Phytotron's stupid computer blog

[Jonathan]

♚

That's disappointing. I hate using laptops. I can't stand the track pad, both use and location. I don't particularly enjoy having the heels of my hands getting burned as I type.

I've never had my hands anywhere near burned by a laptop. Warmed up, sure, but definitely not burned. The pain is in gaming on your lap.

What's wrong with the location? It's just a little elbow swivel.

[Phytotron]

Figure of speech, not literally meeting the requirements of the medically-defined injury. Heated up to an uncomfortable degree.

Typing over a track pad is like trying to sauté on the back burner. Or doing, well, just about anything with an animal (cat, dog, baby) in your lap. Drinking out of a glass, but over the top of the fancy little bamboo umbrella (be somebody!) and lime wedge. Writing with a hamster parked on the lower part of the page.


Nice crown. I still have the first three pages!

[sinewav]

No, I'm not going over to Linux yet. I'm not ready!

I'm beginning to reconsider this. Not strongly, mind you, and with great trepidation, but considering all the same...

Well as I said before, you can download many of the different versions of Linux onto a CD and boot your computer from it, just to try the OS out. I use MINT. You'll know almost immediately if it's something you want to pursue. I almost never open the command line except to type some code that someone else has given to me, in the rare instance I need support. An example of one support need dealt my entirely too old laptop* that didn't come with built-in wireless, so I needed to get a USB wireless adapter to work. Took no time at all. But if you have a computer with more recent hardware, Linux should find it easily.


It finally died a few days ago after 7 years of painful abuse. It was 10 years old. The spare one died a few months ago too.

[Jonathan]

Figure of speech, not literally meeting the requirements of the medically-defined injury. Heated up to an uncomfortable degree.

I really mean it's just nowhere near. Uncomfortably warm is possible, but that's still a small stretch. If you want to burn your fingers, try the aluminum in between the keys, which happens to be nearly impossible to touch by accident. And no, you can't literally burn yourself there without stressing the machine and forcing your fingers down for many seconds.

Typing over a track pad is like trying to sauté on the back burner. Or doing, well, just about anything with an animal (cat, dog, baby) in your lap. Drinking out of a glass, but over the top of the fancy little bamboo umbrella (be somebody!) and lime wedge. Writing with a hamster parked on the lower part of the page.

Heh. You get used to it. And it doesn't involve the killing of animals. There's hardly any overlap if you don't hold your hands unnaturally close to each other. The large multi-touch trackpads actually ignore your wrists rather well on top of that. If you plop down your hands to type the pointer won't budge.

Nice crown. I still have the first three pages!

Silence, peasant!

And late > never:

Would Linux even be able to read my external hard drives (former internal Mac drives), anyway?

Probably.

[Phytotron]

Yeah, I've been reading up a bit on this Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Mint. I'm actually beginning to lean a little more toward going in that direction. Again, at least as a temporary stop-gap, since PC hardware, even recent stuff, is so much cheaper. I know absolutely nothing about said hardware, though, so might call for some steerage on that point.

[EDIT: Scratch the paragraph this comment now replaces.]

It seems Mint is designed to be even more for the casual know-nothing user like me use than even Ubuntu, is that right? But it also, again just going by screenshots, looks like it's modeled more after Windoze, what with the task bar type deal. I don't dig that. I don't need something exactly like Mac, but I'd rather have something unique from each than something that's Windows-like. I also noticed they recently released an actual desktop mini-computer, which is neat, but the price would defeat my purposes.

What is it that you link to as the "exactly" screenshot in this post, sinewav?

I might make a dedicated thread about this, or we can just repurpose this one (might edit the title, heh).

Would Linux even be able to read my external hard drives (former internal Mac drives), anyway?

Probably.

Yeah, again, cursory reading but it seems it might be a bit complicated. At best, it has built-in functionality to read HFS+, but not write to it. And something about having to forcibly disable journaling, which can break things, or something. But then I realised that I could always just upload my files to something like Dropbox and then download them onto the new computer. It would just mean I couldn't re-purpose the drive as a backup (unless Linux can reformat).

