Anyone can learn Linux
Past Isopropyl is a great way to clean up a lot of plastic, but I found that while it’s helpful for removing grime, caked on stickers (Goo Gone), and other crud, it doesn’t always leave a nice finish. A few years back a volunteer at the Computer Recycling Project mentioned interning at a small computer store where they used Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to clean-up the top of ThinkPads. True…
Moving more to a low-power solution Several months back I replaced the motherboard in the KODI media centre PC that sits in our living room. For many years our media centre has been rocking a Gigabyte motherboard with a second generation Core i7-2600 CPU. The Core i7-2600 came out in Q4 of 2010, making it almost 14 years old at the time I’m writing this. Still, it’s not a bad…
Workstation class hardware at a deeply discounted price Every now and then the Computer Recycling Project at The Working Centre gets a really interesting piece of hardware donated. As a not-for-profit project we tailor most of our equipment to people who are lower income, so a lot of times prices for some of these more interesting items are pretty inexpensive. But that doesn’t mean we just wipe the machines, reinstall,…
Extra software for better experience The “stock” installation of Xubuntu Linux only includes a small amount of software. To make Xubuntu a bit more useful to regular computer users, the Computer Recycling Project at The Working Centre installs other software we think will be helpful to new Linux users. We’ve seen many people who are attending classes virtually. For good, or bad, Zoom has largely taken over the virtual meeting…
Xubuntu Linux version 24.04 is out Version 24.04 of Xubuntu Linux is now out! Xubuntu Linux has been a staple of the Computer Recycling Project @ The Working Centre since 2010. With the project switching mostly to Linux, it’s now more important than ever that we’re up to date on trends, and new developments that affect the project. This new version of Xubuntu has a number of nice improvements, but…
Debian package over flatpak, but get it from Steam Moving from Xubuntu to Linux Mint XFCE was not as seemless as I’d hoped it would be. The last time I gave Linux Mint serious consideration was over 13 years ago when the Computer Recycling Project at The Working Centre was looking for a replacement for Ubuntu 10.04 (the next version would include the Unity desktop which wouldn’t run on a…
Switching from Xubuntu to Linux Mint After 13 years of running Xubuntu on most of my hardware, I’ve now switched my main (desktop) workstation to Linux Mint XFCE 21.3 (codename: Virginia). I want to be clear, there is (almost) nothing wrong with Xubuntu 22.04, it’s a great distribution of Linux! Xubuntu has been the distribution of choice for The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project for a long time, and the…
Mixed drives of similar size worked In my last post I mentioned the concern that I might not be able to mix drive types. The NAS is currently running 2 x 3TB Seagate Constellation drives, 1 x 3TB Seagate Barracuda drive, and 1 x 3TB Western Digital Red Drive. So far, so good. I realize I’m taking a risk here, especially with the Barracuda drive, which really isn’t made for…
Migrating the KODI entertainment system On May 5th I mentioned that we’re Running out of space on our media center. In the comments of that post I followed up outlining a plan to buy another 8TB drive (for a total of 3 x 8TB drives) in order to do a RAID Z1 (for 16TB of space). But in order to do that I would need to reformat the drives, which…
Another classic game, Paradroid, has a version for (X)ubuntu Growing up in the Commodore 64 era, I’m particularly fond of the games of that age. Games in that era tended to be simpler, but sometimes within that simplicity were some really neat concepts. Paradroid was one of those games that was particularly unique and interesting. There’s a really good look-back at Paradroid on the LemonTube64 Youtube channel here: Freedroid “classic”…