2007/01/28
Document Actions
Naming my new PC...
by
Sébastien Lelong
—
posted at
2007-01-28 19:46
last modified
2007-01-28 22:00
None-*nix g33k, be on your own way and skip this post.
It's been quite a long time, actually several months, I've wanted to replace my web/mail server. It's way too slow, essentially because of lack of memory. This PC is the first one I've put a Linux on so it's emotional, replacing it is not that easy :).
Anyway, I've finally made my choice and got a very cheap secondhand PC. Going into this Unix tradition, I've always named my PCs according to the X-Men team. It's absolutely g33k. Before I give a nickname to my new PC, let me introduce all of them.
It's been quite a long time, actually several months, I've wanted to replace my web/mail server. It's way too slow, essentially because of lack of memory. This PC is the first one I've put a Linux on so it's emotional, replacing it is not that easy :).
Anyway, I've finally made my choice and got a very cheap secondhand PC. Going into this Unix tradition, I've always named my PCs according to the X-Men team. It's absolutely g33k. Before I give a nickname to my new PC, let me introduce all of them.
 |
So here it is ! Longshot is my very first Linux PC. It's a laptop I got during my school training (~2000/10, nice gift). By this time, it's already been an old piece of computer. But when it's been bought, I think it was amazing, particularly for its memory, its firewire connectors and its DVD player. The PCMCIA connector has always been out of order, due to a fall (previous user, not me...), and there's no ethernet connector. I'm using a Pegasus USB-to-Ethernet converter. I've installed approx. everything that could be installed on a PC: first Windows, then Mandrake, Suze, Gentoo, FreeBSD, OpenSolaris, Slackware, RedHat, ... As of today (2007-1-28), this is my web and mail server, and the one serving this page. Specs: * Pentium II @ 400MHz * 128 MB RAM * 6 GB HD * 15" screen * batteries still working * running Ubuntu Dapper |
 |
Ah ! Wolverine ! This is my desktop PC. Actually, it's my girlfriend's one, but the day I've put Linux on it, it's become mine... This desktop PC is about 7 year-old. By the time I got it, it was amazingly powerfull. Windows was pre-installed on it, but when I get Internet, a lots of virus appeared, spywares, weird behaviors, and because I didn't want to hear "Oh, you need to defrag' it" or "You must format it and install Windows from scratch", I've put a Suse Linux, then a Gentoo Linux. It's still got this Win/Suse/Gentoo triple boot. This PC is quite nice. It's a no-name PC. Because it runs Linux, it runs smooth and is still highly capable. The only drawback is the noise. When I start it up, I always wonder how many cows are going to get out of it... Specs: * AMD Athlon XP 1800+ * 256 MB RAM * 40 GB + 80 GB internal HD * 200 GB external USB HD * 17" CRT display * running Gentoo 99.99% of its living time |
 |
Once, my previous boss said "if it's not running sshd, it's not a PC". So, Diablo (french name for the nightcrawler) is a PC... It's an old HP iPaq running Familiar Linux. I's quite magical to put Linux on such a device. I've bought it with 5 pack of water bottles. True. No kidding. It was owned by my previous company salesman. The batteries didn't work anymore, I've had to buy new ones. It's still now got problems with its batteries. Actually, thanks to its RS232 serial line, I've planned to use it in my robotic projects (SirBot Project) to control and communicate with my bots. Specs: * Intel 200Mhz dunno what * 64 MB RAM * 256 MB HD via sd-card * running Familiar/Opie |
 |
Magneto is my second laptop. I've bought it one year ago, to replace Longshot, the old laptop which became my web/mail server. This is a Sony VAIO FJ1S. If I had to buy a laptop again, I would certainly not buy this one. I wanted a nice laptop, looking good. A VAIO is great for that. But it's definitely not great for Linux g33k. Too much of Sony specific proprietary features, hardly exploited with Linux. I should have known... The particularity of this laptop is the definitely great 14.1" wide screen. I didn't want one of all those 15.4", because it's too much bulky. 12" is too small. 13" is great but too rare. 14.1" is great too, but quite hard to find. Specs: * Pentium IV M 1.73 GHz * 512 MB * 80 GB HD * 14.1" wide screen * Wifi (crappy Intel 2200) * running Ubuntu Edgy |
 |
Beast is my new PC. It's a secondhand PC. It will soon replace Longshot as my web and mail server. It's a thin desktop Dell PC. I've bought it 3 days ago. Originally running Windows, I've put a backup dump from Longshot on it. Now it's running Ubuntu Dapper. The need of a new PC was obvious: my website is done with Zope/Plone, and Longshot has too few memory to run it nice. The Plone instance occupies up to 85% of the available memory, including virtual memory. Longhost is swapping all the time, making requests fail sometimes ("sirloon.net is under maintenance or it crashed..." is the message displayed when the Apache proxy server did not get any responses from Zope because it swaps too much). Sometimes, the most active process is kswap... So here it is: Beast is (soon) my new server. Long life to Beast !!! Specs: * Pentium IV Celeron 2 GHz * 512 MB * 20 GB HD * running Ubuntu Dapper |
So what about Longshot ? Stop using my first Linux PC is not that easy :) It gave me great services. As of today, its uptime is 180 days ! Which modern laptop is able to do this ? Longshot worked a lot. It will soon retire as a simple "browse Internet & read mails" machine.
I gave it and the happy receiver is someone who's (almost) never browsed the Internet, and surely never written a mail. This person has never used a PC. Even under Windows. Only old Mac 9.0. And she's going to use my Longshot. Under Linux. This is a interesting experience. I'll have to remotely administrate it via ssh and I'm sure a Linux box with KDE is better and easier to use than a Windows PC full of viruses.
And I'll still use Longshot when I ssh it...
- Category(s)
- Geek