And I'm tellin' ya, it's hot.

[sinewav]

What is it that you link to as the "exactly" screenshot in this post, sinewav?

I don't know for sure, but there are plenty of websites and videos that walk you through the process of making Linux look like Mac: How to make Ubuntu look Like Mac OS X using Macbuntu.

Predictably, Linux is highy customizable. Don't like the task-bar on the bottom? Move it to the top. Don't like where the clock is? Right-click and move it (or remove it). Personally, I use a pretty minimal theme with the task-bar (panel) on the bottom acting somewhat like a dock -- and I never had to open a terminal to get it. Full customization is just a few clicks away in some easy to find menus. You might decide you don't want your computer to look like Mac at all, but something designed especially for the way you use a computer.

[Phytotron]

To begin, as it looks like I'm probably going to move over to Linux (though could still reverse course at any moment), thanks to Jonathan especially for the Mac knowledge and advice.


NeXT (pun alert ), I have a message beginning with two words for the entire Linux community of developers: Miller Columns.

More like two thousand late. Come on. It's not like it's a revolutionary new concept or frilly, resource-hogging superficiality. They've been popularized in Mac OSX since 2002. And NeXT goes back to the mid-80's, with Miller Columns themselves to 19-friggin-80. It's the most sensible method of file management I've yet encountered, and the Linux people are behind on this?

And I'm not saying this just because I'm used to it in OSX. Not counting my old Apple II/e, I started on OS 8, and even after I went from my Performa to a G3 iMac with OSX, I still continued to use OS 9 for about another year and a half. List and icon/tile view.* And of course, once I switched over, OSX still had those options if it were just about what I was used to, but the columns view just made automatic sense.
* (Well, OK, OS 8/9 had a little "trick" where you could stick an alias to any folder, even the whole hard disk, into the Apple Menu and then you could navigate folders like you would a menu. Sorta quasi-Miller Columns functionality, but only for browsing since obviously you couldn't actually do anything besides view and select.)

So what's the hold up? They're making stuff like Macbuntu and other GUI stuff which, by the videos I've watched, are almost entirely cosmetic and useless, plus all these little, sometimes obscure applets and widgets and whatnot. But no one can develop a (stable) file manager with Miller Columns, or incorporate them into an existing one? It's such a central, functional part of daily use. It's not even a Mac thing. Get on it! Because the Windows method of file management (which I've used enough to get over the unfamiliarity barrier) that most every Linux distro uses is clunky as heck, which is the antithesis of the streamlined, efficient philosophy that so many Linux people purport to cherish. So says I.


OK, that little rant out of the way. So, sinewav, am I to assume from the file name of your screenshot that you're using Mint 10? So that'd be GNOME 2 still, right. Gonna upgrade to 13?

I plan on making a couple LiveCD/DVD's and trying out Ubuntu and Mint MATE (I'm not touching Cinnamon, for the reasons they give on their own site) when I have some time; during this week, probably.

From my reading and video watching, seems Mint+MATE might be a bit more "put together" and stable than Ubuntu. But it's just sooo Windows-like, even with customization. And as far as the out-of-the-box-ready inclusion of codecs and whatnot (which, no, doesn't bother me one bit), apparently you can easily get all the same ones in Ubuntu in one step using one of these methods, right? All the same stuff? And the recently released LTS of Ubuntu supposedly ironed out nearly all non-exotic bugs that were apparently present in the previous couple versions (that's the point of an LTS, right). And I do like most of what I've seen of Unity (functionality-wise; forget aesthetics). Still, some reviewers still say neither Ubuntu nor Mint are quite ready for prime-time as legitimate alternatives to OSX or Windows for the casual user. Well, we'll see.


The next big hurdle will be hardware. Like I said, I know nothing.

