My 40th Thread...Linux Life

[target2019]

Ok, this is a good start for my 40th thread on E-R.org. Slowly descending in spirit as uncertainty builds, I'm taking a serious look at the large amount of technolgy detritus in my home office, and throughout the house. Mentioned in another thread, I'm eliminating many artifacts from past tech career as systems consultant. Let's face it, I've had a serious problem letting go of even one floppy disk. There are tech droppings going back as far as the 80's throughout the house. However, I have had periods of downtime where I fed the county electronics recycling events.

Office de-cluttering is one of the goals in my post-28-Feb-2020 projects sheet. Just one page, but the initial task list will keep me busy for the remainder of my run. As my son said before he departed for a new job in Europe, “JC, Dad. How many computers do you have in that office?” There was a time when I would gladly spar with him over such remarks. However, I let many things slide now. After all, he's taken tech curiosity and a degree to a high level, and soared off to several large companies over the last decade.

As the maple butcher-block table-top re-appeared, the old 17" HP7-DV notebook came into focus, up front and center for future assignment. With just a core duo and 8GB/320GB memory, this beast is prehistoric by most measures. Two days of moving pieces within the office got me to thinking about reviving Rex. After all, we travelled together on many company trips. Rex captured the entire process of my earning an online masters. What a payback for the $750 spent in late 2009. Rex also supported me in many forays into small business consulting over the years. The ROI is so large, it makes me chuckle. Life has been like that for me. I've invested steadiily in my consulting business, which started in desktop publishing with an early Mac and LaserWriter.

Time to bring the opening post to a close! I cleaned up the Windows 7 programs and extra space, and downloaded Linux Mint with Cinnamon, 64-bit. Booted with the ISO and installed Linux Mint 19.3 last night. It took an hour or so to update, and add more software (like CherryTree outlner) so I can function in the environment. I've been through Linux experiments several times in the past, so it is not so bothersome to re-type a very short password many times over. I admit, this isn't for everyone.
Linux Mint comes with a Welcome screen to guide you through First Steps. This includes setting root password, updating the Update Manager, turning on the Firewall, etc. Controls and features you have in Windows are in a similar place, but with different names where required by the copyright police.

I hope everyone has an engaging project on the front burner. Feel free to join this thread when the spirit moves you. I hope to continue to post about Linux and Life in this thread for a while longer.

 

[ejman]

Funny, I have the same laptop but with an AMD processor and did pretty much the same thing with Linux. I also had Linux Mint 19.3 on it (XFCE version) but decided to play with other distros just for the fun of it. Currently playing with Peppermintos and having a lot of fun with it. It's a speed demon. If you haven't already recommend getting an SSD. I purchased a 120 gb for $20 and with Linux tiny size that's plenty of room.

 

[SumDay]

I have no clue what the H you're talking about but that's a really cool picture!

And if all that you wrote made you feel good, then that's all that matters.

 

[donheff]

Not a virus containment hobby but I downloaded Ubuntu and converted a slow Win10 laptop I wasn't using about a month ago. I used to run a few Linux servers in the basement and never liked it for my standard desktop stuff so I stopped using it when I dropped the servers. Posters here convinced me that I was way out of date re: Linux desktop and they were right. Easy to setup easy to use.

 

[jollystomper]

I am in the same situation. My home lab built to support and enhance my Megacorp career grew to a home data center by the time I retired. I currently have 12 servers (all built from parts) running almost every hypervisor/operating system variation, 4 NAS devices, and associated components/peripherals. Then there are the system built or laptops purchased for kids as they went through school that are now old. As well as a bin full of "older-never-broke-but-not-being-used" stuff. So I am going through creating junk/scrap/sell piles to reduce this stuff. But I will still use a subset of the "data center", and most of that will be running Linux.

