Joining the Open Source Tidal Wave: Part 1
Posted by Moses on Jan 26, 2007
In the Beginning There was Windows
When I originally conceived of this article I thought I would entitle it Switching to Linux Full Time. However, after about a page of writing I realized that I was really addressing a much larger topic. It occurred to me that although Linux was a significant part of what I wanted to discuss it’s really open source software in general that has me so intrigued.
A little background information about me so that you the reader will have a better understanding of my point of view. I’ve been an IT professional for the last 16 years I have served in a number of capacities including software tester, database administrator, technical support, software engineer/developer, software architect and chief architect. I’ve worked with a different flavors of DOS (for those who remember), Unix and Windows.
This is not my first foray into the realm of open source. I have dabbled with Fedora Core 2, 3, 5. I have installed and configured Fedora Core 4 servers for use by Miles Ahead LLC, the company my brother and I started several years ago. Lately I’ve switched our company servers to 64-bit CentOS 4, Fedora Core 6 and Amazon’s Fedora Core 4 Xen implementation. We use Fedora Core 6 for our internal servers File/Print/Scanner Server and Communication Server (VPN, Network Access/Routing and Fax). CentOS 4 is the OS of slicehost.com, the company that hosts our website and a collaboration tools. Lastly we use Amazon’s EC2 service to host our product SafetyNet Wireless Firewall.
My experiences with these operating systems has taught me that the open source server software available for Linux is definitely world class. After these experiences, I began to wonder if Linux and an accompanying set of open source applications could replace Windows as my primary operating system. I have 2 computers that were candidates for conversion to Linux. The first is a Dell Inspiron 6000 with the following configuration:
- Intel 2.0Ghz Pentium-M
- 2GB DDR2 PC4200 RAM
- 100GB 7200 Seagate Hard Drive
- 128MB ATI x300 Mobility Radeon
- Intel 2915 Wireless Adapter
- Broadcom Ethernet Adapter
- 15.4†Wide Screen Monitor with True Life (1900 X 1200)
The second is a self built desktop with the following configuration:
- MSI Neo K8 Platinum nForce 3-250Gb
- AMD 3000+ Athlon-64
- 2.5GB DDR 400 RAM
- 4 SATA Seagate Hard Drives 300GB, 120GB, (2) 200GB
- Creative Labs X-Fi XtremeMusic
- Nvidia 7600 GS 256GB AGP Video Card
- (2) ATI TV Wonder Elites (550 chipset)
- 16x DVD+/-RW Drive
- 16x DVD Drive
- Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard
- Logitech USB Mouse
- Dual Monitors Philips 109B CRT (1600 x 1200) and ViewSonic VA1912wb LCD Monitor (1440 x 900)
With such diverse hardware configurations I was concerned about driver support and tools to manage the complex configurations. I will also admit that at the time I was also concerned about my ability to sufficiently tune a Linux installation to get the best performance out of my hardware. At the time my understanding of the boot cycle of Linux was full of holes and misunderstandings. However I felt confident that given enough time and determination that I could come up to speed.
Motivation to Change
I also had a couple of other motivations to try an open source desktop. The first was my desire to get increased performance from my existing hardware. I was particularly displeased with the memory and processor utilization of Windows. Although both of my computers use single core processors, I was still disappointed in their performance under Windows XP. Part of the problem was the need to run so many heavy services in the background such as Anti-Virus, Firewall and Anti-Spyware applications. In addition, Windows seems to use virtual memory in nearly every scenario despite my having more than enough RAM.
My second motivation to try an open source desktop was my concern about moving to Windows Vista. When Windows XP arrived I was sufficiently motivated to transition from my dual boot setup of Windows 2000 and Windows 98. At the time, I used Windows 2000 for any business/production type tasks and Windows 98 to play games. With the arrival of Windows XP, I gained the stability and capabilities of the Windows 2000 and the multimedia and game playing abilities of Windows 98 in a single operating system. Unfortunately with Windows Vista I’m not sure I understand the benefits in upgrading from Windows XP. To be fair, I know that Vista has a new security architecture that protects the kernel and core OS services far better than Windows XP could possibly do, the new Avalon graphics model is certainly attractive and the messaging capabilities of Indigo are supposed be impressive. However, to gain these benefits I will have to upgrade my entire portfolio of applications and possibly upgrade my hardware. Neither of these possible requirements is attractive.
While all of these thoughts were going through my head, my laptop experienced a complete hard drive failure. Up until that point I had been using my laptop as my primary computer even for games. My desktop at the time was a server for our company and didn’t have the same graphics setup. After my laptop hard drive failed and I decided to make my desktop my primary computer with backup hard drives, I felt comfortable enough to experiment with my laptop computer.
Taking the Plunge
To make sure that my laptop was usable I decided to dual boot Linux and Windows XP Media Center (the version of Windows that came with my laptop). With Windows installed on 40GB of the hard drive I decided to dedicate 60GB to my Linux installation making Linux the primary operating system in my mind.
In Part 2, I’ll discuss selecting a distribution and the install and configuration of Linux on my Dell Inspiron 6000.
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