Submitted by j.a.watson on June 28, 2009 - 2:30pm
I've been quiet for a while, because everything has been working just fine, and there's not been much to write about. Now I have acquired (assembled, actually) a new system that is worth mentioning.
It is a Dual Atom CPU, which with the Atom Hyperthreading appears to the operating system as FOUR CPUs. I got it on an Intel mini-ITX motherboard, and I bought the appropriate case and power supply, a Gig of memory and 160 GB SATA 2.5" disk, for a total of about 300 Swiss Francs. I have more than enough displays, keyboards and mice around here, so I didn't need to buy those. Of course, because I bought it in pieces and assembled it myself, it came with no operating system - meaning no "Windows Tax", hooray!
I have loaded a variety of Linux distributions on it, including of course MEPIS 8.0.06. There were absolutely no problems and no surprises when loading MEPIS, everything went smoothly. It sees four Atom CPUs, as expected. In addition to the Atom, the motherboard has an Intel 945 chipset, an Intel 950 display controller, and Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit wired ethernet controller. The case came with the usual array of front and back USB ports, six in all, and front panel everything-in-one flash memory card readers (including Compact Flash), all of which were recognized and configured by MEPIS with no trouble.
As usual, once loaded MEPIS boots and runs just fine. It's so nice to have a nice, simple, reliable system, and not have to pay the "Windows Tax" for an operating system that I am just going to overwrite with Linux anyway!
jw 28/6/2009
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I wonder...
by rich_c - Jul 4 2009 - 5:09pm
I'd be interested to hear from somebody in the know if it's a Windows tax or if MS actually subsidises the hardware in return for being able to claim that x% of all desktops run Windows...?
BTW, sounds like a great little system you've got there. I do like a nice compact box, as opposed to enormous towers with loads of space you might one day need...
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