I have a "client" that needed a new computer, and they didn't want to spend an arm and a leg, but they wanted something that would be reliable and last. It's a computer for a small office, that will be used for internet surfing, video playing, and some basic bookkeeping done using spreadsheets. I offered to build them a computer, I ordered all of the parts on Newegg, and spent around $420. Here are the pieces i ordered:
- Acer X193Wb Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3160815AS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
- Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT12864AA667
- Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E7400
- MSI P6NGM-L LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce7050 / nForce610i Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
- IN WIN IW-C583T.AQ350BL Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply
I have to say my favorite is the 19 inch wide screen. after being stuck on my laptop screen for so long I'm envious and nearly bought one for myself, they were only $119. Everything went extremely well with the computer building, and i have to admit that is is the first computer I've built out of all new parts, I've Frankenstein a lot of old junk together to make little file servers and boxes to tinker with different Linux distro's and the like. It didn't take long to put the pieces together, and the Ubuntu install was quick and painless.
That's right. I'm installing Ubuntu for the client. They will be a completely open source shop. Their website is hosted on MODx and their desktop operating system will be Ubuntu 8.10 64bit.
Today i came across a sweet little tool that gives you information about disk size and usage. Discus is easily installed and is really handy for figuring out how much space is left on a server. Here's a screenshot of the install (sudo apt-get intall discus) and it's output.
After doing a little more looking, and RTFMing i realized that it was just a "prettier" version of df. Here are the two outputs.
To me they seem pretty much the same. Discus' bar graph is nice, but both give you a percent, although by default Discus' is a little more precise. df gives the ability to display file system type (-T) which i like, i also used the human readable (-h) tag which cleans up the output and makes it easier to read. One thing i couldn't find is a way to get either to display information on multiple hard drives. The server in the second screenshot has a second 100Gb hard drive but neither show it. i'm sure there is a way though...
The long and the short of it. you don't have to install anything for df, and the output is practically the same. so unless you really dig the graph and the blue headers don't bother with discus.
I've had this post on hold because i've been testing some newly gained knowledge, and wanted to be able to report on any successes' i had. I went to the missoula linux users group meeting last week and listened to a presentation on virtualization and learned a bit about VMWare. I went to work Friday set on installing Ubuntu on my workstation and doing away with windows! and i did! I installed ubuntu, managed to get dual monitors set up using the aticonfig, which was surprisingly easy, and set up a virtual installation of Windows using VMWare. I love it. the virtual machine works just like it should. I have it joined to the domain, just like a regular windows workstation, so i have easy access to outlook and all the fun Exchange functionality. The Computer i have at work has a processor of handling virtualization which means much better performance from the virtual machine.
So i'm now happily working on an Ubuntu system at work. Yay
