control, shift, cheeseburger

I am now making this entry from my PC in Firefox in the Simply Mepis Linux distro. Here’s why.

I built the Batcomputer (my PC) as a computer to learn about computers. I also wanted to use it as a PVR (personal video recorder). Well, two things happened; I got a TiVO for my DirecTV (I like it so much, I am going to get another one for downstairs) and I am now almost exclusively using the PC to copy DVD’s.

The problem is that I am using Windows XP on the PC. In order to find out what I have had to find out about DVD authoring, I have had togo to some, shall we say, questionable, Web sites. I have developed a dose of spyware on the PC now that is only possible to fix by reinitializing the PC’s hard drive and starting over from scratch.

This is a zero sum game to me. Eventually, it will have to be done again and again and again. I didn’t sign on to be a virus/malware administrator. It is bad enough when my family comes to me and says “Dad, the network is down.” So, I am looking into Linux distros. Fortunately, the companies package Linux (most of them) have developed the “Live” CD. If you can boot from a CD (and most modern PCs can do this) you can try a Linux distro on your PC.

I have tried LinspireLive, Mandriva (Mandrake), and I am using Simply Mepis right now. Mepis comes with a decent CD/DVD burner, and I managed to copy a couple of disks (the first time I ever did anything productive in a Linux distro) that I had to copy for a friend at work. It can play DiVX files directly and I actually listened to Leo Laporte’s podcast on it.

Anyway, I have to start backing up crap on Saturday morning no matter which distro I use, so, wish me luck.

Steve

Filed under: Software