[sinewav]

I have a message beginning with two words for the entire Linux community of developers: Miller Columns.

Actually, there is(was) a file browser with Miller Columns for Linux called Dolphin. It's part of another desktop environment named KDE and I'm not sure if it's still under development. I never really liked Miller Columns myself and only find them useful in shallow directories. However, Ubuntu and derivatives like Mint use a file manager named Nautilus which gives you the option of a second column, or tabbed browsing of files -- both of which I find very cool. Images attached.

Still, some reviewers still say neither Ubuntu nor Mint are quite ready for prime-time as legitimate alternatives to OSX or Windows for the casual user. Well, we'll see.

I agree for the most part, but here is the thing... Even Win/Mac are going through massive changes to their OS. Windows now packages 2 separate desktops with Win8, regular and Metro. I don't know what Mac OS has planned, but you can see how iPads and iPhones have shaped the way people use computers. We are in a state of general flux and regardless of which brand you stick with (Win/Mac/Linux), I think we should all expect some significant change to the way we interface with devices over the next few years. In fact, all the people switching between Win8/Mac OS/Linux (and within different Linux distros) is a reflection of the public saying "wtf why are my tools changing for no reason!?" It's also one of the reasons why people still cling to WinXP -- it works really well. Switching operating systems is a big, big deal.

I'm not a total Linux cheerleader. It took me about 2 years to finally jump in, and then I had a few months of me being really farking pissed off at Linux before I understood what I was doing. Then again, I had very specific needs relating to music production and Linux is YEARS behind in that category. So it was really tough. But for regular computing (web, office) and art stuff, I hardly noticed a difference.

[Phytotron]

I have a message beginning with two words for the entire Linux community of developers: Miller Columns.

Actually, there is(was) a file browser with Miller Columns for Linux called Dolphin.

Yeah, that's what I was alluding to with the parenthetical "stable." My reading universally says it's really buggy and slow. And since it's in/on (whichever) KDE, it can't be, or can't easily be, put on Ubuntu or Mint because of...GTK+ (? ... still learning what everything is). I just don't get how columns hadn't already been implemented years ago, even in multiple places. Especially with all the other "features" they have put in. Baffling.

And yep, learned about Nautilus too. Wasn't aware of the tabbed browsing; I'll make a note to demo that. I actually find Miller columns most helpful in deeper directories, because you have it all laid out there right in front of you of where you are, all buried deep. Keeps me from getting lost, heh. For whatever reason, that's better for me than the tree you get on the left-hand side of a Windows-style file manager, with the pivoting arrows.

Still, some reviewers still say neither Ubuntu nor Mint are quite ready for prime-time as legitimate alternatives to OSX or Windows for the casual user. Well, we'll see.

I agree for the most part, but here is the thing... Even Win/Mac are going through massive changes to their OS.....

Yeah, I'm not referring to that kind of thing, the changeover itself to merely a different sort of interface. I can handle change. Like I said before, I don't need something that's just like OSX; indeed, there's plenty of shit in OSX that's useless or annoying to me. With respect to the interface alone (putting aside stuff like stability and bugginess), I'd totally go for something completely unique (or customizable to that effect) so long as it worked a way that I liked without a lot of hassle or frustration. It's just that Windows or something very Windows-like doesn't really do that for me, given the choice. And I'm really disappointed to discover how Windows-like most Linux distros are, now that I've been looking in to them.

But, sidebar, it is funny you mention the flux and transition to different kinds of systems, though. One review (grr, Purina ) I read/watched touched on that, where this guy Byran Lunduke enthusiastically pointed out how perfect Unity would be for tablet-type devices. But, that may also be it's biggest downside for the desktop user.

