

I haven't decided yet if I will move my kids to Linux. They are doing just fine on mac. However, I'm getting tired of paying the premium for the mac hardware. I could get a nice laptop from Dell for around $500 and put Linux on that instead of paying for a macbook. My kids have no interest in a Dell laptop but show them something with an Apple logo and it's gotta have.

 

Fair enough. Do you ever find yourself wanting for software on Linux? If I need something to convert that pron to a format I can play on Treo, will I be able to find a Linux version? I think that's really my only hesitation.

 

There is handbrake for Linux. I assume that can do what you need.

I'd have to say if you are heavy into gaming or need to use Photoshop then Linux isn't for you. Or you would at least have to setup a dual boot machine.

The other big piece of missing software is Microsoft Office. Of course there is LibreOffice for Linux.

Also, Netflix does not work natively (because Silverlight is not supported on Linux). Someone has put together a package to make it run in Wine emulation. I suspect this may eventually work without emulation.

Some of the same software that you use on Windows you may find is available for Linux. For example, FireFox, Thunderbird, Chrome, VLC, Transmission.

 

It's open source, there are probably more free apps for linux these days than Windows

 

I've been in search of a backup program. I need something that can backup to my Synology NAS. I looked into Back in Time, Lucky Backup, and rsync. My favorite is rsync even though it is command line driven. Anything else that I should look into? I'd really like something with a GUI that supports backup to a network share without jumping through a lot of hoops. I'm used to Time Machine on mac and that usually worked without any issue.

 

Doop, check out: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-...kup-utilities/

 

Running Chakra. Fonts on this site are terrible, look okay on Windows 7.

 

Gave up, went back to mac. I was able to make LuckyBackup work though.