... a new computer

Sorry for not posting for a couple of days. I was busy setting up a new computer to replace my 9 year old laptop.

The fan on the laptop had gone out, and as I had a (short) career fixing these things, I set out to work on it myself. With a magnifying glass in one hand, plenty of light and a good, magnetic screwdriver, it still took me two hours to unscrew the base of the laptop. There were three screws in the battery bay that were different than the rest. They were soft-metal screws. I tried as many screwdriver bits to find on that fit properly, but couldn't.

So, it took me two hours to screw the thing back togehtter, and I ended up with a cup of screws. It was so draining and I took a long nap. And woke up with the ralization that I could have forced the screws out, by using needle-nosed pliers to bend one side and then a locking pliers to rotate it out. It would have destroyed the screw, but I figured the laptop would hold together and work anyway. Not wanting another two hours of back-breaking labor, I put it aside until this "stay at home" order was done and my friend can come and help me.

Even without the fan, the laptop worked. It would only shut off when I was processing something that worked the processor, like a video or a game, or analyzed a program code I was working on.

But, lately, the hard drive was starting to go. We had the money to get a new PC, so I shopped around and ended up getting a Dell Inspiron with an Intel i5 CPU and 12 GB of RAM. Not the greatest, but desktops are easily upgraded.

The main thing was the operating system. It came with Windows 10. I haven't used Windows since version 7. I'm a Linux boy now. So, with the approval of my wife, I set out to install Linux and get rid of Windows 10.

I first had to burn the OS onto a CD. So, using Windows, i went to Ubuntu and downloaded their latest operating system. It was 2.3 GB in size. Windows took 1 HOUR and 40 minutes to download this!

When I got my Ubuntu installed, I had to download an older version of Ubuntu. It was 2.5 GB. Using Ubuntu, it downloaded in less than two minutes. My wife was convinced. They nicknamed it Windoze, because you have to take a nap for two reasons. One: to let it do its thing; two: you can stop worrying about it and dream of electric sheep. (Sorry, Philip K. Dick)

So, yes, I had to work on configuring the system to run the install the CD, then tweak the system to get it the way I like it, and I really like it, very much.