 

[Peter]

MintBox Mini 2. Comes pre-loaded with Mint 19.3 Cinnamon. Mine arrived from Amazon last Friday. Replaces for a 5 year old Microsoft Surface 3 that's been running an always-on spam filter using Thunderbird. Came right up, of course, and is pretty snappy for web, email, etc. And it's tiny!

Reminded me how much nicer the UI is than Windows 10 ... maybe I should go back to Linux for my main OS.

 

[target2019]

Funny, I have the same laptop but with an AMD processor and did pretty much the same thing with Linux. I also had Linux Mint 19.3 on it (XFCE version) but decided to play with other distros just for the fun of it. Currently playing with Peppermintos and having a lot of fun with it. It's a speed demon. If you haven't already recommend getting an SSD. I purchased a 120 gb for $20 and with Linux tiny size that's plenty of room.

Somehow, I've managed to side-step SSD technology. I do have a possible candidate for upgrade, though. Just need to stay focused and not start too many things.

After I started with my first Mac 512K purchase, I decided to expand my publishing empire with a generic 386. I was curious about how difficult everything appeared in the IBM/clone world. When the suited gentleman delivered it to me in the paper mill, he was very proud to tell me what he knew of memory switches and static protection. He "burned in" my memory by running it over night.

Ok, that hooked me into hardware real bad. After all, I was the kid who dis-assembled his father's new B&D drill motor, and could not get it re-assembled before Dad came home.

 

[Jimmie]

Great timing for this post. DW has an 6 yo Intel i3 PC with dual monitors that I built for her and is currently running Win8.1. OS is now to the point where I need to replace it.

Sent DW some youtubes on Linux Mint & Cinnamon to let her see what it looks like and how to use it, along with a strong reco to not upgrade to Win10. She mainly only uses her PC for web surfing, creating/sending Excel invoices to her clients, communicating with clients via Slack, and Outlook email. Her iPad Pro is her main device for working.

Going to push her over next couple days to make up her mind (not much else to do while in quarantine). Hoping she will give Mint/Cinnamon a chance. Last PC in the household running a MS OS and would like to get rid of it.

 

[target2019]

I have no clue what the H you're talking about but that's a really cool picture!

And if all that you wrote made you feel good, then that's all that matters.

Yes, the day was starting to arrive, and I was getting a glimpse of green rhodendrum and yellow forsythia out the front window. I need to move the old 26" LCD monitor out of the way, maybe point a webcam out there. The view is one of the reasons I liked this house so much when we arrived in 1995 or so.

 

[Uncle Lumpy]

I've been running Linux exclusively (well, except for a Win10 virtual machine for Quicken and TurboTax) for the past 15 years or so. Almost exclusively run Slackware but just yesterday I downloaded an ISO of Endless OS to spin up in a VM. Initial impression is that it's very easy to use and would be great for kids or grandkids given the educational stuff included (or easily added).


Lumpy

 

[target2019]

Not a virus containment hobby but I downloaded Ubuntu and converted a slow Win10 laptop I wasn't using about a month ago. I used to run a few Linux servers in the basement and never liked it for my standard desktop stuff so I stopped using it when I dropped the servers. Posters here convinced me that I was way out of date re: Linux desktop and they were right. Easy to setup easy to use.

I've dealt with servers here and there, but always had more experience with desktops and GUI's.

My favorite server stories usually involve cleaning folk at one business or another. They seem to all go for the electrical outlet the server UPS is plugged into when needing an outlet for their vacuum cleaner.

Of course the business owners contribute to this, by putting servers and telecom equipment in hall closets, because it's just computers. Remove the door and lock, too!

 

[statsman]

I installed Linux Mint 18.3 on a six-year old PC and laptop at the beginning of the year as part of a transition from Win 7 Pro (I also purchased a Win 10 Pro PC at that time). I went with Mint 18.3 because some experienced users at the time said there were issues with Mint 19.x. I'm not sure if that is still the case.

Anyway, it was good to have a backup option to be able to securely access our online financial and health accounts. Even at this point, I question whether I should be accessing those accounts on my Win 10 Pro PC.

