Green Tech Girl

Now that I have Linux running successfully on my two laptops, I am gearing up to run it on my desktop as a dual boot system with my existing Windows XP. I have two hard drives, so it should be easy enough (riiight)…just having to clean off the hard drives to make room for it all.

I had tried the “Live CD” option (to run Linux off a CD or DVD), with OK results. But I found I couldn’t save any files to my hard drive, so what was the point? The Live CDs were also a bit slower than running something off a hard disk. (I will review some of the Live CDs later.)

Since my desktop is my primary computer for my work, if I can get myself into the habit of using Linux for most everything, then I will be able to finally say I kicked the Microsoft habit!

Wish me luck!

Don’t throw that old computer out: Install Linux on it instead!

In a previous article, I discussed how upgrading to Windows Vista could end up costing more in terms of upgraded hardware. Additionally, many older computers (even from a few years ago) won’t be able to handle the increased resource requirements of Vista. Linux, however, can run perfectly fine on older computers without needing to purchase more e-waste in the form of excess RAM if you just want something for web-browsing and word processing. In the least, consider keeping that older computer around to test out Linux instead of just throwing it out.

So if you are curious, here’s a look at how you might upgrade to the Linux operating system. (more…)

Linux may be the greener choice when choosing an operating system. Why? Because the latest version of Microsoft Windows is such a resource-hog, you’ll need double or triple the computer power to perform basic tasks with the same speed you might with Linux.

Program that used to require a few hundred megs of RAM on Windows XP now require 2 gigs or more on Windows Vista. Check out this chart on the Audacity download page. To use Audacity on Windows Vista Home Premium, you will need 4 gigs of RAM versus the 512 MB you needed on XP. A whopping 4 GIGS!! Talk about creating unnecessary e-waste! Why force people to buy more electronic chips when the old operating system did everything just as fast if not faster on less hardware? (more…)