This press release is to announce that for the month of July 2010 ERA Computers & Consulting (ERACC) is following the idiomatic phrase, “Put your money where your mouth is!” when it comes to our Linux PC sales. What do we mean? Read on.
For every PC purchased from us in July 2010 with any Linux [...]
Posts under ‘Open Source Software’
Linux: We Put Our Money Where Our Mouth Is
Linux: We Now Build Mini ITX Systems with Linux Installed
We are proud to announce that here at ERA Computers & Consulting (ERACC) we have researched the parts needed to build Mini ITX, Tiny PC, systems and are offering a quote option on our sales site. Each of these Tiny PC systems is built to end-user specification. We build these with or without a hard [...]
Security: FOSS/CSS Updates - Are They Worth Anything?
The short answer: Updates are worthless if one does not apply them.
Once again I find myself cleaning malware off of a home user’s Microsoft based notebook PC. Once again, while it has anti-virus software installed it was infected by a “drive-by attack” from a web page. It was infected with the Antispyware Soft fake anti-malware [...]
Open Source: OpenOffice.org We Have a Problem
I am unashamedly an advocate for Open Source software. I run a small business that offers custom built, inexpensive computers with Open Source software preinstalled. I urge my clients to move to Open Source software whenever it makes sense for them to do so. This includes full systems such as Linux distributions and cross-platform software [...]
Linux: Monitor a Service with a Watchdog Script
Old Unix hands already know this, but new Unix (Linux) users may be asking, ‘What is a “watchdog script”?’ Basically it is a bash or other script that is run via cron periodically to check on a persistent service. The watchdog script takes actions based on the state of the service it monitors.
There are other [...]
Linux: The Best New User Distribution is not Necessarily Ubuntu
For some time now I have watched Canonical grab headlines touting its ‘buntu releases, such as Ubuntu and Kubuntu, as “newbie” friendly. Much of the IT press goes along with this marketing scheme. Quite frankly, I am happy to see Canonical get attention for Linux in general. Getting more positive exposure for Linux is always [...]
Linux: Updating a Linux Unfriendly Motherboard BIOS
You have a relatively new PC with your favorite Linux distribution installed. You are content and all is well with the world. Then you discover that your motherboard needs an update to the BIOS to allow some new hardware to work properly with your PC. Alas! Your almost new PC, which has an on-board floppy [...]
Desktop Linux: An Average User Success Story
I often see the sentiment expressed that desktop Linux is “too hard” for the average PC user. Yet the qualification for “too hard” is usually that it is too hard to install Linux or too hard to fix problems on Linux for the average user. These arguments seem to completely overlook the fact that an [...]