 

[target2019]

I am in the same situation. My home lab built to support and enhance my Megacorp career grew to a home data center by the time I retired. I currently have 12 servers (all built from parts) running almost every hypervisor/operating system variation, 4 NAS devices, and associated components/peripherals. Then there are the system built or laptops purchased for kids as they went through school that are now old. As well as a bin full of "older-never-broke-but-not-being-used" stuff. So I am going through creating junk/scrap/sell piles to reduce this stuff. But I will still use a subset of the "data center", and most of that will be running Linux.

My NAS is a 32GB stock plugged into my LAN router! I need to get more sophisticated, as the largest block of historical photos I have is on my Win XP box. It's on my LAN without internet.

MintBox Mini 2. Comes pre-loaded with Mint 19.3 Cinnamon. Mine arrived from Amazon last Friday. Replaces for a 5 year old Microsoft Surface 3 that's been running an always-on spam filter using Thunderbird. Came right up, of course, and is pretty snappy for web, email, etc. And it's tiny!

Reminded me how much nicer the UI is than Windows 10 ... maybe I should go back to Linux for my main OS.

MintBox is on my future projects page now. Thanks!

 

[Sunset]

I've used Ubuntu , which is a different version of linux for a number of years now as my main computer.
I do everything on it, except income taxes which don't run on linux, so I have a low cost laptop for Windows to do taxes.

Ubuntu is super easy, much like Windows in usage, however if you want you can do command line scripts to automate things.

What I like about Ubuntu, is the 5 yrs of security upgrades on the Long Term Support version , and then I simply update to the new version at near the end.

 

[easysurfer]

I use MX-Linux for my laptop. Must be fitting me pretty well as I haven't found the urge to distro hop before finding this distro.

 

[ncbill]

Is there a utility that runs under windows 10 that helps with erasing all personal info?

back when the free W10 upgrade was first announced, I upgraded a few older laptops but no longer have a use for them & now want to give them away to the local Goodwill.

 

[statsman]

Is there a utility that runs under windows 10 that helps with erasing all personal info?

back when the free W10 upgrade was first announced, I upgraded a few older laptops but no longer have a use for them & now want to give them away to the local Goodwill.

If I were donating a PC, I would perform a secure erase of the hard drive and re-install the operating system. I am too paranoid to trust a Windows-based erasure of my private data. If I were recycling the PC, I would (and have!) perform several secure erasings of the hard drive.

 

[easysurfer]

If I were donating a PC, I would perform a secure erase of the hard drive and re-install the operating system. I am too paranoid to trust a Windows-based erasure of my private data. If I were recycling the PC, I would (and have!) perform several secure erasings of the hard drive.

The local Goodwill by me accepts non-working or partial PCs. In other words, the computer doesn't have to be fully working.

With that in mind, an option to remove the laptop's PC hard drive, and keep that yourself as spare drive.

Other options, since we are in a Linux thread is to use a LiveCD of a linux distro and format/wipe the drive that way.

The same can be done if you have a Windows OS on DVD. I keep an old Win XP install disc around for that purpose if I need to wipe a drive. Let the install reformat and erase the drive.

 

[ERD50]

Following - but I'll probably hold off any major Linux changes until the Long Term Support version comes out next month.

For ref, I started using Linux on a netbook in 2009 (still in use as my music player). Went full-time as my main machine in 2010 (after my iMac died). Ubuntu, then the XFCE variant, Xubuntu (allows easy configuring of the desktop, I use multiple virtual desktops, which works well for me).

-ERD50

 

[jollystomper]

If I were donating a PC, I would perform a secure erase of the hard drive and re-install the operating system. I am too paranoid to trust a Windows-based erasure of my private data. If I were recycling the PC, I would (and have!) perform several secure erasings of the hard drive.

