Ubuntu'd out

$ add partitions boot swap home

Last night, I made the best decision of my computing life, ever.

Old Setup:

  • Two desktop machines under my desk, two 24” LCD monitors, controlled by one keyboard and mouse via Synergy
  • Main computer was Windows XP 32-bit Core2 Quad 8200 4GB RAM (2.8GB usable after OS and video card reserved)

    • Primary uses were general browsing, word processing, gaming (Starcraft 2, WoW, Diablo 3), organizing and uploading photos (Picasa + Flickr), IE-only testing, some coding
  • Secondary computer was Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit Core2 Quad 6600 6GB RAM

    • Ran 4 Ubuntu VMs in VirtualBox for various development and ghetto dynamic DNS hosting during the days before I rented my current VPS from Linode
  • MacBook Air that I would use when working outside of my home office or lounging in the living room

Transition to New Setup:

  • Transferred the VMs onto my main computer–turns out that I really only need 2 of the 4.

    • The problem I had before was that the Core2 Quad 8200 doesn’t have Virtualization Technology enabled, so it can’t emulate 64-bit VMs even if the host machine is 64-bit, so I had to run it on the Core2 Quad 6600. Now, I only need 2 32-bit VMs that will run fine on the C2Q 8200.
  • Decommissioned the Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit, pulled out 2x2GB and stuck it in the main computer for 8GB RAM total
  • Install Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit on the main computer, can still dual-boot into Windows if I want to
  • Connect MacBook Air with USB hub and video dongle to secondary monitor

Thoughts So Far:

It feels good. It feels REALLY good.

Since I’ve been using Ubuntu for over 6 years now, it feels really comfortable. In the past, I had run Ubuntu exclusively on several machines, including netbooks like Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and Samsung Series 5 Chromebook.

All Pros, No Cons So Far:

  • Lots of good FOSS replacements for Windows-only software, like VALO-CD replacing a bunch of stuff and Frogr replacing Flickr
  • I already feel a productivity increase since the terminal is right there
  • Removed temptation to waste time playing games.


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Published

04 October 2012

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