Turn a Windows User Into a Linux User

I had a friend complaining to me about BSOD's. Well I gave my usual speech about what they are and such and offered to analyze them. I pointed him in the path of a utility from Nirsoft, BlueScreenView and he sent me the results. I let him know that most likely it was a driver issue and maybe he could update. I also had given him a USB flash drive with Linux Mint Katya on it and low and behold I received an email that night that he had wiped Windows 7 away and was enjoying Linux.

He had one real issue and that was finding the right wireless driver. Once he connected wired, the driver was downloaded and installed along with other updates and all was well.

Tux clipart
from Clker.com

Chalk another one up for the penguins.

Fedora 12 Is Ready For Primetime

Fedora 12 is release and is now ready for downloading here. Fedora 12 is now promising better web-cam support and improved video codecs. Also listed as major improvements are audio and power management. Some of the minor improvements are listed as better bluetooth, bug reporting, security and virtualization enhancements. I haven't used Fedora in a while and I will be downloading the iso and loading it to a flash drive. Fedora has their own tool for creating USB keys, the LiveUSB Creator. It will work in Linux or a Windows version is available and it is easily the easiest way to create the Fedora Live USB.

Parted Magic Updated To 4.4

Parted Magic version 4.4 was released on the 13th of this month. I carry the live USB version with me all the time since you never know when you will need the tools. Updating the USB drive was very simple process. After downloading the pmagic-usb-4.4.zip file (mirrors here) simply unpack the files to your hard drive. Copy the folders boot and pmagic to your thumb drive replacing the current files. That's it your done with an upgrade. If you do not yet have this on a USB key follow the instructions on the documentation pages. If you prefer a bootable cd Parted Magic has an iso for that too. I did test my upgrade and the boot was clean and quick. One of the additions I noticed was Super Grub Disk in the boot menu. Super Grub Disk is a great tool for editing the Grub menu. I have used it on more than one occasion when I had a non-booting machine with a Grub error. I think Super Grub Disk deserves a post of its own so let's get back to Parted Magic. For the complete list of updates visit the homepage and drop a donation in the author's PayPal button to ensure this great set of tools will continue to be developed.

Fedora 11 Has Arrived

Fedora 11 is finally an official release. If you want to download a copy now click on the banner to the right. I have downloaded the live cd version tonight and the new LiveUSB-Creator. I am loading it to a USB flash drive and will test drive this new version of Fedora right away. I am using a 4gb stick for the live USB install and the first difference I have noticed is the newer USB-Creator is allowing me to use all of the available space left for persistent storage. The older version maxed out at about 2gb's. The LiveUSB-Creator worked in just over 16 minutes which was about 7 minutes longer than the previous version. Okay now for the real test. l booted to the stick and Project Fedora team has hit it right! I was on the desktop in just about 20 seconds as promised. Network was detected, setup and working. Also detected correctly was the underlying file system. I now have a working Fedora 11 USB stick with about 3gb's of useful storage space. That's so cool! I will post more later after trying this out on a laptop or two.

Flash Drive Mania

Flash drives are an important part of my daily life. I carry at least two with me at all times and sometimes more in my backpack. Why carry so many you might ask? Well one is an 8GB drive that serves the main function of quick storage. If I happen to read about a new distro and I'm not at home, I can still download and save the ISO to this flash drive and still have room for all the applications and tools that I use for my job almost everyday. The other one around my neck is the aforementioned Parted Magic, a real lifesaver when disaster strikes. In my pocket is Ubuntu on a 2GB stick. Really cool and it works great. In my backpack you will find a pair of 4GB Kingston flash drives. One loaded with Fedora 10 and the other with the Portable Ubuntu. This is a really cool project for those who would like the options Linux provides but must live and work in a Windows environment. The Fedora 10 flash drive was created in about 9 minutes using their USB creation tool. It is a separate download from the live ISO which is needed for the USB tool. It will also work with version 9. Check it out from their website. This covers the flash drives I carry everyday but I have a few more for various other tasks. I have a Sandisk 256MB stick that only has one job and that is to boot to DOS. Yes DOS. It even has the Windows 98 splash screen right before loading EMM386. Yes you are definitely a geek if you know what EMM386 does. This almost rounds out my flash drives but not quite. Not listed are ones with Damn Small Linux or DSL and finally one with PCLinux. Both are great examples of small compact but complete Linux distros. I really don't use these two anymore but they were jumping off points into my exploration of the Linux world. For those interested in setting up a flash drive with a Linux OS a great starting out site is PendriveLinux. This is a great website to get your feet wet running various flavors of Linux from flash drives. They even provide complete instructions for setting the drive up in Windows and Linux. So check it out and get yourself a new flash drive while the memory is still pretty cheap. You can easily aquire 2GB flash drives for less than $10 and just about any distro will be able to run from this and still allow 1GB for persistent storage. So grab a stick or two and join the fun.