+1


No need to donate a used PC with a working operating system. In fact, many places would wipe out the drive of such a system anyway, for security purposes (someone may have put a virus on it). Goodwill does this.

There are tons of options, including many free/open source, available, you can search online to find them. Get one that allows you to boot it from a CD/DVD or usb flash drive so that the entire hard drive can be wiped.

 

[statsman]

No need to donate a used PC with a working operating system. In fact, many places would wipe out the drive of such a system anyway, for security purposes (someone may have put a virus on it). Goodwill does this.

Good to know. I haven't donated a PC or laptop, so I didn't know. Usually about the time I am ready to retire old computer hardware, it is much closer to recycling than reuse.

 

[Sunset]

Is there a utility that runs under windows 10 that helps with erasing all personal info?

back when the free W10 upgrade was first announced, I upgraded a few older laptops but no longer have a use for them & now want to give them away to the local Goodwill.

Good idea.
I used to buy old computers at garage sales... Surprisingly some came with everything on it, lots of banking info, SSN, personal details, etc... really stupid.
Lucky for them I it was purchased by me.

 

[target2019]

Ubuntu- “I am what I am because of who we all are”

I've used Ubuntu , which is a different version of linux for a number of years now as my main computer.
I do everything on it, except income taxes which don't run on linux, so I have a low cost laptop for Windows to do taxes.
Ubuntu is super easy, much like Windows in usage, however if you want you can do command line scripts to automate things.
What I like about Ubuntu, is the 5 yrs of security upgrades on the Long Term Support version , and then I simply update to the new version at near the end.

Yes, Ubuntu!
Ubuntu- “I am what I am because of who we all are”
I found that meaning on this page:
https://motivationinspirationandlif...ntu-i-am-what-i-am-because-of-who-we-all-are/

How fitting for these times. Of course it is likely re-interpreted in other ways as most words and phrases are.

I remember ordering an early Ubuntu media disk. Impressive campaign, with colorful, friendly cardboard sleeves. I did try Ubuntu on a few systems throughout the years. Just never stuck with it in a serious way. My systems consulting livelihood required more hands-on time with Windows as I solved mysterious network and user problems along the way.

That thought reminds me of a key learning spoken by a true geek friend of many years. He taught me about Plbkac -- Problem lies between keyboard and chair. Everywhere I've initiated troubleshooting, including here, there was always at least a small case of Plbkac...

 

[target2019]

I use MX-Linux for my laptop. Must be fitting me pretty well as I haven't found the urge to distro hop before finding this distro.

Sounds like a winner!
"MX-Linux is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint."

Worthy of a tryout down the road.

 

[target2019]

Security for Hard Drives

Is there a utility that runs under windows 10 that helps with erasing all personal info?

back when the free W10 upgrade was first announced, I upgraded a few older laptops but no longer have a use for them & now want to give them away to the local Goodwill.

The absolute safest way I know of is to remove the hard drive, disassemble, remove the platter(s), and destroy them. I've tried different methods on many drives. Last time I dumped drives at the recycling event, I drilled through a half dozen hard drive removals, since I didn't recall sanitizing them. Some of the drives came from computers of professional clients, healthcare employees, etc.

I don't have a gun, but some like to target practice on old hard drives. You really can't trust a lot of the free downloaded utilities.

I just removed a few platters this weekend. Drilled the media, and will hang them in the back yard for pretty flashes of light now and then.

Along the way I've used boot CDs (such as Darik's Boot and Nuke - DBAN). It takes time to do this, however. For a secure erase you need multiple passes on that old slow drive. And can you really trust that any utility has done the promised.

I set up Linux Mint in an old Dell tower around 2014 to carry out a procedure by which I attached drives to IDE or SATA, and ran different commands and utilities to observe what happened, and what would be the most secure erasure. Discovered again that it is much more fun to take the drive apart and destroy the platters.

I found a Kobalt small screwdriver set at Lowes after that, and I have proper tools to complete the task in a few minutes.