And it's free. And that includes not having to pay for anti-virus software on top of paying for the O/S (though in this case apparently Win 7 is already there), or reboot for the ever-coming patches. And even if you use the free AV software, it still takes up valuable CPU and memory resources, which on a smaller machine can be a killer.
Uptime on this PC, by the way, is currently 224 days. OpenSuSE 12.1, on an old 2 ghz AMD Sempron. I think I have 3gb of RAM installed, but it used to have a lot less 224 days ago (under a gig, if I recall). My PC at work is running OpenSusE 11.4, and it's been up for well over 200 days as well. I also run VMPlayer with Windows 7 inside, but it's up and down like a yo-yo with the corporate-driven patches that get applied.
APRSIS/32, if you want to run APRS, works excellently in Wine on Linux, much better in my opinion than XASTIR. I have also run several of the Windows-based satellite tracking programs in Wine, if you need compatibility, though I prefer gpredict.
Ubuntu is a very popular Linux distro, but I prefer OpenSuSE. The user experience is more main-stream (but without being too Windows-like), and all of the system configuration utilities are bundled into a single setup tool, so they're easy to find and have the same look & feel.
Greg KO6TH
gordonjcp@gjcp.net wrote:
On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 10:33:18AM -0400, Philip Jenkins wrote:
The refurbs are pretty cheap, so I may get two and install XP on one and some flavor of Linux on the other (I'm the most familiar with Ubuntu (but that isn't saying much), but open to suggestions.) Does Linux still support serial ports?
Yes, of course! There's the added advantage that you don't need additional drivers for USB-to-serial converters, too, which takes a bit more uncertainty out of things.
If it ever was supported, it should be supported now. Okay, the kernel-mode soundmodem stuff has gone, but that was a stupid idea ;-) Remember those old floppy connector tape drives? They're still supported - if you can get a real genuine FDC to play with...