But anyway, what I was referring to by "not quite ready for prime-time" was a) bugginess and errors, and b) all the technical shit and other hoops one may encounter and have to jump through to do things that are otherwise simple or even automatic/behind-the-scenes in OSX especially, and even Windows. Stuff that your average user doesn't want to fool with, and shouldn't have to. Most people are not geeks, and have no interest in becoming geeks. And on that level, those reviewers with average users in mind—not geeks and Linux fans—are mostly saying both Ubuntu and Mint still don't quite "just work," despite that being their stated goal. (And that's not even counting hardware compatibility/support against Linux. I understand that by the nature of open source versus proprietary, Linux will probably always lag a little behind new hardware, in terms of drivers and whatever. So I'll grant that handicap.)

So, that's my primary concern. Will I be encountering errors on a regular basis? Will I have to be spending a bunch of time looking up tech support and doing all manner of other shit just to accomplish what are simple, straight-forward tasks in OSX? I have neither the time nor the patience for that kind of bullshit. Even if I were more technically versed, I think I would say the same. Just let me use it!

And it amazes me that Linux fans are so proud of it where that hassle does exist. It's like being proud of a guitar that won't stay in tune or whose electronics keep shorting out, or something, heh. And as I've spoken about in this context, it comes off to me as a lot of development for its own sake and hobbyism rather than focusing, getting their heads together, and making a really solid product that really works well. That's great for geeks who want to fiddle and tweak and code and hack and whatever, it's a hobby for them, but that's not most people (is it even most geeks?). So, the question is, do they want Linux to be only for, or to convert everyone to, geeks (as Torvalds himself seems to hold, going by the quote you provided), or do they want a broader user base that is inclusive of the majority of people out there? Ubuntu and Mint claim to want to do the latter, position themselves as "user friendly," but how well have they actually accomplished this? (I obviously don't have a first-hand answer for this yet, so that's a genuine question—one it looks like I may put to the test, at least for awhile.) To put it another way, can the developer geeks get their heads out of their insular asses long enough to see the rest of humanity?

So, ramble ramble, to sum up, the interface is mainly taste. I can adapt to that provided the damn thing works. I want to use my computer, not constantly work on it. It's a means to an end, not an end unto itself.


All? NO! ALL!

[sinewav]

For whatever reason, that's better for me than the tree you get on the left-hand side of a Windows-style file manager, with the pivoting arrows.

That side pane is customizable too. I almost never use a tree. Image attached.

It's just that Windows or something very Windows-like doesn't really do that for me, given the choice.

I guess I'm having a hard time understanding what you mean by "Windows like." To me, they all use windows. They all have menus, title bars that let you close/maximize/minimize, drag and drop... I used both Mac (started on 5.5!) and Windows for hours and hours a day, every day for years and the only difference between the two was Mac's lack of a right-click and the fact I had to use the mouse for things I could key on Windows. Mac always seemed "less productive" to me, but regarding everything else I found them practically the same. *shrug* Maybe I'm missing something Mac user's see?

And on that level, those reviewers with average users in mind—not geeks and Linux fans—are mostly saying both Ubuntu and Mint still don't quite "just work," despite that being their stated goal.

Yeah I can see that. But I will say that I've been using Mint for over a year and the OS has never crashed once. Boot times are super fast too (my phone takes 3 times as long to boot). The only place I ever have trouble stems from Adobe's need to constantly update their Flash plugin (yuck Adobe), so you have to keep an eye on that as updates drag behind a little.

So, that's my primary concern. Will I be encountering errors on a regular basis? Will I have to be spending a bunch of time looking up tech support and doing all manner of other shit just to accomplish what are simple, straight-forward tasks in OSX? I have neither the time nor the patience for that kind of bullshit. Even if I were more technically versed, I think I would say the same. Just let me use it!

