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Introduction

Submitted by j.a.watson on January 29, 2009 - 6:46am

Hello. It is my intention to write an occasional blog here, about my adventures and experiences with MEPIS and other Linux distributions, generally on laptop computers. Before I dive in with the first post, I should probably present myself.

I have been working with Unix systems since 1982 (yes, really). I started with version 7, or 7th edition, on several of the generation of Motorola 68000-based microcomputers which were popular at that time, such as Momentum Computers, Plexus, Arete, and Sun. One of the more interesting variations was from a company called "Opus", who sold a National Semiconductor 32032 CPU add-in board for PCs, along with a Unix operating system for it; you then booted that, and it used the PC Intel CPU as an I/O processor.

Through the years I worked with Unix System III and System V, then with a very early version of AIX (2) on an IBM RT/PC (aka 6150). That was an odd and interesting system, because the AIX was actually hosted under some other IBM operating system, I can't recall what it was called. I then moved on to IBM RS/6000 systems, and AIX versions 3, 4 and 5. At the same time we were also dealing with DEC systems, first with MicroVax running Ultrix, then Alpha systems running Digital Unix, OSF, and finally Tru64 Unix - at the same time that the company was being taken over by Compaq, and then by HP. Whew.

Some time ago I became interested in Linux, specifically on laptop computers, because that is what I use on a daily basis - and like many people, I was sick of Windows, to say the very least. Since then I have been experimenting with a variety of distributions, on several different laptops. I generally have my laptops set up to multi-boot, so I can try different things, and so I can recover from whatever serious errors I may make along the way. Currently sitting here on my desk I have:

Fujitsu Lifebook S6510 - Intel Core 2 Duo, 965GM graphics, 5300 a/g/n wireless, Marvell Gigabit wired
The disk that I usually keep in this system multi-boots the following (right now):

Windows XP Professional
Ubuntu 8.10
openSuSE 11.1
Fedora 10
Mandriva One 2009.0
PCLinuxOS 2009 Beta 2
MEPIS 8.0 RC2
Vector Linux 6.0 RC4

I have several other disks that I can swap into this laptop, one of which multi-boots Vista and several of the previously listed Linux distributions.

Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook S2110 - AMD Turion CPU, ATI Radeon 200 graphics, Atheros 5000 wireless, Broadcom wired. This system multi-boots the following:

Windows XP Professional
Ubuntu 8.10
openSuSE 11.1
Mandriva One 2009.0
Fedora 10

HP 2133 Mini-Note - VIA C7 CPU, Chrome9 graphics, Broadcom gigabit wired, Broadcom 4312 wireless. this is my newest addition, still less than a week old. So far, it multi-boots the following:

Windows XP Professional
openSuSE 11.1
MEPIS 8.0 RC2
Vector Linux 6.0 RC4

The success of MEPIS on the HP Mini-Note is what inspired me to write this blog, so it will be the subject of my first "real" blog post here.

jw 28/1/2009

Comments

Wow, lots of common threads!

by masinick - Jan 30 2009 - 9:19am

My first view of a UNIX system was on a PDP-11/45 system at Michigan Tech around 1976. I really did not get to work with it much, if at all, but I must've at least logged on to it once or twice. I kept my eyes keenly peeled on UNIX systems, though. I just had a feeling that they were a phenomenon about to happen. I was so right, and that has given me a rich career in the industry.

It was 1982 when I first started using UNIX software, mostly on NCR Tower models, which used Motorola 68000 series processors. I got to evaluate early SunOS workstations and I also got an Altos PC running XENIX, all in the 82-84 time window. Some of these systems were compilations of what was in both the AT&T and BSD branches of UNIX at the time.

In 1984, General Motors, where I worked at the time, bought EDS, and the changes wrecked havoc everywhere. I had job offers for two or three projects, had I chosen to stay, but I chose to move to New England and work at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), where I stayed from 1985 until 1998. Digital's brand of UNIX, ULTRIX, was exclusively BSD based at first, but I worked in the Bell Accounts unit and we specifically wrote drivers for new DEC devices and sold them real AT&T UNIX System V, so I had direct experience and comparison between System V and BSD.

I can tell you without hesitation that the early BSDs were WAY more capable than AT&T's implementation, as they were extensions of what AT&T had, but if you know history, in the late eighties, SunOS moved from BSD to System V and Bell Labs worked collaboratively with Sun to create Solaris, which became the favorite UNIX implementation, rocketed Sun into UNIX leadership, and spelled the beginning of the end for DEC.

I got into Linux wholeheartedly in 1995 with Slackware, followed by looks at Red Hat, then Mandrake in 1998, Caldera Open Linux in 1999, and a whole slew of distros beginning in 2001, when I got hardware to test lots of systems. It was in 2001 that I got excited about Debian based systems. In 2003 when Warren released his first public test of MEPIS, I was there to grab it - got one in May 2003 and have been using MEPIS ever since.

I have a lot more history that I could share, but that is more than enough to digest in one blog entry, especially a RESPONSE to another entry!

Lots of great stuff out there!

Brian Masinick
SimplyMEPIS and AntiX Lover

Lots in Common Indeed!

by j.a.watson - Feb 1 2009 - 1:04am

Hello Brian,

Thanks for reading and commenting. Yes, we do have a lot in common, don't we? I worked on several NCR Tower systems as a consultant as well, but never had any of "my own". It, and many of the others that you and I have mentioned, used Unix from UniSoft, as I recall. Your post also reminded me of one other system that I worked on a few times - the AT&T 3B2 series.

Thanks again for commenting.

jw

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