It’s 8:30pm, which means I’m allowed to do hobby things, right? So, I’m going to try again to install Linux (RedHat 9) on a spare computer. Last time, I wasted several hours trying to install it. It turns out that, despite what the Linux boosters say, you can’t install it on any old computer you have lying around. For example, the computer has to have a functioning motherboard. Take that, Linux heads!

I spent the past hour putting in a new motherboard, cpu and power supply. The thing actually works. It’s a 1.7mh Celeron with 128M of RAM. The motherboard has sound, video and networking built in, not like when I was a lad and the only way to hook up a monitor was to attach 256 filaments to a breadboard using a shoulder-mounted soldering iron.

In the time it’s taken me to write the above two paragraphs, RedHat has seemingly partitioned my hard drive and is installing the default set of packages for a desktop configuration. Cool. The UI is a little techier than I’d give my mother (well, Mom’s dead, but you get my drift), but if you just keep hitting the “Next” button, it seems to work. At least so far.

RedHat says I have 12 minutes and change before the OS is installed. I’m excited. Really.

12:15am: I’m up and running, although still a few screens short of a desktop. It would have happened a couple of hours sooner but we went to see Searching for the Friedmans or whatever the name of that documentary is. Excellent. I came back a minute ago and immediately checked the progress of the install. Basically done. RedHat is asking me a couple of questions, has had me register (I like their privacy statement) and now is checking to see if any of the packages I installed need updating. Still some needlessly obtuse moments: I don’t know what RPMs are, but I trust that it doesn’t mean Rape and Pillage Machines so I’m just clicking Yes whenever I can.

It seems to have done a good job figuring out what hardware I have, but so does XP at this point. And it’s put me on the network with no fuss, but so does XP. I haven’t yet gotten to the point where I can see whether Linux will see the other machines on my home network, all of which run XP.

Categories: Uncategorized dw