Well, one option is to just try it out. Just last week I bought a 2004 Dell laptop from a guy on Craigslist for $30 and loaded Fedora on it because I wanted to check it out (works perfect BTW, and it's super fast, like a brand new computer). That's a pretty small investment IMO. Most people I know people spend twice that at the bar on a Friday night. Maybe someone you know has an old computer lying around? Linux works on a lot of machines and like I said before, you'll quickly know if you hate it or not. And maybe Linux is a bit more work to use? I don't know what kind of user you are so I can't say how smooth the transition will be. What I do know is that even if Linux were a little more work, I'll take it because I can't for the life of me justify spending the money on a Macintosh.

So, the question is, do they want Linux to be only for, or to convert everyone to, geeks (as Torvalds himself seems to hold, going by the quote you provided), or do they want a broader user base that is inclusive of the majority of people out there?

Torvalds is a dick and he'd probably be the first to tell you that too. There is actually a lot of animosity in the Linux community between Ubuntu/Mint/Fedora users and the rest. The geeks feel threatened by this whole "it should just work" mentality, like, they are scared of opening their "technologically" closed community. They hate on the Ubuntu users. It's like those kids who are bananas about their favorite underground band then disown them when they get signed to a major label. You'll see a lot of dickhead Linux users, but I can't say they are any worse than the dickhead Mac users I've come across over the years. Just ignore them like you do the high-rubber players here.

[Phytotron]

It's just that Windows or something very Windows-like doesn't really do that for me, given the choice.

I guess I'm having a hard time understanding what you mean by "Windows like." To me, they all use windows. They all have menus, title bars that let you close/maximize/minimize, drag and drop... I used both Mac (started on 5.5!) and Windows for hours and hours a day, every day for years and the only difference between the two was Mac's lack of a right-click and the fact I had to use the mouse for things I could key on Windows. Mac always seemed "less productive" to me, but regarding everything else I found them practically the same. *shrug* Maybe I'm missing something Mac user's see?

Actually, right-clicking and scrolling is supported natively in OSX, you just have to get a mouse for it, which is stupid, but which I have. Those new magic meeses support them now, actually, but I can't see how one of those would work for me or a lot of people. I'm always resting my hand on my mouse and tapping it with my fingers. On a magic mouse that would mean click click click. It'd be like if every time you played steering wheel drums or dashboard piano your car accelerated and swerved around. In other words, a wreck.

Not sure what you're referring to by mouse vs. key. Tell you what, though, as an aside, Windows' method of entering special characters is doopid and more work than Mac's way, especially on laptops. I find that to be the case with a lot of tasks, myself, but it may be approach. Maybe we're both missing something.

So, hmm, by Windows-like I mean that particular way of file management, the start menu, and the whole task bar and system tray deal, the lack of menu bar, so forth. Yes, a lot of it is taste. And I could adapt. I may like MATE better, who knows.

Too bad those screenshots just don't tell me much, heh. I have no idea what I'm looking at. But, I'll mess with it.

I will say that I've been using Mint for over a year and the OS has never crashed once. ... The only place I ever have trouble stems from Adobe's need to constantly update their Flash plugin (yuck Adobe), so you have to keep an eye on that as updates drag behind a little.

Yeah, I read that Adobe is dropping flash support for Linux altogether, so you'll have to use the replacement plugin API (whatever that is) called "Pepper," which thus far is only going to be supported by Google Chrome. And Mozilla said they have no plans to integrate Pepper.

I don't recall ever having had a Mac OS crash or freeze on me in 15 years, for what it's worth. And whatever problems I have had always seem to magically fix themselves with a restart, heh.

But, I was watching some videos by Chris Pirillo comparing OS's, why each is better than the other. And the thing he kept saying was "every OS sucks." He's right.

But it seems like a lot of Linux users almost enjoy the bugginess, and having to get software support packages and libraries and drivers, and deal with support, and definitely the terminal usage. "Yeah, it's no big deal, you may have to do this or that now and then, but no biggie." And for them it's not. It's probably something like me reading through The Gear Page or some such: even if it takes me awhile to find what I'm looking for, it doesn't bother me because I'm immersed in and reading about all this other neat stuff on the way there. But what they don't get is that to people like me, when they say "you'll have to deal with this stuff, but it's no big deal," it's like saying that getting customer service from your Big Bank, with all the phone trees and redirects and people on the other side of the world who barely speak English, is no big deal. Er, no, it's an unpleasant, time-consuming, exasperating hassle. I know you can relate. (Yes, yes, first world problems.)

Well, one option is to just try it out.

Yep, like I said, I intend to, soon, when my wife lets me, heh. I'm just rambling and grumbling and thinking out-loud in the meantime. Look over this whole thread and you'll see that's mostly what it is, a sounding board. I think out-loud a lot, and bouncing stuff off people, especially in cases of indecisiveness. And believe me, I'm driving my wife nuts more than any of you, heh.

I can't for the life of me justify spending the money on a Macintosh.

Likewise; that's the impetus for going to Linux, at least temporarily. Just to reiterate, I got that eMac for $125. Used prices on Macs right now are absurd. I/we were only considering purchasing a new one on the basis of it being an investment. I'd add Apple Care (I could afford another $160; I couldn't afford a repair or another $1000+ computer). And then get on the other side of the secondhand market. With the resale of Apple products normally being 70-75%, I could flip it, having basically rented it for a few years at 25% of retail (about $300 for 3-4 years of use), then put that money into a replacement, which if it were a used one could net a profit. It's just deferring the savings a few years down the line. Frugality isn't always synonymous with penny-pinching, after all.

But that depends on your being able to put down that money up front. And we're barely able. It would have been one of those belt-tightening, hoping no big, unexpected expenses hit us before we catch up, kind of things. And we've been hit by a lot of unexpected major expenses the last 3-4 years. And there are some expected big expenses we can't forgo or put off much longer. So that's why I've opted against.

That's one of the reasons being poor or working class (where we fit) in this political and economic system sucks, and why people get stuck in their station. You can buy all kinds of crap for cheap (e.g., Wal-Mart), but it craps out sooner, needing replacement more often, costing more in the long run. And you're always one major unexpected expense away from being in the hole (if you weren't already).

Not that I have to tell you, but for all the affluent kids watching. And, Cracked: 5 Things Nobody Tells You About Being Poor.

[Phytotron]

Figured I'd just separate this bit from the above for the tl;dr crowd.


So, on that note, anyone want to chime in with some specific hardware recommendations? Here are some of my criteria:

- I'm going to cap this at about $350 max, for the whole system. Higher would defeat the purpose. And of course lower is better.

- I am not going to build a system. Pre-built only, please.

- I understand Linux can, and is even designed to, run on rather low-spec machines, but may as well get the best bang for the buck, right. Plus, while the OS itself uses very little RAM and such, won't some programs still need more power? (Example, my little sister recently acquired an old G4 Power Mac, which actually had a slower processor than my eMac, but runs faster I can only assume due to having twice the RAM. None of the frozen, bogged-down browser syndrome I experienced constantly. Youtube videos weren't stuttery, etc.)

- Of course, it needs to be supported by Linux without trouble. I don't want to have to hunt for drivers or any other shit.

- I've seen a lot of recent computers come with blue ray. I have no use or desire for that. Just one more thing to break or cause conflicts, I'm thinking. So, no blue ray. Nor do we have or foresee any use for wireless anything. But that's probably about as standard as USB these days, eh.

- Don't care much about expandability.

- Probably do need fire wire, but not necessarily. (I've noticed some budget PC's omit that.)

- Space is a bit of an issue. I can probably squeeze in a full-sized tower, but it might be a bit cramped and may not have much ventilation around it. Well, I may have a spot off to the side—how far can standard cables reach? But, anyway, I've seen there are some smaller boxes out there. Or maybe an all-in-one? What's up with those?

- Monitor size. For standard 4:3, I'd say 17" seems optimal. For widescreens, probably 20-21.5"—the vertical would be about the same as a 17" 4:3. Any smaller is a little too small, and much bigger is way too much; so, 24" max.

- Monitor type. CRT should be flat-screen. For LCD's, IPS preferred. I know those are more expensive, and even used ones could exceed my budget, but typical LCD's are just crap. Grr.

- Same usage requirements and lackthereof as noted on Page 1. For instance, don't need a fancy gaming machine.

Hmm, anything else?

And, Z-Man, if you're paying attention, if you want to chime in on the subject of video cards and their relation to Armagetron, go ahead. I've noticed semi-regular support threads where they've been a problem and required workarounds or other hassles. Not that I play much anymore, but hey. And would it be reasonable to assume that hardware that didn't cause problems for Arma probably shouldn't cause problems elsewhere? I dunno.

Also, anyone have any recommendations, based especially on personal experience, for a good online store(s) for used PC's? I'll try locally first, but....

[Jonathan]

Actually, right-clicking and scrolling is supported natively in OSX, you just have to get a mouse for it, which is stupid, but which I have. Those new magic meeses support them now, actually, but I can't see how one of those would work for me or a lot of people. I'm always resting my hand on my mouse and tapping it with my fingers. On a magic mouse that would mean click click click. It'd be like if every time you played steering wheel drums or dashboard piano your car accelerated and swerved around. In other words, a wreck.

It's actually more like the old so-called Pro Mouse. Just made so that if you touch it in a particular way while clicking, it will register as a right click. I don't think it would really be bothered by rhythmic tapping, as long as you don't mechanically click it. But I have no first-hand experience. Alternative, and you know it: get rid of that habit. Probably saves a few cents of food every I-don't-know-how-long as well.

As for the trickier stuff:
Blu-ray: seems pretty harmless, although I can't prove it won't burn the entire machine down.
Wi-Fi: just accepts its presence.
FireWire: if it's about an external disk, would a USB enclosure be cheaper than a computer with FireWire?
Video card: tricky. You'd figure anything would be fine these days, seeing it was fine on decade-old hardware. But if there are multiple GPUs and automatic switching, apparently it won't always stick to one choice during gameplay. There's also the low-end not being that much faster, but that's probably okay.

[Lucifer]

I decided a few years back that it was time to get rid of the mouse and rethink how things are done on a desktop. That is, until someone figures out how to put a pop-out keyboard on a tablet and makes laptops obsolete.

[Phytotron]

As for the trickier stuff:
Blu-ray: seems pretty harmless, although I can't prove it won't burn the entire machine down.

Yeah, but why pay extra for something I'll never use.

FireWire: if it's about an external disk, would a USB enclosure be cheaper than a computer with FireWire?

Well, as you may have gathered, I have two enclosures now; one takes FireWire, the other USB. But as I've mentioned I may not even bother trying—and more importantly, risking—accessing those with Linux. But I do have a FireWire scanner.

Video card: tricky. You'd figure anything would be fine these days, seeing it was fine on decade-old hardware. But if there are multiple GPUs and automatic switching, apparently it won't always stick to one choice during gameplay. There's also the low-end not being that much faster, but that's probably okay.

I just have vague recollections of people having issues with certain video cards not getting along with Armagetron specifically, and Linux generally. A little more specifically, I think I've read something about ATI's in particular being troublesome in Linux?

Have I also read Linux can have issues with AMD chips?

I decided a few years back that it was time to get rid of the mouse and rethink how things are done on a desktop. That is, until someone figures out how to put a pop-out keyboard on a tablet and makes laptops obsolete.

Heh, did you look at the Lunduke link above?

Man, Lucifer. I saw your name as 'last post' and was hoping you were going to give me all kinds of info. You've been nudging me about Linux for years.

And don't you guys enjoy talking about gear and stuff? I could really use some specific recommendations. I'm doing my own reading, of course, but some pointings in directions would be really helpful; PC hardware is entirely new to me. Even outright, "these three specific models would be good." Pretty please.